Primitive War Review

by in Dinosaurs and tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

I’m not sure what’s in the water this year, but 2025 is shaping up to have been something of a banger year for dinosaur fans. Of course there was Jurassic World: Rebirth (which was fine), but also an addition to Walking with Dinosaurs, and an intriguing fantasy take: Talon (both of which I still need to watch yeesh where is the time going!?).

But we were, all us, deceived for another dinosaur movie was made. One which SlashFilm.com is calling the greatest non-Jurassic Park dinosaur movie ever made. One which plops everyone’s favorite terrible lizards in the middle of a 1960’s Vietnam war and more or less says “Well, get after it!”

(Cue CCR’s ‘Run Through The Jungle’)

This movie is of course Luke Spark’s adaptation of author Ethan Pettus’s primary series: Primitive War.

Everything about this movie has been something of a wild ride for me. From the initial g-chat message I received from my cousin containing the trailer, to searching all over Maryland and DC for a theater that was playing the movie for longer than just its opening weekend (spoiler: I did not find one), to walking into the show 5 minutes late and having missed the entire first scene because there were exactly ZERO previews.

Oh and then there was the movie itself which was honestly an absolute delight despite its being something of a fever dream on film.

It’s not going to be winning an Oscar any time soon, but that is of course not the type of film its trying to be. Primitive War seems to occupy a kind of rare B-list space somewhere just beyond SYFY network shows like Sharknado and Piranhas 3D of the type you watch thinking: “This movie looks stupid as hell.” But you end up having a blast anyway. It’s a bit more refined than that, but only a bit.

To compare it with two other dinosaur movies I’ve watched for this blog, more Invisible Raptor than Velocipastor although since both of these examples are more grounded in humor, they’re not quite good comparisons.

I’d say that the acting is sort of a mixed bag, with more veteran actors (like Jeremy Piven) hamming up their parts to perhaps smooth out some of the overacting from some of the unknowns. The only really distracting parts were the Russian accents which just did not sound good. Or at least didn’t sound like what we’re used to hearing.

As you might expect, the plot was a bit shoestring, but generally coherent enough that if you didn’t think too hard about it you’d be fine. If you’re coming to see a movie like this, you’re probably not going to pull it apart too much. (hell that is seemingly the case with even the Jurassic World movies these days.)

For any dino fans out there who frankly don’t give a damn about the acting at all and are just there to see the dinosaurs, I think you’ll be mighty pleased. There are tons. I’m no expert, but the ones that were mentioned in the film, or that I could guess at just from seeing them include: Tyrannosaurus Rex, Quetzalcoatl (just having a banger year as well), absolute swarms of Deinonychus, Ankylosaurus, Triceratops and the ever inspiring Spinosaurus Aegyptiacus!

And many more that I wasn’t sure quite what they were supposed to be, like a mystery Spinosaurid eating an alligator, a mystery Sauropod which I assume is maybe brontosaurus or brachiosaurus? And a second Sauropod with neck frills which looked like a dragon . . . I don’t even know where to begin on that one.

Overall, I was very happy with the way all of these many dinosaurs LOOKED! Whoever the paleoartists or designers who created these incredible creatures seem to have taken pains to use more modern conceptions of their appearance, including feathers on Deinonychus and the (Utah)raptors and . . . doing whatever the heck is going on with Spinosaurus.

I was absolutely fascinated by the swarms of Deinonychus, and really thought it was cool that these were included since (to my knowledge) it was this dino and its ‘terrible claw’ that really inspired the change in conception between slow moving lizards to fast-moving, warm blooded reptiles. Velociraptor seems to get all the headlines for being the top murder bird around, but Deinonychus is kind of OG. It was cool to seem them featured so prevalently.

Of course I had tons of questions about some of the behavior displayed by these animals in the movie so if anyone sees a post out there which goes over it, please send it to me!

Give ‘Primitive War’ a Watch?

Absolutely! This movie manages to take a premise that is admittedly kind of silly, and just turns up every dial to eleven so that we’re so awed and amazed by what we’re seeing that we don’t even want to stop and think about it. It’s the ‘Rule of Cool’ at its finest. It is not the suspension of disbelief but the absolute surrender of it.

Yes, there is some chunky dialogue and bad accents, but rather than pull the viewer out of the movie, it only seems to draw them further in. And with an impressive attention to detail on display when it comes to the paleo-art in this film, dinosaur fans like myself should find it easy to throw aside any awkward bits in order to better enjoy the absolute joy of seeing these creatures in action.

That’s all I have for this week. Has anyone else watched this absolute fever dream of a film? What were your favorite parts? Were there any dinosaurs you wish they would have included? Any that surprised you in their shape or coloring? Can’t wait to talk about this one!

Until next time . . .

Capitalism, Robots, and Libraries: A Review of Service Model

by in Book Reviews, Sci-Fi and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

So we’re going to interrupt our regularly scheduled #Blaugust programing because: the Hugo Awards were last weekend!

In years past, I’ve spent a lot of time trying to ‘keep up’ with them, by following recommendation lists online, dropping whatever else I was reading when the nominees list was published, and scrambling to finish whatever I could get my hands on before the big night.

Back in 2021, I actually nominated, voted, and attended said big night (wow I can’t believe it’s already been four years since that happened.)

This year — for no reason I can really pinpoint — I just didn’t do any of that. I think What Feasts At Night and Dune Part 2 were the only two things on the ballot I was even remotely familiar with.

Everything I’ve else I read, watched, or otherwise consumed that was published in 2024 was pretty far afield. Maybe The Dead Cat Tail Assassins, could have picked up a nomination. Or Impossible Creatures which just seemed to have sooo much hype behind it, but is kinda the wrong demo. I legit thought Your Shadow Half Remains would be on the ballot.

In any case, it was pretty sheer and random luck — at least from the standpoint of my own intentions; others may have been scheming — that my book club picked this one, and we happened to meet for discussion (ahem brunch) the day after the awards were given.

I’ll admit Service Model is my first Adrian Tchaikovsky read, but I know (and can now understand why) he’s held in such high regard by a lot of Hugo nominating fans, and appears frequently on the ballot (yeesh 3 times this year alone!). I don’t really have much of an opinion as to how he stacks up with this year’s novel winner as Robert Jackson Bennett’s The Tainted Cup did not ring any bells for me either before googling him and the book just now. I do recognize a few of Bennett’s other titles (Founders Trilogy, Divine Cities series) but have never read any of them. Certainly seems like a bit of a clash of titans this year to be sure.

In any case, now that I’ve managed to say absolutely nothing of any real insight about this year’s Hugo awards, let’s dive into what I thought of Service Model.

First things first, this book was way funnier than I expected.

The titles of his I’d heard of going in were from books like Elder Race, and Children of Time which — I haven’t read, so I’m likely wrong — don’t scream humor as their primary currency for enjoyment. The second title being about a civilization of space fairing arachnids also seems to imply a more serious tone to his work. After all, interstellar spiders are (for me) no laughing matter.

The inside dusk jacket compares the book to MurderBot Diaries and Redshirts (and Scalzi even blurbs the cover), and while I think the Martha Wells comparisons appropriate, I would argue that Uncharles (our beloved protagonist-bot) is different enough from Murderbot that the book does not really tread the same territory.

In fact, the comparisons I was drawing while reading were more along the lines of Ian M. Banks, or perhaps even Becky Chamber’s Psalm for the Wild-built (in that the story deals with living in a post-apocalypse, and examining what it means to be human through attempting to find out what it means to be a robot.)

Both Chambers and Banks make even better comparisons when we consider their aptitude for tackling deep and prescient concerns within their works. Likewise Service Model isn’t all just laughs and action, but includes various introspections into and critiques of things like capitalism, automation, and even the meaning of existence itself.

I think the following quote really displays the sort of perspective Tchaikovsky takes throughout the novel:

“Adapting his previous manorial schedule was easy enough, and if none of it was remotely applicable to his new master’s service — if Master was in fact not really aware that Uncharles was doing any of these tasks — that wasn’t the important thing. It was important that Uncharles have tasks to do, and that he did them, and then that they were done. That was the purpose of existence.” pg. 154

Bleak.

But weirdly, I think also something we have all felt at some point or another.

Another large section of the novel stuck out to me because its setting is something near and dear to me both personally and professionally, that setting being of course, the library. Another quote from early in the book:

“I mean the world is screwed, like we discussed, as evidence for which I present Exhibit A: the entire world. But maybe in the Library they know why. Maybe they even know how to fix it. Maybe they’re trying to fix it right now. Maybe we could help.” – pg. 106

From personal experience, we’re not paid enough for all that hahah.

I would love to have a candid chat with Tchaikovsky about his actual opinion of libraries because while this quote from the beginning of the story seems enthusiastic and supportive, some events later in the book (which I won’t spoil) make the whole operation seem rather silly and pointless. Also, for personal reasons related to my work in libraries, I’m just dying to know where the name King Ubot came from.

Finally, we can add Service Model to the (albeit slim) ranks of works of fiction which mention or contain a 3D printer. It’s just a throw-away line on pg 277, but it exists.

Give ‘Service Model‘ a Read?

Yup! For a first foray into Adrian Tchaikovsky’s work, I’m pretty pleased and excited about this one. And anxious to pursue more of his books when I get a chance. Service Model is humorous but also quite deep with themes surrounding automation, capitalism, and existentialism.

This book also spoke to me because of the prominent role libraries play within the story, and while I’m a little unsure of the overall opinion expressed by the text, I really enjoyed their inclusion.

What does everyone else think? Is this a good one? Should it have won the Hugo over The Tainted Cup? Why or why not? Let me know your thoughts in the comments. I’m looking forward to talking about this one!

See you next time!

My Other Hobby: A Musical Tribute to Jerry Garcia for #Blaugust 2025

by in Music and tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Well, it’s the third week of #Blaugust, and I have a vague notion that it is during his part of the month that we begin talking about other things we do besides blogging. I’ve mentioned a few times on this blog (most notably in last Blaugust’s What I Do To Stay Creative post) that I’m learning a bit of guitar.

Some folks reading this blog may also know that I’m a bit of a Grateful Dead fan. At this point, I’m decades into my fascination with their music, the details of which have been briefly documented in my Secrets of Fennario post. Since last Saturday (August 9th, 2025) marked 30 years since founder/guitarist Jerry Garcia passed away, I decided to do a little tribute, and play one of my favorite Dead tunes for everyone.

Here’s how it went. Enjoy!

Any Dead Heads on the blog? What should I cover next? Any Jerry Garcia inspirations or even memories related to this amazing music? Leave your thoughts and stories in the comments. I love talking about this!

Until next week . . .

Some Books I’ve Read at the Beach (Pt.1)

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We’ve just closed out our first full week of August (and also #Blaugust!), and I’m really starting to feel that we’ve lost the breaks on summer and it’s skidding by faster than an Edgedancer in pursuit of pancakes in a palace (wow I really did not anticipate a Stormlight reference when I began writing this metaphor . . . nor alliteration).

I don’t have any trips to the beach planned for the remainder of the month, but I’m obviously wishing I did, and thinking of just how great it would be to hit the beach just one more time. I could play in the surf . . . relax on the sand . . . maybe get another sunburn.

But most importantly: READ!!

There’s no shortage of articles out there which will tell you what to be reading while you’re soaking up the rays from good old G2V. And the definition of the term ‘beach read’ has come to mean an unfathomable amount of things in the time since it was first coined back in 1990.

So since everybody’s got an opinion on what to read at the beach, and what criteria makes up a ‘beach read’, I thought I’d add mine to the bunch.

This post is a bit retrospective and so I’ll define ‘beach reads’ as: Anything I either read, or bought, at the beach.

This list is not comprehensive, but it does reflect books that fit the definition AND have been written about previously on the blog. I’ve obviously read many other stories while listening to the waves lap against the sand, but I never got around to writing about them. Hopefully I will at some later date . . .

In any case, I hope you enjoy these five I’ve curated for this post and please check out their original reviews as they’re much more detailed than these snippets, and sometimes, a bit like going back in time. I think you’ll find what I’ve chosen is . . . not exactly typical.

Enjoy!

Meathouse Man by George R.R. Martin

For this first — and probably weirdest — entry, we’re reaching all the way back to 2013 when I visited Stone Harbor with my family. I was apparently feeling a bit guilty for posting on vacation, but experienced some sufficiently strong feelings reading this short story and simply couldn’t wait until I got home to get them down.

I’m not sure, but I think this may be the first piece of fiction I’ve read from GRRM. I had watched a bit of Game of Thrones and so I expected it to be grim and dark, but I don’t think I was ready for just how sick and twisted it ended up being.

It’s about a “Corpse Handler”, which is someone who uses synthetic brains to reanimate the dead and put them back to work in all kinds of jobs from field hand to arborist. Even sex work. So gross.

I’m not recommending that you bring this one along the next time you go to the beach, but apparently I did hahah. I’ll just leave it there.

Little Rice by Clay Shirky

This next one is also from the ‘deep past’ of the blog. I read Little Rice as an ARC from Net Galley back in July 2015.

My only other experience with Shirky’s work — Here Comes Everybody — had been for a class assignment during spring break in Panama City Beach Florida with my fraternity. That was before this blog ever existed (though Blogcerto! had been created for the same class), which is probably for the best as I’m sure my analysis would have been a bit more Tucker Max than anyone would want to read. In any case it seems like I had a bit of a beach/Shirky association going for a while. Or perhaps the only time I had for reading was while on vacation.

The book was pretty revelatory for me at the time. Now that it’s a decade old, it might not be quite as relevant. Mostly it follows a narrative about the rise of Chinese cell phone company Xiaomi, and through this lens is able to discuss larger topics and trends in tech, global politics, and the ‘maker movement’ in different countries.

I give some of my own thoughts about the ‘maker movement’ in my review, which is pretty much inline with how I feel these days. I had to look at my LinkedIn page to double check the timing of things, but I would have been just about halfway through my Journalism certificate, which means I’d probably just completed some reporting about 3D printing in libraries. I was at the start of something and didn’t even know it.

Galatea by Madeline Miller

This compact epic marks the beginning of our more modern entries to the list, and makes the cut because I BOUGHT IT at the beach. I didn’t end up reading it until October of 2023 when I was back at home, and (presumably) should have been reading something spooky but was spiraling towards a bit of a Greek mythology binge.

Like everything else on this list so far, I wouldn’t say this is your typical beach read, though I suppose it could be considered ‘light’ in that it does not have a large page count. Indeed it’s only a short story, though one which I found bound in hardback and sold next to Miller’s other epics: The Song of Achilles and Circe.

Galatea isn’t set in any kind of mythic period like these former works, but instead set in “. . . her own world.” which read to me as a bit more modern even though all the ad copy I can find claims it is still Ancient Greece. It takes shots at the patriarchy, beauty standards and the (in this case literal) pedestal we place women on.

The original myth of Galatea and Pygmalion was a new one for me; however, the story was still quite accessible and sufficiently powerful with only a Wikipedia page’s worth of context.

If you’re looking for a short yet powerful piece, I would highly recommend Galatea.

Godkiller by Hannah Kaner

The opening line of Godkiller is: “Her father fell in love with a god of the sea.”

Like come on. It just begs to be read with the rhythm of the tide in your ears, and the hot sun on your shoulders. With the fine spray of salt-tinged mist suggesting a gentle reminder that the cool embrace of the ocean is just a few sandy steps away.

I’d been on a streak of reading Godpunk novels last August, but Godkiller was stand-out among them for its incredible prose, disabled and queer representation, and Kaner’s unique approach to godhood within the story (there’s also just a really well executed Marks of Magic / Worsening Curse Mark type trope happening throughout).

I recently picked up the next two books in the series and am really looking forward to reading them!

Anji Kills a King by Evan Leikam

I gave this one a bit of a negative review, however, it met my ‘beach read’ criteria, and I think a list is better with five entries than just four. I’d heard about this book from Tik Tok, but didn’t actually purchase it until I visited the local bookstore at the beach. I was hoping to score a copy of Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Service Model, but it was sold out and I didn’t want to leave empty handed.

I left the store still pretty excited as I’d been looking forward to reading this one, and I thought it was cool to see the book in a real bookstore. Despite my high hopes, I struggled to work my way through it.

There are a lot of things in this book that I’ve enjoyed in other Fantasy books, but somehow could not quite engage with in this story. For instance, the use of Sanderson-like “ideals” — in this story called “tenets” — to track character growth was set up on the first page of the book, but then hardly ever explicitly stated again, so that only in hindsight, after finishing the novel and attempting to write my review, could I see that the characters had actually run up against these benchmarks at all.

I was also disappointed by the main character Anji, who has already done most of the ‘heroing’ before the book starts, and sort of just rides around the countryside, tied up and mouthy like nearly the whole first half of the book. Even when she eventually is unbound, the other characters seem to have all the agency in the story. It seemed an odd choice for a protagonist and POV.

I did, however, enjoy some parts of Anji Kills a King. Many of the characters are older, or aging. The juxtaposition here with Anji being relatively young added an interesting dynamic to what may have been sort of ordinary fantasy elements if the cast had all been the same age. I also thought that Leikam really managed to kinda save the book a bit with its ending, which I won’t spoil, but which I thought was particularly well done.

Wrapping Up

Well that’s all I got for this week. What do you think of these choices? Beach worthy? What have you been reading with the sand between your toes? Please let me know in the comments. Looking forward to talking more about this!

See you next time!

The First of #Blaugust! And a Mid-Year Freakout Book Tag

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It’s finally (already?) Augusts 1st! Which means we have a bit of a confluence of events happening here on the blog. The first event is the start of #blaugust, which is a blogging event running the whole month of August which encourages folks to restart, continue, or increase their blogging output during this last month of summer, with the help of fellow blogger’s encouragement (please see the Blaugust 2025 Announcement Post over on Nerd Girl Thoughts for all the ‘official’ Blaugust details).

I think that during this first day of the event, we’re supposed to introduce ourselves, and our blogs, and give some examples of what makes our little part of the internet fun (or at the very least unique). Not a lot of what I do here at Alligators and Aneurysms has changed since I did this post last year, so for anyone new here, please check out my first Blaugust post. And if that doesn’t sate your thirst (or put you straight to sleep), you can also learn a little bit about my process in my responses to the Blogger Insider Tag, and my post about what things I do to stay creative.

The second part of the confluence, is that I’ve been completely remiss on doing a Mid-Year catch-up type post. I just can’t put it off any longer, and so to prompt myself to actually get something written (ahh the aforementioned processes at work), I decided to try the Mid-Year Book Freak Out Tag which I discovered over at SFF Book Reviews.

I’m tagging a few folks I from the Blaugust discord channel: Kluwes over at Many Welps, Keerok over at Keeroks Space, Rabbit over at Jackalope Talk and finally Jaedia over at The Dragon Chronicle.

Please go check out their blogs!

Alright let’s get to it!

How Many Books Have I Read So Far?

A pretty easy question to start. Goodreads is showing that as of the writing of this post, I’ve only managed to read 18 books so far in 2025 (and of those, 2 were graphic novels and a few more were novellas).

A bit behind where I’d like to be, which is 35 books for the year. I mean I’m actually on track to hit that goal, but on track is behind for me hahah.

Best Book You’ve Read So Far in 2025?

Probably Mickey7. Certainly there are books I’ve this year, like A Wrinkle in Time, that have done more in terms of asking hard questions, or grappling with important issues — and Mickey7 does this to some extent — however in terms of just pure entertainment, Mickey7 has so far been the best.

Ashton has a dark sort of wit, but ultimately a hopeful outlook, and his ability to make hard concepts easy to understand is incredible. I may have read “better” books this year, but this is the one I keep recommending to my friends.

Best Sequel You’ve Read so Far in 2023?

I think Onyx Storm will occupy a few spots on this list, and is technically a ‘threequel’ not a sequel but it is definitely the book I enjoyed most so far this year that wasn’t the beginning of a series or a stand alone.

Ultimately, I felt it does what any good sequel (or threequel) should do: expand on what the earlier installments have done without abandoning what made the original books good. Onyx Storm spends a good bit of time away from The Continent, island hopping and adventuring in unknown terrain. I think these were my favorite portions of the book.

With two already impressive volumes in the series, I’m amazed that Yarros could top her previous work, but she managed to do just that. Apparently, lightning strikes thrice!

New Release You Haven’t Read Yet But Want To?

I couldn’t quickly figure out if these two novellas have already been published somewhere else, but I just impulse bought a copy of Stephen Graham Jones’ Saga Double: Killer on the Road / The Babysitter Lives. I don’t even know the premise for either one. I just know Killer on the Road could be a Doors reference (Riders on the Storm), and the cover looked amazing.

And though I still need to review it on the blog, Mapping the Interior was incredible so . . . Insta-bought hahah.

Most Anticipated Release for the Second Half of the Year?

I’m not really in touch with upcoming releases that much these days. What Stalks the Deep appears to be the next installment in the Sworn Soldier series by T. Kingfisher which comes out September 30, 2025. I thought What Moves The Dead and What Feasts At Night were genuinely excellent.

Just googling around a little I stumbled across Daedalus Is Dead by Seamus Sullivan which ALSO comes out September 30th, 2025 (woah). Daedalus and Icarus have always been some of my favorite characters from Greek mythology so I’m very interested to read this “. . . delirious and gripping story of fatherhood and masculinity . . . “

Biggest Disappointment?

Anji Kills a King. I was sooo excited for this one as it was from a creator I follow on Tik Tok. And it did have a lot of the elements I typically enjoy in a fantasy book, however they just didn’t seem to grab me in this story. I’ll still be continuing to follow Leikam on Tik Tok, but I’m not losing sleep waiting for a sequel.

Biggest Surprise?

I don’t think I was expecting to like Tress of the Emerald Sea very much even though I love pretty much all things Brandon Sanderson. But I actually really did like it!

I haven’t read many Cozy Fantasies books before Tress, and this book was being marketed very aggressively in that vein. Anything that talks about itself so definitely I tend to distrust and roll my eyes at regardless of whether people are saying it lives up to the hype.

So when I finally got around to reading Tress (like two years after it was released), I think there was enough distance there that I could regard it on its own merits, and form my own opinion. And it turned out . . . it was great!

It has deep implications for other Cosmere stories; however, readers will enjoy it just fine if they’ve never read another of Sanderson’s books, or even another FANTASY book before.

The book has a real sense of wonder with a (literally) colorful world, and high-seas adventure taking place despite its non-traditional ocean. For long-time Fantasy readers, there’s a lot here you’ll recognize from other beloved Fantasies, and for newbies, all the good stuff is right in one place.

My only annoyance was with the narrator which is our first time hearing directly from a certain character we’ve all come to know an love from other Cosmere books (Hoid). His voice — and Sanderson’s efforts to invoke the prose and humor stylings of his hero Terry Pratchett‘ — are a bit strong at first. But the narrator (and maybe Sanderson himself) seem to undergo their own character arc alongside Tress, and are much more palatable by the end of the story.

All in all, a great read!

Favorite New Author?

So I debated how to answer this question as I wasn’t sure if it was asking for my favorite debut author? Or about any authors that are new to me which might have taken that prized spot of favorite?

Debut authors are looking a bit thin on this year’s roster, but authors which are new to me is a much fuller list with 11 of the 18 books I’ve read this year (61%) penned by folks I’ve never read a book from before.

I don’t think any of them have unseated Brandon Sanderson as favorite, but Edward Ashton (again Mickey7) is probably closest this year so far.

Newest Fictional Crush?

Sooo . . . she isn’t exactly ‘new’, she’s been in two books previous to this one, and I don’t think we’re supposed to like her (or crush on her) because she’s a Gryphon flyer, but maybe Cat from Onyx Storm (aka Catriona Cordella aka Xaden’s Ex)?

I don’t know. These are not really things I think about when reading . . . Or maybe I just haven’t read anything spicy enough yet this year hahah.

New Favorite Character?

Probably Ridoc from Onyx Storm. Obviously he appeared in Fourth Wing and Iron Flame, but I felt like he and Aotrom had a much more prominent role in Onyx Storm, and the book was all the better for it. I almost just want a side series of just those two pranking each other.

Underrated Gems you Discovered Recently?

I don’t think Here Beside the Rising Tide by Emily Jane has made as much of a — ahem — splash as it should have, but it’s an excellent book.

It’s just the right kind of weird, with many different and seemingly strange but fun pieces combining together into something fresh and charmingly bizarre. Emily Jane has a real talent for writing children and participating in literary discourse in a way that is easy to read and not overbearing or pretentious. Finally, of course I enjoyed the inclusion of some references to The Grateful Dead and assuredly other jam bands as well (Lotus is also mentioned).

I’m hype to check out her debut On Earth as it Is on Television before the September release of American Werewolves.

Book That Made You Cry?

I was really trying not to quadruple up, but this one goes to Onyx Storm as well. I won’t spoil anything but there is one character death which really got the water works going. And like a bunch of other small things too hahah.

Book That Makes You Happy?

His Majesty’s Dragon was just a fun read. The bond between Laurence and Temeraire is just so wholesome and sweet. I’m in a better mood every time I think about it.

Favorite Book-to-Movie Adaptation You’ve Seen This Year?

This feels a bit like cheating, but I rewatched the entire Jurassic Franchise in the lead up to Jurassic World Rebirth, including the original Jurassic Park movie which was of course adapted from Crichton’s original Jurassic Park novel.

Otherwise, I’m kinda having a bit of trouble remembering what I’ve seen this year. Sinners, directed by Ryan Coogler is hands down my favorite movie of the year so far, but it doesn’t appear to have been adapted from a book. Coogler references a whole bunch of movies as influences, and Salem’s Lot which I have not read.

Most Beautiful Book You’ve Bought This Year?

I haven’t bought a ton of books this year; but I did pick up SunBringer and FaithBreaker by Hannah Kaner, which are of course sequels to her debut Fantasy: Godkiller. All three have incredible covers. I can’t wait to finish reading the series!

Wrapping it Up

Well, that’s all I have for this time. Thank you for making it this far, I hope you enjoyed catching up with what I’ve been doing so far this year. I know it was fun for me to take a look back and revel briefly in these small wins.

And happy Blaugust! I’m hopeful to write a few more Blaugust themed posts on top of my regular reviews this month so pleases stick around, or stay tuned, or whatever your preferred idiom for paying attention to a blog is. We should have some more fun along the way.

And please let me know your thoughts in the comments! Is there a book you read this year that made you cry? Or a book that let you down? Who is your new book boyfriend/girlfriend? I’d love to chat some more about all this so let me know in the commnets!

See you next time!

Anji Kills a King: A Unique Idea, But I Struggled to Engage

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We’ve been reviewing a lot of stuff about dinosaurs lately on the blog, so it’s nice to mix things up a bit and get back to reviewing Fantasy Books.

From the start, it feels significant to admit that this is a book I purchased because of Tik Tok. This is probably nothing special for most people. ‘Book Tok’ is an absolute force to be reckoned with and has been for quite a while now. Even in the archives of this blog, books like Fourth Wing and Verity stand out as prime examples of the app’s ability to generate hype around a book, which eventually ended up in the purchase of said book.

However Anji Kills a King feels somewhat unique compared to these other books in that I had already been following Evan Leikam’s account long before I ever knew he’d written a book. Looking at the book’s Author Bio and the Acknowledgments, I now know that Leikam has toured Europe with a band, has a book review podcast (Book Reviews Kill), and has acquaintances (or maybe even friends, who knows?) like Daniel Greene, Jason Pargin, Travis Baldree and Will Wight.

But to me, Leikam was just some dude who had some interesting things to say about a couple books I’d liked (I don’t even remember which ones), and so when I saw he had been picked up by Tor Books, I was excited for him, and curious how it would read. I figured I would enjoy the book considering we had similar tastes in books.

And Anji Kills a King DOES have pieces which I can see are reminiscent of books I enjoy, however, I found myself really struggling to work my way through this book, despite those elements which I typically enjoy. One such element involved “tenets” which a famous mercenary group within the book uses as a kind of code of conduct, ostensibly to provide some kind of moral north star for the group so that their behavior might have some hope of being distinguished from the misdeeds of the bounties they hunt.

Excellent. We now have a hard metric by which to judge the characters of this story. An easy marker by which to judge their change-arc. Do they move closer to these ideals? Or stray further from them as the story progresses? This trope (called The Commandments by Tv Tropes) is a cornerstone for many books — Dinotopia, and The Island of Dr. Moreau come to mind — with Fantasy authors appearing to take a particular liking to the technique. Perhaps the most modern, and well known (other than the ten commandments in The Bible) is Brandon Sanderson’s use of “Ideals” in The Stormlight Archive.

I feel one the major reasons the “ideals” are such a success in Sanderson’s work is a mechanic in which the characters we judge against them actually have to “say the words” in the moment they apply to the character’s arc, and before this have often spent time ruminating on them, and considering alternate modes of behavior. There is a frequency with which the ideals appear, and so when a thematic moment involving their core argument arises, the ideals are fresh in the reader’s mind.

By comparison, The Menagerie’s tenets are listed on the first page, and then almost never listed again, only occasionally referenced in dialogue such as ‘remember the tenets’, but hardly accessible unless we flip back to the first page of the book (which I almost never do) to reacquaint ourselves with them. If I consider each of the tenets now, after finishing the book, I can probably think of a corresponding scene in which they are broken (lot of falling arcs in this book which has the potential to be so cool), but I’m still left relatively unaffected as these character moments are all taking place for members of the Menagerie, and not the main character.

There is this frustrating dynamic in Anji Kills a King in which the book feels like it isn’t really about Anji at all. Typically I’m a big fan of the whole story-after-the-typical-story thing. Take Seanan McGuire’s The Wayward Children series, which are mostly about what happens AFTER a typical portal fantasy is over. McGuire has found extremely fertile ground in exploring the nuances of children’s experience after the primary adventure is over.

By comparison Anji Kills a King takes place AFTER what might be considered the primary goal of a more typical fantasy story: assassinating a corrupt and evil king. Again, HUGE potential here, and considering I can’t really think of many other stories in this vein, certainly a unique premise for a story. But Anji is almost immediately recaptured (perhaps somewhat more realistic than a normal fantasy) and stays bound for just about half of the book. In this way, all the events of the first half of the book happen to Anji, and she’s really just along for the ride. But then in the second half, events feel the same despite the small bit of agency she’s gained by that point. For instance, on two separate occasions later on in the story, she manages to commit two more murders, and yet the reader still leaves those scenes feeling like the other characters did all the heavy lifting.

And the ‘tenets’ I mentioned earlier? They govern the members of the Menagerie, not Anji, so she more or less never comes into conflict with them.

I’ve tried considering Anji’s character through a lens more akin to something like Watson in Sherlock Holmes, where Anji is the Watson character, simply telling the events of what happens to Holmes, and I just can’t seem to make it fit. I haven’t studied those stories well enough to know why the dynamic works there, and not here, but throughout this work, the readers feels as if the story should be about Anji, but she never really gets put into the game.

I would be remiss not to mention the parts of this book that do succeed. I really liked that The Hawk, and the other Menagerie characters were aging, or older. I personally haven’t read a lot of fantasy about old characters. And this dynamic is only all the more interesting because Anji is so young. You get an almost enemies-to-(platonic) lovers style dynamic in which we have a younger character becoming (again platonically) closer to an older character. This was kinda fascinating.

And then there’s the end, which I won’t spoil, but I do love it when a plot seems to have gone into complete and utter shit — ahem — chaos, and then one thing falls into place and everything else just gets back into line like some weird reverse dominos. I won’t spoil what the ending was, but I’ll only say that it’s the most hopeful of (possible) endings in a book that is pretty bleak throughout.

So Give ‘Anji Kills A King’ a Read?

It depends on what you like. This book has a lot of action, and has a few clever twists on some common fantasy tropes; however, I think that some of the main tropes it tries to hang its hat on — Ten Commandments style morality metrics, and story-after-the-story setting — ultimately let the hat fall.

I’ll still be following Leikam on Tik Tok, and would probably try another series if he does one. But I’m not super anxious for a sequel to Anji Kills a King

That’s all I have for this time. Has anyone already read this one? Am I completely out of my gourd? What are your favorite examples of the ‘Ten Commandments’ trope?

Leave your thoughts in the comments. I’m looking forward to talking about this one!

Despite the D-Rex: Jurassic World Rebirth Is Still Fun Even With The Weird Hybrid Dinos

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Well we’ve finally made it.

With 32 years — and six other movies — in the rear view mirror, Jurassic World: Rebirth has quite a bit to live up to. And so it mostly did what probably more long-running franchise additions should do, and struck out on its own with a new island, new characters, and new (read: weird) dinosaurs the likes of which we have never seen before.

Mostly I’m in favor of all these changes (spoiler: except the new dinos), as even though I enjoy all the call-backs and homages we’ve seen in previous films, there is a way in which the constant references to previous films not only distract from the momentum of the plot, but often break with logical sense.

However, that does not mean that this film was completely devoid of nostalgia. Screen writer, and Tik Tok personality Nicolas Curcio mentions in his review that the film has ‘throwback energy’, and a lot of ‘Spielbergian moments’. He continues that this might be because (allegedly) the idea to do the script came from Spielberg himself.

Whether or not that’s true I can’t say, but a few moments stood out to me throughout the film because they ‘felt’ like scenes from one of the previous movies. In particular, the scene in the gas station convenience store in which the cast is trying to hide from a kind of weird mix of Velociraptor and pterosaur (apparently called a Mutadon?), feels a lot like the kitchen scene from the original Jurassic Park movie.

Another easy to spot homage happens pretty early in the film when we are introduced to Dr. Henry Loomis (played by Jonathan Bailey). He’s the team’s resident paleontologist, and general dinosaur expert. We first meet him in a museum which is closing due to lack of public interest in dinosaurs. The shot leading into this scene showcases a falling banner echoing the ending shot of the original Jurassic Park film.

That’s what I managed to catch just in my first viewing when I wasn’t particularly looking for allusions to the old films. I’m sure there are many others I missed (I was told that somewhere there is an ‘objects in mirror are closer than they appear’ reference from the first film but I missed that).

These little moments are fun, but generally I’m always more interested in what the movie does on its own. How does it stand on its own two feet?

In the beginning, I’d say it stands pretty solidly. The earliest encounter with live dinosaurs in the movie comes from a chase sequence involving our pal from previous Jurassic World films, the mosasaur (not a dinosaur) working in concert with reimagined Spinosaurs (which look very different from Jurassic Park III). This scene was thrilling in the extreme.

Also, encountering the “Titanosaur” herd — and their . . . love scene? — is as cool and awe inspiring as anything I’ve yet seen in a dinosaur film. The Aquilops was of course very cute (and will assuredly sell 1,000 toys).

We finally got our swimming Tyrannosaurus Rex! Something we’ve seen most recently in the first episode of Prehistoric Planet, but was also a scene in the original Jurassic Park (Novel).

And I also enjoyed how the movie tried to more directly tie Quetzalcoatlus to its namesake (a flying serpent deity from Aztec mythology called Quetzalcoatl) by having it nest in a literal Aztec temple ruin (I should do a post of how these movies are just becoming more and more Indiana Jones as they go along and how that’s just fine hahah).

But as the film progresses, the threats we encounter become stranger and stranger. The new island in this film is distinct from Isla Nublar and Isla Sorna in that it was used for genetic splicing aka mixing dinosaurs together. Which is why we have the strange pterosaur/velociraptor mix I mentioned earlier, and why we have the film’s primary antagonist, the Distortus Rex.

Personally, I thought the “D-Rex” a bit ridiculous. It has two sets of arms, one of which appears to be vestigial, and it moves quite slowly. And its beluga-whale-like face meant that it just did not appear terrifying to me despite its massive size and jaws (it also just kinda looked like knock-off Rancor from Star Wars (ahh Spielberg Strikes Back!)).

As I sort of hinted at above, the mutant dinosaurs in Jurassic World: Rebirth were for me its weakest element. Real dinosaurs are awe inspiring enough. They’re scary enough on their own. And with like 50 new Dinosaur species discovered each year, there are assuredly many more absolutely terrifying beasts in the fossil record from which build these amazing movies.

Of the real dinos we do get to see, my favorites (which have not already been mentioned) were probably the brief Ankylosaurus appearance towards the end of the film. I think we do get to see a non-mutant Velociraptor for like the briefest of moments, and I was honestly quite shocked that these favs did not play a larger role in the film since I feel like it’s these creatures alone which are driving 90% of people towards these films.

Now sometimes half the fun of watching these films can be comparing the on-screen depictions of these dinosaurs with the current theories of what they may have looked like in real life based off evidence in the fossil record, and modern advances in paleontology. Rebirth has so many mutant dinosaurs and deviations from the real science that it almost makes this exercise moot, however the paleontology community is obviously still abuzz with discussion and can definitely explain things better than I would.

I was proud of myself that I realized there was something off about the use of “Titanosaur” although I couldn’t figure it out all the way (check out Matt Wedel’s Semi-Spoileriffic First Thoughts on Jurassic World Rebirth over on Sauropod Picture of the Week for the full story).

Thomas Holtz at UMD provides another good analysis and Nathan Myhrvold gives the film a “Jurassic reality check” for his blog: Cosmic Log.

I’ll finish out this review with by giving a shoutout to the cast who played the Delgado family (Luna Blaise: Teresa Delgado; Manuel Garcia-Rulfo: Reuben Delgado; Audrina Miranda: Isabella Delgado and Xavier Dobbs: David Iacono). This family really was the heart of the film in many ways, and when I think of all the truly memorable lines and actions from the film, it’s these folks doing it, which I think is incredible given the other all-star cast members they’re sharing the screen with. Dobb’s character in particular was a constant source of amusement throughout the film which I did not see coming when he’s first introduced. What a delight.

Go See Jurassic World: Rebirth?

Yes Jurassic World: Rebirth definitely gets my recommendation. While there is a lot about this film I did not enjoy — mostly all the fake mutant dinosaurs which simply can’t compete with the legion of REAL dinosaurs which are already terrifying — there is also a lot of the film I did enjoy.

I won’t be touting the film as my new favorite in the series any time soon, but I also don’t think that it’s an excuse to end the franchise. The film pays due reverence to the old films but is not completely consumed with these ‘Spielbergian moments’ to the point of cliche. There is enough going on here — like the Delgado family and reimagined Spinosaurs — to set it apart. And I for one am hopeful that rather than being the franchise’s meteoric extinction, it will be what the title posits, the series’ rebirth.

Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom: Not As Bad As I Remembered (But Still . . .)

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Well, #JurassicJune has come and gone, and for once I managed to actually stick to reviewing properties in the Jurassic Franchise. However, it didn’t quite go as planned and I still have one more “Jurassic” movie to review before I go see the new movie (so you’ll get at least one more dinosaur post after this).

That woefully neglected movie is none other than Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, 5th in the series and the second with Jurassic World in the title.

I’ve watched the original movie countless times growing up, and as an adult. A similar if slightly smaller number for The Lost World (Jurassic Park II) and Jurassic Park III. And am still solidly in the double digits for the first Jurassic World movie. Even Dominion has a handful of viewings.

Before this rewatch, I’d seen Fallen Kingdom exactly once. Literally only when I watched it in theaters and never again. I remember leaving the theater feeling disappointed. Honestly a bit confused, and even a little uncertain. I couldn’t wrap my mind around the ending. What were the rules of the this new world? What did it mean for the future of the franchise?

Obviously we got SOME of those answers when Dominion finally arrived, and honestly I think they made it work the best they could. However, when I left the theater after that first viewing I was in a bit of a panic that one of my favorite properties of all time had just been irrevocably flubbed.

So I was quite curious to rewatch the film in preparation for Jurassic World: Rebirth.

Would I hate it as much as I had back in 2018?

The short answer is no. I’m not sure if I’ve become less critical as I’ve gotten older, or simply knowing how things would end — and how they would continue into the next movie — allowed me to just disassociate enough to enjoy Fallen Kingdom for what it was: a movie with dinosaurs in it!

For me the best parts of the movie were sending the team back to the island, and feeling that sense of awe at seeing the dinosaurs roaming free in their “natural” environment. The looming threat of the volcano and threat of extinction felt sufficiently tense for a full movie, and I’m sure I would have been quite happy watching Grady and Clare hunt for Blue with a team of untrustworthy mercs, and complete camping newbs.

However, this would not have presented us as many opportunities to take shots at corporate greed, or introduce the film’s big bad, the Indo-Raptor.

My opinions on the Indo-Raptor are mixed. The scenes where it is hunting Owen, Clare, and Maisie through Lockwood’s estate are certainly tense, however, the dinosaur itself just feels incongruous somehow. Like it’s too big in some shots, but not big enough in others. It seems to be able to move really fast when dispatching extras, but then is somehow not as quick when chasing a main character.

And I was about losing my mind when Maisie was just hiding in her bed not even under the covers. It’s the most advanced predator ever created and it doesn’t just pounce on her immediately after it climbs in from the window?

In any case, the movie delivers what it promised. Dinosaurs, thrills and even some chills.

For any tracking references to earlier movies, Fallen Kingdom makes quite a few. One of the homages which stood out the most to me was Maisie in the dumb-waiter, attempting to pull the door closed before the Indo-Raptor could catch her, echoing back to Lex in the kitchen scene during Jurassic Park.

Also, early in the movie, Grady, Claire and their companions run from stampeding dinosaurs — who are running from volcanic destruction — before hiding behind a big log pinned in place by a gyrosphere. This prop does double duty harkening back to Grant, Lex and Tim hiding from the flock of Gallimimus (and then a T. Rex), and Zach and Gray in the gyrosphere in the last movie.

Give ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom‘ a Watch?

Ultimately I think I have to say yes for continuity’s sake, however, this one is probably my least favorite of the franchise. I don’t think it’s quite as bad as I remembered, but it is also perhaps not as good as any of the others.

I appreciate the willingness to take things in a new direction, it’s just that I think they did not really think through all of the implications it would have.

That’s all I have on this one. What does everyone else think? Hit? Or Flop?

And thanks everyone who has been reading these #JurassicJune (and now Jurassic July) posts. Please check out my post on Jurassic World Dominion, and stay tuned for my review of Jurassic World: Rebirth coming (hopefully) next week!

See you next time.

Recapturing the Awe of Dinosaurs: A Review of 2015’s Jurassic World

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Is it still June? I think it is, which means more dinosaurs are on the way!

Been having a bit of trouble keeping to my schedule lately, but I’m still hopeful to finish out reviewing the Jurassic Franchise before the new movie comes out July 2nd. Already I’ve managed to watch The Lost World (Jurassic Park II) and Jurassic Park III so if all else fails at least there’s that.

Side note: With the release of the Walking With Dinosaurs reboot already this month, and new animated series Talon of which the first episode dropped on June 27th, it’s impossible to stay focused on any one thing right now. But also a great time to be a Dinosaur fan!

In any case, next up on the docket is 2015’s Jurassic World, the series reboot, and in my humble opinion, the sequel that is able to best recapture the sheer awe of dinosaurs present in the original film.

It’s not really apparent how all the loose dinosaurs were rounded up and put back behind fences prior to the start of the film, but it seems they were, and now (or in 2015), Hammond’s original dream is back and better than ever. Sleek beautiful ferries shuttle passengers to and from the island, and guests can venture out into the habitats themselves in canoes and hamster-ball-like ‘gyrospheres’ (narrated by Jimmy Fallon no less). Baby dinosaurs go in a petting zoo for the baby people, a giant swimming reptile (Mosasaurus) has its own ‘Sea World’ style show and everything just feels hunky-dory.

Even the Velociraptors — why on earth would you ever make more of those? — have a new military grade enclosure which seems almost overkill until one of the new handlers falls over a railing and is almost killed, proving our favorite deadly dinos are still as dangerous as ever despite some clicker-training and a fondness for Chris Pratt.

Of course we’re already seeing the flaws inherent in the system and spoiler alert, they’re the same flaws as the original park only amplified when the scientist stop using the source material (aka nature) and started making up their own dinosaurs from scratch (a lesson we’ve all learned against from season 6 and 7 of Game of Thrones lol).

Of course I’m talkin about the Indominus Rex, the movie’s primary villain.

It’s hard to describe this Dino in full without massive spoilers, but essentially this thing is tailor made for killing, and then all the characters (except Chris Pratt) have a surprised Pika-Chu face when it starts killing everything in sight. Containment won’t kill it on the spot because it’s such a huge financial loss but Indominus Rex does not report to a board of investors and will eat whatever it god well pleases.

And so . . . all hell breaks loose which is exactly what we came to see.

I’m not sure if I was just in an overly analytical mood during my most recent rewatch, but the plot holes in this one seemed to stick out a bit more than the other movies in the series. For instance, we are told several times throughout the movie how Indominus can sense infrared, yet when it is trying to hunt Chris Pratt, he pours gasoline on himself which ostensibly masks his smell and so the Indominus leaves him alone. But doesn’t it sense his heat signature?

Also, there’s a moment in the film when the two boys, Zach and Gray Mitchell, discover jeeps from the old park in a garage and manage to get them working. I’m not too worried about the believability of whether or not the jeeps would be able to run after 22 years of sitting idle, but I was struggling more to believe that they built a whole new park on the island and didn’t turn any of the old buildings into a museum or something? They just left them?

Discovering the jeeps is a bit of an Indiana Jones moment, in which we have a kind of brief feeling of maybe being an archaeologist ourselves, discovering a piece of history and getting nostalgic. It’s interesting how each film attempts to honor the legacy of the original movie in some way, and I think this scene is the main way the movie achieves that . . . I just wish it had been a little less forced.

Whatever the flaws, this movie has a lot of great moments too. The chemistry between Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard is excellent, and they seem to give viewers some of the romantic closure they never got between Grant and Sattler in the original films.

Plus we got to see many of our old favorite dinosaurs, and meet a few new faces. Which is really the best reason to watch these movies, for the awesome dinosaurs.

Anyway, I’m already a bit behind so I’m gonna keep this one short.

Give Jurassic World a watch?

Yup! Despite that it is more obvious in its oversights than previous iterations of the franchise, it is also (IMHO) the film that is best able to accomplish the awe and wonder of the original film’s premise, giving us cool new dinosaurs to look at, and a sleek new park for them to annihilate.

That’s all I have for this one! What did I miss (besides the insane fact that Claire manages to out run a Tyrannosaurus Rex in heels)? What new dino did you enjoy seeing the most? Which old favorite still slaps?

Leave your thoughts in the comments. Looking forward to talking about this one!

Why Jurassic Park III Still Roars (for Me, Anyway)

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Alright, cruising right along into our second week of #JurassicJune. Last week we looked at The Lost World Jurassic Park, so it only makes sense that this week we would continue the Jurassic franchise and take a look at Jurassic Park III.

To my knowledge, there was no book guiding the story here, which many fans claim is the reason it is the ‘weakest’ of the original three movies. I’ve done exactly nothing to verify this, but I read that Crichton was brought in during the earliest days of the script’s development, but after three days of brainstorming, he had nothing, and left to let the movie make itself without his guidance.

Woah.

Whatever the film’s critical reception — many also point to the 14 year gap between titles as proof of the movie’s poor quality — I still think there is a lot to love about this film, and greatly enjoyed my most recent rewatch which was actually somewhat revelatory for me.

Let’s start with my initial impressions. I honestly can’t remember the last time I watched this film (presumably sometime in 2022 in the lead up to Jurassic World Dominion but maybe farther back), so I feel like I can genuinely call these impressions ‘initial’ though there will always be some faint rose-colored echoes of childhood experience tainting a completely objective view of the film.

In any case, my initial thoughts — unfortunately — while watching were that it looked a bit cheap compared to the previous films. In the bonus commentary, a lot of time is spent talking about how this movie was a huge step forward for CGI, and that they used much more of it in this film than any of the previous films, taking painstaking effort to make the skin and musculature of the dinosaurs sag and droop as it might in real life. Unfortunately, it seems to almost be a rule of thumb that CGI just looks worse and worse the older it gets. Ostensibly, there will be some point at which the CGI from ten years ago will not look noticeably worse than the CGI of today, however, I think we’re still a ways away from that (also this movie is now over TWENTY years old).

I wish I could say that it was just the CGI that cheapened the experience for me, but I also thought the practical effects suffered as well. The scene in which the Spinosaurus attacks Dr. Grant and crew in the airplane was essentially all practical effects, and I have to admit, the Spino just seems to move like a robot. The whole sequence feels more like you’re on a ride at Universal more than actually being attacked by a dinosaur.

Finally, I’ve never thought of this movie as a 3D experience, I don’t ever remember watching it with 3D goggles on, whether in theaters or at home. However, I notice MANY shots in the film which seemed to exist for no other reason than that the dinosaur would loom out over the audience members. I haven’t yet watched a movie in 3D and been happier for it so this also was a small strike against the film for me.

But there is still a whole lot I found myself loving about the film. First and foremost: Spinosaurus Aegyptiacus! Obviously what we know about this weird looking dinosaur has changed quite a bit since 2001; however, this version of the dinosaur is still completely captivating. Famed paleontologist, and inspiration for Alan Grant’s character, Jack Horner consulted on the film and explains (in yet another special feature video) that Spino’s skull was 8ft long and (in 2001) was considered the largest predator known. Essentially a whale that could walk around on land and swim. He mentions that they essentially equated size with ferociousness, and bam the classic “Spino vs T-Rex cliche (of which this film is the trope codifier) was born.

I see a lot of flack for this move because these two dinosaurs did not live in the same time period and would never have faced off in this way . . . To which I say, it’s still awesome, and doesn’t break the logic of the movie which is essentially that the folks at InGen didn’t care how an ecosystem would have actually worked, they just wanted to build as many cool dinosaurs as they could. In any case, Spinosaurus Aegyptiacus (whatever it happens to look like at the moment) has played a huge role in my fiction, and likely never would have been on my radar if not for this movie. So I’ll always be indebted to JPIII on that account.

Some other cool dino things I appreciated about the movie: 1) Ankylosaurus sighted! They are also becoming a fav of mine so I was happy to see them included; 2) They at least tried to put feathers on the Velociraptor. Later we’ll see MUCH more where that came from (check out Prehistoric Planet Episode 3 Freshwater for a better representation); 3) Tyrannosaurus Rex shown more as a scavenger than a hunter (interesting!).

I think this post is starting to run on a bit, so I’ll begin to wrap it up with the revelatory bit I mentioned in the beginning of the post. Since I started working in makerspaces back in 2018 (wow 7 years already!), I have half-assedly kept a sort of running list in the back of my mind of all the fiction I’ve consumed which contains a 3D printer, or some type of digital fabrication device. I had completely forgot that this movie uses one to make the velociraptor resonating chamber despite having seen tons of 3D printed resonators on Tik Tok and other places . . . I just never put it together that they actually had one in the movie.

I don’t remember watching that scene when this movie came out and thinking: “Oh I want to do stuff like that when I grow up” . . . and yet here we are . . . with JPIII having influenced my choice of career more than any of the previous two “better” movies. I guess you never can tell.

Give Jurassic Park III a Watch?

Of course! Despite its aging graphics and some other flaws in the film, Jurassic Park III still has quite a bit of wonder for any dinosaur enthusiasts, or even anyone looking for a halfway decent monster movie. I enjoyed rediscovering Spinosaurus, seeing some Ankylosaurs and of course the dreaded Velociraptors.

On a more personal note, I couldn’t believe how the ‘worst’ film of the trilogy was still clearly influential enough on my eleven year old mind to plant the 3D printing seed in my brain, which grew unconsciously over the next 17 years to result in me working with 3D printers nearly every damn day.

That’s all I have for this week. What are your thoughts on Jurassic Park III. Are you a fan? Or did it flop? Did it connect to your life in any unexpected ways? And as always, which dinosaurs did you enjoy seeing in this film? Which are your favorite? Can’t wait to talk some more about this movie! Leave your thoughts in the comments.

(Hopefully) we’ll be looking at Jurassic World next time on the blog! Happy #JurassicJune!