20 Ways Dinosaur Movies Have Evolved: Then vs. Now

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20 Ways Dinosaur Movies Have Evolved: Then vs. Now

Today, it seems either you have slick-looking, hyper-polished Jurassic World Dominion CGI dinosaurs, or awful looking Syfy dinosaurs fighting anacondas or shark-acondas or the attention-span-of-stoner-condas or whatever. This is because, hot take here, Jurassic Park changed everything in the dinosaur genre, and everything that has come later is CGI or, well, some indeed interesting puppetry here and there. But the genre is much more than its special effects. Okay, who are we kidding, it is just its special effects, but there’s a broader history to be explored as well.

In this Pictofact, we take a look at dinosaurs in movies, then and now. We focus on the earliest dinosaur movies, the main evolution and trends of the genre, and of course, everybody say it with us, Jurassic Park. So we’re gonna keep it straight: We’re gonna mention Jurassic Park a lot in what follows. Not doing so would be like doing an article on the Titanic and not mentioning the reference that is in all our minds: the Italian rapping dog. Oh, and also, we’re counting Godzilla as a dinosaur movie. We want no complaints, okay? We’re just following the established scholarship on this one. So, without further ado, dinosaurs, you guys!

Overview

Dinosaurs in movies Then vs. Now An overview Dinosaurs on the big screen are not oddities, but an intriguing concept to which movies have returned to for almost 120 years. And with Jurassic World Dominion, narrative and technical efforts have finally accomplished what the genre wanted since the very beginning: to see these animals roam free in our world. CRACKED.COM

Godzilla and King Kong

Dinosaurs in movies Then vs. Now The outliers Godzilla is a made-up prehistoric creature, while King Kong is an ape. But both movies are unavoidable when discussing dinosaur cinema. Both franchises have prominently featured dinosaurs, have expanded their visual representations and FX, and have contributed several landmarks to the genre. CRACKED.COM

B-Movies

Dinosaurs in movies Then vs. Now From B-movies to B-movies It's no wonder dinosaurs are a B-movie staple. Here's a fine selection of some classic and modern awful dinosaur movies: 1951's Lost Continent, 1961's Reptilicus, 1977's The Last Dinosaur, 1978's Planet of Dinosaurs, 1990's A Nymphoid Barbarian in Dinosaur Hell, 1991's Adventures in Dinosaur City, 1994's Dinosaur Island, and 2001's Jurassic Park III. CRACKED.COM

Wikipedia

FX

Dinosaurs in movies Then vs. Now The FX For decades, there were two ways to bring dinosaurs to life: either stop motion (1925's The Lost World, 1953's The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, 1969's The Valley of Gwangi) or just suits, as in 1954's Godzilla. Eventually, animatronics led to 1993's perfect blend of state-of-the-art practical effects and pioneering CGI in, you guessed it, Jurassic Park. CRACKED.COM

FX Wizards

Dinosaurs in movies Then vs. Now The FX wizards The wizards to whom we owe our cinematic visions of dinosaurs can be summed up in five names: The visionary, decades-long stop-motion work of Willis O'Brien and then Ray Harryhausen-and then the quantum leap that Phil Tippett's modern stop- motion, Stan Winston's animatronics, and Dennis Muren's CGI brought to Jurassic Park. CRACKED.COM

Rampage

Dinosaurs in movies Then vs. Now The city rampage One of the biggest dino-tropess, it began with 1925's The Lost World, gained further prominence with 1953's The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, and became a cliché with the Godzilla movies. Jurassic Park brought it to modern cinema with its 1997 sequel, and by the time of Dominion, well, every city was dino-ridden. adidas adidas GRACKED.COM

Metaphors

Dinosaurs in movies Then vs. Now Dinosaurs as metaphors In 1954's Godzilla, the giant lizard was a metaphor for untamable nuclear horrors. In 1993's Jurassic Park, the dinosaurs represented a warning over profit-driven scientific hubris. Finally, 2014's Godzilla served as a metaphor for climate change. CRACKED.COM

UDS Films/YouTube

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