Spielberg-produced dinosaur television series "Terra Nova"

[Jay 37,374]

Well here is a trailer for Terra Nova

http://www.slashfilm.com/terra-nova-fulllength-trailer/

[Wojo 2,453]

Won't this plot violate every single blessed rule in the book about time travel?

The present day is messed up. Resources are gone, people are fighting, the environment is destroyed. Solution? Instead of fixing our world or finding a new planet to colonize, let's invent time travel, go back in time millions and millions of years, and start a new human civilization in the distant past.

Maybe their intent was to visit another planet or dimension, and a mistake (or Lost in Space-style sabotage) sent them to the past, like the original Planet of the Apes in reverse.

Or maybe they knew that Earth's destruction was imminent, and they could not escape the solar system in time, so they went to the past to rebuild human civilization from scratch and gain 100 million years in which to build the technology to escape. Or at least, a few million years until the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction occurs.

Too much nerd talk for one post. I won't be able to get past General Pickett/Stonewall Jackson/the prick from Avatar leading the humans against the dinosaurs. I hope the dinosaurs eat all the humans in ten episodes or less.

[indy4 155]

Eh, looks pretty dull.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Spielberg will produce anything. Just cause his name is on it doesn't mean it'll be good.

[Wojo 2,453]

<cough cough> Transformers <cough>

[Quintus 5,399]

Flintstones has to be the worst of the lot.

[Brónach 1,302]

It doesn't seem very original. It's a shame that any fiction containing dinosaurs seems made without any care nowadays.

I'm seeing it. Boring characters. Killer pterosaurs. Brachiosaurs in the Cretacic. Grass. Wrong plants. Gentle herbivores. Carnivores obssesed with eating humans. Ugh.

[Luke Skywalker 1,796]

as long as the design of the dinosaurs looks like jurassic park... i dont care if the series is bad

[Brónach 1,302]

But they could try modern speculations. For example make sauropods and similar animals bright coloured, as they probably had much much better sight than large mammals.

[Ollie 1,059]

Spielberg will produce anything. Just cause his name is on it doesn't mean it'll be good.

There was a time when his name usually resulted in a much better track record.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Actually no, that is just not true. Spielberg has always had his name attached to mediocre works.

The Money Pit, Seaquest DSV, Pinky and the Brain, Used Cars etc...etc...

[Quintus 5,399]

I used to like The Money Pit as a kid and Used Cars is amusing enough.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Well, we all know you're easy!

[Quintus 5,399]

True.

[Jay 37,374]

Pinky and the Brain

Blasphemy!!

Pinky and the Brain, or more specifically, "Steven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs", which PATB was spun-off from, is fucking BRILLIANT. Release volume 4 on DVD already!

[Wojo 2,453]

The first season of seaQuest DSV was great (at the time). I have not rewatched it in years to see how it has aged, and I probably don't want to. I will cherish the happy memories of loving the show when I was younger.

But I was old enough to realize that seasons 2 and 3 were shit.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

It is just a TNG rip-of!

[Wojo 2,453]

So?

[Luke Skywalker 1,796]

i loved the fisrt season of seaquest. my siblings too. we were hooked to that series.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Spielberg's cartoon series were fantastic. Animaniacs, Pinky And The Brain, and my favorite... Freakazoid.

[Jay 37,374]

YES!! Freakazoid was awesome too!!!!

[Jay 37,374]

So - who watched the pilot? What'd you think?

[Hlao-roo 389]

I don't think we have enough Spielberg-themed threads going.

[Jay 37,374]

You're right, I should create a few more 1941 threads

[Thor 7,521]

Love the premise and there are some really cool setpieces and environments here and there.

But it really falls into all kinds of traps at the same time. The nerdy teen, the general DAWSON'S CREEK atmosphere of the teenage plot, the clichées, the dialogue etc. But worst of all was the conservative, "American" style typical of Fox productions - "oh yeah, let's keep together as a family!" and all that. As if it were a 7TH HEAVEN episode set among dinosaurs. That silly last shot says it all!

But I'm gonna give it one more chance because I love the premise so much (I'm a huge JURASSIC PARK fan, but since nothing ever happens regarding a 4th film, I'm STARVED for more stuff in a similar universe!).

And the music.....yeah, it was fine. Nothing remarkable, though.

[Muad'Dib 1,802]

This is what I had to say about it on the TellTale forums:

I just watched it, and it was incredibly dissapointing. Normally I'm not someone who bitches about stuff, but this pilot pissed the hell out of me. I'll try to explain why I didn't like it in the best possible terms. Possible spoilers ahead!

First, the characters. The leads were extremly dull and I only found Stephen Lang's character remotely entertaining, but even he felt undeveloped.

Most of the stuff the characters did was extremly stupid. I mean, you are in a world inhabited but some of the most dangerous creatures that ever lived, and you go out in a jeep? Great! Why don't we just serve ourselves to the "slashers" on a plate? Geez.

Second, the dinosaurs. The element that most people were looking forward to, including me. The main problem is that we only saw THREE (3) species. And none of them added anything to the plot, really. It would have been about the same it they wouldn't have been there.

The first spieces we saw a group of Brachiosaurus, and this was supposed to be a scene of awe, but the main problem with this scene is we have already seen this exact same scene before. I'm not only talking about the famous first Brachiosaurus scene from Jurassic Park, but also the second one, where the kids and Grant feed the big cows. It felt like a mix between those two, without never reaching the levels of feeling those two scenes had. And the Brachiosaurus design and animation was quite poor. Sure, I understand this is a TV show, but the budget was huge! The main problem I see is that they didn't study other animals (and the JP films) correctly, to try to "get" how much life there was in those 1993 CGI/animatronics hybrids.

Then we got to see a group of Carnotaurus that roared like a digital chicken or something, a scene that stole a lot of shots directly from Disney's Dinosaur. Were they even trying to be original?

And after that, the worst of them all: The "Slashers". Sounds like something Littlefoot and company would call don't it? Anyways, the idea of bringing original made-up dinosaurs seems brilliant but here it was terribly executed. The predator design seemed quite akward and was never consistent, changing radically from scene to scene. And how it attacked its preys seemed wrongly done, because it seemed impossible how it would make those movements. It looked more like it was a having an epilectic attack or something.

Anyways, as I don't want to keep going and going I'm gonna sum up: The direction was quite poor, the script was overly cheesy, the acting seemed mediocre and the music was just awful.

If it gets better I'll catch on but so far I'm not holding my breath. Still, if they can at least rework the dinosaurs a bit and make them more life-like, I'll keep watching.

Let's hope this doesn't affect how JPIV is gonna turn out.

[JoeinAR 1,949]

it was pretty ordinary.

[Richard Penna 3,696]

This starts over here next week. The trailer looked really good, but the above review has made me a little cautious.

The effects did look better than the BBC's recent attempt at dinosaurs at least.

[Brónach 1,302]

BBC'S recent attempt at dinosaurs looks much cooler and professional. The models are better and very, very accurate, the textures are better and so are the movements. Even so, the movements of Planet Dinosaur still look remarkably below the bar stablished by Walking with Dinosaurs, which had absolutely brilliant animation. In Planet Dinosaur you can see the loops and it doesn't look natural many times, specially in the third episode so far (I think I'll review this show when it ends).

When I saw the pilot for Terra Nova I only liked the first 20 minutes and Stephen Lang. It's as dull and predictable as it can get. And don't get me started on the dinosaurs. They looked ridiculous. They had very little purpose, narratively speaking. And inventing dinosaurs is perfectly okay, but you could at least work on it a bit.

[Thor 7,521]

Different budgets or nor, what impresses me is that JP's dino effects in 1993(!) still hold up very well compared to most recent attempts. The mix of CGI and animatronics is simply second-to-none. And that film is almost 20 years old, believe it or not.

[Brónach 1,302]

Different budgets or nor, what impresses me is that JP's dino effects in 1993(!) still hold up very well compared to most recent attempts. The mix of CGI and animatronics is simply second-to-none. And that film is almost 20 years old, believe it or not.

The Tyrannosaurus in the dark, specially, Ther are two shots there that I love: when it steppes into the road and roars, and the next shot from inside the car. And the animatronic shots: the foot, the eye...

[Thor 7,521]

Absolutely. Gives me the (positive) chills just thinking about it.

[Muad'Dib 1,802]

It's not only the combination of CGI and animatronics that makes the dinosaurs in JP so damn good, but also the fact that the animators really studied modern animals to get the movements and the feel of them. Also, the fact that the dinosaurs only actually appear for 15 minutres in the movie makes them even more impressive when you see them. That was the mistake of the sequels, they showed too much and there was no build up.

[Brónach 1,302]

Movement is essential. In movies the fx creatures that seem more real are the ones that have the most lifelike movement and interaction with the surroundings, at least to me. That's why the dinosaurs in JP and WwD still look cool.

[Romão 2,274]

The fluidity and realism of the movements has very little to do with technology, but more with the time and dedication devoted to animating the animals. Jurassic Park, by today's standards, has a low ammount of CGI shots, giving animators much more time to focus on those few crucial shots. I absolutely adore the last T-rex scene

[Jay 37,374]

The girl and I watched the pilot episode the other night.

I liked it! Interesting concept, and fun dinosaur action.

I like that they set up a mystery in the pilot (the drawings by the river), and already gave more information about it right away. I feel like they won't be dragging things out the way LOST did.

Looking forward to watching the next episode!

[Luke Skywalker 1,796]

how good were the dinosaurs done?

I absolutely adore the last T-rex scene

One thing i noticed the other day is how perfect the little detail in movement of the second raptor as it expires when the rex bites her. Great sound design too.

[Brónach 1,302]

how good were the dinosaurs done?

They didn't look very good, but more importantly, they had weird behaviors and didn't feel like real animals.

[Thor 7,521]

The second episode was rather disappointing. A riff on THE BIRDS, really, but not scary at all.

[Brónach 1,302]

I don't know if I want to see it. Hollywood hates pterosaurs.

[Faleel 5,363]

So this is a show about Dinosaurs that Tear-ya-noseoff (Terra Nova)?

[JoeinAR 1,949]

the show had higher ratings, but its not one I'll be able to watch with such lousy characters and actors.

[Wojo 2,453]

I can't watch it. I have class on Monday evenings and no desire to, um, "DVR" it.

So I guess it's not can't, but won't.

[Richard Penna 3,696]

I'll start watching this weekend probably. I've reactions everywhere from 'its great' to 'it sucks' so I at least need to find out which camp I'm in.

[fommes 153]

I like that they set up a mystery in the pilot (the drawings by the river), and already gave more information about it right away. I feel like they won't be dragging things out the way LOST did.

I don't get why that should be a bad thing, and why people always complained about the mysteries in Lost - I feel most, if not all, were answered in good time, and not too late (the problem lies with the ones they chose not to elaborate on).

If the mystery is solved right away, I often feel that's a sign of weakness, of both the mystery itself and the writing.

But I haven't watched this so this isn't a comment on this series!

[Jay 37,374]

Well I'm sure they won't answer everything right away, I just liked that we got some development of a mystery right away. Who knows how long it will take to explain it completely

[Richard Penna 3,696]

Seen the first two episodes, and first reaction: not great, not terrible.

The effects vary wildly in quality, and the overall focus of the show seemed to be on the visuals, which isn't the most effective way when half the shots are soft-looking CGI-filled landscapes. And of course there are the cliches, last minute saves, etc. While they don't kill a show, you can make one without them and I'd love to see a writer try something different.

But I do like the main characters, performances are passable most of the time, and only two episodes in they're starting to reveal that the plot might be going somewhere.

Music does its job, but sounds like typical Tyler meandering strings/electronics. I heard maybe two moments I'd like to have on CD, but other than that, unremarkable.

[Thor 7,521]

The show is very "Fox", if you know what I mean.

[Brónach 1,302]

I liked the first 15 minutes and then it became cringe-inducing.

[Jilal 569]

Wow, a Belgian broadcasting company is actually going to broadcast the first episode tonight!

This marks a milestone in history!