Death of a Princess: How Star Wars can go on

With Episode 8 wrapped up and final impressions neatly being supplied by nearly everyone across the internet, we now get to enjoy the next year and some number of months speculating until the next saga film to carry on the story of Rey, Finn and Poe.

As far as I see it, there’s a small collection of big questions remaining when we talk about the future of Star Wars. Perhaps none as important as how J.J. Abrams will deal with the real life passing of Carrie Fisher. When we left off on The Last Jedi, presumably the entire Resistance movement (or the main fighting force at least) fits aboard the Millennium Falcon, including General Organa after having taken horrific loses over the course of Episode 8. 

But how J.J. Abrams deals with the death our favorite Princess is a question J.J. and by extension Disney is likely to not take lightly. The options before them, to put it simply are as follows: Either the film acknowledges her death sometime between Episode 8 and 9, in the days, weeks, months, or years between Last Jedi and Episode 9, or the ball is kicked down the road, and her character is not revealed to have died until further into the film. This option however raises its own risks, including the blowback if her character, even if in a minor scene- is CGI’d into the film, or various leftover footage is used to composite her into the new footage; and it doesn’t meet audiences expectations. It’s my personal belief Disney won’t take the risk, not after the blowback they’ve already received from Tarkin’s CGI inclusion in Rogue One and from The Last Jedi’s bold thematic decisions I’ve outlined in previous articles. This and in addition to Solo’s release, which many are already speculating to be a flop (which honestly is unwarranted speculation prior to any footage being released).

It seems, at this point that Disney likely won’t want to risk the blowback on the “final” saga film and makes sense they’d either push her death to the opening crawl of Episode 9, or the very opening scene of the film itself. But honestly, this could be the best thing for the film, next to Carrie Fisher being alive and well.

To put it simply, rather than leaning away from her death, Disney should lean into her loss. Using General Organa’s death as a form of catalyst for the events of Episode 9, may provide the proper backdrop for a strong thematic framework for our characters overcoming overwhelming loss and grief. By referencing the void left by Leia, the audience too is reminded of the loss of such a central character and the challenge of overcoming impossible odds despite it. By confronting the hard truth immediately, it quickly shapes the narrative around the problem- rather than shying away from the responsibility and weight of that loss. 

In addition to this, I would be all but shocked if the film didn’t take place at a minimum of weeks, if not months after The Last Jedi. With a proper amount of time left between the films to ensure our heroes are positioned to respond to the catalytic moment of Leia’s death.

How the series deals with the death of one of our favorite characters, not to mention just one of our favorite actresses is hard to say at this point. But I can hope they take the bold path to embrace the reality they face, then try to soften the topic. Carrie Fisher from my experience both in person listening to her speak, or the interviews I've witnessed over the years paints the picture of someone who has challenged life head on- and it would disrespectful to now treat her character as a delicate matter. 

Top 5 New Star Wars Stories!

The New Star Wars Hope

One of the aspects of Rogue One: A Star Wars story, that has interested me since I first heard about it's premise would be the potential for a new expansive universe within Star Wars. While many a deeply ingrained Star Wars fans who have read the comics, books or played the various forms of Star Wars media can tell you about the adventures of hundreds of characters outside the films. Those stories have yet to see the light of day on the cinematic theater screens across the world. Those days however, may be behind us if Rogue One has anything to say about it. 

Not only this, but with Bob Igor's push to expand the Star Wars property with the upcoming untitled Han Solo film, we're set to have a new and riveting Star Wars cinematic universe, on par with Marvel's theatrical ambitions, if not even more ambitious as all the lessons of building a cinematic universe will be pushed into Star Wars from the start.

Looking to the Future

We see a few new paths for Disney to take the Star Wars franchise based on the evidence we now have of Rogue One, Han Solo and the episodic films. Here's our list of potential spin offs, sequels and prequels and our reasoning behind them!

A New Sith Empire

Looking at evidence from Episode 7 and some of the canon tie in novels we are beginning to see the shadow like organization of the First Order take shape, but we're left unsure of exactly who runs this military organization. For one, we know the First Order was formed from remnants of the Galactic Empire run by the former Emperor fleeing into 'Unknown Space', the real wild west of the Star Wars galaxy. Then, with support from splinter political groups within the New Republic (formerly known as the Rebel Alliance) we see the First Order take shape. But there's a few red flags we're missing important elements of this process.

For one, every military organization requires supplies to feed, cloth and otherwise organize a massive military force. Not only this, but we see clear evidence of Imperial progression in weapons and technology, showing that not only have these fringe elements fled the known Galaxy, but they've profited greatly from doing so- driving the question, who or what has managed to feed into the military R&D department of the New Order?

One of these answers may come in the form of Disney XD's Star wars: Rebels tv series, which as of season 3 has introduced the character Admiral Thrawn. Thrawn, was not human but Chiss. Humoniod and considered to be extremely intelligent. Not only this, but as as old canon goes- the Chiss provided a number of technological advances for the Empire and resided in the 'Unknown Regions' of space. Choosing to not make official contact with the greater galaxy. Though no mention of this has been made yet, there's a lot of room for expanding this idea as you may imagine. Perhaps the First Order recognized this advantage and capitalized on it upon returning to the Unknown Regions?

While the clear leadership of Supreme Leader Snoke is an obvious indicator that a Dark Side user has once again reclaimed leadership over the Empire, we have yet again a list of questions as to who Snoke is and where he came from. A powerful Sith would not simply exist undetected in a universe like Star Wars unless perhaps because he existed for a time in the unknown regions.

This really leads to our theory, that Episodes 8 and 9 may lead to the reveal that the New Order has been hijacked if you will- by the formerly hidden Sith Empire that has laid in wait for thousands of years

So while jumping into all this former lore may be a bit bulky for Episodes 8 and 9, introducing the idea that a slumbering Empire or failed state of Sith (or likely their offspring) energized and capitalized on their encounter with the also failed remnants of the Galactic Empire to combine their forces, power, supplies to produce the resurgence known as the First Order. Even the name itself, would hearken back in this sense, as a reclamation of the Galactic Empire back into the 'original sith' if you will.

And to be frank: It's not even that original of an idea. As fans of the series 'Knights of the Old Republic' can tell you, something very similar to this happened when Jedi Revan and his followers went searching for 'a dark force' in the unknown regions. When they returned they were Sith and had a Sith Armada with them. This wasn't even the full force of the Sith Empire either- rather an elaborate test of strength against the Republic, but the parallels between Revan's Sith Armada and the New Order's Navel Fleet is worth taking note to.

The Old Republic

Jumping off from Episodes 7, 8 and 9 this would be a great opportunity for Disney to jump into the Old Republic, in particular if they've introduced the idea of the former Sith Empire and are looking to create another profitable saga of films. While the Old Republic is a vast, sprawling time period with hundreds of former Legends stories already populating its past, now Disney would have the opportunity to selectively tell its own story.

The largest challenge with an Old Republic style film (much less series) would be the connective tissue to Star Wars as we know it today. Though they may have lightsabers, locations and mythology in common, much of what makes up the Old Republic as we see in Legends is still distinctly different in artistic approach. This could lead to issues of convincing your average movie goer that this is still Star Wars and not just a cheap trick to get people into theater seats by slapping a Star Wars logo on a sci fi adventure film. 

Worse yet, there would be the challenge of bringing in brand new characters and building this time period's lore from essentially scratch. Though I wouldn't call it impossible, considering a film like Guardian's of the Galaxy did just fine, despite average theater goers not having read any of the previous comics, or Guardian's having a direct relation to any of the former superhero films. The key to this you may note was Guardian's nemesis. By keeping Thanos the overarching bad guy in Guardian's as he is in the rest of the Marval universe this kept the film afloat with the understanding that these characters would later have a role in the larger MCU.

How Disney chooses to go about the Old Republic is still up for debate- if they choose to go down that path. But considering the amount of lore in this time period, it's hard to imagine they'd outright ignore it.

Boba Fett

Though not officially announced as a film lined up by Disney it has been hotly suggested from rumors swirling from within Disney itself. A Boba Fett film would likely fit into the classification of a character piece, as Boba Fett as far as we know, has not had a notable role in the Star Wars universe (such as stealing the death star plans). Not only this, but Boba Fett is arguably a villein which leads to the issues of making his character likable on screen. Though we may love to root for the bad guys in a film because of simply how freakin' cool they are. Putting them on the screen for two hours may prove too much. As we know, Fett isn't one to talk a lot on film and even the younger Fett we see in shows such as The Clone Wars provides evidence of an angry, lustful for revenge youth, who only is in it for himself (mostly).

One method that could be used to tell Boba Fett's story would be to have a sort of Suicide Squad type story. In which all the characters are on the same side, yet possibly pitted against one another. A Boba Fett film will be a difficult challenge for whomever pens this story, as the iconic character is at a great threat of becoming boring, dumbed down, or unappealing if not written into the story correctly. Not only this, but due to Boba Fett being a clone of a previously cast actor- this does limit Disney to having to use that actor unless they simply recast. Which by no means am I suggesting that Temuera Morrison did a poor job as Jango Fett- simply that this may deter Disney as their options for this character now become limited due to being previously cast some years ago.

The next challenge for Boba Fett would be time period. An early Boba Fett during the height of the Empire might be appealing to some, but personally I would love to see Boba Fett crawl from the jaws of the sarlacc that was intended to kill him- and essentially be forced to start over in a galaxy that was also about to change with the destruction of the second death star- and death of the Emperor.

On the flip side, Star Wars Rebels mid season 3 trailer has suggested that the Mandalorians may fight with the Rebel Alliance, now Boba Fett himself is no Mandalorian, but wears the armor none the less. Providing an interesting story regarding Boba Fett defending himself and the people he chooses to be apart of.

Rogue Squadron

If you haven't seen Rogue One you should But regardless you can expect this: The Rebels go on to fight another day. So what's this say about a sequel to Rogue One? Outside of the laughs that have been made that 'A New Hope' is a sequel to Rogue One we have another thought. I wouldn't call it a direct sequel, but a film that focus' on the infamous Rogue Squadron may be a proper spiritual sequel to Rogue One. With a recent marathon of Star War's films, it became very clear to us one thing in particular: the in universe 'Rogue Squadron' certainly must have been created in honor of the in universe 'Rogue One' crew who's daring mission stole the death star plans.

For those who don't know, Rogue Squadron was promoted to near stardom within Star Wars thanks to writers such as Michael A. Stackpole who wrote half of the Rogue Squadron book series. Made up of elite pilots taking on daring top secret missions for the Rebel Alliance, Rogue Squadron was as much about ace combat pilots as it was these soldiers pulled into entanglements on the ground. So essentially, as Rogue One is about Rebel spies on the ground, this is akin to the same but in space. It's hard to really pinpoint what story a Rogue Squadron centered story could take, but seeings as they provided a backdrop to many of the larger operations in the original trilogy, I wouldn't be surprised to see a Rogue Squadron setting up the events of Return of the Jedi or aiding in the recovery of the plans to the Second Death Star- in which many Bothans died as a result of.

Obiwan's Lost Years

This theory has gained some traction since the popular Rey is Obiwan's granddaughter theory started to spread online. For the record, there is no concrete proof Rey is Obiwan's granddaughter until we learn something new in Episode 8. But, assuming this is true for even a moment, there's an opportunity to bring back Ewan Mcgregor as Obiwan sometime between the events of Episode 3 and 4. 

As many will remember, Obiwan devoted his life to watching over Luke Skywalker in this time and while many assumed this was a pretty boring job in the desert, new canon comics however show that wasn't entirely true and Obiwan found himself on a number of mini adventures even while keeping an eye on Luke. While this isn't any kind of proof that Obiwan found love on the desert, this isn't to say it couldn't be true either.

This is certainly an interesting idea, even if Obiwan and Rey aren't related, it still would be a fascinating character piece to understand Obiwan's role over Luke, his struggle to cope with a changing galaxy, learning new aspects of the force and possibly additional motives to his character removing himself from such a central position as member of the Jedi council. One would imagine that if Yoda's last words were to go separate ways until the time was right- after a few years Obiwan might start to get an itch to find a way to help the Rebellion. Especially with Bale Organa knowing where he was and was available for use (remember it was Bale who sought out Obiwan to bring the death star plans to Alderaan)

But at this rate, we may learn new evidence of Obiwan's early involvement within the Rebel Alliance from the likes of Rogue One.

The Cirlce is Nearly Complete

It's really wonderful to see things coming together so smoothly. Enjoy it while I can I say- as harder times are sure to come. It's been a few days since I've been able to update anyone, much less work on our project due to a busy weekend with family. But, there have been some very exciting updates. Chief among them, the first draft of our revised script has been finished and the Gallimimus model is nearing texture completion. Another critical step in it's development.

When I tasked myself to work on the script as I've mentioned previously, I knew there were a number of criteria that had to be met, for production reasons and so forth. I spent about a week just letting the thoughts rumble in the back of my mind as I pressed on with other issues. To be fair, I really wasn't looking forward to writing a first draft. It was a daunting task: take everything we've written before, capture the spirit of it, remove the fluff, polish the good parts and implement as much as we could into a compact spot. It just wasn't something I was looking forward to, but having a bit of time to let the ideas marinate did me some good. Best yet, it let the good ideas stand on their own and the bad ones fade to the background. I found I could focus on what was important when all the ideas of our previous script weren't jumping out at me at once saying 'well what about me?' So finally, I gathered my courage and dived in- and it didn't take longer then about five hours. Not too shabby for a days work. Next I'll be sending the draft to my other colleagues for them to review and I'll be setting up an appointment with 'James', a previous writer I've worked with to smooth out any details. Honestly, I don't foresee the script taking too many revisions, perhaps changes in verbage or slight actions sequence changes. But nothing dramatic- which is good news.

Having such a concrete script from the get-go also means organizing the film in a much more productive way. Storyboarding is an easy one to spot, but there's other advantages. Like the complementary use of B-Roll. For those who don't know, B-Roll is typically used in advertising. In a feature film for instance there's often a 'Secondary Film Unit' which goes around and shoots all the filler stuff- like rolling landscapes, the big master shots of a city, or other details that the main shoot isn't focused on. It's a time saving move for the production. Well, Ranger Corps don't have a second unit to go out and film with, and going to locations like Hawaii to film would certainly cost us a lot more than the roughly $500 we have to make this film. So that puts us in a pickle it would seem. But that's where B-Roll comes in. B-Roll is essentially the same thing, but more often than not it's filmed by someone else, so there's no control over what is being shot- but because there's so much footage you usually can make good use of some of it. You just have to be creative.

In the case of Ranger Corps, filming in Hawaii was out of the question. We're filming in Florida, so we do have some varying levels of passable jungle- but where we're lacking B-Roll can sometimes be used to fill the gap. Knowing this beforehand and designing the script with this in mind, has meant I can produce an animated storyboard, complemented with B-Roll, and temporary audio to create the film in pre-production before ever having to set foot outside. It's a big step forward for us, as it shows us a glimpse of what we're shooting and has huge implications from a storytelling point of view. As it stands currently, about half the film has been constructed this way and I imagine after tonight the latter half will also be constructed.


Last but not least, the Gallimimus model is nearing the end of it's texture stage of production. It's been nice to work on an organic model again, as it's been a while since I've animated anything, much less an organic. But truthfully, I over did it. The model really doesn't need to be as fancy as I made it for the screen time it'll in. But hey, it was nice to get things moving again. Next comes rigging, in which I place a bone structure in the creature to give it degrees of movement, then the run cycles begin, then animating the sequence, then rendering, compositing... and finally it'll be done. But the big thing is just finishing the textures.

Galli- Galli- Gallimimus!

It's nice to see progress being made on the Ranger Corps front. Last night I got the change to flesh out the body and feet on our Gallimimus Model. This might just be the first herbivore model I've ever made and there's some unique challenges in that alone. Rather than teeth and a certain about of 'snear' Gallimimus are all about speed and raw power. Which has meant a lot of emphasis on muscle groups and giving the Gallimimus the right look that conveys speed. There's a silver lining however when it comes to this model and it's simply the fact that you won't see the animal resting in place but running in a group. This is beneficial because I won't have to put an extreme amount of detail into the model, considering it'll be blurred anyways. Which means a faster turn around for production. What you're looking at now is a good first past, but the final model will likely have twice the level of detail when complete. The feet still need additional work, they have this odd shape in which the toes are thin, the heel is thick and the lower leg bone bulges- finding the right ratio is a bit of trial by error. Tonight, I'll begin work on the hands and head too- which will have come with their own set of challenges. The fingers won't be difficult and again aren't required to be animated too heavily, the head on the other hand will be defined a fair amount. Not that it'll be seen in any high resolution, but I tend to think people's eyes gravitate to the head of most creatures. So I'd like to see it moderately fleshed out.

Other interesting aspects of the Gallimimus I've learned along the way are in response to its growth patterns. The young often has shorter snouts and grew in length with age. This has lead to me to consider creating a secondary model, tweaked to be a sub-adult. It would be a minor variation, but perhaps needed variety for the film.

On the scripting front, not a whole lot of progress has been made. I've been putting a bit of thought into the storyline, but I haven't taken the time to sit down and flesh it out. The problem really comes down to the main antagonist. With so little time for this story (I'm thinking under 5 minutes) that puts a lot of pressure to focus on only one main antagonist, rather than two- which was the original story design (like a one-two punch). But who knows, I have a clever approach to involving two antagonists, but it's really a question of logistics. Not to mention this means double the work.

At the moment, the idea stands that a Ranger has arrived on scene to a truck crash. He realizes the truck operators are dead and the animal cages have been torn open in the chaos that ensued. The problem is what was on board- creatures that were on their way to be euthanized. Predatory creatures with teeth like serrated knives and deadly saliva filled with a slew of incapacitating toxins. Finding and killing them is the Island's top priority. The problem is the Rangers are already deeply involved in a security threat. The island has just received it's first Tyrannosaurus Rex and she's scheduled to wake up soon. It's up to our hero, with limited chopper support to hunt down the creatures before they can escape the area. But even with the advances of 1992 military grade technology, is he the hunter or hunted?

The other issue is physical manpower. I'd like to produce this was as few of people as possible. Two or three would be ideal and I have people in mind- but the problem is again, logistics. More people, more problems. I'd also like to keep the speaking parts to a minimum, but again this becomes an issue with ideas of never before seen dinosaurs or abstract concepts. How do we explain to the audience its mouth is full of toxins if we don't say it? Showing it opens up a new set of problems. In these cases I often look back to Metal Gear Solid, where as an audience member we met Solid Snake, a fielded agent who still had a million questions about the complexity of the the 'Metal Gear' world around him, much like the players. We might be able to field a similar solution here too- perhaps the Rangers in the chopper are experienced, senior members and our hero is still a bit of a rookie. But they provide invaluable radio support and logistics from the air.

That's about all the film notes for today however- hopefully I'll have a much more rendered out picture by tomorrow!

UNITE the Jurassic Crew!

I've spoken to the main resources behind the Ranger Corps production and everyone is back on board. We've decided to shrink the size of the production and instead focus all our effort in a much more intense easily manageable piece of pie. Better to not bite off more than we can chew. I've promised to start work on the script, an early first draft drawn from the previous versions of Ranger Corps. It's a little sad to see all that work we did fleshing out characters get trimmed and cut, but in the end it's really the direction we have to go.

I've already made a decent amount of progress. The 'intro' of the film has essentially been edited together and only a few special effects are left in the way of finishing it off. The speed of which this has been accomplished can be attributed to a few 'advertiser' tricks up my sleeve, namely b-roll. But using this footage has increased production value, by showing aspects I would never be able to film myself (like areal shots over Hawaii). Thankfully, with a lot of animated models previously being created, this means production time is going to be a lot faster in general. This does however provide us with a certain challenge. The script is being condensed and much of the 3D models I've created can and will be utilized. But in a sense it's almost like building this film around a checklist. Does it include 'this, this and this'? Good. That's not necessarily bad and if anything opens up doors to new animation possibilities- without the concern of over burdening myself.

The rest of the crew is on standby until I can produce the first draft of the script. I'm excited and terrified all at once, as every scene and word spoken has to directly feed into the story and move it along in a very direct manor- time is our limiting factor this go around.

In my last post, I spoke about consumerism and how much of a role it takes in Jurassic Park. It was an aspect we previously had in prior versions of the script, but perhaps until now it wasn't fully understood. I'm really excited to see where this line of thought will lead us down the road. In particular, I'd like to offer audiences a certain twisted humor, or dark irony in how this plays out in reality. 'When shit hits the fan- save the park, in the most economic form possible.'

The Sith, Inquisitors & Force Awakens

As of today, there's been a number of bread crumbs being left by Disney/Lucas in regards to the direction of the Star Wars Saga. But recent news has spurred my imagination and who knows- I might be on to something. Follow me along for this magical ride...

The first clue was the Episode 7 trailer itself. It's hard to miss the declaration that the force itself has 'Awakened.' Despite the jokes and memes, I don't believe this title is as black and white as it appears- and rather then suggesting the force has somehow become stagnant, I believe this is to say there are new kids on the block- new players in this galactic saga. This could be an obvious nod to the new characters that are intended to move the franchise forward after the Original trilogy characters pass off the torch- and possibly to the idea of a formation of a new Jedi Order by Luke Skywalker. But I believe the line 'Light and Dark' from the trailer also insinuates an introduction to something new from the dark side of the spectrum- something we also haven't seen before in the saga. (This is of course assuming the New Jedi Order is a drastic departure from the Yoda order.)

The second clue comes from this article- the devs of the Old Republic Game explained that Lucas' story group gave a glimmer of hope for Old Republic fans that the game may be canon- or perhaps one day it could be, by stating that because of it's unique time period set 3,000 years prior to the movie saga- it doesn't interfere with the timeline. In a world where all Expanded Universe content has been deemed 'Legends' until brought into the fold, like bits of content that has infiltrated the animated series Star Wars: Rebels- this makes news of Old Republic content possibly canon rather interesting.

Speaking of Star Wars: Rebels, it's been noted before that content from the series may make an apperance later in the film saga. While it's wild speculation from me, the introduction of the Inquisitor as such a central character of the Rebel series only fuels my larger theory. For those who don't know, the Inquisitor's are essentially force sensitive Dark Sided agents of the Empire who's sole job is to hunt down and exterminate the remaining Jedi. But it also serves another purpose- the Inquisitors are pretty much the only dark sided characters that quite possibly are still around by Episode 7 to cause problems.

Now, why The Old Republic canon possibility is important is because of the content. The Old Republic era's main antagonist is the Sith Empire. To put this in perspective, imagine an entire culture and society that centers around force sensitive individuals that clamor for power against one another. It's like a really evil version of Ancient Rome, where the upper class is held up by a massively submissive and subjected slave driven lower class. Complete with families struggling for control over each other. Problem is, as far as I know- the Old Republic era never really clarifies what happens to the Sith. The expanded universe suggests they were all wiped out and only their teachings remained. But that's all 'legends' at this point.

So this is where it all comes together and I'm freely speculating at this point. We catch up with Luke and the gang 30 years after Return of the Jedi, the Empire must be hurting a bit at this point as their two most prominent Dark Sided leaders are dead (The Emperor and Darth Vader). Imperial Leadership is made up of regular folks at this point, but the the Inquisitors still exist and see Luke Skywalker forming a New Jedi Order. The Inquisitors may not have a lot of pull, but they are quick to realize the threat that is involved in the return of the Jedi. In their desperation, they turn to something they don't fully understand and awaken a force long thought to be dead. The Ancient Sith. Who knows, maybe the Emperor knew of the Sith- but even he didn't want to poke that wasp nest. Considering there's little info on where the Sith vanished to- and this is serious speculation: But imagine how cool it would be to see the awakening of a single Sith Lord, who ventures deep into the wild unexplored regions of space to re-establish contact with surviving Sith Colonies. In the Old Republic era, the Republic knew the Sith existed in the unexplored region of the galaxy, but how vast or where exactly the Sith lived remained a mystery. So it's not outside the realm of possibility.

The reason I find this so engaging is because it means wrapping up the saga in a very poetic way. 30 years after Return of the Jedi I can imagine uneasy lines drawn in a galaxy still divided between the Rebel Alliance and Imperial forces. Suddenly a powerful 3rd party shows up and betrays the Imperials and thrusts the galaxy in all out war. The Rebels and Imperials are forced to align together and set apart their differences to end the threat of the Sith once and for all. It would also make for a final end to the Light side / Dark side fighting if Luke's Jedi order and the Inquisitor Sith teachings could find a middle ground where there's this understanding that taking things to either extreme only bloodies the galaxy in their differences of opinion. In order to 'end' Star Wars- there has to be a unification of the force and both sides need to become one. I'd also love to see them become a reclusive monk like order, but maybe that's asking a lot. It would be an order of Batman's basically- only showing up in times of extreme need.

So there it is, my speculation for the Saga. It's vague, but it's supported by a lot of possible scenarios. Leave your thoughts in the comments!

Jurassic World Ate My Lunch

Let it be said- Jurassic World's trailer that was released today was bad ass. After months of waiting and worrying my favorite childhood franchise might be ruined (again, Jurassic Park III anyone?) It was really happy to see the production quality appeared pretty top notch and the story seemed fairly solid. There's been a bit of pissing and moaning about a few issues, but nothing that can't be explained away.

First, there's been a lot of annoyance over the 'low' quality of the CGI in the film. While I admit, the CGI doesn't appear as top notch as even say 'King Kong' where I was extremely impressed by the lighting and textures of the creatures depicted. Lets keep in mind the film won't be released until next June and the CGI itself doesn't look poor aside for a couple of shots. The main gate in particular looks a tad fake. With such a span of time between now and the release there's no doubt in my mind work on the film, post production in particular is still chugging away- and that means the CGI will make improvements.
Another issue that's been circling the message boards has been the credibility of a made up dinosaur. This is a real fine line, because on the surface a 'genetically built from scratch' dino sounds pretty lame. But lets take a moment to realize that A) None of the animals in Jurassic Park were 'real'. They had already been altered. A fact I'm sure will be made clear in the film. B) Cross genetics isn't really that lame unless this thing has wings, spits venom and can survive outer space. Lets remind ourselves to be rational. The trailer as a whole looks very well thought out, there's no reason to jump to conclusions. The brief glimpse we get at the dinosaur itself appears to be very... well. Dinosaur like. I get the impression it's going to be fairly familiar- perhaps it's real threat is its intelligence.
The last issue I've heard is the fact that Chris Pratt's character is working with 'trained dinosaurs'. A fact that Pratt himself acknowledged sounded silly- and again, this is one of those ideas that sounds lame until we stop to think about it. First, lets keep in mind that humans and seemingly dangerous animals such as lions or sharks have managed to be studied in extremely close proximity. There's no reason to believe that the Raptors are simply killing machines, a fact I'm sure Chris Pratt's character will attempt to drive home. The second thing to consider, is that Pratt's made a point to say that 'trained' doesn't mean tricks as much as it means the broad sense of the word. I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest the Raptors might be used as bloodhounds in a sense. Especially considering there's a dinosaur on the loose. On the flipside I could be wrong and maybe the Raptors are so smart they're using their relationship with Pratt for their own advantage. Sneaky bastards.

So there you have it. That's been my day. Oh and kissing Vanity without a beard f'n rules.