Steven Spielberg's Dino Show "TERRA NOVA"

[RedZillaKing]

Did I really just read a reference to a long extinct creature as "overrated?"

Indeed. After the movie Dinosaur was released back in 2000, there was a mini "carnotaur" craze. I just got sick of them.

IR- That actually sounds pretty cool. Anyways I'm going to catch this for sure. Anyone else wonder how dinosaurs will carry an hour long TV show?

[GojiFan]

The same way that the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park made the movie great. By being realistic, intelligent, and generally not blood-thirsty monsters most dinosaur films try to portray them as.

[The One and Only]

^You mean boring.

[NSZ]

BTW, is that a friggin' Carnotaurus in the preview? After Disney's Dinosaur I never wanted to see another Carnotaurus again . Totally overrated carnivore.

It's likely a fictional dinosaur. There's going to be a lot of those in this show (there's at least 3 different types of fictional raptors).

No, no it's a Carnotaurus. (Though why RZK is calling it overrated is beyond me. Outside of Disney's oversized monsters, they've been featured in how much media? Very little. And besides it makes more sense for a theropod of Carnotaurus' size to view humans as prey compared to super theropods like Giganotosaurus and Rex)

http://vimeo.com/28726224 (skip to 4:11)

[RedZillaKing]

Media schmedia. They were everywhere, carnotaurus toys, books, stuffed animals... I just got sick of 'em. They're too distinct for a show like this.. Too recognizable. Plus, I have a feeling we'll see a ton of non-contemporary dinosaurs crammed in there for the hell of it. On the wiki page it has Tarbosaurus, Ankylosaurus, and Carnotaurus all coexisting. Arggh. Good point about the Carnotaurus being more likely to hunt humans, though. I never understood why movie dinos like Gwangi and the T Rex from Planet of the Dinosaurs were so interested in eating humans. And don't get me started on why T Rexes are so occupied with bony Ann Darrow...

Anyways, I'll stop being a tight@$$ for now and check out the premiere tonight before I make any real judgements...

[Gawdziller]

I'm still trying to grasp how a beast we know very little about aside speculation can be described as "overrated." Are we really fanbasing th animal kingdom here?

Can I claim Nitrospirae is the most overrated form of bacteria?

[RedZillaKing]

LMAO! Do it up, but bacteria aren't animals . I don't see any problem with fanbasing the Animal Kingdom... We idolize sports heroes because they're faster, stronger, and have better coordination than us... Some animals have all that AND can eat us! Goooooo Tigers!!

Anyways, now I'm really excited for Terra Nova because I saw on the channel guide that it's 2 hours long! It saved me from watching the friggin' Housewives! Wooooooot!

[GojiFan]

LMAO! Do it up, but bacteria aren't animals . I don't see any problem with fanbasing the Animal Kingdom... We idolize sports heroes because they're faster, stronger, and have better coordination than us... Some animals have all that AND can eat us! Goooooo Tigers!!

Anyways, now I'm really excited for Terra Nova because I saw on the channel guide that it's 2 hours long! It saved me from watching the friggin' Housewives! Wooooooot!

Well that's just the premier, I'm 99.9% sure that it normally will be one hour long.

I will refuse to come here around the time it starts though. I'm gonna miss the first hour or so because of class. I have it set to record, but I'm not having any of you ruin it for me!

[Tohosaurus]

So we're halfway done and it's decent so far. The CGI is kinda mediocre though.

EDIT
Okay well it's over. Pretty good.

[Tyler]

WHAAAAT?????? Who fires Frank "Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, The Mist" Darabont???

Dumb execs at AMC I imagine.

[Inferno Rodan]

Well that was pretty cool. I liked the Slashers, though I question the logic of a theropod having such a weapon on its tail.

[Biollante]

Ugh, this show is...Rough.

At least it's not a medical investigation law or reality show. I'll give it a few more chances, I enjoyed the dinosaurs.

[starsteam]

I liked it. Well, the dinosaur scenes at least. Characters are interesting enough but some of the plot elements could be left out.


Funny how this time, it's the humans inside the fence. But I was reminded of Jurassic Park, and I can't wait for next weeks episode.

[Biollante]

The characters are so cardboard, the writing and dialog is also not that good.

At least TEEN ANGST is over with, or so I hope it is.

[XxComablack1937xX]

Well, after watching the premiere tonight i must say it was just average.

I didn't really care about the character's all that much, an it was cool to see Dinosaur's back on T.V. the effects on the CGI Dino's were not that impressive. I don't know i'll give it a couple more episodes to see if things pick up or not.

[RedZillaKing]

Well that was pretty cool. I liked the Slashers, though I question the logic of a theropod having such a weapon on its tail.

^I agree... It seems odd. They didn't seem to need them anyway, considering how deadly the front ends were.

SPOILER ALERT! A few things I liked:

*Taylor... Not sure what's going on with this guy, but ya gotta admit the dude's got charisma. Great job, Steven Lang. Who knows though... This actor's "Taylor made" to be a villain. BWAHAHAHA.
*It's a different time stream, so no "A Sound of Thunder" style future f-ing butterfly action. Also it explains inconsistencies like strange dinosaurs (Slashers, unnamed gifriggingantic brachiosaurs) existing alongside known genera (Carnotaurus).
*Damn, us monkeys work fast. Tension and flat out hostility between Terra Nova and the split faction, called "Sixers". Humanity already doing what it does best.
*Fish out of water humor. "Weeding" and the centipede scare stick out. I also got a bit of a chuckle out of watching characters when they try food out, followed by the inevitable "you'll get used to it". I give them 10 years till there's a McDinosaurs.
*Special effects... Were pretty good. I don't think we'll be seeing non-cartoony CGI for many years.
*Likeable cast. The leads are a bit vanilla, but they get the job done. And the kids are tolerable. The supporting characters besides Stephen Lang and the teenage love interest are a little flat, though. I guess those are points for the

Things I didn't like:
* The dinosaurs. Don't get me wrong, the Slasher scenes were pretty intense and effective (at first), but the brachiosaurs and the two Carnotaurus bugged me a bit. Sauropods like brachiosaurus were thought to have very limited range of movement with their necks. They certainly shouldn't be able to bend in half to reach plants being held up by a girl on the ground. Theropod tails should be relatively stiff. The slashers had tails that flopped around and could swing like a weapon. We've made leaps and bounds in paleontology since 1993 but these guys are stuck in Jurassic Park. I know this sounds like nitpicking to some but would it have killed them to do research about a major part of their television show?
*Flat supporting characters. The soldiers are 1D as were the teenagers besides our two lovebirds.
*Coincidences and miracles: Hey the bad guy just escaped and happened to cross paths with our lead. Sure he looked suspicious but Terra Nova seems pretty large... What are the odds of them running into each other? Also the teenaged girl crossing directly in front of the search vehicles in a huge, dense jungle. Yeah. Which brings me to my next complaint...
*Everyone who's not a bad guy has Wolverine's enhanced Healing Factor. The girl who runs through the jungle is attacked by Slashers and lives with minor boo boos. The F***?? Another teenager is dragged out of the vehicle and all the Slasher does is scratch up his leg. A third teen gets hit by the supposedly deadly Slasher tail... Another boo boo. One, two, three. They should be dead! Also, are all the guns tranquilizer guns? You went into the past of another reality and brought tranqs? Because if they're bullets those dinos have bullet proof scales. They baddies didn't seem to have tranqs... Not that the Slashers were harmed by machine guns. But then again, they could've been tranqs. Confused.
*I'm sort of getting the feeling that they're not in another timestream. Which would be lame.

Anyways, overall it's an intriguing premise that doesn't fully live up to it's potential. 6/10. How did this turn into a bootleg review??

[Berzerkgodzilla]

I found it very enjoyable. Finally something fun to watch on mondays

[Jacob Kaiju X]

It's not bad, but there is room for improvements.

[NSZ]

Might I ask just what was it about the Carnotaurs that bugged you, RZK? If it's the tail thing, Carnotaurus, being an abelisaurid ceratosaur, isn't a member of the Tetanurae (stiff-tailed) clade of theropods in the first place. And besides, it's not our past, it's the past of an alternate timeline; as you can see with the Acceraptor itself (and the omnivorous brachiosaurids), evolution, while similar to what transpired here in this reality, took a slightly different route.

And that girl needed surgery. That's not just 'surviving with a boo-boo', that's barely clinging to life. Only Roger Ebert is allowed to not pay attention to details and then bitch about what he just watched.

[Jacob Kaiju X]

Hell, they said even Tetanurae's tails were much more flexible then the previously thought. And sauropods had more flexible necks than they once thought as well.