Jurassic Park III has the overall best dino designs of the franchise (image heavy)

[Lost Lemurian]

First, a caveat: yes, JPIII is a stupid movie, with many stupid elements. This thread is purely about the production design of the dinosaurs, not about the movie's dozens of plot holes, silly characters, nonsense ending, or whether or not a Spinosaurus could kill a T-rex.

Now, on to the dinosaurs, and why they are absolutely standout creature design:

First, the Brachiosaurs. A stark departure from the Jurassic Park version, JP3's Brachiosaurs are chonky AF, and have a vivid coloring that really makes them stand out.

I don't know what the hell happened with the Jurassic World Pterosaur designs, but they are absolutely abysmal in comparison to the JP3 version. These guys are gorgeous, and they really showcase how agile they likely were scuttling around on land. Of course, they have the same taloned feet that all Pterosaurs in media have, but they're still remarkably accurate.

Ceratosaurus only gets a few seconds for a weird cameo, but damn does it look good. The model in Jurassic World Evolution (the park building sim) really shows him off.

Twenty subsequent years of research and fossil discoveries have reduced the Spinosaurus from a reasonable reconstruction to a complete fantasy, but it's still excellent creature design. My favorite part about it is how it moves: it just feels so heavy and real. Combine that with its rumbling, nasal roar, and you get a dinosaur that feels as iconic as the JP T-Rex, IMO.

I have saved the best for last: the JP3 Velociraptors. The Jurassic Park/World Velociraptors may bear no resemblance to what we think actual Velociraptors would've looked like, but they are among the most enduring of movie monsters. Established as killing machines from a more savage era in the original film, and given some striking sexual dimorphism in the form of tiger stripes on the males in The Lost World, the Velociraptors really reached their peak design-wise in JP3. Extreme sexual dimorphism, proto-feather quills on the males, likely more accurate rounded pupils that give their eyes a sinister intelligence, these beauties couldn't look better. It's a shame that we went from this to the downright fugly design they have in the Jurassic World films.

So, are we all agreed? Is this the peak of dinosaur design, at least for the JP/JW franchise?

 

[napkins]

 

[DiipuSurotu]

JP1 still has the best IMO

 

[starpower]

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This legit spooked me in the theater

 

[spookyduzt]

It's a known fact.

It's also the most rewatchable Jurassic film. Shame that it didn't have a finished script, or the budget to film a proper ending.

We forgive you king.

 

[Bane]

When I was in a theater watching this and you get the first good look at the Spinosaurus I was caught way off guard for how actually scary it looks. The high pitched roar with the green eyes was unnerving to me.

Also, I know it's a youtube video so not the best way to see it and all but after watching that clip how does it seem like JP1's cg has held up better than 3? Am I just wearing nostalgia glasses?

 

[Leafshield]

Great OP. Yeah I like the creature design of JPIII too, even I think the film is silly.

 

[Bor Gullet]

It looks like a syfy channel movie but as a movie it's better than Lost World.

I genuinely don't understand the people who stick up for Lost World. One good action setpiece does not make a movie.

 

[Jimnymebob]

Agreed, that's a cool looking dinosaur.

 

[Jedi2016]

I went into this with very low expectations, and came out pleasantly surprised. Especially in light of the JW movies, even the "bad" JP movies are masterpieces by comparison.

 

[Darkmaigle]

The movie is very silly but I kind of agree

 

[Zeliard]

Yeah but the Spinosaurus killing the T-Rex like it did with its weak jaws-

or whether or not a Spinosaurus could kill a T-Rex.

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Oh.

Spoiler

it couldn't

And I agree. Some great dinos, though the Veliciraptor's hairdo always makes me laugh.

 

[Lost Lemurian]

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This is the signature move of JP3's dinos:

 

[Sesha]

You mean animal designs, since Pterosaurs aren't dinosaurs.

Anyway, I guess I would agree for the redesigned animals.

But I think newcomers like Mosasaurus, Stygimoloch, Nasutoceratops, Carnotaurus, adult Allosaurus, Quetzalcoatlus in the World movies are all pretty good/excellent.

One thing I sorely wish the franchise would drop completely from all its creature designs are the stupid pronated wrists.

Also, I know it's a youtube video so not the best way to see it and all but after watching that clip how does it seem like JP1's cg has held up better than 3? Am I just wearing nostalgia glasses?

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The CG in later movies are all better on a technical level in every way. But JP1 uses CG sparingly, and for the most part cleverly mixes CG and animatronics between scenes a lot more than subsequent movies do. Also a lot of the CG scenes either take place at night, or the dinosaurs are in the background or off in the distance, where the limitations aren't as obvious.

There are some scenes where the CG obviously doesn't hold up, notably some of the shots of the Brachiosaurus at the very beginning:

 

[DarkSora]

Alan.

 

[Deleted member 36578]

This is the signature move of JP3's dinos:

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Lol
Now I can't unsee it happening everytime.

 

[Bane]

The CG in later movies are all better on a technical level in every way. But JP1 uses CG sparingly, and for the most part cleverly mixes CG and animatronics between scenes a lot more than subsequent movies do. Also a lot of the CG scenes either take place at night, or the dinosaurs are in the background or off in the distance, where the limitations aren't as obvious.

There are some scenes where the CG obviously doesn't hold up, notably some of the shots of the Brachiosaurus at the very beginning:

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Yeah, I know the T-rex attack at night is helped by night time. That Brachiosaur shot and when the T-rex attacks the Gallimimus are the two worst shots in the movie now. I guess the clever, more sparing use goes a long way to help as well. Makes sense.

 

[Zeliard]

But I think newcomers like Mosasaurus, Stygimoloch, Nasutoceratops, Carnotaurus, adult Allosaurus, Quetzalcoatlus in the World movies are all pretty good/excellent.

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Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom does have a particularly great Carnotaurus

Might actually be the most accurate dinosaur in the entire franchise.

 

[AlexFlame116]

I know the JP3 Spinosaurus is now scientifically inaccurate, and does lots of things that the real one cannot do, but damn do I love the JP3 Spino. My favorite Jurassic Park dinosaur lol.

 

[Mr Coopz]

Can't lie, I liked this movie when I was a younger. Couldn't explain why then and can't even to this day. Watched it all the time though.

 

[Galkinator]

Spinosaurus was my favorite JP dinosaur back then. He was so fucking cool and intimidating.

Most dinosaurs in the new trilogy look like a goofy floaty CGI crap. What a shame

 

[ClamBuster]

Jurassic Park 3 and Jason X double bill, for real...

 

[Mr Swine]

Love the Allosaurus design in Fallen Kingdoms/Dominion 🥰

Can't really complain about the design of the animals in all the movies tbh

 

[zeitgeist]

I think I like the JP 1 Raptors best. I probably like JP3 more than most people but the look of the raptors was too different from the other movies.

 

[GreenMamba]

I agree. I could not believe how much Jurassic World backslid compared to this. Everything was ugly, gray, and often just flat out silly looking.

They tried to sell this fucking thing as Dimorphodon for chrissake:

And I hated how bloated and lizard like the raptors looked:

 

[Lost Lemurian]

I agree. I could not believe how much Jurassic World backslid compared to this. Everything was ugly, gray, and often just flat out silly looking.

They tried to sell this fucking thing as Dimorphodon for chrissake:

And I hated how bloated and lizard like the raptors looked:

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I hate the JW raptors so much, and the Dimorphodon is part of a consistent issue with the JW animals: no lips. Everyone gets the same crocodilian monster mouth. It's weird and bad.

 

[Zeliard]

Just out of curiosity Lost Lemurian, have you checked out Prehistoric Planet?

 

[Lost Lemurian]

Just out of curiosity Lost Lemurian, have you checked out Prehistoric Planet?

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Yes, I only watched the first few episodes (waiting for others, so we can watch together), but it's hands down the best looking dinosaur media ever made, IMO.

It has plenty of grounded, realistic speculation, coupled with CG rivals anything in the JP/JW franchise in terms of technical achievement.

 

[Thorn]

I always liked 3, never got the hate.

 

[Gravidee]

Yeah, I wish the World movies had further built off of what was in JP3 design-wise. Back then we were just beginning to translate more colorful skin patterns and proto feathers to screen, so what the hell happened!? The Pteranodons especially were a major step back from the ones in TLW and JP3.

I couldn't believe my eyes when we got this field of boring grey-ass dinosaurs in the first World movie:

That's not to say I didn't like a few of the designs like the Carnotaurus that someone pointed out, but many designs still never reached the peak already established. They were missing that Stan Winston-esque believability in the first three that was traded away in favor of more stylized, cinematic designs.

 

[Tuorom]

I thought 3 was a decent flick. The thing that annoyed me most was that Tea Leoni's only dialogue seemed to be a shrill scream for the entire movie.

The other memorable soundbite is funnily enough the phone ringtone. I got both her screams and that damn jingle stuck in my head.

 

[Rockodile]

I hate the JW raptors so much, and the Dimorphodon is part of a consistent issue with the JW animals: no lips. Everyone gets the same crocodilian monster mouth. It's weird and bad.

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Not even the literal giant lizard got lips.
Lizards are still around, and they have friggin lips.

 

[spookyduzt]

I thought 3 was a decent flick. The thing that annoyed me most was that Tea Leoni's only dialogue seemed to be a shrill scream for the entire movie.

The other memorable soundbite is funnily enough the phone ringtone. I got both her screams and that damn jingle stuck in my head.

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The most memorable sound bite for me:

 

[Sesha]

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom does have a particularly great Carnotaurus

Might actually be the most accurate dinosaur in the entire franchise.

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The face is a bit too long, but otherwise it's spot on.

I would agree that it's a solid candidate for the most accurate animal in the series.

 

[scitek]

I remember really enjoying JP3 a lot when I saw it in the theater. The abrupt ending caught me off-guard. I always thought it could use like another 20 minutes to wrap things up and give a proper ending to the trilogy.

It's a known fact.

It's also the most rewatchable Jurassic film. Shame that it didn't have a finished script, or the budget to film a proper ending.

We forgive you king.

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Is that true? It really seems like it when watching the film, so it wouldn't surprise me.

 

[Masterz1337]

Can someone explain how the JP3 Spinosaurus is so innacurate now? Be curious to learn what has been learned in the past 20 years for it.

 

[GreenMamba]

Can someone explain how the JP3 Spinosaurus is so innacurate now? Be curious to learn what has been learned in the past 20 years for it.

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It is now known that it was much more heavily adapted to an aquatic lifestyle, with a noticeably longer neck, *much* shorter legs, and a tall finned tail.

Compare these skeletal drawings:

Spinosaurus was originally not known from much material (that actually no longer exists due to being destroyed in WWII) and depictions from that era relied on related animals we knew better at the time, like Baryonyx:

But later discoveries revealed that Spinosaurus was weirder than anticipated.

 

[TheDinoman]

Brachiosaurus is super ugly and terrifying looking in that movie haha

But yeah, JP3, while a pretty crappy movie (par for the course in terms of Jurassic sequels lol) did always have pretty slick dinosaur designs...though it's pretty funny how completely and utterly inaccurate the Spinosaurus turned out to be in the long run (especially since they were really pushing it as the next T-Rex).

I also do agree that the dinosaur designs in the World trilogy do feel really off in comparison to the original films, hardly feels like they're even in the same universe anymore. RIP Stan Winston...

 

[Cow Mengde]

Twenty subsequent years of research and fossil discoveries have reduced the Spinosaurus from a reasonable reconstruction to a complete fantasy, but it's still excellent creature design. My favorite part about it is how it moves: it just feels so heavy and real. Combine that with its rumbling, nasal roar, and you get a dinosaur that feels as iconic as the JP T-Rex, IMO.

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I agree with most except for this part. Even from the small bits we had and lost from WW2, this Spinosaurus's head was extremely inaccurate. It's some weird hybrid of Suchomimus and missing the details of Spinosaurus. Keep in mind we have recovered a bit more of the skull by the time this movie was out. The arms are ridiculously oversized as well. They look extremely unnatural.

 

[Donepalace]

You mean animal designs, since Pterosaurs aren't dinosaurs.

Anyway, I guess I would agree for the redesigned animals.

But I think newcomers like Mosasaurus, Stygimoloch, Nasutoceratops, Carnotaurus, adult Allosaurus, Quetzalcoatlus in the World movies are all pretty good/excellent.

One thing I sorely wish the franchise would drop completely from all its creature designs are the stupid pronated wrists.



The CG in later movies are all better on a technical level in every way. But JP1 uses CG sparingly, and for the most part cleverly mixes CG and animatronics between scenes a lot more than subsequent movies do. Also a lot of the CG scenes either take place at night, or the dinosaurs are in the background or off in the distance, where the limitations aren't as obvious.

There are some scenes where the CG obviously doesn't hold up, notably some of the shots of the Brachiosaurus at the very beginning:

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Very true the JP cgi shots while very good are mixed in with the practical and the set pieces are more limited in scope to account for that fact

CGI now has to render just completely different scenarios involving anything the creators desire if they want 3 dinos doing a big epic fight scene with buildings crashing down around them thats no problem but it's gonna look more CGIey.

 

[Cow Mengde]

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom does have a particularly great Carnotaurus

Might actually be the most accurate dinosaur in the entire franchise.

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This is true. I'd go so far as to say the arms on it are more accurate than the ones we saw in Prehistoric Planet a few weeks ago. It looks more muscular than what we saw in the Carnotaurus dance

 

[GreenMamba]

And I wanna very specifically agree on the Pteranodons. They are dumb--completely scaley, they have *teeth* for some reason, and are picking people up with their feet, but the JPIII Pteranodons were just genuinely great and memorable movie monsters. Easily the best set piece in the film.

 

[Zeliard]

Can someone explain how the JP3 Spinosaurus is so innacurate now? Be curious to learn what has been learned in the past 20 years for it.

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If anyone's interested in animals like the Spinosaurus and other spinosaurids like Baryonyx, you might enjoy this cool recent lecture by paleontologist David Hone at the Royal Institute:



He goes through all the most recent research and speculation on what they looked like, the mechanics for how these animals may have hunted, how much of their diet could have consisted of fish and other aquatic animals versus terrestrial animals, and how much time in general it would have spent in the water versus land.

Part of his conclusion is that Spinosaurus probably wasn't quite the great swimmer that its reputation suggests, partly because of its massive sail on its back which he argues would make it very unstable in water, and also because its skull is built a bit closer to something like a heron or stork than a crocodile, and like those birds would eat fish by sort of stabbing its beak/mouth down into the water while sitting on the banks of rivers and lakes. That's a very rough tldw; he goes into extensive detail.

He also has a great T-Rex lecture here:

 

[Donepalace]

I hate the JW raptors so much, and the Dimorphodon is part of a consistent issue with the JW animals: no lips. Everyone gets the same crocodilian monster mouth. It's weird and bad.

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The indominus Rex and indoraptor I didn't mind since it was supposed to be it's own ugly Frankenstein type dinosaur for that movie

 

[spookyduzt]

Is that true? It really seems like it when watching the film, so it wouldn't surprise me.

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Yes. William H. Macy was shocked there wasn't a finished script, and asked who was gonna get fired for that. Joe Johnston almost quit several times during production because of the stress of not knowing what to shoot. The original ending was supposed to be Grant using the 3D printed resonating chamber to call on the Raptor pack to save them from the Spinosaurus.

 

[Man God]

JP 3 has seen quite the glow up recently with Jurassic World being a bunch of hot turds.

 

[Minthara]

I love JP3 more than any of the other sequels, and even like some aspects of it more than the original.

It completely sucks that they can't bring that Spino back, or even an updated more accurate one without it having to job to a Rex. The franchise is better when there are multiple scary dinos.

Funny enough, the Carnosaur that everyone likes from Fallen Kingdom was supposed to be the Spinosaur coming back in some of the original storyboards.

It would have jobbed to a Rex then the volcano so I'm glad they skipped that idea, despite it being my favorite dino.

 

[Rockodile]

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom does have a particularly great Carnotaurus

Might actually be the most accurate dinosaur in the entire franchise.

Click to shrink...

Kinda off topic, but I'm loving how much attention the Carnotaurus is getting these days. It's always been fairly popular, but it's really blown up in recent years.

Just for fun, here's a pretty up to date depiction of the Carnotaurus for those who are interested.

 

[Cow Mengde]

Kinda off topic, but I'm loving how much attention the Carnotaurus is getting these days. It's always been fairly popular, but it's really blown up in recent years.

Just for fun, here's a pretty up to date depiction of the Carnotaurus for those who are interested.

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Darren said they knew about this, but the design had already been finalized, so they couldn't change it.

 

[OneThirtyEight]

Jurassic Park 3 and Jason X double bill, for real...

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So in!!!
Two movies that are short, entertaining and to the point!