It’s here!

It’s officially summer, and that means that it’s time for summer traditions like barbecues, vacations and loving or hating the newest summer blockbusters. For better or worse, they are here, too — it’s time to either rejoice and head to the nearest cineplex or cringe with derision and run away from the latest mega-budget extravaganza from Hollywood.

Of course, by now you’ve seen the trailers and know that the big release this blockbuster season is a good old fashioned entry into the Jurassic Park Franchise (Wikipedia).

Whatever you think, it is true that this franchise does tend to get the media to cover real scientific questions like whether or not dinosaurs had feathers and is de-extinction possible? For example, here’s a recent Buzz 60 video that takes on the de-extinction question, and it does it in less than two minutes to boot. Spoiler alert, no, there aren’t going to be any de-extincted dinos running around anytime soon.

Here’s an article that covers some of the same territory, and it also answers the question about feathers, covers some other real science about dinosaurs, and even brings up the nice point that the movies did inspire quite a few youngsters to become paleontologists.
Realistic the New ‘Jurassic World’ Really Is (Lisa Ludwig, Vice)

There are also some media outlets that take the high road by focusing on the real ethical questions addressed in the movies such as animal rights and scientific ethics. For example, here’s an article that features an interview with Colin Trevorrow, the newest movie’s co-writer and producer, about these subjects.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom Was Born Out of Several Moral and Ethical Dilemmas (Germain Lussier, Gizmodo’s io9)

Of course, plenty of people are happy to unabashedly go to the movie and enjoy it as well as revel in the movie’s ancillary siblings that flood the media scene around the movie’s release. If you happen to be a person who loves CG dinosaurs, then this Jurassic World’s release is a time of plenty. Here’s a run down of some new entries in the Jurassic universe.

First, there’s a game Jurassic World Evolution. Here’s a trailer narrated by Jeff Goldblum.

There’s more info. about the game here.
Jurassic World Evolution Announcement (Frontier Developments)

There are many reviews of the game out now, and you might get a special kick out of this review that starts off with “for the most part, movie games suck.”
How Frontier leveled up movie games with Jurassic World Evolution (Dean Takahashi, Venture Beat)

In the last few years most blockbuster releases are also accompanied by “official” 360° videos. This movie’s release was accompanied by this trailer for an Oculus VR experience entitled Jurassic World: Blue.


There was also a special “behind the scenes” featurette released along with the video.

Finally, the release of this movie has even inspired a whole new type of ancillary experience. Dave and Buster’s just rolled out Jurassic World VR Expedition in over 100 locations.

If you do love this stuff, then be sure to get out and enjoy it while you can. There probably won’t be this much dino intensive media around again for a couple of years. Jurassic World 3 isn’t due out until June 11, 2021.

Learn more about dinos for geeks and dinosaurs in general …