Update – Colin Trevorrow has confirmed that the animatronic remains in the film!
Editors Note:
Shortly after the article was posted, the heavy influx of traffic caused Jurassic Outpost to go down.
As such, the discussion thereafter primarily stemmed from the articles title, and not the content within. I had the intention shortly after the article was published to make some small alterations to more clearly articulate why these controversial shots may exist, and that they may not represent the shots in the feature (something Marcus’ article already did).
Due the website going down, the revisions were not made possible until now, after Colin Trevorrow confirmed the animatronic shots remain in the film.
I’ve said this on my personal accounts many times, but my main concern with the apparent change wasn’t that it’s CG, but the fact that the new CG looks so bad and is an evolution from a shot that previously looked so good.
Obviously I’m a fan of animatronics, and when they’re used right, they look amazing and timeless. Sometimes they don’t look great though (Spinosaurus in JP3 looks quite robotic and fake for instance).
I’ve had no complaints about the Indoraptor animatronic being replaced by CG, because the CG looks incredible – something the article already pointed out.
Circling back to the Rex, if the previous shot was CG, and it looked great, I’d assume an old shot was mistakenly used. But you just don’t mistakenly render CG for a shot that was an animatronic prior, so this footage certainly is ‘new’ to an extent. However, it is possible the CGI variation was not made for the film.
As the new Rex CG is inconsistent with the quality displayed elsewhere, I theorized that this shot was not from the film, & is a weird promo remix where the Rex transitions into a shot not from the film but rather from a commercial, and it was mistakenly used here.
The CG overlay would make sense for ad consistency, so the Rex remained the same in all shots of the ad. As of now, it remains unclear if this a closer explanation for the footage, or if however unlikely, the animatronic nearly was replaced.
Due to the fact the website was down forcing the conversation around the articles first title only, and comments were spiraling out of control, I removed the original social media postings to better relay the facts, or lack thereof.
The point of a fan site is to facilitate discussion and highlight news that revolves around subjects fans are passionate about. While this typically is good news, it sometimes means subjects such as the original article will be featured. As the news became so sensationalized shortly after, I felt it was important to highlight these elements to better generate positive, healthy discussion inside these comments and elsewhere.
– Chris
Original Article:
We’re a month and a half away from the release of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. That means that the movie is either a wrap, or darn close. With this movie we are told to have dinos and animatronics aplenty. There has been one slight change, however. It appears as of the most recent Fallen Kingdom tv spot, Rexy has…changed?
Early trailers featured a beautiful up close and personal look at the Tyrannosaurus Rex animatronic, where shots were mostly practical with occasional CG touch ups. However, the most recent tv spot boasts an entirely CGI-ed Rexy, and it… does not look so great.
Check out the TV spot below:
Did you catch the changes? The trailer moves pretty fast, so we’ve grabbed them and made some handy gifs for comparison:
Every trailer and tv spot we’ve been shown, in my opinion, has shown off some fantastic animatronics and CG (with the exception of that shot of a snarling Blue). The Carnotaurus, stampede, and the Mosasaur look incredible. The CGI overhaul of the Rexy animatronic on the other hand, leaves me confused and disappointed.
This move leaves me wondering why an animatronic for Rexy was built in the first place. I am assuming that this may be the only shot in the film where it was to be used. So, if they are just going to essentially paint over it on a computer, why even make it? For Jurassic World, with some shots similar to this one, they had puppets made as a stand in, and then CG-ed over those. If the intent was always to replace the pratical effect with CGI, a more basic approach like that would have been taken.
What’s particularly frustrating is the new CGI doesn’t look good, at all – and sadly studios are known for sometimes replacing beautiful practical effects with rushed digital counterparts (See the Thing Thing 2011 and ADI’s involvement). The complaint isn’t that CG is being used, but rather the downgrade in terms of quality. In contrast, when they replaced the Indoraptor animatronic, the new CG was strikingly realistic:
Don’t get me wrong, I have faith that the movie is going to be jaw-dropping. Colin Trevorrow, JA Bayona and their team have shown us its potential. But I have to admit, this has me a little nervous. If we would have been shown this in December, I wouldn’t have thought anything of it. Today is May 6th. Here’s to hoping that this is just a stand in shot not meant for trailers, and the original animatronic shot still remains!
Sound off in the comments below, and let us know what you think of this apparent change.
