Movie: Rosewater

Was catching up on some Daily Shows, and Mark Ruffalo mentioned on June 11 that nobody had seen Jon's 2014 movie "Rosewater." Yikes, I realized I was one of them.

So I looked on Netflix and it was there.

Having seen it now, I kinda wish I hadn't. The majority of it shows the imprisonment (in solitary confinement) and torture of Maziar Bahari, a Newsweek journalist. It is dark and unpleasant and long and uncomfortable. The reasons for his imprisonment never match the seriousness of the situation, and whatever the Iranian regime hoped to gain from imprisoning him is unclear. In sum, it is a long unpleasant episode with no purpose or meaning.

Not a great premise for a movie. Not a premise that makes for a great movie.

Yeah, see that's why I stick to shit like The Avengers and Jurassic World. All happy, all right with the world. Just like the opposite of reality. :s

Yeah, park guards getting bit in half by a genetically-modified T. Rex is MUCH more light and happy

NoCoPilot wrote:

Yeah, park guards getting bit in half by a genetically-modified T. Rex is MUCH more light and happy

Well, yeah!
Though they do go overboard. Word is in real life the velocoraptors were like poodle sized.

That's big enough for me.  Hell, I don't even like poodle-sized poodles.


[edit: oops, meant to quote and accidentally edited.  WTF gave me edit rights???- NoCo]

_Howard wrote:

I don't even like poodle-sized poodles.

The one thing the Jurassic Park movies gets wrong, besides the survival of DNA of course, is the coloration and decoration of dinosaurs. In my reading the scientific consensus seems to be that like the birds that descended from them dinosaurs were probably brightly colored and covered with short feathers or fur that didn't fossilize. They should be iridescent, they should be all shades of red and blue and green, they should have plumes and tail feathers and ear feathers.

Now imagine a velociraptor with a poodle cut.

The only consensus I have heard about the coloration and covering of dinosaurs is that no one knows. I guess it's possible that dinosaurs had feathers, but why would they? Evolution prefers characteristics which have a purpose. Just because birds are descended from dinosaurs doesn't mean that the dinosaurs had feathers. There are many differences between today's birds and their ancestors, and feathers may be one difference. There is no valid reason of which I am aware to say that dinosaurs "probably" had feathers.

As to coloration, not all birds are brightly colored and of those  which are, it is often only the males with bright colors. Most land animals are covered in earth tone hair, helping them to hide from predators or, conversely, to sneak up on prey. Is there something which would make dinosaurs forego this helpful adaptation? It seems that evolution would have seen to it that a bit of hiding ability would have been widespread.

I'll join with the "No one knows" crowd.

_Howard wrote:

That's big enough for me.  Hell, I don't even like poodle-sized poodles.


[edit: oops, meant to quote and accidentally edited.  WTF gave me edit rights???- NoCo]

I did. I knew you would use them wisely. *snicker**giggle*

Some dinosaurs certainly did have feathers, because they made an impression in the fossils. But coloration is certainly guesswork.

Sure it's guesswork, but an educated guess would say "more bird than elephant."

_Howard wrote:

I'll join with the "No one knows" crowd.

What size t-shirt do you need?

Different dinos had different decorations, undoubtedly. The velociraptors were very birdlike, but stegosaurs may well have been big grey monsters. The heavily-plated ankylosaurs featured in Jurassic World, I'm thinking their shells were green like a turtle. Big vegetarians like brontosaurus and apatosaurus may well have had camouflage coloration, patches of brown and green or even (as in the movie) chameleon capabilities.

Incidentally, just in case anybody doubts that dinosaurs walked with mankind, here is photographic proof. Well, womankind actually.
http://www.donglutsdinosaurs.com/apatosaurus-garden-statue-5/

NoCoPilot wrote:

_Howard wrote:

I'll join with the "No one knows" crowd.

What size t-shirt do you need?

I think we may wear the same size: XS (Extra Smug).