20 Ways Dinosaur Movies Have Evolved: Then vs. Now

Today, it seems either you have slick-looking, hyper-polished Jurassic World Dominion CGI dinosaurs, or awful looking Syfy dinosaurs fighting anacondas or shark-acondas or the attention-span-of-stoner-condas or whatever. This is because, hot take here, Jurassic Park changed everything in the dinosaur genre, and everything that has come later is CGI or, well, some indeed interesting puppetry here and there. But the genre is much more than its special effects. Okay, who are we kidding, it is just its special effects, but there’s a broader history to be explored as well.

In this Pictofact, we take a look at dinosaurs in movies, then and now. We focus on the earliest dinosaur movies, the main evolution and trends of the genre, and of course, everybody say it with us, Jurassic Park. So we’re gonna keep it straight: We’re gonna mention Jurassic Park a lot in what follows. Not doing so would be like doing an article on the Titanic and not mentioning the reference that is in all our minds: the Italian rapping dog. Oh, and also, we’re counting Godzilla as a dinosaur movie. We want no complaints, okay? We’re just following the established scholarship on this one. So, without further ado, dinosaurs, you guys!