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I’m a pretty big fan of Jurassic Park movies. At least as far as “man meets dinosaur” movies go.

But, as someone who actually read the original novel, something has bothered me from day one. The matter of small arms. No, not on the T-Rex. I mean the distinct lack of big guns. Let me get this off my chest…

In the first movie, the game warden Muldoon, rocks about with a shotgun. Just a shotgun. We later see this is loaded with shot rather then slugs when Grant shoots at the raptors in the control room. This might be adequate for anything up to a really big dog at short range. Problem is, for most of the smaller, dangerous dinos, short range is way too late. The larger dinos… might as well be throwing rocks.

In the first book, Muldoon at least insists on a rocket launcher, which proves to be highly effective (Muldoon survives). We also learn that Hammond has, naturally, effectively banned weapons on the island. At least the book features the right tools for the job. Sadly, this is never picked up in the movies.

Fast forward to Jurassic World and the “Asset Containment Unit” is running around with mostly non-lethal weapons you wouldn’t even try on a polar bear. Again, one has a shotgun. They do have a minigun, which would probably be highly effective with clear line of sight and a fortified position, but instead they put it on a helicopter and fly over a jungle with thick canopy. Derp.

Even the various groups of poachers and mercenaries show up with an assortment of assault rifles and shotguns. Except for two guys. Roland, the big game hunter in The Lost World. He’s got an elephant gun. Big tick. The other is a guy you’d barely remember from Jurassic Park 3, who has a Barrett .50 caliber rifle.

This seems much more like it to me, although I am no firearms expert. While it doesn’t do JP3 guy much good (he is wandering around the jungle with it), .50 caliber weapons are surely the way to go. A lot of watchtowers with rifle-armed guards, a few discretely hidden fixed heavy machine gun emplacements and a few of the same mounted on vehicles. I feel like that meets the minimum for worst case scenario. Hell, if I had the choice, there’d be armoured vehicles and I’d have the Costa Rican airforce on speed dial.

However, I get that the core theme of the franchise is human-kind’s hubris and not having the proper equipment is a big part of that. It still bugs me, though, in a “why didn’t the eagles just fly them there” kind of a way, you know?

“I’m only doing this on the precondition that I can lie, and no-one will call me out,” is definitely the way to run a democracy.

Hang on, so Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine is definitely an invasion but Israel’s “limited, localised and targeted ground raids” in Lebanon are… not?

Did this “common sense” survey.

With hindsight, I feel like there is a critical distinction between common sense and common knowledge. Most of these questions were related to common knowledge, so a statement of fact, which you may or may not know, or might disagree with.

To me, common sense is the ability to predict an outcome based on a broad awareness of previous outcomes. For example, if I am careless with a knife, the knife could cut me. Or, you can’t carry water (very far) in a sieve.

Common knowledge is something else altogether. For example, “the sky is usually blue during the day”, I would say is common knowledge. An example from the survey, “a grizzly bear is larger than a dog”, I would say is neither common sense or common knowledge. You may not know what a a grizzly bear is. “Water is a liquid” is probably common knowledge but, still, don’t you have to know what liquid means?

Either way, I don’t think you can apply any previous experience to these questions and predict the answer, so I don’t see how they could be described as common sense.

My co-workers want my collaboration on “a thing”, with no notice, today. They don’t like it if they don’t get it.

I want a yes/no answer from my co-workers on a simple question, that I have to ask them every month. Do you think I can ever get that one word answer?

Played Tactical Breach Wizards (store.steampowered.com)
In Tactical Breach Wizards, you lead a team of renegade wizards in kevlar through turn-based battles to unravel a modern conspiracy plot. Combine their unique spells in clever ways, or rewind time to try every crazy plan you can think of to punch a Traffic Warlock through a 4th story window.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Image from Steam for Tactical Breach Wizards

I been playing this over the last week or so and absolutely loving it. I’m not even sure the gameplay is the best part. The writing, world building and the art style are just so good.

Watched If Anything Happens I Love You (2020) by an author from letterboxd.com
In this Oscar-winning short film, grieving parents journey through an emotional void as they mourn the loss of a child after a tragic school shooting.

My only take away from this is that, if my kid was a victim in a school shooting, they couldn’t text me because they don’t have a phone.

If Anything Happens I Love You, 2020

My review

Watched Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) by an author from letterboxd.com
A group of scientists in San Francisco struggle to stay alive in the aftermath of a plague that is wiping out humanity, while Caesar tries to maintain dominance over his community of intelligent apes.

This is a frankly astonishing movie. Not only does the story invoke genuine tension regarding the health and well-being of talking monkeys*, but also deftly holds a mirror to humanity and ably demonstrates the inevitable outcome of fear and hatred. It does all this without being even remotely preachy about it, which even lauded and “worthy” Hollywood fare often cannot avoid.

Then, just to top it off (and almost for fun), the main cast of characters are rendered in entirely believable CGI, captured using a revolutionary technique.

The fact that the sources of this fear and hatred are so recognisable today (2024), just elevates the whole thing even further.

★★★★★

My review

Watched Lone Survivor (2013) by an author from letterboxd.com
Four Navy SEALs on a covert mission to neutralize a high-level Taliban operative must make an impossible moral decision in the mountains of Afghanistan that leads them into an enemy ambush. As they confront unthinkable odds, the SEALs must find reserves of strength and resilience to fight to the finish.

This review may contain spoilers.

If we pretend this is NOT based on a “true story”, the first part of this, up until they jump down the first cliff, is pretty decent war movie stuff. By this point, most of them have taken some flesh wounds that, I believe, guys like this could fight through.

What I don’t believe you can overcome with mental fortitude and pride in your unit history is falling 20+ feet down an almost vertical, rockstrewn hillside without breaking multiple bones. I’m even more skeptical that a weapon could take that much punishment and still, apparently, work perfectly.

From this point on, then, we’re in almost complete hollywood fantasy land and it’s bad. Saying it’s based on a true story makes it worse.

Apparently, even the “truth” of the base story is VERY sketchy. The size of the enemy force was estimated, by various sources, to be between 8 and 50. That’s a big enough variation that I’m taking double helpings of salt with the rest of the facts.

What does seem undisputed is that, three of the four SEALs were killed in fairly short order by the Taliban, and Marcus did indeed survive because he was protected by local villagers. This outcome does actually make the last 10 minutes surprisingly moving. The fact that Marcus was actually rescued several weeks later, and protected by the villagers for a much longer period than depicted, makes me feel there might be a better version of this story.

Apparently it’s not one that will sell movie tickets, though.

★★½ (contains spoilers)

My review