Dr. Strange

I watched the new Dr. Strange movie from Lionsgate Studios and the same animation team that brought us the two Ultimate Avengers movies and the Iron Man movie.

Not bad. In fact, probably my favorite of the Marvel animated movies to date. Didn't feel particularly comic bookish; more urban fantasy combined with wuxia or something, but that's OK.

I've also picked up Walking With Dinosaurs, Walking With Prehistoric Beasts and Prehistoric America. I've also recently seen When Dinosaurs Roamed America, Before the Dinosaurs and of course Chased By Dinosaurs which I actually bought.

All of them are very interesting, but at the same time, all of them are disappointing. In most cases, it's because either the CGI, the artistry (or lack thereof) of the CGI models. It's extremely disappointing, for example, to see the Allosaurus fragilis in Walking With Dinosaurs because the skull would have to be grossly swollen and deformed and the jaw would have to be dislocated for that to look accurate. On the other hand, When Dinosaurs Roamed America has fabulous looking allosaurs, but the writing and voice-over narration is almost painfully terrible.

On the other hand, we've got movies like Jurassic Park and King Kong which care little for biological accuracy, yet which have absolutely fabulous looking dinosaurs and other "prehistoric"---or better yet, fanciful---creatures. I guess that's the difference between a blockbuster budget and a BBC/PBS special budget. If I were independently wealthy, I'd love to finance and have some oversight over a really good documentary series chronicling the history of life on earth from the Pre-Cambrian all the way to the extinctions that took place a few thousands years ago with the end of the last glacial maximum.

So, if anyone wants to give me money so I can be independently wealthy and accomplish that... ;)