As a leading expert in the field of paleontology — a college student who grew up watching “Dinosaur Train” and “Jurassic Park” — I have a bone to pick with the filmmakers of dinosaur movies. Dinosaur films from the last few years such as the “Jurassic World” franchise, “65,” “Primitive War,” and, possibly the most popular, “The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild,” all have something in common: they portray dinosaurs as monsters, instead of as the animals they really were. 

For several decades, the public consciousness viewed dinosaurs as mere monsters. From the 1854 statue set of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs in London to the 1912 novel “The Lost World” by Arthur Conan Doyle, dinosaurs were seen by all as massive and dangerous, yet primitive, creatures. Early films such as the 1925 adaptation of Doyle’s work and 1933’s “King Kong” intensified the popularity of this monstrous public image. Dinosaurs continued to occupy this space in pop culture for the next few decades, until the Dinosaur Renaissance started in the late ‘60s. This was a shift in our scientific understanding of dinosaurs’ characteristics, wherein we gained a massive wealth of data surrounding the creatures’ morphology, evolution, and lifestyles. However, this scientific view of dinosaurs as active, intelligent, and impressive animals of days past wasn’t necessarily in the public eye until the 1993 film “Jurassic Park.” 

Even today, this movie is probably the most well-known example of paleo-media. It got millions of people engaged with paleontology and dinosaurs. For its time, the film’s portrayal of dinosaurs was cutting edge, save for a few artistic liberties regarding the Dilophosaurus and Velociraptor. However, most of the carnivorous dinosaurs — a group known as theropods — were still portrayed as vicious hunters, with no real depth to their behavior or lifestyles to make them seem like real animals. Don’t get me wrong, “Jurassic Park” is one of my favorite movies, and its depiction of dinosaurs was very progressive at the time, but this is still a shortcoming. Due to its massive popularity, the vast majority of subsequent dinosaur media took hefty inspiration from it. Unfortunately, this perpetuated a still somewhat archaic view of dinosaur behavior. 

This becomes a bigger problem in the long term. As we learn more about dinosaurs, our understanding of their lives only becomes more advanced, and the scientific view of them more complex. Collectively, we are so rich in knowledge about creatures that haven’t been around for tens of millions of years, yet our media refuses to tap into that well of facts in favor of just doing “Jurassic Park” again and again, with even more “evil” dinosaurs to raise the stakes. “Jurassic World Dominion” is possibly the best example of this as the sixth installment in the often-emulated franchise. I have seen this film twice and I still cannot think of a single scene with a dinosaur other than Blue the Velociraptor that shows any traits in these animals other than aggression. The Giganotosaurus is introduced with an inaccurate design that’s more intimidating than realistic and claims to be the “biggest carnivore the world has ever seen,” a claim that isn’t anywhere near accurate even with its vague wording. It’s shown to be absolutely nothing but a giant monster that the human characters have to avoid, and later watch as it’s killed by another dinosaur. The director stated that he wanted the dinosaur to “feel like the Joker.” This is how nearly every dinosaur-centric piece of media portrays these creatures, and frankly it’s horribly outdated and regressive when compared to the huge leaps made by the first film in the series. 

So, what’s our hope here? What’s the solution? Well, there’s one docuseries from the last few years that has turned this paradigm on its head: “Prehistoric Planet.” This series takes a nature documentary-esque style to CGI dinosaurs, portraying a variety of species in many diverse ways. Sure, they include hunting and fighting scenes, but they also show a Carnotaurus doing a silly little mating dance resembling that of a bird and a Deinocheirus using a tree as a back scratcher like a cat or bear might. Even the more action-oriented segments are typically shot more like a real animal hunt, giving them a much more grounded feel when compared to any fight scene from “Jurassic World Dominion.”

This series is already massively successful, too! It has received great ratings and has a third season on the way, and paleontology nerds like me have consistently sung its praises since its debut. The show has not only given satisfaction to those who are familiar with paleontology, but also helped bridge the gap between people who enjoy dinosaur action movies and people who love learning about and studying real-world dinosaurs. I mean it when I say that “Prehistoric Planet” is a modern masterpiece of paleo-media. Film executives are out of touch in many ways, but series like this give assurance to audiences everywhere. We just have to wait and hope that Hollywood notices, and starts treating dinosaurs like animals instead of monsters.