#saw it for the first time cause it's in theaters for the 25th anniversary :)

[barmadumet]

Okay, I think I’m just gonna jot this all down, because I’m trying to understand my true feelings, and make an informed decision…

I don’t know if it’s a good idea for me to see ROTS on the big screen again. But the fomo is strong.

(trauma under the cut - proceed with caution)

20 years ago was a major turning point in my life - for the better. And I think that’s part of why I’ve always been so latched onto this movie, because it represents such an important milestone.

I had just finished high school a week before. I ended an abusive relationship a month after. And Hurricane Katrina hit later that summer… which is technically a bad thing, yes, but in the midst of our homelessness, I had never felt more bonded with my family.

Sometimes it’s challenging to look back. When I think about ROTS, many good memories come to mind. But when I think specifically about watching ROTS in theaters, I think about sitting next to my abuser, and the epiphany I had, that even though there was good in him, he could still one day be responsible for my demise. Again, sometimes it feels powerful to look back on that, but sometimes it doesn’t.

In 1999, my immediate family of four went see TPM together. It was the only time the four of us had ever went to the movies together. It was one of the best nights of my life. So, when the movie screened for the 25th anniversary at this time last year, I thought it would be amazing for the four of us to go together again… I was not prepared for the pain that would cause, as our family is no longer the tight-knit clan we once were. And now, I’m not sure I want that strong association of memories of our relationship pinnacle 20 years ago.

If I’m being honest, once I started writing fanfiction, my ROTS watches began to trail off. I’d always watched it over and over again - monthly if not weekly, as if my brain were expecting the ending to change - hoping for it to change, but now that I have rewritten the preferred ending myself, on multiple occasions, I don’t have the desperation to watch as much as I once did.

But that might be a timing coincidence.

Because one of the last times that I watched ROTS, I was pregnant, and I remember the scene when Padmé reveals her pregnancy to Anakin hitting differently. Likewise, that scene hits differently now, and the couple of times I watched in the last four years, I’ve fast forwarded through that part. . . as well as the part on Utapau… the part with Boga, who from the start, reminded me so much of my little kitten I had at the time. It’s been over two years since I lost him, and I am still missing him every day. Thanks to my new baby boy, Thurston, I think I could get through a Boga scene with more feelings of joy rather than sadness.

I guess wounds heal at different speeds. One day I hope I can look back on all of these recent losses with feelings of happiness, but the fact of the matter is, even as a child, I was dangerously nostalgic, always longing for time passed, and feeling a strange sadness that I couldn’t go back.

Taking all of this into account, there’s a literal bigger picture… I friggin love that movie. More often than not, I love what it represents. I love how it’s the reason I’m making this post right now; it’s given me so much. How wondrous it would be to see it the way I saw it the very first time. To see the boys! Giant!

…What to do?

TPM felt like a no-brainer, initially. I bought tickets immediately, and I was excited to go. But I found myself whispering to my sister, making jokes, through almost the entirety of the film. It was easier than being trapped in my own cruel and cluttered mind.

If you read this, I’d love to know your opinion from the outside looking in. Do I stay in my safety net, or make the jump? My biggest fear is a tainted experience. This movie is too important to let that happen. Do I try to go alone? Just my husband? My family? I’ve been shuffling these thoughts for months now, and it does feel good to organize them here.

Now, I will sleep on it.

Goodnight, friends ♥️🙏

[gigglyzero]

2b2t history, by its wiki

2010

Player Count: 50-70 (Accounts vary)

Nothing is much known about the early days of 2b2t, except that the server began in December of 2010. Some that do claim to have joined during this time say that there was nothing spectacular on the server, and that by then, spawn was already a mess.

2011

Player Count: 50-70

During 2011, a lot of things happened. The largest one being the formation of the Facepunch Republic. 2011 is also when many now famous oldfags joined, like Offtopia, xcc2 and popbob.

Early 2011 - Hausemaster teleports to random players to see the progress of his server. Sometimes he would give random items.

April 2011 - Facepunch Republic begins, 4channers take notice of this and tries to stop them.

May 2011 - Player data corruption and change of world generation, causes spawn to look weird.

July 2011 - First post of the 2b2t Comic by Judge Holden

December 2011 - January 2012 - 2b2t gets backdoored by popbob and co.

2011 - The first dupe on 2b2t, the Piston Dupe, was discovered by someone in Facepunch. This involved pushing the piston real fast to duplicate items.

2012

Player Count: 20-50

This year marked one of the most barren times on the server. The server faced drastic player loss during this time due to several facepunchers leaving, the IP changing, and the server being down for three months, causing players to believe that the server shut down for good.

February 2012 - Facepunch Republic ends

February 2012 - Judge's group base at -1 million -1 million is griefed by x0XP.

April 2012 - ImperatorTerrae finds Viking base and 'reforms' it.

June 2012 - 2k2k is founded by the Zion project

2b2t is shut down for three months and changes the IP address from 2b2t.net to 2b2t.org

2013

Player Count: 10-30

2013 is mostly painted by Valkyria, as most other groups of this time period are all but forgotten

February 2013 - Hitlerwood is founded by Coldwave, Zach3397 and Hinderjd

March 2013 - Anatolia is founded by Sato86, Drewbookman and PyroByte

April 2013 - Valkyria is founded by the members of Hitlerwood and Anatolia (Black Flag Group)

May 2013 - 1.4.7 Dupe, The End Dragon is slain

(Unknown month) 2013, Construction of HardHat's Pyramid has started.

June 2013 - 1st Incursion, IGN video (does not generate hype)

August - October 2013 - 2nd Incursion

October/November 2013 - Shenandoah is founded by jesse_number6

December 2013 - 2b2t gets backdoored, Pyrobyte and iTristan have reached the World Border

2014

Player Count: 30-20

During 2014, Valkyria had broken up into a few smaller groups. These include Gape group and the Legion of Shenandoah

January 2014 - Asgard is abandoned after being griefed by popbob during construction

May 2014 - 2k2k is buried in lavacasts and many ancient bases are annihilated by Withers (Including the NFE and Plugin Town)

June 2014 - Legion of Shenandoah begins and Gape 1 is founded

July 2014 - Infamous message shows up on the server website stating that Hausemaster has left the server forever, leaving it in the care of "an anonymous friend." The owner's personality changes immediately after this post.

September 2014 - Fenrir Project begins

October 2014 - Nova is founded in 3b3t

December 2014 - Southern Canal Project is started by ThebesAndSound

2015

Player Count: 20-40

A large population boost happened during this year, mostly from the numerous articles and a massive Reddit post.

January 2015 - 2b2t is updated to 1.8

February 2015 - Fenrir Project ends

March 2015 - Asgard II is founded

April 2015 - Asgard II is destroyed, the 3rd Incursion begins

May 2015

June 2015

August 2015

October 2015

December 2015

Aureus is founded

3rd Incursion ends

Wrath constructed

Kings Landing is founded

The last Facepunch thread closes

Vortex Coalition founded

Project Vault, (now known is the 2b2t museum), is a project determined to keep every single monument in 2b2t untouched and left as a museum to other players, begins.

Motherboard Article is released

VICE mini incursion begins and ends

Imperator's Base is destroyed by Jared2013. Around this time, the server website shuts down.

2016

Player Count: 10-250

This is when 2b2t was most densely populated. This was caused when TheCampingRusher made a video and posted it onto Youtube

February 2016

March 2016

April 2016

RPS Article released

BedTP Exploit surfaces

Space Valkyria destroyed by the Tyranny

KGB destroyed by the Tyranny

Land of Norphs destroyed by the Tyranny

May 2016

June 2016

July 2016

August 2016

September 2016

October 2016

The player count has plummeted, sometimes as low as 1-5 players online.

June 1st - Rusher begins his series on 2b2t. In the coming days, 2b2t becomes flooded with his fans.

June 4th - Rusher declares war on "OGs," a reference to players who have been on the server longer than him.

June 13th - Fit becomes "leader" of Team Veteran, which is supposedly meant to contain the rusher onslaught and preserve the server's pre-rusher culture. This, of course, is debunked later.

June - A lava wall is made around the 500x500 area of spawn, in hopes of keeping Rushers trapped in spawn; this project fails. A very similar project occurs during the 6th Incursion, but fails aswell.

June 17th - Omega City Founded

July 24th - The Fourth Incursion begins with the Veterans raiding Napkin0fTruth's base.

July 28th - 2nd largest battle in 2b2t history (19 players)

July 31st - Aureus is destroyed by the base members themselves.

July - Hardware upgrade, temporary map

The Queue is set up around this time.

August 5th - Fit versus Rusher duel, Fit wins by having more golden apples.

August 19th - Torogadude gets stripped of his priority queue.

September 16th - Largest Battle in 2b2t History: Team Veteran allies with CorruptedUnicorn to take down Rusher. The battle ends in a draw, and Rusher is able to escape.

September 19th - Rusher leaves 2b2t for the first time for about a month.

September 22th - Valley of Wheat destroyed

September - 4th Incursion ends, Newsweek Article released

October 9th - The Rusher War ends. The Veterans say that about 10,400 Rushers had been killed, but this number is frequently questioned.

October 15th -TheCampingRusher returns and makes 3 more videos on 2b2t before he leaves.

October 22nd - Rusher leaves and The Rusher War officially ends. A small presence of rushers/newfags remain, and the server has been radically changed.

October - Offtopia's Drain is destroyed after FitMC made a tour of his base.

November 2016

December 2016

November 11th - 11/11 Dupe leaked to public

November 22nd - Jonathan5454 starts 6Garden. Major construction started sometime in January 2017.

November 25th - AgentGB makes a video on 2b2t. However, he does not make a video afterwards, and states that 2b2t won't be a series.

November 28th - The Fifth Incursion is organized by jared2013, however this fails, and barely makes any attention, and now recognized as a meme.

New coord exploit. Fitlantis is found.

Large battle in Fitlantis

2b2t is updated to 1.11, ending the 11/11 Dupe

AntVenom considers making a video on the history of 2b2t. He asks for the consent of the playerbase and the "admins".

Byrnsy begins his journey to the 2b2t World Border, with hopes of completing the +x Nether Highway. The Nether Highway Expedition group is formed.

The Emperium is founded by TheDark_Emperor.

Player count drops to the low 50s before Fit starts making his videos.

2017

Player Count: 80-200 (50-100 during Temp Maps)

This year saw massive decay of the rusher population and numerous other things

January 2017

February 2017

March 2017

April 2017

May 2017

June 2017

July 2017

August 2017

September 2017

January 1st - Fit returns to 2b2t, with new jewtuber, kid friendly content (starting with minecraft world records by boat). The impact from this has kept the 2b2t playerbase in its 200s, as many players join from Fit each day.

Construction of Block Game Mecca starts

Mid January - Spawn Masons are founded

Late January - The Vortex Coalition gets "disbanded".

HermeticLock's Spawn Base is constructed and The Third Largest Battle of 2b2t History occurs there. The base was constantly rebuilt and lavacasted over and over

15 milliontown is built by the nether highway group

Highland is founded by The_Grand_Lotus

Toro's Theater begins construction

2b2t logo rebranded

Kinorana hacks all maps in 2b2t. Protests against Kinorana begin.

SpawnMasons founded by Hermeticlock.

Early March - The 4th Reich is disbanded

March 3th - Maps are reset and old maps are deleted off 2b2t. The deathspam protest takes a short ceasefire.

March 15th - The Donkey Dupe is leaked to public.

March 18th - The Donkey Dupe has been patched.

March 21st - Wintermelon is griefed

March 22nd - fr1kin discovers an exploit that can bring the server below 1tps. This had normal attention until Fit claims that the lag could crash the server.

March 26th - World Border reached legitimately through the +X Highway. The +X Highway has been completed. Point Nemo is founded.

March 29th - Point Nemo is griefed

March - A player by the name of PriorityQueue is seen at spawn floating and not taking any damage, it was initially thought that he backdoored the server, however this was later proved to be incorrect (possibly the usage of MineChat).

April 1st - 2017 April fools map. This lasted a few days. The queue was also disabled during the uptime of the map

April 9th - Apocalypse Exploit patched, /kill temporarily disabled

April 13th - 24th - Fit's journey to the World Border

May 18th - Fit visits Point Dory without the permission of its builders.

May 20th - Point Dory is griefed

May 25th - Torogadude leaks the coordinates of his own theater by accident. It got destroyed almost instantly.

June 1st - 1st Anniversary of Rusher's Invasion in 2b2t. 2b2t is flooded with lag machines and various shitposts to celebrate the anniversary.

June 4th - Battle between Spawn Masons and Peacekeepers starts.

June 9th - The +Z Highway is completed to the world border.

June 18th - Omega City is destroyed.

June 23rd - The first server crash

June 29th - HermeticLock announced the "second season" of hanging around at his spawnbase

July 6th - The second server crash

July 6th - 7th - Server shut down, as a preparation for the 1.12 update and the addition of new plugins

July 8th- 22th - 1.12 tempmap

July 23th - The original map returns. The owner announces the deletion of all non-vanilla items. However, he accidentally deleted Axe enchantments, player heads, efficiency on shears, and all dungeon spawners. The 1.12 dupe (also known as the 7/21 dupe), was also discovered, which involved spamming in the crafting book

July 24th - Dupe patched sometime around 10:00 AM (EST).

July 28th - Summermelon griefed by Fit and his crew.

July 29th - Fit is exposed by Offtopia in the 2b2t Subreddit for making stuff up just to get a reason to grief Summermelon. The real reason might have involved his youtube career to get money. Fit does this again in 2018 at offtopia's base, Viper.

August 1st - Server restarted by the owner twice at 12:00 AM August 1st (EST)

August 2nd - The 3rd Major crash causes 2b2t down for a while. (Most likely low tps)

August 4th - Jared2013 obtains bureaucrat permissions through Niftyrobo on the 2b2t wiki, and destroys the wiki.

August 5th - Armorsmith lags the server down to 1tps. Causing the playercount to drop to 50-80 players. Queue virtualy dosen't exist.

August 6th - Riot on the wiki and subreddit to demote jared2013 and niftyrobo for the removal of pages with newfag history and several newfag bases such as 6Garden.

August 7th - Wiki is restored and Jared2013 and Niftyrobo has been banned globally from entering FANDOM Wikia itself. The subreddit explodes with wiki rants due to the new admin team consisting of newfags. The new founder, DarkAnhilator, has gathered a source team, and the subreddit calms down.

September 15th - A Spanish YouTuber, ElRichMC makes a video on the server, causing his fans to join and spam the chat in Spanish. Despite the video being quite popular, ElRichMC decides not to make another video and the server returns to normal in a matter of a few weeks.

Mid September - Project Obsidian Sky is completed. The 500x500 region of spawn now has an obsidian roof at Y256. (Today in Mid 2018, most of the obsidian has been destroyed by withers).

Late September - Elytras are disabled due to large amounts of chunks being loaded in a short amount of time, causing both lag and the server file size to grow much too quickly. Elytras have been disabled for almost an entire year. The SOON™ meme appears all over the subreddit because of this.

October 2017

November 2017

December 2017

October 13th - The owner announces removal of pre - June 1st queue.

October 13th - 20th - Bots fill the server in a vain attempt to kill it off, Drachenstein buys oldfags 2 months of priority

November 19th - 20th A redditor named PM_ME_YOUR_TITS_GIRL posted a render of 2b2t on r/gaming and r/minecraft

December 19th - Construction on the Cerulean Islands begins

December 20th - Astral Order is founded after the Purge of Eden

December 21st - VoCo declares the "Vo-Perium" war

December 23rd - X- Digger Team reaches the world border.

December 25th - Armorsmith and Co. planned to lag the server to 0 tps, and succeded to get it down to 0.5 before the owner personally destroyed the machine.

2018

Player Count: 100-250

This year is most known for two incursions (6th and 7th) and the grief of the BGM

January 2018

February 2018

March 2018

April 2018

May 2018

January 1st - Team Inferno reforms into Infrared after all the insiding and griefing

January 10th - United Group Embassy is formed, an initial 15 groups joining.

January 11th - "Vo-Perium" concludes after very little ground is gained. Emperium and VoCo work on building positive relations.

February 4th - Offtopia's Viper Base griefed, led by Fit. Several more subreddit rants occur from this.

February 7th - The 2b2t Media Archive is founded by xyzvp

February 9th - Up to 17 U.G.E. representatives arrive at spawn and begin renovating.

February 13th - 16 U.G.E. representatives fight 4 members of Infrared and Highland at spawn. Renovations continue.

March 20th - Temp map begins while the main map is being transferred from a 4 Terabyte HDD to a 6 TB SSD[1], as it was rapidly approaching the upper size limit of its current hardware. Server traffic is lower than usual but still high. TPS range is around 10 to 13.

March 27th - Main map back up

March 28th - Severe rubberband and lag occours at high TPS as well as several plugins being removed temporarily which allowed for people to use "illegal items" for a short amount of time, as well as being able to use the nether roof while taking heavy amounts of damage.

March 31th - April 2nd - An unnamed April Fools' tempmap starts on March 31st, 2018, and ends April 2nd, 2018. During this period, AntVenom confirms he will be releasing his video on April 3rd. The Sixth Incursion is declared by Sato and the ender dragon on the temp map is killed by the new incursion.

April 2nd - 6th - 2nd tempmap after failure of reverting back the world.

April 3rd - The highly anticipated "Face of Minecraft Anarchy" video is released by AntVenom. New players flood the server. Total player counts reach about 350 at the most.

April 6th - The main map, with very bad timing, comes back online[1] and the owner adds AAC to the server, which causes frequent disconnects and problems in general.

April 12th - 14 million subscriber YouTuber PopularMMOs is seen logging onto the server and is geared by an unknown player. He is later seen at nether spawn and killed with an end crystal. He claims he is not making a video on the server, however not everyone is convinced.

April 16th - 24th - The Obsidian Wall, a wall surrounding 1000 cubic meters of spawn is constructed and finished by Sixth Incursion members. It is named the largest community project ever completed in server history. To get the obsidian necessary , "gulag" slave camps were set up around spawn and new players were captured and forced to mine enderchests to obtain obsidian. This is the first confirmed time slave labor is used in the server's history to complete a community project.

April 26th - The obsidian wall ends up being a failure due to the fact that players are dedicated enough to spend 7 minutes breaking 2 obsidian blocks. Spawn patrolling became a meme after the incursion members became so self-absorbed after the wall was built. Much of the wall got destroyed however it is still very recognizable in most places.

April 29th - The 2b2t Archaeological Society is founded by /r/ryanfortner3333

May 1st - Jared2013 starts "31Days31Greifs" which causes widespread damage across the server

May 3rd - Sixth Incursion ends and is deemed a success.

May 5th - Construction of Mokuzai Island starts.

May 10th - FitMC reveals secrets about the Age of Tyrrany to the general public.

May 18th - Empire's Edge, Emperium's main base, is leaked to the subreddit by an unknown user and the Emperium quickly removes their belongings and destroys the base before anyone else could.

May 25th - The Builders Haven project is founded by Beardler and managed by Jonathan5454

May 28th - All maps on the server are cleared in an attempt to stop more bases from being griefed in any way they might be. The Map Artists of 2b2t claim responsibility for it and most are understanding.

May 30th - The Boedecken, a large base kept secret for nearly two years, is greifed. FitMC makes base tour shortly after. jared2013 did not claim responsibility for the base's greif.

May 31st -

June 2018

July 2018

August 2018

September 2018

October 2018

November 2018

December 2018

June 1st - One of the largest temp-bases on 2b2t, Purgatory was griefed.

June 1st - 700k Spanish-speaking YouTuber TheDaarickPartner starts a series on 2b2t.

June 1st - Second anniversary of Rusher War.

June 1st - The largest base ever built in the server's history and possibly in SMP Minecraft, Block Game Mecca, is greifed. The base members put the blame on Beardler, one of the members of the base. (The basemates later took this back, claiming that Beardler's account was hacked due to negligence, and Beardler had no intent to leak)

June 4th - 65k YouTuber BenMascott makes a video on the server, goes mostly unnoticed

June 7th - Server reaches 50,000 in-game days

June 10th - Large lag spike that lasts for 3 hours, TPS remains 0.6 for the whole time.

June 16th - Purgatory 2, the largest temp-base on 2b2t, was griefed as a revenge act against Beardlers actions.

June 16th - Beardler quits 2b2t, and Block Game Mecca/Boedecken drama ends.

Mid July - Third Donkey Dupe is discovered

July 24th, 2018 - 2b2t wikia hosted on FANDOM was deleted and moved to Miraheze

Mid August - The servers economy is at a point that anything is worthless, including Hacked Items

August 21st - Infrared disbands for the first time

August 22nd - Builders Haven is greifed and disbanded

September 20th - FuzeIII joins 2b2t and begins a series

September 21st - The Seventh Incursion begins

September 21st - Third Donkey Dupe is patched

Sepetember 27th - FuzeIII declares the foundation of Team Baguette and "War on Team Veteran and the Americans"

October 8th - jared2013 is demoted from head of the incursion due to internal drama.

October 13th - The Seventh Incursion is called off by Henry due to lack of leadership initiative. Drama posts on reddit follow soon after.

October 13th - jared2013 makes a new discord and an Incursion revival initiative to complete original goals of the Incursion.

October 30th - jared2013's Incursion Reloaded revival officially ends a day earlier than initial deadline of the 31st due to an inside attempt on the Emperium. This caused jared's discord to be deleted.

October 31st - A 2b2t halloween party was hosted, only lasting for 4 hours

October - Fit's relevancy is questioned after being kicked out of the Seventh Incursion (see Spawn Incursions)

October - New "banning" method involving max filled books with unicode is discovered. Players are "permanently" banned from the server if they are given a certain amount of these books, which will kick them out of the server due to an overflow in packets registered by the server, unless they e-mail Hausemaster to clear their inventories. The phenomena is known as "book banning".

November 7th - 9th - Beardler returns to 2b2t for 2 days and claims he will return in Mid/Late 2019

November 11th - New book related dupe discovered. Dupe causes lag spikes when performed due to constant chunk reloading.

November 17th - BGM (Block Game Mecca) was found to consist of mostly schematic builds, which put an impact on the bases outlook and originality.

November 23rd - 1.13 is announced for 2b2t coming “soon”

November - The 2b2t Wiki is 2 years old

November - Disbanded Infrared is reformed into Iridium

November 29th - The FuzeIII vs Fit duel occurs, Fit "wins".

November 30th - The 2b2t wiki gains public attention due to FuzeIII mentioning the wiki and the general miraheze discord noticing 2b2t. This wiki achieved a record high on Thursday of 900+ views

December 19th - Queue is glitched and drops to 0, resulting in the server being unable to join

December 23rd - Coordinates for planned Christmas party is leaked, chaos ensues.

December 27th - Iridium is disbanded

December - General lack of major activity due to Queue bugs, connection errors, and lag

December - U.G.E is dissolved after long period of inactivity

2019

Player Count: 100-250

"It's the Current Year!"

January 2019

February 2019

January - Lag and queue issues are getting worse.

January 12th - Infrared is revived.

January 19th - Around 18 Vo-Perium members fight 6 Highland members at spawn, making this the largest battle to unfold since the 6th Incursion

January 26th - Infrared disbands once again

January 30th - The owner changes the server message on the player board, saying "1.13 and temporary map expected in February, 2019, with new server hardware. Elytras planned to be re-added. Death messages and end portals re-added."

January 30th - End portals re-disabled

February 20th - Indonesian YouTuber with 187k subscribers, Kurus, makes a video about 2b2t.

February 23rd - The owner changes server message on the player board, it now says "1.13 expected in late March, Book Duplication now Patched due to update of Waterfall."

February 27th - player bflyza constructs thousands of signs above the nether bedrock ceiling at (0, 0) in the nether. Any player who loads this chunk is immediately disconnected from the server, and instantly disconnects upon rejoining in a way that is functionally similar to being book-banned. Dozens of players are chunk-banned due to the exploit.

[man-creates-dinosaurs]

I was swamped with various obligations all throughout #JurassicJune. So while I did celebrate by re-reading both Michael Crichton novels and re-watching all the previous Jurassic films and attending the premier of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom - I wasn’t able to blog about it. Now #JurassicJune has come and gone and we are in #Kaijuly. But I have one post that I really wanted to make that I think appropriately touches on both month’s themes...

Jurassic Park as Monster Movie

“Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park is nothing more – and nothing less – than the world’s most extravagant Godzilla movie.”

So said film critic David Ansen in his 1993 Newsweek review of the first Jurassic movie. Today this may sound like a rather dismissive assessment of a film which has come to be regarded as one of greatest sci-fi movies ever made. But rather than the snarky opinion of a single critic I find Ansen’s appraisal to be a rather frank and refreshing summation of what Jurassic Park actually is. A high tech monster movie.

Today everyone who was of the right age in 1993 agrees that Jurassic Park is a great movie. But curiously when you ask them “Why?” many have trouble explaining exactly what it is that made the film so great. This goes for professional film critics as well as self-proclaimed fans. Usually people put in this corner tend to fall back on vague adjectives claiming that Jurassic Park was great because it invoked a sense of “awe and wonderment,” a somewhat ironic claim since back in ‘93 legendary film critic Roger Ebert argued that it was exactly these qualities which Jurassic Park lacked... along with decently realized human characters and an interesting story. Both of which further adds to the amusement since in recent years a number of videos have started to pop-up on YouTube (see: here, here & here) made by people attempting to elucidate Jurassic Park’s greatness by examining its themes and characters. Much of the content of these videos is simply a rehash of observations made about Jurassic Park by academics over the last 25-years and deals with how the movie touches upon ideas regarding the perils of scientific advancement while advocating an agenda of reproductive futurism via its characters. See paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould’s essay “Dinomania” and sociologist John O’Neill’s essay “Dinosaurs-R-Us” as well as W.J.T. Mitchell’s The Last Dinosaur Book (U. of Chicago Press, 1998) and Joshua Bellin’s Framing Monsters (S. IL U. Press, 2005) for an example of some of this scholarship. Furthermore, what these YouTube commentators seem to have missed, which the actual scholars did not, is that these elements – the themes of technophobia and the importance of marriage and children – are among the most hackneyed and clichéd aspects of Jurassic Park, not to mention utterly retrograde in their outlook. These elements are certainly not what made Jurassic Park great or what has allowed it to endure for 25-years.

So what does make Jurassic Park great? For critics like Ansen and Ebert the answer, back in 1993, was obvious. The special-effects of course! “You want great dinosaurs, you got great dinosaurs,” wrote Ebert, “[and] because the movie delivers on the bottom line, I'm giving it three stars.” Jurassic Park spent nearly three years in special-effects research and development and combined the artistic might of stop-motion maven Phil Tippett, animatronics maestro Stan Winston and the cutting edge CGI work of Dennis Murren and ILM studios to usher in nothing less than a revolution in special-effects technology. Back in 1993 everyone who saw Jurassic Park left the theater believing – despite their better judgment – that they had seen real dinosaurs. And because of its special-effects after Jurassic Park the world of cinema has, quite literally, never been the same.

Yet as sci-fi author John Scalzi notes in his surprisingly provocative book The Rough Guide to Sci-Fi Movies (Rough Guides, 2005), the fact that Jurassic Park – which Scalzi counts as being among the then 50 most important sci-fi films ever made –  is great precisely because of its groundbreaking special-effects work has often led to the film being severely underappreciated. Again this may sound odd in 2018 when everyone is celebrating the 25th-Anniversary of Jurassic Park and the fifth film in the franchise – Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom – just finished its second week as the Number 1 movie in America, but it’s important to remember that Scalzi was writing this in 2005 when the Jurassic Park brand was effectively dead in the water and Universal was seriously considering rebooting the franchise as something approaching a live-action adaptation of the cheesy 90s cartoon Extreme Dinosaurs.

Today Jurassic Park has regained its cultural capital in large part due to the phenomenal box office success of 2015’s Jurassic World - which as horror author and film critic Kim Newman observed succeeded in being the first film in the series to bring a definite “kaiju feel” to the franchise - but also because of the wave of 80s and 90s nostalgia currently surging through American popular-culture. But this same nostalgia has now caused Jurassic Park to be put on a pedestal, elevated far above its station to such an extent that many people now become nervous when you point out that they are venerating what is essentially a glitzy Godzilla flick. And make no mistake this is exactly what Jurassic Park is. In Don Shay and Jody Duncan’s highly recommended book The Making of Jurassic Park (Ballantine Books, 1993), Spielberg talks about what his seminal cinematic influences were when filming Jurassic Park. Among the foremost were a number of films which I have blogged about here including the original KING KONG (1933), THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS (1954), GORGO (1961) and of course GODZILLA (1954) which Spielberg singles out as “the most masterful of all dinosaur movies because it made you believe it was really happening.” Other obvious influences, as noted by author Mark Berry in his The Dinosaur Filmography (McFarland, 2005), are the movies DINOSAURUS! (1960) and THE VALLEY OF GWANGI (1969). Jurassic Park – depending on your point of view – may have better special-effects than all of these films, but it is certainly not any better or more sophisticated than any of these films. In many ways, what Jurassic Park really is is a culmination of these films. The ultimate pop-culture dinosaur potpourri.

Currently there seems to be a great deal of monster-movie-denial going around with regards to Jurassic Park for a variety of different reasons. In fact, the only time people seem to want to mention the phrase “monster movie” in conjunction with Jurassic Park is when talking about the sequels and here the association is always negative. As in: ‘Jurassic Park was a great movie, but the sequels are just a bunch of dumb monster movies.’ I happen to like all of the Jurassic sequels to a greater or lesser extent, even the most recent film – Fallen Kingdom – which I nevertheless do acknowledge as being the most seriously flawed movie in the franchise to date. (If you want to hear my opinion of each film I suggest popping over to The Film Find podcast where I recently recorded an episode with regular host Adam Portrais on the entire Jurassic franchise.)

And while I would never insist that everyone who likes Jurassic Park also has to like the sequels I do expect that when someone is going to say a film is bad that they at least lay out a series of well thought out arguments about why they feel that way. And in this case saying that the Jurassic Park sequels are bad because they are “monster movies” when the original film wasn’t simply doesn’t count as a valid argument. I’m not sure how you prove to someone that Jurassic Park is a monster movie - really seems self-evident to me - but in the following series of posts I’m going to endeavor to demonstrate some of the ways that Spielberg used Jurassic Park to pay homage to the dino-monster movies of yesteryear and by doing so firmly seated his film as existing within that same tradition of fantastic film-making. 

[perfectirishgifts]

Holiday Gift Guide 2020: Best Travel Gifts For Movie Fans

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Holiday Gift Guide 2020: Best Travel Gifts For Movie Fans

Can you remember the time of year and where you were sitting when you first saw your favorite film? Just the opening scene of a movie can instantly take you back to another place and time, and films can bring back floods of memories. Watching movies with loved ones or simply by yourself can be a transformative experience. No wonder frequent travelers often find comfort in movies during their journeys. If you are looking for just the right present for the feature film lover in your life, consider these gift ideas.

Just the Ticket: Ticket Stub Organizer

Just The Ticket: Ticket Stub Organizer

What movie fan wouldn’t enjoy looking back over memorabilia from times spent going to see their favorite flicks? Just The Ticket: The Ticket Stub Organizer is a great gift for the traveler who always finds the cinema everywhere they go. This guided journal from Peter Pauper Press empowers the recipient to preserve tickets from movies as well as other concerts and trips. It has 20 acid-free plastic pages that are ideal for preserving movie tickets without causing fading or other damage. It also has lined paper inserts where the user can write about their thoughts and experiences with each film. It holds up to 80 movie tickets. Price: $15.99 on Amazon.

Fairuza Balk’s Armed Love Militia ‘Raw Live Lo-Fi’ EP

Armed Love Militia – Raw Live Lo-Fi EP

Fairuza Balk is a dynamic actress who has starred in films like Return To Oz, The Craft, and The Waterboy, to name just a few. Any film fan likely has enjoyed her performances, and she has wowed fans with her many other talents, too. On her website, Fairuza.org, Fairuza offers her original EP with Armed Love Militia called “Raw Live Lo-Fi”. The CD is an awesome companion to any road trip, flight, or train expedition. She also offers merchandise on her site so you can wear a button or patch to remind you of the star and her celebrated music. Fairuza’s original artwork, art prints, and autographed photos are sure to please a movie fan, too. You can get the EP on CD or cassette, and you can choose to have it autographed directly to the movie fan in your life. Price: $30 for the autographed CD, $10 for the CD with no autograph from Fairuza.org.

The Polar Express Bracelet by Alex and Ani

Alex and Ani

Fans of The Polar Express, the whimsical, groundbreaking holiday film, are likely to appreciate this Alex and Ani bracelet with beautiful bangles inspired by the movie. The Rafaelian Silver bracelet expands from 2 to 3.5 inches. One of its bangles has a charm with the title of the movie under the depiction of the beloved train from the film. The second beaded accent bangle adds an extra bit of pizazz. Price: $59 from Alex and Ani.

Gateway 10.1” Tablet

Gateway 10.1” Tablet

What more could a movie fan want than a way to stream their favorite films from anywhere? They can download their favorite streaming apps and use this tablet to watch them. This Gateway tablet is easy to pack and carry for travel and has the Android 10 Go operating system. With a front and rear camera, the recipient can use it to make some short films of their own or simply chat with family and friends while they are traveling. Price: $109.99 at Walmart.

IGLOO Star Wars The Child Cooler

IGLOO Star Wars The Child

Few things are cuter than Baby Yoda! Anyone who has fallen in love with the world of the Star Wars movies will love seeing this cooler. Yes, this character is Grogu or “The Child” from the Disney series The Mandalorian, but he’s affectionally known as Baby Yoda by all fans from the Star Wars movies. The magic of this phenomenon started in 1977 with the original Star Wars movie, and the character is instantly recognizable as Yoda even among people who’ve never seen any of the movies or shows. This 16-quart cooler with the image of “The Child” can hold up to 30 cans or a nice mix of food and drinks. Price: $49.99 from IGLOO.

ISlide ‘The Shining’ Maze Sandal

ISlide ‘The Shining’ Maze Sandal

The Shining collection of sandals from ISlide are eye-catching and sure to spark joy in any fan of the classic Stanley Kubrick film and the captivating Stephen King novel that it’s based on. You can customize the sandals with a name or other message for the recipient. The rubber and fabric slide sandal is officially licensed and has a print that pays homage to the creepy maze in the movie along with the film’s logo. Whether the recipient is at home or in a hotel room, these sandals would be fun to wear for a double feature of The Shining and its sequel Doctor Sleep. Price: $49.99 at ISlide.

Gift Card to Movie Locale Red Rock Casino

Red Rock Casino is a Vegas destination.

With the 25th Anniversary of the Movie Casino this year, a fun gift for any movie buff is the present of experienced Las Vegas for themselves after the pandemic when travel is safe again. You can now give them a gift card to the Red Rock Casino where the hit gambling movie 21 was filmed. By giving them a gift card, you’re empowering them to travel to the fun destination in the future at the time of their choosing. It’s a gift that will be remembered well beyond this holiday season. For an additional $3,95 in addition to the gift card amount you choose, the recipient will receive a card in the mail with your personalized message. Price: Your choice of price points from Red Rock Casino.

Bruce Lee Roots of Fight T-Shirt

Bruce Lee Roots of Fight T-Shirt

The Bruce Lee collection from Roots of Fight features the legendary film star and martial artist who appeared in over 20 movies in his career. The Asian-American action hero created Jeet Kune Do, which notably inspired modern Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), and he was also an entrepreneur and devoted father. His life was cut tragically short when he was only 32 years old, but his legacy continues as his prolific career is celebrated by generation after generation. This Bruce Lee shirt celebrates Bruce Lee’s 80th birthday in 2020, and it’s a good option to wear when catching a flight. After all, it will be a great conversation starter. Price: $48 from Roots of Fight.

Heat Holders Festive Fairisle Socks

Heat Holders Festive Fairisle Socks

Whether someone is at home or in a hotel room to watch a favorite holiday flick, there’s nothing better than being warm and cozy for the presentation. These socks are perfect for business travelers, especially since they cannot always control the temperature when they’re away from home. Heat Holders socks have been tested to be four times warmer than regular cotton socks. The Festive Fairisle pattern is perfect for the holidays, and many other options are available if you want something more subtle. Price: $19.99 from Heat Holders.

Movie Buff: The World’s Greatest Movie Trivia Game

Movie Buff: The World’s Greatest Movie Trivia Card Game

The Movie Buff: The World’s Greatest Movie Trivia Card Game is a well-designed game for those who are really into the history and fascinating details of cinema. Since it’s a compact card game, it’s also convenient for frequent travelers to take with them wherever they go. It contains 160 trivia and strategy cards. The game is for 2 to 16 players, so you can have fun playing it with just two of you or a group at a party. Price: $19.95 from Amazon.

Hallmark Movies Ornament

Hallmark Movies Ornament

If the movie fan you love has an affinity for Hallmark movies, this ornament is sure to bring them comfort and joy during the holidays. It sends a sweet message, “I heart Hallmark Channel and Flannel”. The ornament is sturdy and made of metal. If someone is traveling during the holidays, it’s small and easy to bring along as a reminder of some of their favorite things to do during the season no matter where they are. Price: $9.99 from Hallmark.

MadeGood Chocolate Chip Granola Bars

MadeGood Chocolate Chip Granola Bars

Movies and great snacks go hand-in-hand. The MadeGood Chocolate Chip Granola Bars taste indulgent like any movie theater snack you can find, but they are also nutritious. They’re also vegan, organic, kosher, and allergy-friendly. If you’re looking for a tasty treat for the business traveler in your life, this would be a great gift to pair with a blu-ray of a travel film like Up In The Air or a fun holiday film like A Very Brady Christmas. Price: $3.99 from Target.

Movie Marquee Planner Stickers

Movie Marquee Planner Stickers

Any film lover on the go can enjoy these movie marquee planner stickers. That way, they can plan which movies they want to watch on their travels, or they can carry them along with their planner to add when they watch an impromptu film on a plane. These marquee stickers come in a pack with different colors, including red, green, gold, and silver. Price: $3.25 from Pink Leaf Prints on Etsy.

More from Travel in Perfectirishgifts

[oh-chickie]

1-10

1: Talk about the first time you watched your favorite movie. i saw les mis in theaters like the day after it came out and i had seen that shitty 25th anniversary thing for it but i didn’t really like it but my sister was going to see it so i went along and cried during the opening song and it changed my life.

2: Talk about your first kiss. it was really short, like less than a second. but it was in my driveway and it was with someone i was falling in love with and it was sweet and perfect.

3: Talk about the person you've had the most intense romantic feelings for. every time i was around him i felt like there was so much warmth and sunshine inside of him and his smile made me melt cause his eyes would get all squinty cause his smile would take up his whole face. he loved seeing me and talking to me and i’ve never met a more patient guy in my life. granted, i don’t think he was like that with anyone else in his life. but we had a lot of love shared between us.

4: Talk about the thing you regret most so far. it’s not that i regret something i did, but i regret that i wasn’t in a place to do better for someone else. like it occurs to me that he could’ve been my most loyal friend if i’d stuck with him but at the time i couldn’t and didn’t want to handle it. and i regret that things couldn’t have been different.

5: Talk about the best birthday you've had. me, my boyfriend at the time, my best friend, my family, cake, surprise twenty one pilots tickets, etc. it was the first time in my life that a birthday lived up to expectations and that i was surrounded by all the people i loved.

6: Talk about the worst birthday you've had. the birthday after that. i spent it alone in my room crying like a champ.

7: Talk about your biggest insecurity. my teeth. they were super crooked when i was growing up and even though i had braces for like 4+ years, i still look at them and think they aren’t as straight as they should be.

8: Talk about the thing you are most proud of. i’m proud of my OC’s lmao

9: Talk about little things on your body that you like the most. i like my hands and the freckles on my shoulders and the scars on my legs from falling as a kid. i also really like the three freckles on my left arm that look like a constellation. 

10: Talk about the biggest fight you've ever had. one time when my friend told me she was thinking about dropping out of college (she said taking a year off but i knew what that meant), i went off on her and we didn’t talk for like two months because she felt like i wasn’t being supportive and i felt like she was giving up on something she’d worked really hard for. but we made up and i love her.

[bma-2020]

— answer these questions then tag 20 blogs you’d like to know better!

nicknames: vee, harley, risa, eris, probably others but currently I am Vee and Vee is me

zodiac:  sagittarius

height: 5′3″

time: 8.14 PM

favorite band / artist:  Indie and more unknown: R/achel Rose M/itchell. Indie and more known: Marina (known mostly as Marina and the d/iamonds). Band: P!atd and F/OB are both p great n i think of not disbanded bands i listen to them most so

song stuck in my head:  ...... The Final Lair in Ph/antom of the O/pera, specifically 25th anniversary edition

last movie i saw:  In theaters: Men in B/lack inter/national. At home: Add/ams Fam/ily Values

last thing i googled:  "L/ush store hours”

other blogs:  @wcnderlcnd​ my wonder multi, @siicklullabies, my normal multi that i may branch into multiple multis bc of lack of others having interest, @tasedandconfused​ my D/arcy L/ewis, @inmyjellies​ my D/etective P/ikachu, @asscmblc​ my “M/arvel Multi” sideblog

why did i choose this username:  In B/urton’s alice, she uses a Hatpin as her sword of choice. The Hatpin in question was given to her by the Hatter. Since I don’t really have bu/rton canon as my main canon anymore, I could change it, which my favorite past url was actually ‘donttakeorders’ because it’s something she actually says. When I first used that one tho I had a different fc and ppl thought I was a c/lara blog or an e/cho blog, and when i changed fcs a ton of people dropped me instantly, so it just drew a lot of resentment towards the actress as my fc and any of my fcs that had her so i just havent switched back yet. There’s a few others I have that I could use but idek, I feel like I’d get dropped no matter what so. 

following: my tears into the river

average amount of sleep: Depends on if I took my meds or not

what i’m wearing:  Boxer short things cause I use oversized dude boxers as shorts n a grey tank top bc i have hyperhidrosis. 

dream job:  not being poor

dream trip:  London for the W/arner B/ros studio tour, France for the W/onderland park and Phantom-based Haunted M/ansion at Di/sney. 

favorite food: fries

play any instruments:  when I was younger I could play moonlight sonata first run on the piano and nothing else

eye color:  Greenish brown, or I guess Hazel bc it’s brown in most lights. 

hair color:  Naturally darkest brown. Rn I’m a faded galaxy. 

languages you speak: English. My teachers said I was too ‘R word’ to learn any other language due to my dyslexia. 

most iconic song: As the world f/alls down from L/abyrinth, I grew up on that, that’s my whole ass world, I would die without it, I still wanna read the book, I found a bunch of graphic novels I wanna buy based on it but poor, my whole dang life 

random fact: I have a weird obsession with Sharks that my cat also has, like the first thing I ordered for her when I found out I was getting her was a shark bed and it’s her most favorite thing. She kept trying to use my shark plushie as a huggie pillow, she’s the only one who’ll watch shark week with me and my dog my mom freaks out 

describe yourself as aesthetic things:  I love mice

TAGGED BY : @dokkstjarna <3 TAGGING : You!

[dragon-heartstring-core]

Last night I got to see @hanson I saw them for the first time 19 years ago and they have only gotten better! I'm so happy I got to see them with @kellyyoda cause I can't imagine experiencing the 25th anniversary with anyone else. @zachanson @isaachanson @taylorhanson • • • #hanson #hanson25 #middleofeverywhere #zachanson #isaachanson #taylorhanson #playstationtheater #nyc #newyorkcity #livemusic #paigegoesplaces #hansonmusic #hansonbrothers (at PlayStation Theater)