Universal Studio’s Jurassic World has, to quote a bearded, idealistic entrepreneur, “captured the imagination of the entire planet.”

It destroyed box office records and re-invigorated the public’s interested in the 20+ year-old saga about dinosaurs, but even before all of that, I knew I would have a lot to say about it. The first three Jurassic Park movies defined my younger years (much like video games did), a lot more so than silly things such as social interaction and sports. So the fictional world where dinosaurs roam Costa Rican islands is steeped in nostalgia and positive memories for me. There’s something about the prehistoric creatures interacting with humans like they do in these movies that takes you away to a different place. It tickles the imagination, almost as if you are right there where these animals are stomping around, impressed by their stature and ferocity as much as the characters within the universe are. Because what made the establishing scene in Jurassic Park where Alan Grant, Ellie Sattler and co. gaze speechlessly at a herd of Brachiosaurus so jaw-dropping is that the viewer was right there feeling the same sense of awe.

Jurassic World, therefore, was always going to be more than just a summer blockbuster to me. It was going to be the next chapter in something so personal. So I spent a ton of time analyzing and writing about the pre-release trailers. But the real meaty discussion of the newest, flashiest entry in the series comes now, with the whole enchilada out.

This isn’t really a review, mind you. It will have major elements of a review, but reviews tend to make a final judgement in far fewer words. I have a final judgement about Jurassic World (it’s awesome), but I’m more interested in talking about all the nuance and such surrounding Jurassic World and the previous three movies, as well as how the real world’s themes and actors all combine to make a movie saga about dinosaurs bigger than itself.

So if you’re a Jurassic Park geek, or simply want to see an in-depth look at Jurassic World, go grab a cup of coffee (or anything else because coffee sucks) and sit down. This is long because I want it to be comprehensive. It’s also editorial – while I base a lot of what I say on the facts and context of the Jurassic Park saga, much of this is my own opinion.

A few things to note: Reading this will spoil most of Jurassic World, as well as chunks of the previous films. If you haven’t seen them, this is your warning.



Also, this discussion generally won’t include details from the Jurassic Park novels, mostly because I haven’t read them and the film series goes in notable separate directions from what I understand.

And before getting into it all, I want to establish a key for some common terms so I don’t have to keep repeating titles/names etc.

JP – The original Jurassic Park film. The one that started it all.



– The original film. The one that started it all. TLW – The Lost World: Jurassic Park . The second, grittier title in the series.



– . The second, grittier title in the series. JP3 – Jurassic Park III.



– JW – Jurassic World. May be used to reference both the film and the park itself.

– May be used to reference both the film and the park itself. I-Rex – Established shorthand for Indominus Rex, the hybrid maniac in JW.

– Established shorthand for Indominus Rex, the hybrid maniac in JW. Rexy – For those who don’t read too much into the movies, Rexy is the name of the Tyrannosaurus Rex from JP who survives into JW.



– For those who don’t read too much into the movies, Rexy is the name of the Tyrannosaurus Rex from JP who survives into JW. Raptor – Shorter and easier to write than Velociraptor.



Shorter and easier to write than Velociraptor. Poor schmuck – Placeholder for all the nameless/inconsequential characters who get ripped apart throughout the series.



– Placeholder for all the nameless/inconsequential characters who get ripped apart throughout the series. JP saga – Obviously a reference to the series as a whole, used as a way to contain the events starting with JP’s release in 1993 to JW’s release in 2015 and whatever comes after it. May be used in BOTH the context of in-universe and meta commentary.



– Obviously a reference to the series as a whole, used as a way to contain the events starting with JP’s release in 1993 to JW’s release in 2015 and whatever comes after it. May be used in BOTH the context of in-universe and meta commentary. Last name – Characters will be referred to by their last name after their initial introduction within this text. I.e. “Owen Grady trains raptors. Grady objects to using them as weapons.” Likewise with each character’s actor.



BROAD THOUGHTS

“‘Ooh, ahh.’ That’s how it always starts. But then later there’s running, and then screaming.”



-Ian Malcolm, who hates being right all the time.

JW is a JP saga movie through and through. It has all the elements of a JP saga movie:

First third setup in which things remain calm, dinosaurs are introduced and tension is built



Epic breakout scene/introductory dinosaur conflict



T-Rex



Raptors



Big, impressive panning shots of herbivores



Kid(s)



Chaos



Poor schmucks getting ganked



Some sort of heroic resolution



Open-ended closing



Some of these things are qualities of filmmaking in general, while others are unique to the JP saga. But all the movies have these, so analyzing JW is predicated upon how it completes these JP saga roles while still being its own independent entry.

In that regard, JW went ways the saga hadn’t gone before by introducing the hybrid Indominus Rex and showcasing Owen Grady’s (Chris Pratt) attempt to train raptors. I’ll be talking about both of those in depth, but generally, the I-Rex was a safer bet to hedge the plot on because it seemed like a natural continuation of JP’s scientific themes of cloning. In all honesty, the I-Rex being designed from scratch was one of the stronger plot points in the movie because of its relevant, if obvious, social commentary. See Claire Dearing’s (Bryce Dallas Howard) exchange with Grady early on in the film:

“Corporate felt genetic modification would up the wow factor,” Dearing said.

“They’re dinosaurs. Wow enough,” Grady said.

“Not according to our focus groups.”

The I-Rex was clearly designed for a culture that wants bigger and better, and more of it, and you don’t have to be an academic genius to see those streaks in our own culture. I can imagine members of a generation stuck to their smartphones who think the miracle of bringing dinosaurs back to life would be lame after a few years. I’m not willing to give JW the benefit of the doubt and declare it full of deep, intellectual social commentary, but it is at least there on the surface.

The raptor training, on the other hand, was a riskier gamble, and ultimately I think the actions of the raptor squad at the very end of the film were Hollywood crap, but again, I’ll go into deeper discussion on that in the “raptors” section. I enjoyed it, though. It wasn’t anywhere near a failure, but there was a little room for improvement.

Minor plot points that made JW its own entry into the saga are Vic Hoskins’ (Vincent D'Onofrio) desire to weaponize the raptors/I-Rex, Henry Wu’s (B.D. Wong) shady genetic operations, the uber-corporatization of the park and of course, John Hammond’s dream being fulfilled, completed and open to the public.

Generally, my expectations framed this movie as a solid action flick that lives up to the original in spirit, if not substance. Which was an accurate guess because that’s what it ended up being. It has natural progression, pacing, lots of wow and crap-your-pants moments, a great soundtrack, nostalgia, wittiness and is emotionally moving at times, but it lacks character depth, plot depth, comparative realism and suffers from the “Hollywood effect” at times, a lot more than its predecessors.

It is an easy movie to enjoy, but it is also an easy movie to find faults with. I doubt JP saga fans will be disappointed by it, but casual viewers could swing their (dis)approval either way.

It breaks suspension of disbelief at times, and the divorce subplot was unnecessary and stupid, as it added next to nothing to the story.

It sets up open ends for sequels. We get to see the overly-confident, faux affably evil villain Hoskins get mauled by a raptor (bonus points for the cinematic mirroring in that scene), and Wu escapes the island with the park’s specimen.

The movie could have benefitted from an extra hour of runtime and some additional exposition. It works for what it is, but what made JP so majestic was its ability to slow down for long periods and let the characters really shine, which JW doesn’t take the time to do, save for a few key scenes.

There’s little closure at the end of the movie, which is typical to the JP saga. The ending just kind of happens and leaves an almost infinite number of questions open, which is annoying to anyone who engages with the movie for longer than its runtime.

These are my general thoughts. Let’s move onto the geeky part of it.

IN RELATION TO JURASSIC PARK

“That first park was legit!”

-Lowery Cruthers, the poster child for fan service and nerds who don’t “get the girl.”

This is what’s really important, right? How does the Simon Masrani-owned theme park named Jurassic World, built on the same island, scientific principles and sense of wonder of its failed predecessor, compare against John Hammond’s Jurassic Park?

In a literal sense, JW is Hammond’s dream fulfilled. Masrani even says that Hammond entrusted the park to him in his dying wish. It is, by all accounts of imagination, a modern miracle, from the automation to the wonder to, of course, the dinosaurs. Hammond’s park felt unequipped to handle any sort of large crowd. Alan Grant and co. in that first movie were all transported on a single helicopter, to a tiny landing pad, transported by two meager Jeeps to a relatively small welcome center where two Ford Explorers would depart and take visitors on what appeared to be the only tour: A circular ride past caged enclosures. It had no sense of an actual theme park, in that it didn’t feel like a place that could handle thousands of awed visitors. Now, maybe this is because the park wasn’t set up for this by the time Grant and co. arrived – the film isn’t clear – but even if it wasn’t, it still had a long way to go.

JW is much more tactile and immersive than anything Hammond showed off. In JW, the visitors see T-Rex feedings inside her enclosure. They ride on baby Triceratops. They float down the same rivers that herbivores drink from. They coast alongside herds of giants in the gyro sphere. They’re so close to the Mosasaurus that they get showered by its impact wave.

Cinematically, the park is beautiful. The sweeping, powerful jib shots that roll over the vast green and blue of the park, backed by soaring hints of old and new soundtrack scores, make it majestic and adventurous. Ditto with Gray Mitchell (Ty Simpkins), whose youthful enthusiasm for dinosaurs is something that many of us can relate to and helps establish how magnificent the park is.

JW made the park an authentic theme park, down to Hoskins’ comment that “We end up with places like this, charge seven bucks a soda.” This is something that makes JW an important next step in the franchise. There’s no trial-and-error parties sent by investors to give the unfinished park a shakedown. There’s no transferring of the animals of San Diego. It’s here, alive and in the flesh, so much to the point that the public is getting bored of it. We don’t even know how long it’s been running, but we know one thing: It’s clearly been doing well.

This makes it something of a penultimate completion of the first trilogy, which in turn makes it a good leg to stand on for the introduction of a new trilogy (or more). While the fate of Isla Sorna and its free-range dinosaurs are yet to be unveiled, Isla Nublar became what Hammond dreamed it would become. At least until before the events of JW.

“Park’s gonna be Chapter 11 by morning.”

Vic Hoskins, foreseeing the future of the park but not his life.

As much as JW references the old park and movie through the old visitor center, the Jeeps, the doors, Lowery Cruthers’ (Jake Johnson) shirt, dialogue, Wu (and some of the things he says), Rexy and scattered other bits and baubles, it stumbles over itself a little. JW’s references to the first film are more fan service than substance, which plays into the lack of both plot depth and exposition I mentioned earlier. Seeing the Jeeps and Rexy is fishing for fan reaction, which has been lovingly received. But the real meat and potatoes isn’t there.

Here’s the big one: There’s not much addressing the past tragedies of the first park, which is a disservice to both the strength of JW’s plot and the continuity of the saga as a whole. We barely get any dialogue on it.

“So, the paddock is quite safe, then?” said Simon Masrani (Irrfan Khan).

“We had the best structural engineers in the world,” said Dearing.

“Yeah, so did Hammond,” said Masrani.

We also have the exchange between Dearing and Cruthers about the first park and how it didn’t need to use genetic hybrids to be “legit,” Wu and Masrani’s conversation and a few other points of dialogue throughout the movie.

But none of this answers big questions such as: How did Masrani Global regain public trust after Hammond’s failure? Why did Hammond entrust Masrani with the theme park as his dying wish when he became something of a conservationist/naturalist by the time TLW comes around? What were the effects of the San Diego incident? How much legal trouble did Masrani Global/tattered remains of InGen encounter? How did InGen transform from the park operators to the weapons and containment guys they are in JW? Did characters such as Ian Malcolm and Grant speak out against JW’s opening? Why were the characters not hyper-aware of possible disasters, given how everything went to hell in the original park? How were the existing dinosaurs corralled back into enclosures? How were the raptors exterminated? And, for the love of god, how is everything in JW not guarded by fifteen levels of fail safes?

Granted, not all of these questions need answers, and could be filled in by expectant reality (i.e. Masrani Global had “a lot” of legal trouble). Additionally, it could be argued that if JW wanted to have broad appeal, it can’t spend too much time indulging lore nerds about these continuity details. But it still doesn’t change that the references seemed hollow (how did those kids get the Jeeps started and running?), even if they were enjoyable.

Again, spirit not substance. As much as I enjoyed JW’s references to the old park, it was too much sizzle and not enough steak. But it could have been worse. We could have gotten all new canon.

Cinematically, there were dozens and dozens of call backs to both the original park and the original film. There are obvious ones, such as the mirroring of shots such as the gates opening and the helicopter approaching the island. And there were subtle ones. Did you notice this one?: In the scene where the asset containment unit goes to hunt the I-Rex, blood drops fall on the leader. The first drop rolls one way, and the second drop rolls the other way, obviously referencing when Malcolm performed the chaos experiment with water and Sattler’s hand. I won’t go over every single reference, but know that they are there, that they are fun to catch and that they are comforting.

Additionally, a word about Rexy, the mega reference. If you are unaware, the T-Rex from JW is the same one that tossed an Explorer off a cliff and harassed the characters in the first movie. She survived on Isla Nublar, and while JW never mentions this directly, the one they showcase is the same specimen. Ironically, they feed her with a goat, so I guess sometimes, T-Rex does want to be fed.

But while Rexy was easily the kingpin of the first movie, she takes a huge backseat in JW, but this is kind of by design. What the JP movies did well up until JW was show the true chaos of trying to control the natural systems. In JP, all the animals get out. In TLW, the survivors fend off multiple species, not to mention get attacked by herbivores, too. Similar story in JP3. The systems fail. That’s what makes JW interesting – the I-Rex’s escape isn’t a park-wide system failure. It tricked the humans. It releases the pterosaurs, and the raptors and Rexy being set loose are both deliberate actions by humans. At the end of the day, you corral the surviving raptors and Rexy back in, and the park is mostly still functional. You know, besides the lawsuits and death.

So the movie wouldn’t make sense if Rexy got out accidentally because it’s not about her. With that said, it would have been nice to spend a little more time on the JP saga’s biggest icon. The one scene she’s in before Dearing leads her with a flare lasts all of 15 seconds, and we don’t even get to see her that clearly. Heck, this is even a point when the movie could gain some more substance. Park staff could be overlooking her paddock and talk about how they transitioned from the old park to the new one. But this is all theoretical talk.

Before we move on, let’s talk about Wu’s retconning of JP’s dinosaurs. After the I-Rex is well into its killing spree, Masrani visits the genetics lab and has a conversation with Wu about the genes that created the I-Rex. This is arguably the point where JW is most intellectual, and it’s no surprise because Wu’s lines have always not only been chilling, but delivered well by Wong. In a nutshell, Wu berates Masrani for giving him the go ahead to make the I-Rex how he sees fit, telling him that if he doesn’t innovate, “someone else will.” Masrani then offhandedly mentions that “Hammond won’t be there to protect you this time,” which indicates that some time after the first park’s failure, Wu somehow took the heat (in some capacity) for what happened. This brings up an infinite amount of questions, all unfortunately stuck in the speculative nebula of “possible JP lore.”

But more importantly, Wu addresses why JP’s (and JW’s) dinosaurs aren’t feathered, why their velociraptors are so large, etc.:

“Nothing in Jurassic World is natural. We have always filled gaps in the genome with the DNA of other animals. And if there genetic code was pure, many of them would look quite different.”

These are a few meager lines that single-handedly dismantle all complaints that JP’s dinosaurs are unscientific. Handy, huh?

Finally, one small detail: All the dinosaurs in JW are once again female, and there is no mention of frog DNA causing the specimen to change gender. Nor is there any reference to any lysine contingencies, which we learned in TLW didn’t work anyway.

So I guess they got those kinks worked out.

IN RELATION TO THE LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK AND JURASSIC PARK 3

“No force on earth or heaven could get me on that island.”

Dr. Alan Grant.

This section will be a little shorter, mostly because JW doesn’t reference the latter two films of the first trilogy much, and there are only a few concepts and themes I want to go over.

One of those references is on the monorail to JW. In this scene, we see Zara Young (Katie McGrath) reading Malcolm’s book God Creates Dinosaurs, which is presumably published sometime after JP and possibly during the time of TLW or JP3. Additionally, Masrani Global’s website references the pack of Pteranodons that escaped at the end of JP3 and how Hoskins made his name by eliminating the animals.

These are important due to a misleading piece of information that made its way around the Internet claiming that JW was disregarding canon from TLW and JP3. The comments “proving” this were taken out of context, but these Easter eggs help prove otherwise even more.

Despite the critiques made against TLW, one of the things it did really well was showcase the dinosaurs living in a natural habitat free of cages. We see Stegosauruses defending their young. We see packs of Compys working en masse. And of course, we see the T-Rex parents violently protecting both their infant and their territory. TLW portrayed a setting where the humans were observers of something natural, watching dinosaurs behaving in a way we might expect every day animals to. This is TLW’s legacy and contribution to the saga, and it helps establish the ground work for what the I-Rex becomes. Grady spends a bit of time informing the other characters that the dinosaurs have natural instincts and that they will act on them. He also explains why the I-Rex is behaving like a psychotic killer. While these themes can be compartmentalized to JW, it helps to have seen TLW and understand that these movies do not always treat dinosaurs as pre-historic Hollywood “movie monsters” (emphasis on “do not always”).

Which brings me to JP3. The third film is generally regarded as a pile of dino dung (I tend to enjoy it for the ride), but it does introduce the concept of the raptors as viciously intelligent pack hunters. Of course, we see this in the previous two films as well, but JP3 take it a step further, and it’s on this basis that Grady’s raptor squad makes more sense. Oddly, JP3 seems to treat only the raptors this way, since the Spinosaurus in that film seems to stalk the survivors for no reason, despite having its pick of much larger game.

Again, the intelligence of raptors can easily be compartmentalized to JW, but the previously-established canon just makes it more believable within the context of the JP universe. It also helps legitimize the I-Rex’s intelligence, as the I-Rex has raptor genes in it.

This is pretty much where JW’s relationship to TLW and JP3 stop, though. TLW and JP3 are completely different movies compared to JW (unlike JP), and again, JW makes no attempt to explain what happened to the herds of free-roaming dinosaurs on the second island. Maybe that will be for a later movie, or maybe we won’t hear anything about it again.

THE RAPTORS & OWEN GRADY

“We got one good target, gentlemen. Do not shoot my raptors. Please.”

-Owen Grady, who watches one of his raptors get blown up by a rocket about five minutes later.

Grady as the raptor whisperer was arguably a more risky plot point for the movie than the I-Rex, due to the possibility for it to break suspension of disbelief more easily. For the uninitiated, suspension of disbelief is the concept responsible for why we can enjoy the JP films at face value. Suspension of disbelief works when audiences set aside their disbeliefs of the world within the film and accept the reality the film operates on. It’s why we can enjoy the Star Wars saga, while knowing fully well that lightsabers and force magic are ludicrous in the real world. But the movie must still follow its own rules, and when it doesn’t, it can break this suspension of disbelief. In the case of Grady’s ability to train the raptors, it skirts dangerously close to doing this. Throughout the movie, we hear all about how insanely vicious the raptors are and how Grady’s only partially successful at giving them commands. So, in accordance with this, the raptors turn on the humans toward the end, having accepted the I-Rex (which has raptor genes in it) as their new alpha.

But then at the end, the raptors side with Grady again and defend him? Now, there is nuance to this, which I’ll go over later. And let’s be clear: If the raptors hadn’t returned to Grady’s side, the entire main cast would have been cooked in one scene, and this movie isn’t Jurassic Game of Thrones. But let’s talk about the concept of training velociraptors first.

I briefly looked into the plausibility of this actually working, and I do mean briefly. As a disclaimer, I would like to note that these are my mostly unscientific speculations, and as much as I wish I could consume vast amount of scientific literature on the training of big predators, that’s a time commitment I can’t do.

Of course, no one can know if training raptors is truly possible, since they’re extinct. But we can look at the training of modern large predators and take a guess. We all know of the typical “lion tamer” of a circus – a person that teaches a vicious predator how to perform tricks for amusement. We also know that lions have characteristically gone rogue and attacked their tamers, resulting in people somehow being surprised.

Clicker training/operant conditioning is also used more humanely to reduce stresses of animal husbandry in sheltered big cats.

I’ll give JW a plus one and say Grady’s raptor summer camp isn’t totally implausible. Again, suspension of disbelief is important here. It’s more believable in JW’s universe than our own because it already takes liberty with what’s realistic (via genetics/cloning). We know that big cats are not necessarily needlessly violent toward humans, especially their caretakers, but that violence can manifest. This is an issue that the JP saga struggles with as a whole – it is written in an anthropocentric mindset, where the dinosaurs seem to chase and eat humans because we are humans, and that’s what makes it a fun ride. It’s not interesting when a super-predator sees a tiny human a mile away and passes him up for a meatier, old/injured herbivore that’s nearby. This anthropocentrism explains the Spinosaurus’ behavior in JP3 – it’s a fish-hunting dinosaur, but it spends its time stalking humans on land?

This anthropocentrism, ironically, explains why we might have trouble accepting the concept that the raptors aren’t going to eat Grady or Barry (Omar Sy). I mean, we’ve seen raptors viciously devour people in the previous films, so it’s kind of a 180. But at the same time, the pack of raptors in JP3 don’t kill the protagonists at the very end – they just want their eggs back. But you might call that plot armor more than raptors being nice, especially since the raptors killed Udesky in JP3 for sport.

Of course, the raptors’ possible acceptance (tolerance?) of Grady and Barry is based upon two concepts Grady talks about: Imprinting and being the alpha.

Imprinting makes sense. We see this in real life, most notably from birds, which are generally accepted to be the closest living links to dinosaurs (no, not lizards). That’s pretty much that, and I think it’s the strongest case for Grady’s connection with the raptors. Additionally, Grady mentions multiple times throughout the film that his association with the raptors is a relationship. There’s give-and-take. “It’s about respect,” he says. This is why he immediately objects to tazing the animals when the newbie handler Leon (Colby Boothman) falls into the cage – he knows that will shatter his relationship with the raptors. So another plus one for JW here.

But Grady as the alpha? Admittedly, this might not be too far of a stretch, either. A long time back, while researching the feasibility of wolves as pets (out of curiosity, mind you), I learned that the animals actually did this. Wolves being pretty much poster children for pack behavior, I was slightly surprised to learn that they can regard the human who raised them as the “alpha” in the pack. As an example, when a perceived danger was encroaching on the wolves’ territory, they would howl to notify their leader – in some cases, the human who raised them – that the danger was nearby.

Again, we have little idea of the actual behavioral hierarchy of velociraptors (or Utahraptors, which are the more accurate real-life equivalent to JP saga’s raptors), or if there is any, but within the context of JW’s universe, and possible real-life logical leaps, maybe Grady as the alpha is believable. It’ll have to do, anyway. It could have been worse. We could have seen completely subservient raptors who behave like domesticated dogs.

Another plus one for JW, but with one stipulation: In JP, Robert Muldoon tells us that “the big one” (the largest of the raptors) kills some of the other specimens and becomes the leader of the remainders. This either means that JP saga raptors have a usurper nature, or the big one was hyper-aggressive. I’d wager on the latter before the former, and that would handily explain why Grady’s raptors (especially Blue) didn’t kill him to take over. At least not in theory, anyway, since we see him almost get attacked in the first scene where he ventures into the cage. Which is an interesting scene, by the way, since it’s one of the few where the squad shows outright intent to kill toward Grady. To rope the wolf discussion in again, the animals will challenge the alpha in order to rise in pack hierarchy. Perhaps this is what the raptors were doing in that scene?

Of course, all of this speculation could be thrown out the window if it’s revealed that Wu tampered with the DNA of the raptors to make them more prone to learning obedience, or at the very least, a little less hyper-aggressive. Maybe the raptor squad in JW is actually a first test batch for these qualities? Who knows.

Let’s say this: JW’s execution of Grady’s raptor training camp was executed more smoothly than the initial trailer showed, and that’s a good thing. For some context, I want to quote JW director Colin Trevorrow on his thoughts regarding the Grady/raptor camp:

“Owen’s relationship with the raptors is complicated. They aren’t friends. These animals are nasty and dangerous and they’ll bite your head off if you make the wrong move. But there are men and women out there today who have forged tenuous connections with dangerous predators. That’s interesting territory to me.”

But it does come with some problems. Namely, the raptor squad can’t decide on a leader at the end of the movie. When Grady, Barry and InGen’s Cannon Fodder team go out to do some I-Rex wrangling with the raptors, the I-Rex communicates with the raptors and convinces them (is the I-Rex a motivational speaker?) to accept her as the new alpha. Chaos predictably ensues, InGen’s guys get killed and the raptors start wreaking havoc. Charlie appears to bond briefly with Grady before getting blown up by a rocket, but after that it’s all about running away from raptors, as the kind man with the bloody hand shows us when he smashes on Dearing’s window and tells her to drive off.

Later on, after Delta mauls Hoskins to death and chases Grady, Dearing and the kids out into the open, the remaining raptor squad corners the humans as the I-Rex looms. After Grady removes the camera strapped on Blue’s head, all of a sudden the raptors see him as the alpha again, and they begin fighting the I-Rex.

Alright, look. There were a few things wrong with this final battle scene, but the most unforgiveable was how much it reeked of what I previously called “Hollywood crap.” The raptors are given hero-like qualities, seemingly understanding the danger the humans are under and choosing to defend them to the death. Rexy appears pretty much out of fan service and also takes on hero-like qualities. This is the point where the film gets a little ridonkulous. Let’s remember that these are actual animals we’re (supposedly) dealing with, with instincts and behaviors that shouldn’t feel like a human mind has been put into them. This is why I don’t think TLW gets the credit it deserves, since it did a good job at showing the animals as animals. JW tries its hand at this, too, but this battle scene is where it gets way off track. So not only did Blue understand what she had strapped to her head, but she also recognized that Grady removing it was meaningful enough to switch loyalty, from a dinosaur with partial raptor DNA, back to a human? Either Blue and Grady had some strong bonding before the events of the film (maybe this is where the imprinting comes in), or we have to accept that this flies in the face of logic. I’m split. I can hold my suspension of disbelief, but at the same time, these thoughts immediately pinged into my mind during my first watch of the movie.

Anyway, all the raptors but one are mincemeat by the end of the movie anyway. I’ll give credit to JW for trying to take things in a different direction, but I wish the movie had explained more of the raptor’s role on the island. Why weren’t they shown to visitors? Why was Masrani so terrified of unleashing raptors on the island? What happened to the original JP raptors? Again, see my “needs more exposition” points earlier.

THE I-REX (Chekhov’s dinosaur?)

“Think it will scare the kids?”

“This will give the parents nightmares.”

Dearing and Masrani

Chekhov’s dinosaur: If there is a large, booming carnivore in the first act, it must escape later on. If it’s not going to escape, why is it there? The JP saga take on Chekhov’s Gun.

Anyway, jokes aside, the Indominus Rex (sarcasm points for the total lack of subtlety in its name) is the heart of JW. And it’s bad ass. It’s loud, unique, white, fearsome, vicious, and it looks amazing on the silver screen. This is where JW really hit it out of the park. Seeing this behemoth in 3D IMAX, with its footsteps shaking the sides of the theater, brought me right into the magic of the JP saga. It put chills down my arms.

On top of that, I think you could argue it was well-executed conceptually, too. It behaves like a movie monster, but we’re given some relatively solid reasons as to why that is. It has “powers,” but we also get the JP typical answer for them: “Oh, it’s the genes we used.” It’s also mega-intelligent (and the humans are mostly mega-stupid). Interestingly, the movie throws us a curve ball at the end when Hoskins reveals that the I-Rex was designed as a weapon, which wraps up all of its personality traits quite nicely. But let’s talk about those first.

Thanks to the precedence set by the previous JP movies (JP3’s Spinosaurus notwithstanding), the animals usually don’t behave like typical “movie monsters,” which is to say, typically non-human creatures that are overly destructive, aggressive and wreak havoc for no reason other than to make a good movie. As I mentioned before, TLW avoids this trope best by making the behavior of the T-Rexes motivated by their territorial and paternal instincts, not because they necessarily want to kill all humans.

With JW, there are a lot of deliberately and (probably) carefully placed plot points that justify why the I-Rex is behaving like a psychotic murder machine. To list a few of them:

Raised in captivity (a small enclosure for its size nonetheless).



Raised in isolation.



Unsocialized (and aggressive enough to cannibalize its sibling).



Knows nothing of the world besides the (mechanized) hand that feeds it.



It was designed that way. Wu, to Masrani: “You cannot have an animal with exaggerated predator features without the corresponding behavioral traits.”



Grady is the one that initially points this out, when viewing the enclosure with Dearing. To be honest, his remarks almost instill a sense of sympathy for the animal. As if you almost feel bad for it being raised in a relatively unhealthy environment. A real-world counterpart would be big cats who are given a tiny cage for their entire life, when the territorial range of the animals is typically many multitudes larger. Which, surprise surprise, can result in abnormal behavior.

“Monster is a relative term. To a canary, a cat is a monster. We’re just used to being the cat.”

Wu to Masrani

Her upbringing, so to speak, combined with the fact she was designed as a weapon, makes her bloodthirst logical. JW really tries to cover its tracks on this one, and thanks to that effort, the animal has a reason to behave “Hollywood-esque.” Even better is that this animal isn’t even natural and was entirely designed by humans, which gives it an excuse to act like a typical movie monster. But JW still tries to give context to its actions.

Except for its intelligence. The I-Rex’s ability to camouflage and hide its thermal signature are explained by Wu midway through the movie as genetic abnormalities thanks to the species used to fill out the animal’s DNA. Again, we can accept this because it makes sense in the logical realm of the JP saga. But its intelligence, its other “power,” is harder to swallow.

To highlight this, let’s walk through the scene where the I-Rex “claws out its tracking implant.” The premise is that the I-Rex is highly intelligent, but it becomes so smart it’s stupid in this scene. To refresh, the I-Rex removes its implant, then camouflages from the Asset Containment Unit before murking all of them. Grady and Dearing have this exchange:

“It’s her tracking implant. She clawed it out,” Grady said.

“How would it know to do that?” Dearing said.

“She remembered where they put it in,” Grady said.

The rex then proceeds to emerge from the bushes and kill every member of the ACU.

Ooooook, let’s hit the brakes for a second. The I-Rex is smart, but does she have human intelligence? Let’s analyze this “tracking implant” thing. In order for this scene to have happened, the I-Rex needs to have the intelligence to know the following:

1. The humans are monitoring her. It knows this and knows what the concept of monitoring is.

2. The blinking bulb that they put in is how they are monitoring her. It has to be able to associate this implant with the concept of monitoring.

3. She knows exactly where this blinking bulb is in her body.

4. She knows that they will use this blinking bulb to locate her soon after her escape. She knows she is supposed to remain in her enclosure, and she knows they will come after her with weaponry.

5. She understands all the nuance and context of these things.

6. She is so sure of the humans’ actions that she sets a trap and waits to capture the humans with their pants down. And she knows how to do these things.

Now, we don’t know what happened in the I-Rex’s paddock from infancy to her growth stage in the movie, but these conditions are difficult to believe regardless. It’s hard to justify this type of behavior. It makes the beast go from “intelligent animal” to “monster that operates outside logic.” You might be able to stretch it and say she clawed out her implant because it irritated her and that waiting for and camouflaging from the ACU team was a fluke, but I think that’s a little silly. So either this behavior annoys you and detracts from the quality of the movie, or you bite the bullet, create an excuse for it and accept that it’s a device to help the plot move along.

Being a skin deep summer blockbuster, there are a lot of things like this in the movie, but none as egregious as the implant scene. Here’s another fun one: Why does a zoo with dangerous and large animals in it not have double door configurations on all the paddocks, like the ones in the raptor cage?

Other than these inevitable blunders, it’s a unique entry in the JP saga. It’s a new rex, and it helps make JW distinct. You can’t have a JP saga movie without a behemoth predator, so JW went ahead and made a new one, and it kicks ass. The I-Rex is everything about what makes the JP saga so heart-thumping.

When it’s revealed toward the end that the I-Rex was designed as a weapon, ostensibly via an InGen coup that operates in the shadows of Wu’s lab (does Masrani even have control of his park?), it opens up a whole realm of possibilities. Will we be seeing more of them in later movies? Will they be deployed? Will there be a squadron of smaller I-Rexes?

RE: CLAIRE DEARING AND THE STRONG FEMALE LEAD

As is usual in this modern age, combining the fanfare of a new, popular movie starring a female lead with message boards and social media will undoubtedly incite the Internet masses to form a whole spectrum of opinions about what sociocultural –isms and –types that female character represents. And of course, it did. There are a lot of heated discussions about Dearing, complete with the sort of vitriol and brusque unwillingness to hear the other side’s arguments that are so common on the Internet. I don’t really care about the topic, since the attention it’s been getting seems a little ridiculous, but since everyone wants to contribute their two cents, here’s what I have to say about Howard’s role.

Even though I wasn’t a big fan of her actual performance, Howard’s role is admittedly complex. There are various unfair stressors acting upon Dearing, yet the character mostly maintains composure. She’s a business bad ass: She manages to run a park with 20,000+ guests, convince representatives of large corporations that they want to sponsor an attraction and she’s in charge of making split-second decisions about the integrity of the park. Now, you can say she made poor decisions about the park (like not immediately evacuating the visitors when the I-Rex got out), but Masrani also made similar poor decisions. Both characters are making decisions about the future of the park during an incredibly stressful situation – decisions that could lead to bankrupting and closing the park (such as evacuating it and causing a panic, etc.) Granted, that’s probably going to happen anyway, but Dearing is not acting alone in these decisions. In other words, she’s not “a woman who makes some stupid decisions,” she’s “part of a team of operations managers who make stupid decisions.” And part of the nature of JW is that we aren’t privy to the details of how she’s managed the park before the movie. By all accounts, she’s managed a park of 20,000 visitors for years, so she must have been doing something right until the fatal mistakes in the movie.

She has broken a huge glass ceiling by being the head cheese of JW. In this sense, she’s kind of a positive icon, especially considering JW does not really sexualize her, in fact going the opposite way to give her a sense of wardrobe identity that doesn’t cling to curves – the white labcoat-esque getup she wears (at least until she turns native midway through the movie). Yeah, I get it, this is supposed to show that she’s a sterile character in a world of jungle, but it’s also a unique sense of identity, and I’d turn my head if she walked into a room like that. Dearing seems to project that she is very much in control of her image, and the white robes get it done because it’s distinctly her. Why would she dress like she’s ready to romp through the jungle if she’s in labs and control rooms all day?

She also doesn’t take shit from anyone.

Yet, she’s ostracized by her sister for not wanting children, which is amusing given that her sister can’t even maintain a healthy parental environment for her kids. If that wasn’t enough, she’s talked down to by Grady because they differ in sensibilities. Much of her early character development hinges on her viewing of the park’s animals as “assets,” not living things, which earns scorn from Grady. Of course, she later “learns her lesson,” but is the fact she sees the massive and difficult-to-maintain park in terms of statistics really that egregious? Does she deserve to be made the fool for this? Because the movie is trying to call her calculating and heartless in these examples, especially when combined with her inability to remember her nephews’ ages.

On the flip side, she’s reliant on the wise-cracking Grady for most of the movie, which is unfortunately compounded by the forced love interest subplot – not only does she rely on the buff man child for survival, but she’s also emotionally intertwined with him by the end. And JW handles this with about the complexity of high school fan fiction. There’s nothing interesting about their romance. It’s bottom-of-the-barrel Hollywood boiler plate nonsense. Compare it to Grant and Sattler’s relationship (or more accurately, their are-they-aren’t-they interactions) in the first film, which had nuance, moments of true bonding and strengthened the film without rubbing the viewer’s nose in it. JW ends with Grady and Dearing staying together, as if there’s no other option for either of them, and as if it were impossible for her to stay independent.

In the end, Dearing is the bona fide hero of the film, risking her life to lure Rexy out of her paddock to combat the I-Rex. This action is courageous and selfless, so it shines exceptionally well for her character. This moment is what makes her so important to JW, and by finally saving both her nephews, Grady and the rest of the visitors from the I-Rex, I’d say this makes her an icon. In fact, I’d say JW is more about her character arc than Grady’s. Grady is more of a foil. He’s the same wise-cracking, knowledgeable jungle man throughout the entire movie, while Dearing undergoes some notable disposition changes. Even if some of those changes are annoying and pandering.

Also, the elephant in the room: Yes, Howard spends a ton of time running in heels over the course of JW, highlighted when she lures Rexy out of her paddock. According to various sources, this was a deliberate move by Howard, as a way to give a sense of character to Dearing. Check out this quote from Howard on zap2it:

“Something that spoke to me about the character felt like, every once in a while, a person comes along who says they can run in heels better than they can run in sneakers, and I think that’s who this person is,” Howard says. “Something that seems to be a handicap, ultimately, is her greatest strength and a source of her power in that she is wicked fast at the end. So I couldn’t deny that, and so had to really practice running in heels because that’s not something — that’s not a skill I was born with.”

Now, let me say that this isn’t exactly a subtle way to symbolize female empowerment, but we’ll have to accept that. But is it actually meaningful, in the end? You’ll have to decide that for yourself. Because the Internet gets very angry about whether this means she’s a feminist icon or not.

ADDRESSING PLOT HOLES, PACING, ACTING, TONE, CHARACTERIZATION AND OTHER ANNOYING FILM-RELATED THINGS

If you’re a fanboy/girl who’s easily butt hurt, this section is not for you. I love the JP saga. It was a defining thing in my youth, to the point I used to make Lego re-enactments of various scenes. I support the series 100 percent. And I still love it.

But that doesn’t mean I can just shut off the critical side of my brain and forget about annoying flaws of JW. This section will discuss some of the problems I had with the movie, as well as general observations that don’t fit into what I’ve already talked about.

First, let’s go over pacing. This one is weird. For the type of movie it is, JW had pretty good pacing. That is, it had good pacing for a 90-minute action movie where the plot is skin deep at most. It moved things along quickly.

But, its pacing doesn’t really compete with JP or TLW (JP3’s a different story). The first film took time to slow things down and let the perceived wonder of the park seep in. It was full of subtlety and deeper characters, so when the dinosaurs showed up on screen, there was more at stake. JW is more rapid-fire, trying to get the most “oh snap!” moments out of rampaging dinosaurs as it could. Part of this is the nature of being a finished, fully-functional theme park, but it doesn’t take much time to properly pace itself. There’s less suspense. Let’s take a look at the scene where the I-Rex attacks the kids in the gyro sphere and compare it to JP’s scene where Rexy attacks the kids’ Explorer (a natural comparison, right?).

In JP, everything from the carnivore’s reveal to the actual physical attack to the huffing and puffing it does is more drawn out, and it makes it much more satisfying. Rexy takes time to sniff things out and satisfy her curiosity (and appetite) before getting mad. In JW, the I-Rex shows up out of nowhere (no classic impact tremors to alert the kids?), and things literally start moving fast from that point on, thanks to how it kicks the gyro sphere like a soccer ball. Admittedly, the phone ringing in the upside down sphere works really well, but the I-Rex trashes the ball in a matter of seconds before it’s off to the next scene. Even comparable vehicle attacks in the other movies (Spinosaurus attacking the plane, T-Rex parents pushing the trailer off the cliff) are better done.

It’s a problem that the movie suffers from on a whole. It’s why I enjoyed the Wu and Masrani scene so much – their exchange in the laboratory was a rare point in the movie when the larger picture of the JP saga seeps in and the characters really become themselves.

There is one notable exception: The first time we see the I-Rex. This scene, which had a curious Masrani and informed Dearing talking about the animal, doesn’t really show us the dinosaur. We see parts of it, but more importantly, the characters tell us what the animal is like while chilling growls and swaying fauna fill the screen. This scene works so well because it’s classic JP – it’s carried by the subtlety of the acting and the unrevealing cinema, while still making the unseen dinosaur feel ferocious and mysterious. And the soundtrack tenses the scene even more, thanks to a composition that puts you on edge. It’s the “where’s the goat?” of JW.

On the topic of pacing, here’s an easily-missed detail that grinds my gears: Shortly after the Pterosaur attack, when Grady reverses the park vehicle down a narrow road as visitors stampede just feet away, the film cuts from broad daylight to night. The next scene is where the raptors go to hunt the I-Rex, but we are given zero clues as to why it’s suddenly night. What happened during that time? The I-Rex had been moving at a quick pace toward the center of the park. Wouldn’t it have reached the park in the time between daylight and night? Granted, yes, that raptor hunt scene works tremendously well with a night time backdrop, but there’s no rhyme or reason for the characters to have been doing nothing in those hours from day to night.

Think about the other time shift in the movie. After the I-Rex is defeated, the movie cuts to the next morning. This makes sense, as the antagonist is dead, and the movie has time to breath before its next logical step (although there’s still a raptor and a T-Rex loose). But to cut from day to night when there’s a rampaging dino on the loose doesn’t make much sense.

Speaking of nonsense, it’s absolutely ridiculous that Masrani isn’t privy to the genetic makeup of his own park’s dinosaurs. Wu tells Masrani he isn’t “at liberty” to tell him the genes that went into the I-Rex. This is batty. This could be a sane plot point, if we were given any reason at all for it. But we’re not. Is the genetics lab not a part of Masrani Global? If not, why, and why doesn’t Masrani get to know what’s in his dinosaurs? Is the genetics lab part of InGen? If so, why does InGen get to hide the genetic makeup of the dinosaurs? And if they do get to hide the genetic makeup, what kind of a wacky, shadowy relationship is there between InGen and Masrani Global?

But, none of these are answered. We’re given no reasoning. Heck, apparently Wu and Hoskins are the only ones who know what the I-Rex is. Grady, Dearing and Masrani are all in the dark, which is just stupid considering two of those people run the damn park.

And let’s talk about the purple bruise on all JP saga movies: The children. When I first heard that the movie was going to have kids in it, I was disappointed but unsurprised. The JP saga has opted to put one or two children into the plot since its inception, and they do little more than get in the way and act as the catalysts for the adult characters to become protective. Replace them, and I think the saga would have significantly more depth to it.

Notably, the kids in JW are just a mess of loose plot threads. Zach Mitchell’s (Nick Robinson) main qualities are that he’s a teen boy who likes to ogle girls and bully his younger brother, at least until his evolution during the trauma of JW’s events. Except for the ogling girls part, since it’s more of a running gag than something that changes or adds any depth to his character.



Gray is an emotional enigma. At the start of the movie, he knows exactly how long it takes to get to the airport, which is kind of jarring. Originally Gray was supposed to have been autistic, which would help explain some of his behaviors, but that concept was dropped. So instead we get an energetic boy who says bizarre things sometimes. We see him cry about his parents’ upcoming divorce while on the monorail (and we see his brother’s half-assed attempt to calm him down), but that disappears from the movie after that scene. Like Kelly in TLW, these kids appear to be there just for the sake of being there. They both feel half-baked and poorly motivated besides the intrinsic objective of “survive.”

Boo. How PG. Another PG thing unique to the JP saga (and this is by no means a slight, just an observation) is the violence. It’s never too gory. Even when Eddie Carr is being torn asunder by fully-grown T-Rexes in TLW. Granted, JW has some pretty terrible deaths – the first I-Rex victim spraying blood like a faucet is a bad one, for example. And the next guy in line, the chunkier dude who tries to hide behind the truck and kisses his cross necklace, is humanized in a tragic way before he’s chomped up.

Then of course there’s Zara Young’s (Katie McGrath) death, which scores two points for its traumatizing nature. First, she was the first woman in the JP movie saga to die on-screen, and second, her death was torturous and drawn out. And did I mention she was planning her wedding the day she died?

But while these deaths were traumatizing, none were that gory. Which is fine, although I’d appreciate more gore.

Next, I want to address plot holes and annoying details within the movie. I don’t take enjoyment in this, but it has to be done. I won’t go too into detail; I’ll just list them because if you’ve read reviews of this movie before, you are probably familiar with them.

Dearing doesn’t just call the command center and get confirmation on the I-Rex’s location before leaving her exhibit and before Grady and the park workers enter the enclosure.



leaving her exhibit and Grady and the park workers enter the enclosure. Are the gyrospheres on a predetermined path or not? Why are Zach and Gray given free rein to control it, especially when the park closes down?



Why does the I-Rex’s sense of smell and thermal detection seem to appear and disappear at random?



How can Dearing outrun Rexy? In JP, Hammond said they clocked Rexy at 32 miles per hour. Do Dearing’s heels make her Sonic the Hedgehog?



Why do the raptors change allegiance so easily?



Those Jeeps wouldn’t be able to be repaired, sorry.



Apparently the Mosasaurus can jump up and attack visitors at any time it chooses to, but it only hops out to consume the I-Rex?



There was a loose T-Rex on the island during the evacuation the following morning, and nothing was done about it?



As someone who recently took a bath in diesel fuel (only a slight exaggeration), how in the world did Grady clean himself after cutting the fuel lines under that car? Or did he spend the whole movie like that (disgusting, trust me)?



There was no other qualified person on the island to fly a helicopter besides Masrani? Even with InGen taking over?



There are more to note, but you get the picture. The important thing about all of these is that they can all be answered by two words: “movie logic.” Indeed, many of the criticisms I’ve raised throughout this post can use this excuse. Let’s remember that this movie is a summer blockbuster. Either you’re going to enjoy it for the ride, or you’re going to nitpick it and call it horse shit. That is your choice. Some of these inconsistencies are minor annoyances, while some are obvious and stop the movie flat. Whether or not you’re comfortable with them and can still enjoy the movie is also up to you.

Finally, one of the underwhelming things in JW was that both the leads delivered such boring performances. I’m a fan of Pratt thanks to Parks and Recreation, but he didn’t do much for this movie besides look good and sound tough. Grady is a flat character. He doesn’t do much besides be the “action movie guy” who contrasts the out-of-touch corporate minds who run the park. He’s rugged, he knows how to handle a gun, he knows how to handle animals and he’s a wise ass. And that’s all he does. He doesn’t have an arc in which he changes.



And Howard, whose work I’m not familiar with, didn’t seem to put any believability into her acting. Even if her character had more going for her than Grady (see the “Claire Dearing” section). For example, I don’t know why she smiled when she (lifelessly) said “It tried to break the glass,” not to mention, no shit it tried to break the glass. Expand more, please. Tell us when it tried. Or the circumstances. Or why it couldn’t. Expose.

So some of the problems here are writing, but that’s not a “get out of jail free” card. When Richard Attenborough spoke the famous “Welcome to Jurassic Park,” he did it with so much emotion, and you could see the wonder of his character in his eyes. When Howard says “Welcome to Jurassic World,” it feels flat and uninspired. Then again, that could be the point, considering that Dearing spends the first act of the film as the flat, no-nonsense business women. But I don’t know if that’s a good excuse. Ditto with Pratt’s line “They’re dinosaurs. Wow enough.” In the cut for theaters, it sounds like he says “They’re dinosaurs wow enough” with seemingly no dramatic pause or inflection. It’s odd for Pratt, especially given that the official global trailer showcased a different take of this same line of dialogue that was delivered with much better emphasis. I have trouble believing both actors flopped on this, so I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt and say it was 70 percent writing’s fault and 30 percent acting. Case in point, Dearing declaring that Cruthers’ workspace “feels chaotic” is not clever (it’s fun, though). But it think it’s clever, especially with Howard’s emphasis, which makes you feel like you’re being hit over the head with a sign that says “JURASSIC PARK REFERENCE LOL.”

Also, why is Dearing out of breath in nearly any scene involving the slightest exertion? She twists her body like a contortionist when Masrani takes off in his helicopter, and then she can barely breathe. We get it, he’s a bad pilot. Show us some subtlety in your body language. She’s out of breath opening the back doors of the containment vehicle in the raptor scene. She’s gasping for air after pulling the trigger and downing a Pterosaur. She looks to be a reasonably fit person. Why are those things knocking her wind out?

And I’m only tough on these roles because I’ve seen what this saga is capable of – Malcolm, Grant, Sattler and Hammond in the first movie were all so diverse, independent and unique that they made the film really sing. And while TLW’s characters may have needed some focus, they were still relatively three-dimensional. And then there’s JP3.

Note that many of the secondary characters were more vibrant than the leads. Masrani was a delightful guy, and Khan made the character light up. Hoskins was a sinister, exploitative dude, but D’Onofrio gave the role some complexity. Wong has knocked Wu out of the park (so to speak) both times he’s played the scientist, being a sort of lawful evil character in JW. Johnson’s character Cruthers, while mostly being fan service, was a fun side show. Johnson made it his own.

POTENTIAL FUTURE PLOTLINES

JW clearly sets itself up for a sequel. Wu gets off the island with his specimens, is assured he’ll be “taken good care of,” the fate of the park is looking dismal and various characters know about the plans to use the I-Rex/raptors as a weapon. The movie practically rubs the word sequel in your face.

I started writing this section before JW’s sequel was announced. So I had a few ideas kicking around, which I’ll include for novelty’s sake. But so far, this is what we know about the already-confirmed second installment of JW:

It’s got a June 22, 2018 release date. Trevorrow is not directing it, but will be co-writing it. Steven Spielberg will again be executive producing it. Howard and Pratt will both star in it again. It’s taking the saga in a new direction, going off-island, possibly including weaponized dinos, possibly including “open-source” genetics and possibly including dinosaurs living in co-existence with humans in the wild (i.e., instead of “don’t go into that forest, there are tigers,” it would be “don’t go into that forest, there are dinosaurs.”)

These new ideas stem from the idea that you can’t have humans running from dinosaurs on islands forever. JW itself already began distancing the saga from this, so it’s only natural for progression to take over. Will these new ideas capture the magic of the older films? I don’t see why not, unless you let nostalgia cloud your vision. Like JW, it’s a matter of balancing the series’ heritage with its development. I’d like to see a lot more depth in the next movie, for one thing.

Anyway, here are the JW2 ideas I had before the news came.

One possible avenue is a prequel, which fills in the sequence gaps (so to speak) between JP3 and JW. It would answer various questions about the integrity of InGen, how Masrani Global was formed, etc. but it would most importantly show us how JP became JW – the corralling of the animals on the island, set up of the park and other preparatory things. In other words, it could be a Revenge of the Sith of the JP saga. A version of TLW in which things work out. The problem arises when you consider that this hypothetical movie must still follow basic conflict/resolution storytelling. Beginning this movie, the audience would know the ending, but everything from the first frame onward would still have to have the hypothetical characters begin their task and, in typical JP saga fashion, everything would then go kaput. But then, there would have to be an additional leg of the story in which control is regained, and the island is secured. Maybe it could work with some creative storytelling, but it seems out of character for the JP saga, where usually the movies end with everything destroyed.

I desperately want some closure on what’s going on at Isla Sorna (“Site B”), the location where TLW and JP3 take place. Hammond announces that Sorna will become a biological preserve at the end of TLW, but what does that mean? By the time JW rolls around, has the island been disturbed? Have there been tragedies there, spurred by curious travelers wanting to disembark on the island (this is how JP3 starts)? How does the Costa Rican government handle it? I’d wager there’s still mysteries and content there to be explored, although it doesn’t seem likely the saga will revisit it.

But with Trevorrow’s recent interviews, I think we have a general idea of what’s to come. Let’s leave it at that for now, because, well, it’s another three years from now.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

What spurred me to write 11,000 words about JW is that I have an immense appreciation and love for the JP saga. No matter the criticisms I levy or the shots I took at the movie in this post, I did it out of respect for the series. Like I said at the beginning, I liked JW. It captured elements of the awe and wonder of the first film while still being its own entry. The fact is, it’s a rager of a movie with loud, angry giants stomping through it, and that gets the blood pumping. JW was a godsend for the saga – after more than a decade of development hell, the series finally got a new entry. It was fresh, it reinvigorated the concept while retaining canon and most importantly, it dominated. Third highest-grossing movie of all time. Highest grossing opening weekend ever. $1.6+ billion worldwide. That’s monumental news for the saga. It gives it a super shot of steroids. It means every studio in the world suddenly wants to develop the next movie. It means it has all the support it currently needs.

With that territory comes the possible watering down of the magic of the saga. JW suffered from this already, which is the root of most of my complaints about the movie. Lack of compelling characters was probably JW’s biggest mistake, because it had so much more potential. Still, it was about what I expected it to be. And let’s be clear: JW is not alone with its flaws. JP had them, even if it was more ironed out. TLW had them. And JP3 was known for them. But this isn’t a post about the flaws of those movies.

I don’t hate or even dislike JW for its flaws. It’s something to come to terms with, but like JP3, I could never fail to enjoy the movie because there are problems with it. JW is the culmination of the three previous movies and of Hammond’s dream, so seeing the park completed is spectacular. What it does right, it does supremely right. It captures the essence of a world where dinosaurs can exist, and the ride it takes you along on is fleshed out enough that it’s hard to dislike the movie. It’s not too nuanced, but it is distinctly Jurassic Park. And it’s Jurassic Park for a new generation. Sure, there’s stuff for the oldies in it, but JW balanced a bright future with a historic past, and we got a relatively solid dino action flick out of it. That’ll do.

(Source: s-o-n-de-r)