Jurassic World

For the next week, leading up to Christmas, I would like to do one blog post a day to make up for my long absence, and as a Christmas gift to you all (because I just know this is what you've always wanted 😜).

So I watched the first two Jurassic Park movies not too long before I saw the new Jurassic World.

My fisrt impression was that the dinosaurs and the environment were much better quality. Not that the originals were extremely fake, but the dinosaurs in Jurassic World were monstrous and very well made. They got much more screen time, which actually had quite a different impact on the feel of the movie. Instead of the whole thing being psychological like the original movie, where you are watching the people enter dangerous situations and waiting for the dinosaurs to appear and strike, this took the gore and jump scares of the second movie to a whole new level. The technology allowed for the dinosaurs to be on screen far more, and to do much more than before.

This leads me to my next impression, that this movie was way bloodier. The kill count was much higher than any of the others, especially thanks to the flying dino attack. But that wasn't the only gory aspect. The deaths were mainly on screen. The poor woman who had to "babysit" the boy was disgustingly eaten in view of all the park visitors and the audience members. I don't understand why so many parents would have taken their kids to this movie to begin with, but after that I was certain they were regretting it. All this 6-8 year old kids that said they watched it began to worry me.

But let's move on from the visuals and talk about the story. The idea that after so many years of success at the park, the scientists would decide to create their own dinosaur actually seemed quite fitting. We know that they did a lot of genetic manipulation to bring their dinosaurs to life to begin with, and with the advancement in technology you don't have to stretch your imagination much to see how they could create a new dinosaur. And of course, as any good classic literature will teach you, when you mess with nature and try to play God, things go wrong. And so the Indominus Rex becomes a menace to the park.

I would like to take a moment to say that (spoiler alert) I appreciated that the Indominus was a mix of raptor and T-Rex. This not k lay made it the most dangerous dinosaur in the park, but it solved a problem that I had with the original movies. My problem was this: the characters never seemed to know which dinosaur they feared more. Of course they're both dangerous, but the main object of their fears kept changing. This movie proved that the raptors are very dangerous, and so are the T-Rexes, but the Indominus was worse than both...until they worked together.

(Still spoiler alert). Another great classic literature trope in the man versus nature theme which this movie used was "the abomination must go" (and no, I've never heard it called that, but that's basically what it is). The man-made creature is by natural and this it is not allowed to survive.

THIS PART SHALL BE SPOILER FREE. My problem with this movie was the lack of character development. The action was great, but it took away time from the characters. We didn't really get a clear picture of the relationship between the main characters. Also, they suddenly just seem to fall for each other without us really seeing any reason for their relationship to change. Sure, they have to rely on each other to survive, but they go straight from fighting to kissing. Why?

Besides, the nephews didn't get enough development. Plus, I noticed that each boy reflected a part of the aunt's personality. For most of the movie, their aunt pushed them away because she was too focus on work to have time for family. When the boys end up in danger she realizes her mistake. But they never get the time to bond and realize that they are so much like her. It would have made for a really good family connecting moment.

I think that overall the writers were far too focussed on the tech they could use and the scares they could put into the movie. Still, it makes some really great nods to the original series. In fact, they essentially admit to the fact that they've added the genetic my modified dinosaur just so that they can make money off of it.

If you liked the original Jurassic Park movies, this is just an updated version of those. It's a good movie if you want action, and a few good scared. It's tense, but it ends well.