Charles Darwin knew the score. In Chapter 11 of his famous and brilliant book, The Origin of Species, published in 1859, he wrote, “We can clearly understand why a species once lost should never reappear, even if the very same conditions of life, organic and inorganic, should recur.” But despite Darwin’s warning, the evil, greedy corporations of the Jurassic Park films kept bringing species of dinosaurs and other extinct lizards back to life.
In many of the films, Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) plays the role of those ancient oracles who warned of impending catastrophe, only to be ignored. With, of course, predictable results. Thus are movies born.*
Following up on my earlier post, here are some comments about the last three films in the JP franchise. After a hiatus of 14 years and a third JP film that was, to many fans, disappointing, the franchise got a long-overdue reboot. And the CGI and animatronics were stunning (as in all subsequent films)! But could it continue the success of the first reboot? And could it keep alive the fan passion? Well, sort of, although the sequels could never capture the sense of wonder we got from seeing the original.
One thing I forgot to mention is that, with the first film released in ’93, no one had a mobile/cell phone. It’s almost quaint: people have to talk to one another, not text. Even though mobiles were becoming more common by 2001, when JP3 was released, there were only about 740 million in use worldwide, and coverage was still spotty, even in the West. It wasn’t even until 2007 that the first iPhone was released. That’s why the cast was digging through dino dung in JP3 to find the semi-digested satellite phone. But by the time of JW, below, there were more than seven billion mobile phones in use and coverage was about 95%. In 2000, there were about 400 million internet users; which had grown to 3.2 billion by 2015.
Jurassic World was released in 2015 after a long hiatus of 14 years. Fans went crazy for it, spiking the IMDB rating to 6.9, the second-highest (also no. 2 on RottenTomatoes at 71%). It wasn’t just the dinosaurs and the advanced CGI (the original JP film had a mere 6 minutes of CGI in it and relied on puppets and animatronics as well); instead of rehashing previous plots (which they did, somewhat), JW introduced new ideas, new dinosaurs, new villains, and a whole new cast (none of the original cast returning). InGen is again the corporate vampire (or whatever monster analogy you prefer), albeit with a new and more aggressive CEO. And like in JP 1-3, there’s the overarching theme of hubris: that humans can control and conquer nature and turn everything wild into a tame zoo animal.
Chris Pratt plays Owen Grady in a predictable, macho cardboard cutout way (I am not a fan of his real-life religious zeal, either); I preferred his romantic interest, the corporate drone Bryce Dallas Howard (Claire Dearing). She takes rather too long in the film to re-humanize, and becomes a sex symbol (which she does well; there’s a sharp beauty-and-the-beast moment at 1:49:35: she is dishevelled, glistening wet, in torn outfit, bare leg showing, while two predatory dinos — the “boss fight” in gaming terms —battle above her…). Grady also plays a similar role to Dr. Malcolm in being the harbinger of doom to whom none of the corporate overlords listen. but Grady’s more macho, with better guns. For all the guns vs dinos, guns don’t ever win.
The big idea here was that the company and science behind JP had continued, with the location exploited by the corporation; evolved into a massive, upscaled Disney-World-like zoo and theme park on Isla Nubar. This, of course, leads to the JWE PC games about park design, development, management, and breeding dinos. And there’s a lot of content thrown about in the film about park management and presentation that relates back to the games. The evil corporation trope is similar, and like in JP1 the CEO is a Good Guy but there are Evil Employees.
The big issue thrown in here is the genetic modifications to create hybrid dinos; essentially hacking the dino DNA to create new species (particularly Indominus rex, which becomes the Big Scary Monster of the film). Going back to the Frankenstein theme, this tinkering proves disastrous and I. Rex turns on its makers. But before we see the Monster and its escape, we get to see raptor wrangler Owen training the smaller species, the relationship between Owen and the raptors would become a part of this and the next two movies. Again, the raptors are presented as intelligent, trainable, able to communicate with one another, hunting in coordinated packs, and showing loyalty.
With a new place, a new cast, and a whole lot better CGI to breathe life into the franchise, JW was a stunning success. New dinos, flocks of pterosaurs attacking panicked crowds of people, a shark-eating, Pteranodon-eating, and guest-eating Mosasaur … what’s not to like? And, as expected, there are the corporate goons… who fittingly meet their fate in the jaws of various dinosaurs.
If you have ever seen any Godzilla films, you will recognize the final clash of titans, when T. Rex and the I. Rex battle. One complaint levelled against the film is the “oversaturation” of dinosaurs. As the franchise progressed, the number of both species and individual dinosaurs increased, thanks in large part to increased computer capabilities. As noted on ScreenRant:
The oversaturation of CGI dinosaurs in the Jurassic World movies highlights the ways Spielberg truly succeeded in the original Jurassic Park: a precise sense of how to best use the dinosaurs on film and an effective balance of practical and computer effects. Spielberg knew how to maximize the power of dinosaurs appearing on-screen; in the entire 127 minute movie, only about 14 minutes actually depict the dinosaurs themselves. Much of the dinosaur-centered action occurs by brilliantly suggesting what is occurring just off-screen, denoting a sense of restraint in showing the creatures that none of the Jurassic World films have mirrored. The recently released prologue for Jurassic World: Dominion contains around five minutes of technically impressive dinosaur footage that simply fails to recapture the wow factor of the original.
And here’s one of the themes we’ve seen in many movie sequels: if one or just a very few monsters is good for the box office, then logically a dozen, or a hundred, will be a diamond mine! Just think of the Alien franchise or pretty much every zombie franchise. Or Godzilla…
But although it took the franchise in new directions well outside Crichton’s original story, overall, JW worked well (much like the remakes of The Planet of the Apes have done to that franchise). It had a lot of action, never got too preachy about the whole “don’t mess with nature” theme, and had a romantic ending. It also rekindled public affection for the franchise, made money, and raised the demand for even more sequels.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom came out in 2018, and received a 6.1 rating on IMDB (no. 5 on RottenTomatoes at 42%). Not bad, but not the blockbuster it could have been. It rehashed a lot of what had gone on before, and some of the dialogue could have been mailed in, but look: more dinosaurs! Fan sites have kept track of them, counting every one from the original six in JP1, to 30 species in JW (including the non-dinos like the mosasaur and pteranodon…).
Isla Nubar is going to experience a volcanic eruption, expected to wipe out all the dinosaurs, but as you might expect, some escape, As expected, an Evil Corporation tries to “rescue” some before the eruption in order to monetize them. Back to the battle of capitalism vs. environmentalists.
Despite some great, and often scary CGI, and a lot of frenetic action, it didn’t offer much new the previous films hadn’t offered, although what it did retread it did fairly well. And it really tried to put some enchantment back into the series (the first dino sighted by the “rescue” party is a brachiosaurus… a tip of the hat to the first film).
On the bright side, it brought back Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) albeit briefly at the start to utter warning words of doom, and repeat his warnings at the very end. It also brought back Chris Pratt as the macho Owen Grady and Bryce Dallas Howard as the somewhat slimmer and sexier Claire Dearing from the first JW film. Their romance, however, was over, although as expected, they get thrown together so it gets re-kindled… and thus the predictable rom-com scenes. That’s okay: the franchise has always had a romantic sub-plot that makes viewers feel good. It’s easier to care about a crusty raptor wrangler with a heart than without.
While John Hammond is now long dead, in his stead we get James Cromwell as the aged, wheelchair-bound, white-bearded Benjamin Lockwood, Hammond’s former partner now in charge of Hammond’s legacy and wants to “save” the dinos from the volcano. So Grady, Dearing and a couple of younger techies head over to Isla Nubar on a rescue mission. Lockwood has a grandchild (Maisie Lockwood played by Isabella Sermon: ) who (of course) has to get involved because what would a dinosaur-franchise film be without kids to save?
And the smart, vicious raptors? Blue, the dominant pack leader and Grady’s favourite, is still alive over there. Grady’s heart goes pitter-pat: he has to save Blue from the volcano. Yeah, and some other species, too. But then the Evil Corporation steps in and steals whatever they can grab — especially including Blue — to sell to the highest bidders (and Blue to weaponize their proposed hybrid, the Indoraptor) and the volcano appears to kill the rest. That moment of seeing the dinos crying on the shore as the lava speeds at them is very touching. Not quite tear-jerking like Spock dying in The Wrath of Khan, but close.
The final scene, with the auctioneers and buyers getting their just desserts is cool, and the chase scene with the Indoraptor is exciting, but because there’s a child involved, somewhat predictable despite the numerous jump scares. This is when Grady and Dearing finally reconnect, although for the moment the romance is a single, hurried kiss.
Learning Maisie is a clone is also cool, but so what? It doesn’t really play into this film. Will they make something of that in later films? A future film in which human and dino clones interact? Will there be a film about cloning humans with dino DNA? That would fulfill the QAnon conspiracy cultists’ fantasy about reptiloids in human skin.**
The film ends with the release of the captured (“rescued”) dinos into the mainland of California. This sets up the subsequent film(s?) about how modern humans live in a world where dinosaurs have returned to the wild. This is hardly a new idea: Jules Verne did it in Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1871); Conan Doyle did it in The Lost World (1912), Edgar Rice Burroughs did it in his Pellucidar (from 1914) and Caspak (from 1918) series, and when I was a child there was the Turok, Son of Stone comics (1954-82) with native Americans vs dinosaurs. True, all of those previous tales had their dinos is a smaller, much more restricted environment. Putting them at large in the wider world offers a lot of potential of renewed storytelling (like the revised Planet of the Apes films did for its franchise).
Overall JW:FK is a good film, albeit without much new or different, but with plenty of action and adventure to keep the audience engaged. It falls short by not quite letting Grady and Dearing reconnect better, and by leaving the business of Maisie being a clone unfinished. So let’s see how the franchise handled it in the next release (see below).
Jurassic World Dominion was a 2022 film, and the lowest-rated of them all in the franchise, at 5.9 on IMDB (no. 6 on RottenTomatoes at a scathingly low 29%). Somewhat unfair, given that it had to enter with the release of the dinosaurs into the modern world as set up by the last film. And it opens three decades after the events of the first JP film with the conflict between humans and dinos increasing: a fishing ship sunk by a mosasaur, a child in fear being chased by tiny compys, a stegosaur’s tail causing a car crash, pterosaurs harassing a wedding party. It looks like a war: humans versus dinos. There’s a pseudo-newscast about poaching, a black market in dinos, and dino devastation.
And a new corporation — Biosyn Genetics — becomes the Evil Corp under the guise of working to understand and save the dinos. Can’t have a Jurassic Park film without an evil corporation. Biosyn has a sanctuary in the mountains to research the dinos (and conduct its nefarious research) which is where the main and most exciting action will take place.
Owen, Claire, and Maisie are living in Owen’s backwoods, secluded cabin, and the adults are dealing with the growing teen angst of Maisie. Claire and fellow activists are shown freeing young animals from illegal dino breeders (their operators as reprehensible as those running today’s backyard puppy and kitten mills). Owen is still a dino wrangler, capturing a wild Parasaurolophus to bring it to safety. Owen and Claire are still in their romantic mode. And we learn criminals are hunting Maisie because she’s a clone. Of course, she gets kidnapped (but being a child, by Hollywood’s rules she has to survive).***
Blue is still alive in the winter woods, guarding and caring for her chick, teaching it to hunt. That and the genetically modified giant locusts who, it seems, were last seen in the Cretaceous (nah…). And, of course, the return of Drs. Grant and Sattler (Alan and Ellie from JP1). Call me an old romantic, but I really enjoyed seeing these two again, and seeing their romance rekindle (which develops as the film continues). Ellie and Alan must go to Biosyn’s enclave to uncover evidence that the company is engineering the locusts. They can get inside thanks to the presence of another returnee: the ver-sarcastic Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum). The band is getting back together!
Okay, the returning cast from JP1 had me hooked right away: it was a great decision to bring them back and provide continuity for fans who saw the first films, thirty years ago. Generations connected when everyone ends up at the Biosyn compound in the mountains like the famed Google campus but with dinos (and some pelycosaurs, inappropriately living in the dark caves and climbing). It seems like a cool place but it’s more like a James Bond villain’s lab and its CEO (Lewis Dodgson, played by Campbell Scott) is a mix of a Bond villain and Steve Jobs. We learn Biosyn released some of the locusts and they’re spreading and Dodgson doesn’t seem to care.****
The climax is a rather predictable and somewhat overly-long action-filled ending with lots of running, fighting, jump scares, and, of course, dinosaurs. Lots of energy gets expended, often in spectacular ways (like the swarm of burning locusts). And the Bad Guys meet their ends appropriately while the Good Guys survive. People get reunited (the two parts of the franchise melded) and Blue gets reunited with her child. It’s all very heartwarming, despite the occasional disembowelling of villains (Dodgson’s demise is particularly apt). And then there’s the Boss battle at the very end as giant theropods fight while humans scramble underneath to avoid them. Plus the romantic finale… and, of course the reunion between Blue and her offspring.
The message the film tries to impart (and driven home at the close) is that humans and other species have to learn to co-exist, be they dinosaurs or other animals. That’s a tough sell to its gun-obsessed, happy-to-kill-for-fun American audience. The NRA won’t let them even contemplate co-existence with animals when there are guns to be sold.*****
JWD is better than the reviews suggest, especially on second or third viewings. It left a lot open for a sequel, Jurassic World 4: Rebirth, starring Scarlett Johansson. To date I’m not aware of the plot, the dinos (new, if any), or if any of the current stars will return. Watch for a review here sometime later in the coming year.
Next: my thoughts on two of the Jurassic World Evolution games for the PC.
Notes:
* Darwin knew the score about a lot more than just extinction, of course, and we owe him a debt of gratitude for his theory of evolution through natural selection. Without Darwin, none of these movies or games would have been made and schools would still be teaching ancient religious myths about biology and the Invisible Sky God. I realize quoting Darwin will send creationists into a tizzy because even though they have never read him or the book, it’s easier for them to demonize him and his ideas when they don’t know or understand what they are. But I trust you, dear reader, is not that ignorant and has read at least excerpts from Darwin.
** No, they are not conspiracy “theorists.” That suggests they do actual research instead of watching YouTube videos and reading QAnon posts that echo their own paranoia. They are crackpots and these are fever-dream fantasies and nightmares. They are not theories by any definition of the word, not even proper hypotheses. These are delusions and their believers are deluded and gullible. Media should stop empowering them by calling them theories.
*** Unlicensed puppy and kitten breeders — aka backyard breeders — run unethical, immoral animal production mills; their operators are toxic stains on humanity and should be jailed for life.
**** Lewis Dodgson? You recognized the pun on Lewis Carrol/Charles Dodgson, right? Of course you did. And re: Google and modern online tech, I recommend you read Dave Eggers’ book The Circle. But I digress…
***** In a more sane nation with the gun cult, the NRA would be declared a domestic terrorist organization, its leaders jailed, and its assets taken.
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