Steven Spielberg’s 1993 classic Jurassic Park is one of the most definitive achievements in blockbuster filmmaking ever created, and it’s one of the rare classic summer movies that can still be enjoyed to this day. Similar to Jaws, Jurassic Park knew that a mix of heart, humor, scares, and spectacle were essential to creating an emotionally effective adventure with lovable characters. Unfortunately, these lessons were not headed in the sequels; while The Lost World: Jurassic Park was still a respectable follow up (in large part due to Spielberg’s return to the director’s chair), Jurassic Park III felt like a cheap B-movie. Unfortunately, the most recent trilogy, Jurassic World, which spotlights new characters Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) and Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard), has been even more disappointing.
The one thing that can’t be denied about the fourth, fifth, and sixth entries in the Jurassic Park franchise is their financial success, as all three installments in the saga grossed over $1 billion at the worldwide box office and rank very highly on the list of all-time moneymakers (via Box Office Mojo). However, considering that other creatively bankrupt films such as 2019’s The Lion King, Minions, Transformers: Age of Extinction, The Fate of the Furious, and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker have also made over $1 billion, the financial achievement has no bearing on the film’s quality. While the franchise’s producer, Frank Marshall, has indicated that future sequels could be on their way, hopefully a seventh installment in the saga would redeem the Jurassic Park franchise after the last three films stomped on its legacy.
Jurassic World Botched the Nostalgia
Jurassic World was promised to be a “legacy sequel” that essentially retold the same narrative structure as the first film, yet used it to set up a new generation of characters and stories. This is a model that has worked out in favor of several franchises, with the recent films Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Creed, Top Gun: Maverick, and Mad Max: Fury Road using similar premises and bringing fans the right mix of familiar vibes and new elements that got them invested in the future.
Unfortunately, Jurassic World is so focused on inciting nostalgia that it feels like an extended fan video, and not a proper sequel in its own right. Nostalgia for Jurassic Park is deserved, considering how significantly the original film impacted a generation of filmgoers, but Jurassic World doesn’t even have the ability to follow the first film’s themes in a creative way.
The film’s use of nostalgia feels more cynical than anything else; callbacks to the original are inserted into moments that should serve as an introduction to the new characters. It takes a vastly different approach to the “legacy sequel” concept than The Force Awakens, which was released the same year; in the Star Wars sequel, the audience gets to learn about Finn (John Boyega), Rey (Daisy Ridley), and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) before it starts trotting out the older cast members returning to reprise their own.
Comparatively, Jurassic World wastes time on a storyline featuring the brothers Gray (Ty Simpkins) and Zach Mithcell (Nick Robinson) as they explore the park and John Williams’ iconic score booms in the background. Jurassic Park only employed Williams’ full theme during moments of pure wonder, but Jurassic World is comfortable using the brilliant musical score for whatever CGI creature it has.
However, the biggest issue with Jurassic World is its characters, who fail to incite even a fraction of the love that fans have for Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum, and Laura Dern in the 1993 film. Pratt and Howard are stuck playing caricatures of action heroes with a romantic relationship that isn’t believable in the slightest. Pratt had created a niche with his role as Peter Quill in Guardians of the Galaxy, but his humorous comments make him simply obnoxious and mean-spirited in Jurassic World; Howard is a very talented actress who is stuck playing a character who constantly makes baffling decisions. It’s even sadder to see brilliant actors like Vincent D’Onofrio, Omar Sy, Irfan Khan, Jake Johnson, and Judy Greer wasted in pointless supporting roles where they have very little to do.
Fallen Kingdom Got Too Ridiculous
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom at least had promise, considering that Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow did not return, and allowed J.A. Bayona to step up to the same task. While Trevorrow was relatively inexperienced and had directed the charming, but overrated Sundance breakout film Safety Not Guaranteed, Bayona was a director who had proven himself. Bayona’s films The Impossible and A Monster Calls were both emotionally powerful films about disaster, monsters, collateral damage, and familial bonding, which are themes integral to the Jurassic Park franchise. Unfortunately, Trevorrow was still writing the script and dictated the story, and the results are obvious. While the filmmaking in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is slightly more advanced, even if it’s a significant step-down from Bayona’s past work, the story is so ridiculous that it’s hard to get invested in any of it.
The film makes the baffling decision to massacre the dinosaurs early on before it introduces a haphazard story about the creatures being auctioned off by bidders working in an elite black market. It’s a plot that’s just as ridiculous as some of the low-budget Jurassic Park ripoffs in the 1990s, but given the budget of an actual blockbuster sequel. Considering that the series has always considered the dinosaurs to be animals, their depiction in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom feels particularly cruel.
Dominion Didn’t Understand the Saga
Jurassic World Dominion saw Trevorrow returning once more, and it was clear that he had no grasp on what fans even liked about the franchise in the first place. While the previous two films had at least a few great dinosaur fights, Dominion spends the majority of the story focused on the human characters going on an espionage mission to discover locusts and human clones. Pratt and Howard return once more, and their chemistry has not improved; it’s rather sad to see Neill, Goldblum, and Dern return to play barely-fleshed-out versions of the original characters.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
