Yeah yeah, I don’t have anything new to review this week (3-0 baby, go Bills), but I was at a party this past weekend instead of going to the movies and a friend and I were talking about Jurassic Park, and how it just may be the perfect balance between cinematic worth and true blockbuster entertainment, and it got me thinking about the highs and lows that the franchise built around that initial film has experienced over the years. With that in mind, and after seeing the short film (maybe a teaser for the next feature-length installment?) that was recently released on YouTube, I decided that it would be good to spend 1,000 or so words this week, if only because almost everyone has seen at least one of the films, on why the Jurassic Park franchise can’t seem to decide whether it’s good or bad. Also worth noting, and kind of a footnote on this expository paragraph – after writing everything below, it actually broke that the original cast of the 1993 film are returning for Jurassic World 3, which is some damn serendipitous timing that keeps me feeling relatively current in the topic.
Writing a post about Jurassic Park without putting this photo in would be something of a crime, so I’m gonna get it out of the way early.
But when I think of the Jurassic Park universe, I picture a cinematic universe that’s topographic like no other, seemingly alternating between tallest mountains and deepest valleys. Of course, we begin with the original 1993 hit that started it all, an adaptation of Michael Crichton’s 1990 novel of the same name, and a film that by all accounts changed the game for filmmakers everywhere. If there’s one movie that I wish I had been alive – well, I was alive, but not certainly not old enough at all of one year old – to see in theaters, it honestly might be Jurassic Park (Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark probably round out the top three). From what I’m told, people were screaming in the theaters, both marveling at and immensely terrified by the absurdly realistic prehistoric creatures standing before them as crisp as life itself and having no other choice than to vocalize it. Director Steven Spielberg was at his Spielberg-iest, composer John Williams was at his John Williams-iest, and the world learned, arguably for the first time, just how much computers could do for movies. This is all making no mention, too, of the perhaps not phenomenal but at least solid script, which won Crichton and co-writer David Koepp a Saturn Award.
My dog when he sees another dog two blocks away.
But then, of course, there are the critically mixed second and third films in the franchise, with a lackluster and otherwise fairly uncredited Sam Neill serving as the common denominator (Spielberg jumped ship as director after the second film). Sure, these films were box office successes in every respect, and they certainly aren’t without their share of entertaining moments, but to me, The Lost World – which I’m not even sure I’ve seen all the way through – is forgettable at best, and Jurassic Park III I typically only remember for the ridiculous bad dream sequence with the talking dinosaur. The writing is either bad or nonexistent, the characters that weren’t smart enough to take a well-deserved offramp after striking oil the first time aren’t any fun anymore, and the in many ways indescribable magic captured by the first film has all but escaped, leaving everyone wondering how such a mighty cinematic prospect could so quickly fall, and graciously spurring a 15-year nap for the franchise that I’m sure at the time many thought was a permanent dirt nap, and a rightfully earned one. However, as we know, Hollywood and its many moving parts are mindless slaves to the all-powerful dollar sign, and such a bankable summer tentpole may never truly be bound for the dusty annals of silver screen history.
The franchise’s second film sure had an eclectic crew with Vince Vaughn, Goldblum, and Toby from The West Wing.
Which brings us, of course, to 2015’s Jurassic World, and where some of that magic (certainly not all of it, I’ll grant you) is restored at last, even if only because the film is at times content to ride on the “we’ve been gone for over a decade and we knew you’d miss us” nostalgia-fueled popcorn thrills that now, being a few years removed from it, seem to bear the same brand as a little film called The Force Awakens. The writing is cheesy but refreshingly self-aware, and the cartoony and campy characters shoved to the fore – basically a rip-off of Indiana Jones and a damsel in distress who can somehow outrun a genetically modified T-Rex in heels are your leading man and lady, respectively – are cartoony and campy, yes, but they’re fun, and they do possess some semblance of personality. Their experience, while rebooted properly and essentially given a fresh coat of paint, mirrors that of the original, placing two unsuspecting and at times doofy children in mortal danger (if there’s one thing an audience can come together on, it’s protecting children in spite of repeatedly poor decision-making) and basking in the theme-park-gone-wrong setting, with a few direct callouts to its one truly successful ancestor where appropriate. It’s thrilling, it’s loud, it’s visceral in more ways than one, and it even manages to be occasionally funny thanks largely to the talents of Jake Johnson.
B.D. Wong – the only actor to have starred in every single Jurassic Park movie to date, and clearly one cheeky fellow.
This is where the franchise lets its fans down again with Fallen Kingdom, and I’ll admit up front that I started this one on HBO Go one lazy Saturday afternoon and promptly fell asleep to it. That should give you some sense of how interesting and engaging it is, and its mixed critical response suggests that there were a number of reviewers who agreed with me on that. Maybe it was the loss of Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow (former Rise of Skywalker director, thanks to the mistake that was The Book of Henry) that did it in, though he did still do some work on the script, or maybe it’s simply the fact that these films have become predictable in their arcs – people go to Isla Nublar, people somehow accidentally let all the dinosaurs out, main characters somehow still survive, repeat. This was alright to watch again after a 15-year gap, but another short three-year span before doing it again just made it feel stale. What Fallen Kingdom does provide with its ending, though, is an opportunity for the franchise it lives within to break fresh ground – the dinos are out, and with that, it’s their world (their Jurassic World, you might say) – we’re just living in it. This is the picture that the aforementioned just-released short Battle at Big Rock is painting, and it’s quite excellent (I love me some Andre Holland, especially since Castle Rock), so it looks like the universe birthed from Spielberg’s brainchild may be due its latest climb with Jurassic World 3, in which Trevorrow will reportedly return to the director’s chair.
Given that the franchise is now shifting to the “dinosaurs living among us” perspective, I’m hyped for the next movie to depict teenagers being eaten after attempting selfies mere feet from a T-Rex.
How do you feel about the Jurassic Park franchise? What do you think makes it good or bad? Leave me a comment!
Tuesdays with Cory 