5 Things That Make Jurassic World The Best Jurassic Park Sequel (And The Worst)

It speaks – roars, rather - to the enduring power of Jurassic Park that even 22 years after Steven Spielberg’s groundbreaking special effects safari, Jurassic World easily and decisively returned the series to apex blockbuster status this weekend. That it was such an overwhelming success despite the franchise’s legacy of lesser-loved sequels makes Jurassic World’s +$500 million global box office take all the more impressive. All that remains to be seen is just how much money Jurassic World will end up hauling in with those stubby dinosaur arms. Now that there’s an entire trilogy of sequels to one of the most beloved films of the ‘90s, debate is bound to breakout about how Jurassic World stacks up against the competition. It’s hard to imagine any Jurassic Park fan arguing that World is better than the original film (though everyone is allowed to be wrong), but the latest entry has many features you could argue make it the best amongst the sequels. In the same breath, you can also make a case that Jurassic World is continuing the franchise’s downward trajectory. Consider the following.. 1) It Has the Most Dinosaurs… The entire in-fiction and real world basis for Jurassic Park is rooted in one very simple truth: dinosaurs are cool. People love ‘em! That first shot of a dinosaur herd in Jurassic Park was, and still is a cinematic touchstone for millions of people. Set against the sound of John Williams’ iconic main theme, the image of living, breathing dinosaurs in motion makes for a near-religious experience, both for the characters and many viewers. “Look at this impossible thing I’ve brought to life!” eccentric benefactor John Hammond, and storyteller Spielberg are saying as one. No Park film has ever matched that moment for sheer awe, but the island’s star attractions have remained the main draw through every sequel. Following in the large footsteps of The Lost World and III, Jurassic World has more dinosaurs than ever. With the park up and running for once, you get to see Hammond’s plan for dinosaur petting zoos, aquariums, and aviaries finally become realized. In terms of volume and variety, World blows the other sequels out of the water, then throws them back into the water to be devoured by the Mosasaurus. …And Uses Them to Make One Dinosaur Seem Cool Like most blockbusters, Jurassic World is all about one-upping what the last guy did. Where Jurassic Park had a single T. Rex, The Lost World had two. Jurassic Park III responded by saying, “A T. Rex is nothing: check out the Spinosaurus!” World doesn’t pull a III by having its new alpha dino outright kill the previous top dog. No, instead it has the genetically modified Indominus rex kill just about everything else in the park. Jurassic World gives you the dinosaur equivalent of a supervillain, an animal that can be anywhere and do anything, so long as it steamrolls the story forward. Nature used to be the real threat of a Jurassic movie, but World is all about Indominus, all the time. The creature proves itself such a diabolically clever girl that you almost expect language skills to be another trick it pulls out of its rather large behind, just so it can brag about its own greatness (“Being raised in captivity was part of my plan all along!”). By contriving the ultimate antagonistic dinosaur, the other animals just become fodder for feeding the notion that Indominus is all you should care about. 2) The Setpieces Have the Best Direction… Indominus rex might be a bit of a prima donna, but it does facilitate much of Jurassic World’s plentiful action. It’s bold to say that director Colin Trevorrow does a better job behind the camera here than Spielberg did with The Lost World, but the challenges each director faced were very different. Where The Lost World saw Spielberg struggling to best himself, Trevorrow has the more difficult task of revitalizing a franchise for audiences trained to expect more excitement, more explosions, more everything out of their summer blockbusters. Thanks in large part to the more flexible (if sometimes less believable) CG dinosaurs, Trevorrow does an excellent job of staging the action scenes in Jurassic World. Spatial context for the creatures is always firmly established, the pace of the editing gives you enough time to comprehend what you’re seeing, and the movie is lit brightly enough to let you see what’s happening, when it’s happening. …With the Least Imagination With the exception of the resort being attacked by pterosaurs (which plays like a sequel to The Birds starring the prequel to birds), every major action sequence in Jurassic World plays out in one way: Indominus rex shows up, things go bad. Yes, these are movies where the driving character motivation is often simply “don’t get eaten,” but the other Jurassic Park sequels made the island itself as perilous as the creatures on it. A crawl across a rickety, fog-shrouded walkway in Jurassic Park III is tense before any dinosaurs get involved, and the final attack by the Spinosaurus adds a drowning hazard to the mix. The Lost World uses its two T. rexes just to setup what’s maybe the single best action sequence of the franchise, as our heroes have to escape from a camper trailer while it dangles over a cliff. At its most creative, World plays a short game of gyro pinball that, like most of the other action scenes, exists mainly to make Indominus rex seem cooler. 3) It Has a Great Cast… The lineups for the first three Park films are, in retrospect, rather overqualified for a special effects-heavy monster romp. Between Julian Moore, Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dern, and William H. Macy you’ve got multiple Oscar winners and even more nominees. Most of those plaudits came after each performer’s respective Park films, but it’s not like they weren’t a good fit for the time, or aren’t fun to watch now. Though presently less prestigious, the cast for Jurassic World is about as strong and varied as you could hope to find in a fun summer blockbuster. Chris Pratt is one of the most likeable and popular leading men in Hollywood right now, Vincent D’Onofrio can usually produce a convincing villain out of thin air, and Omar Sy adds both international appeal and award-winning cred. And able to provide commentary from the control room is a pair of alliterative comedians in Jake Johnson and Lauren Lapkus. …That It Mostly Wastes It’s a shame that none of the respective charms of the performers finds much life buried beneath the thin material they’re given. The lead role saps all the goofy swagger out of Pratt, leaving you to wonder why an actor of his specific skillset was necessary for such a cut-out character. Sy goes completely underserved, while pages and pages are wasted trying to make D’Onofrio’s villain make any sense whatsoever (“Do you even hear yourself talk?” Pratt’s Owen asks after D’Onofrio lays out his character’s completely insane motivations). Johnson’s ease with delivering sarcastic comic relief makes him the most well-utilized cast member, but at the expense of Lapkus, who shares most of his scenes, but is only allowed to be funny in one of them. Jurassic World has the right actors, but the characters they’re asked to play have little discernable personality beyond their need to function within the plot. In the end, the only player actively improving on the material is Bryce Dallas Howard, who manages to elevate her character more than the ridiculous heels she’s strapped into the whole movie. 4) It Clearly Loves the Original Movie… There’s a weariness that pervades the first two Jurassic sequels, as though everything is being done is in the shadow of the original film. The feeling is understandable: improving on the first Jurassic Park was a feat pretty much no one could have pulled off, not even Spielberg. The Lost World is rife with winking jokes about how difficult it would be to top the first film, and by III, it’s clear that no one was even attempting to outdo the original. Thanks to those sequels, Jurassic World has the benefit of knowing what a snipe hunt it would be to challenge the supremacy of Jurassic Park. Instead, it pays homage to that movie in ways that are simultaneously meant to stoke your nostalgia and bury the past. Returning to Isla Nublar offers plenty of excuses to dig up old locations and imagery from the first film, while also acknowledging the time that’s gone by since 1993. When one of World’s requisite child characters uses the original park’s lobby banner as the wick for a torch, it’s an apt metaphor for a movie trying to use what’s old to show you something new. …And Doesn’t Like Itself Sadly, there’s really not much new that Jurassic World has to show you, and its dependence on nostalgia becomes a crutch. The movie is acutely aware of this failing, and feels awful about it. Compare the moments when the John Williams theme first appears in Jurassic Park and World (as redone by Michael Giacchino). In Park, it’s timed to celebrate the dinosaurs; in World, it’s used to introduce a consumer resort. Jurassic World knows it was created for business reasons alone, and despises itself for that fact, while preying on your warm memories of Jurassic Park all the same. Rarely has a blockbuster been this openly self-loathing, with entire conversations providing thinly veiled outlets for the movie’s guilty conscience. The younger of the kids, Gray (Ty Simpkins), acts as an insert for audience members who love the original Jurassic Park, but dislike seeing its legacy blemished for financial purposes. “I don’t want two of everything,” he tearfully tells his brother, Zach (Nick Robinson) at one point. “Grow up,” Zach replies, speaking for studio execs everywhere. 5) It’s the Most Thematically Interesting… Reading into The Lost World gives a lesson on the danger of repeating old mistakes, and III could favorably be described as a character study in overcoming old fears. At the end of the day, though, the practical moral to come out of the first two Jurassic Park sequels is that family is important. You don’t have to be InGen to fabricate a sentiment that complex, but it’s a simple lesson meant to give heart to movies more interested in spectacle than deep thoughts. Released into a very different movie climate, Jurassic World addresses the idea that a new Jurassic Park movie isn’t the event it once used to be. The modified dinosaurs being cooked up, referred to as “assets,” are talked about like they’re blockbuster movies. In response to audiences growing bored with the same old eye candy, focus groups suggest that people want assets that are “bigger, louder” and have “more teeth.” It’s initially fascinating, and ballsy for Jurassic World to actively bemoan the state of modern blockbusters while trying to operate as one itself. …While Ignoring Its Own Lesson It’s then disappointing to see a film routinely acknowledge the lazy blockbuster tricks of others, but resort to using those tricks anyway. Jurassic World sets out to solve the problem of audience apathy by following advice for making movies its characters frown upon for making dinosaurs: bigger, louder, more teeth. How do you upstage a T-rex? Make a bigger, smarter one. How do you make the mayhem crazier? Have more random civilians around to scream and die unceremoniously. The climactic dino-battle of the movie sees the iconic creature of the first film battling the nefarious monster of this new one. While Jurassic World is busy telling you to root for the champion of the old school, the rest of the movie itself has more in common with a Frankenstein spectacle like Indominus rex. Instead of trying to recapture the magic of Jurassic Park, or make some of its own, Jurassic World bluntly outmuscles the competition. “We need more teeth,” Gray says, as a solution to fighting Indominus rex. It’s the only idea Jurassic World has to offer for what could have been the franchise’s fresh start: when in doubt, just add more.