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

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.