3) The Story
Here’s a simple scenario. There’s a group of people, some of whom like each other, and some of whom don’t. Said people go to an island, on which there are dinosaurs. People lose each other on island. Some people find each other – everyone else gets eaten, blinded, drowned, dismembered or squashed. The survivors leave the island, everyone concludes that this was a truly terrible idea and then absolutely nothing is done about it. With a few slight exceptions, this is essentially the plotline of every single Jurassic Park movie to date.
The first movie is obviously exempt from most criticism, but there are, admittedly, some plot holes. How did the T-Rex, who could always be heard coming by his footfalls/general obliterating of anything in his surroundings, manage at the end to suddenly ninja his silent and unobserved way inside the main building? Where the hell did that sheer crevasse that the T-Rex pushed the cars over suddenly come from, when three minutes ago it had been flat ground? How have these people, who study, design, create and live with dinosaurs, managed to spell both ‘tyrannosaurus’ and ‘stegosaurs’ wrongly on the vials (and should they really be allowed to be in charge?)? And why, in the name of all things holy, can the doors in this place not be locked manually in case of a power failure that is pretty likely to lead to the escape of a number of animals who apparently don’t have much of a sense of gratitude towards the species that brought them back to life?
But all of this is forgivable. Jurassic Park’s plot was clear and fresh, and executed with a level of suspense that worked even in the most predictable parts. Many of the continuity errors were integral to the story – and that’s final.
Once again, the same thing can’t be said of The Lost World. Here, the errors are not only glaring, but they are also the sort that are completely unnecessary. Why is the boy’s entire household asleep, when in downtown San Diego there are crowds of people on the streets, the buses are all running, and the stores are open (and why are all the lights in their house still on)? Why are all of the crew on the cargo ship dead if the T-Rex was only accidentally released at the end of the ship’s journey? How could the filmmakers do something as drastic having a T-Rex appear for the whole of San Diego to see, and then expect to just drop him off home again with little more in the news than a “well, it appears that dinosaurs are back – but it’s alright, they’re just inhabiting a couple of islands near Costa Rica”? Some reference is made to the incident in Jurassic Park III, but with nothing like the urgency or interest that we might reasonably expect from the world discovering that dinosaurs were once again walking the earth.
Jurassic Park III fared no better, unfortunately. The ringtone of the satellite phone still being audible from inside the spinosaurus is of course not only ridiculous, but impossible – as is the fact that it still worked, once they’d retrieved it from the dung (unless, of course, it was a Nokia 3210. Those things were bombproof). But the biggest problem with both The Lost World and Jurassic Park III was the simple fact that these morons just kept on going back to the islands, knowing full well that it would likely be the last thing they ever did.
Jurassic World, however (unlike so many of the franchises’ characters), has obviously grasped how to step around the danger, rather than just continuing to run in a straight line. It has made returning to the island an intentional – and safe – thing to do, which is an immensely clever shift.
The rest of the story of Jurassic World also looks fairly sound. The park originally envisaged by John Hammond has finally been built and is now owned by the Masrani Global Corporation and is run by park operations manager, Claire Dearing (Howard.) In an effort to boost visitor numbers, the corporation requested that a new dinosaur was created – something bigger and better (i.e. worse) than anything ever seen before. The result was the hybrid – indominus rex. There is, of course, going to be a vaguely similar formula to what we’ve seen before. Or, to quote Ian Malcom, “that’s how it always starts….then later there’s running, and, um, screaming.” But it is also clear that Jurassic World has introduced at least one highly interesting subplot. This is the fact that human beings are now communicating with the dinosaurs – namely, the velociraptors.
The idea that the velociraptors are capable communicators was integral to both of Crichton’s novels, and although the concept was floated throughout the first two movies, it wasn’t pursued as a developed storyline until the third – and even then it only just touched on the possibility that if they can communicate with each other, perhaps they could communicate with us.
As early as Jurassic World’s very first trailer, however, we were given the shot of Owen Grady on his motorbike and the raptors running alongside him. And at the sight of this shot, the world sat up so quickly that it gave itself whiplash. This is probably the boldest and most exciting step the franchise has taken since that brachiosaurs first appeared twenty two years ago in the original park.
Jurassic World has, it would seem, found a new interface between humans and dinosaurs that doesn’t depend on fear, sentiment, or even just awe, but on actual, meaningful interaction. As the velociraptors’ handler (and alpha pack member), Grady explains, “it’s not about control – it’s a relationship, based on respect.” Plus, the raptors have names – Blue, Charlie, Delta and Echo, to be precise.
Obviously, some familiar territory will be covered in Jurassic World (it’s probably safe to assume that whoever made the security fences the first time around has been employed again). There are also likely to be mistakes – there are in any film. The hope is that the smarter and more inventive aspects of the story won’t simply drown in a Michael Bay style tide of explosions, overdone action, and shaky-cam.
And the velociraptors have names. Names! Just for that, please can we all applaud Colin Trevorrow right now?