6 Things We Want To See In Jurassic World

 4) The Script

There is, really, only one possible reason that Spielberg thought it was acceptable to put the T-Rex on the mainland in The Lost World. This is because it was the only scenario that would allow him to have one little boy go into his parents’ bedroom in the middle of the night (or at 8:30pm, as the rest of the city seems to suggest the time is), and utter the infernally predictable line “there’s a dinosaur in our backyard.” Let’s hope he thought it was worth it.

But give credit where it’s due – the [rest of] the script to The Lost World was actually one of its best features. The dry pessimism and the mathematical scepticism of Ian Malcom (present in the books, but effectively adapted into a continual source of deadpan humour for the movies) had survived the first movie, and continued to be masterfully pulled off by Jeff Goldblum throughout the second.

It was always going to be difficult to compete with the spark of the original Jurassic Park’s script. John Hammond’s simple but proud statement, “Welcome…..to Jurassic Park”, summarized all the hope, achievement, joy and expectation of both the park and the movie. Alan Grant’s final words to Hammond, “after some consideration, I’ve decided, not to endorse your park” were brilliant in their under-exaggeration. Ian Malcom’s exchanges with pretty much anyone maintained the sort of darkly comic edge vital to movies of the action/entertainment genre.

By the third movie, however, the dialogue was achieving a level of wit and energy that was about on a par with that of Jurassic Park’s poisoned stegosaurus.

What we need from Jurassic World’s script is a return to the bones from which the first movie, and even the second, was so effectively built: A smooth mixing of natural-sounding dialogue (some of which should of course be screamed at full volume) and soberly delivered humour. The trailers are certainly suggesting that both of these elements are here, though. Grady’s laid back manner will clearly be handling most of any comic undertones, while Dearing and the security team between them take care of much of the gradual realization “oh my God’s,” and the customary yelling that everything is hopeless.

The danger at the moment is that it’s sounding slightly contrived. Even Grady’s already infamous line (re: the I-rex) “probably not a good idea” is a little too obvious in its casualness. But – and it’s an important but – it isn’t fair to judge any movie’s script based on its trailers. Trailers often can’t help but get stuck to the flypaper of triteness, simply because their job is to showcase as many of the movie’s best parts as possible, without giving away the whole context in which everything works together.

Also, we know full well from Guardians of the Galaxy that we can trust Chris Pratt to deliver a line in an action role with excellent timing, and that Trevorrow and his crew of screenwriters (Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver and Derek Connolly) know that for the Jurassic Park franchise to regain its strength, they cannot afford Jurassic World to have a weak script.

Its life will no doubt find a way.