The Jurassic Park franchise is one of the most successful and recognizable in the modern era of blockbuster making. With the sixth entry in the series, Jurassic World: Dominion, which was released last summer, the franchise has officially grossed more than $6 billion dollars worldwide. The original Jurassic Park is often regarded as one of the biggest blockbuster films to ever hit the big screen. The direct sequels, The lost world and Jurassic Park III however, were generally regarded as disappointments by fans and critics alike. Continue working after the mediocre performance of the third film jurassic park 4 jammed. The film went through several stages of development as interest in the franchise gradually declined with each new film. There were doubts that there would be any interest in another movie in the series at all, especially right after the release of the third in 2001.
This doubt led to the longest time between Jurassic Park movies, since there were 14 years between them Jurassic Park III and the fourth entry in the franchise, the soft reboot that was Jurassic world. While Jurassic world would breathe new life into the franchise and spawn two sequels of… questionable quality, there’s no question that the fourth film in the Jura- series was a high point in terms of box office numbers for the series. While the first three films experienced a steep box office decline from film to film, with Jurassic Park III low at $368 million worldwide, Jurassic world broke the series’ record by bringing in a total of $1.67 billion, a high the franchise has not reached since.
In addition to its success at the box office, the first Jurassic world movie was also a fairly well received hit by both critics and audiences at the time of its release. However, in the seven and a half years since its release, the film’s shortcomings have become increasingly apparent. With as much pleasure as it was to revisit the world of Jurassic Park, Jurassic world and the sequels are little more than the average of virtually every major modern blockbuster released today. These problems have become increasingly apparent with age, which does not bode well for the long term Jurassic world. Here’s how the blueprint for making modern blockbuster movies has been heavily used in the Jurassic world movies.
Decreased emphasis on character
The character works in the original Jurassic Park was a crucial contribution to what made that movie so compelling in the beginning. In the course of The lost world and Jurassic Park III, that focus on character development was almost completely thrown out the window, as most of the people in the movies were just clichéd action heroes and frightened citizens who added little to no dramatic weight to their stories. There was hope that Jurassic world could turn things around, but that turned out not to be the case. Despite the charismatic and likeable cast that includes Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard and more, the characters in Jurassic world are merely shadows of the franchise’s past.
Pratt’s role as Owen Grady, coupled with his introduction as Star-Lord in Guardians of the Universe the year before made him the main action star he still is today. However, Grady’s character is about as generic an action hero as you can get. He is a gruff man who cracks funny jokes, rides a motorcycle and exudes a strong “cool dude” energy. He’s basically invincible, because he somehow manages to get out of countless absurdly dangerous situations, and he’s really just there to guide the audience through whatever insane situation comes up in the writers’ room. Howard was very well cast as Claire Dearing, the park’s operations manager who spends the film tracking down her nephews who have gone missing somewhere in the park. Unlike Grady, Claire actually has a bit of an arc to her character jurassic world, as she grows to realize the error of her ways and then becomes an advocate against taking advantage of the dinos in the later films. Unfortunately, with as likeable as Dallas Howard is in the role, her character growth is consistently put aside entirely to allow her to be the damsel in distress in one particular scene.
Grady and Claire, despite being the protagonists of all three new movies, never really clicked as compelling new faces for the franchise. The reason for this is that there are almost no differentiators between them and the leads of almost every other major franchise. They could be taken from this movie and placed elsewhere with almost no difference. Grady in particular would be an excellent fit for the Fast and furious movies, competing against the likes of Vin Diesel, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and their countless supercars. The development of these characters in Jurassic world is consistently sacrificed in favor of “exciting” action sequences that can be thrown into trailers to sell the film. Despite solid casting and performances, the characters are just cardboard cutouts that are there to just look cool and spout one-liners and exposition. The action sequences of the series take precedence over the characters, resulting in movies that may look cool and exciting, but are ultimately hollow upon closer inspection.
Over the top action
People love dinosaurs. It always has been and probably always will be. That is understandable; there’s probably not a person or child on the planet who could look your death in the eye and say, “I think dinosaurs are overrated.” However, building an entire movie around that assumption doesn’t create the best atmosphere for a great movie. Despite being the compelling story and character work of the original Jurassic Park that’s what made that movie so spectacular, the dinosaurs bring people to the theater. As such, Jurassic world and the sequels are almost exclusively focused on fulfilling that promise of crazy dinosaur action. In that sense, the films certainly achieved their intended purpose.
The action in it Jurassic world often makes for some of the most exaggerated sequences in any modern blockbuster. Whether it’s the lab-created Indominus Rex turning invisible and stalking people despite its enormous size, Grady training raptors and then riding alongside them on his motorcycle, or the dramatic showdown between the raptors, T-Rex and Indominus Rex at the end, into each new action scene Jurassic world consistently tries to outdo the previous series in terms of utter ridiculousness. If you look at it purely from that perspective, the film works. It’s not meant to be taken seriously; it is meant to be blindly entertaining. It’s a silly and cheesy popcorn movie that offers the kind of ridiculous dinosaur action you won’t find anywhere else.
It is precisely because of this approach that the Jurassic world movies were so successful. Colin Trevorrow doesn’t even think the former Jurassic Park should have had a sequel in the beginning, but he saw an opportunity for success and pursued it. He and the rest of the series’ creative team recognized the global increase in demand for that kind of absurdity in action movies like superheroes and comic book movies, and they just applied it to the Jurassic Park franchise. From a business point of view, it’s a very smart move. Universal was looking for a way to revive the long-dormant series, and by applying a superhero movie aesthetic to it, they were able to not only bring the series back, but make it truly competitive in today’s MCU-dominated world. movie market.
Rely on nostalgia
It’s no secret that nostalgia is the name of the game in major Hollywood movies these days. To develop legacy sequels for recognizable traits has become an almost foolproof path to success at the box office. Classics like Ghostbusters, Halloween, Blade Runner, Top gun, Predator, crazy max, terminator, Star Wars, and virtually every big hit from the ’70s and ’80s has been revived through new sequels that bring back original cast members and replicate as much of the original story as possible. All of the franchises listed above have already had new entries and many are already in development. Jurassic world was one of the first to really jump on this new trend in the mid-2010s. The amount that the Jurassic world trilogy has relied on the nostalgia for its brand, but has faltered throughout the trilogy.
The first Jurassic world really immersed in nostalgia. Whether it’s the frequent use of the classic Jurassic Park music, incorporating recognizable sets and characters from the first film (including even bringing back the same T-Rex) or mirroring the entire plot of the original story, most aspects of Jurassic world are structured and built in a way that is purposefully reminiscent of the former Jurassic Park movie. It was one of a series of films released in the mid-2010s that used this approach, the most notable being Star Wars: The Force Awakens later that same year.
The second film in the new trilogy, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, was notably less dependent on what had been done earlier in its series. That film opted to go in more of a haunted house direction with the brand, making for an entry that is unique to say the least. But the latest movie, Jurassic World: Dominion reversed course and doubled down on this use of nostalgia. It brought back the original cast of Jurassic Parkprincipally Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum, introduced their characters to the new cast and weaved them into what was billed as the “final chapter” of the Jura- series. Will it really be? Probably not, it’s a multi-billion dollar franchise. There is always a way to keep it alive these days.
All this does not mean that the Jurassic world movie or its sequels are the worst movies of the modern blockbuster era. Not at all. They are certainly entertaining films, and they thoroughly succeeded in what they set out to do. They happened to achieve that by absorbing almost every modern blockbuster cliché and concept and baking them right into the core DNA of the movies. That method of filmmaking is not necessarily the most characteristic of a truly original or compelling film like the former Jurassic Parkbut it did work for creating three vaguely connected roller coaster rides that were meant to be enjoyed with scoops of popcorn and gallons of soda.