Welcome, to Jurassic Park. In this analysis we will compare the old and the new. The original Jurassic Park trilogy of the nineties to Jurassic World of the 2010s. And I will prove why the original trilogy is better. I shall divide this analysis into 3 sections- 3 paragraphs discussing each installment of each respective trilogy and pitting them against each other and each one will have one or more discussion topics. With that said, let us travel back 201 million years ago and take a 56 million year journey through the Jurassic period.

Jurassic Park vs Jurassic World

The one major difference between the first two movies is the passion. In Jurassic World there is no passion. It is simply an attempt to soulessly capitalize and profit off John Hammond’s lifework of bringing dinosaurs back to life. Hammond wanted to genuinely make people happy by creating a zoo that had dinosaurs instead of animals. Sure, he may not have thought about the consequences fully, but he had good intentions and since he was the first one to do it, he gets a pass. The corporate businessmen who just wanted to make a quick buck (not so far off the same greedy movie studio that wanted to do the same thing) did not care for what happened in the past and thought they could do better. At least Hammond learned his lesson. The first movie also had wonder and a sense of that was given to us with showing the dinosaurs for the first time and discussing the science of how the dinosaurs were created and the philosophical and ethical concepts of it.. Dr. Ian Malcolm (played charmingly by Jeff Goldblum) discusses the abuse of genetic power which he holds John Hammond accountable for because John does not understand the danger nor the full scope of what it is he’s playing with (he likens John to finding his dad’s gun and using it like a toy). As Malcolm so intellectually quotes- “It didn’t require any discipline to attain it. You know, you read what others had done and you took the next step. You didn’t earn the knowledge for yourselves so you don’t take any responsibility for it.” Malcolm is basically saying that Hammond haphazardly snowballed together something so fast he himself didn’t think of what the potential repercussions would be. The KEY line in that debate is when Malcolm says “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.” Hammond attempts to justify himself by saying that it was done in the name of discovery and wonder- something no scientists have done before to which Malcolm rebuffs that the exploitation of genetic power is the rape of the natural world. That dinosaurs had their shot and nature had already selected them to go. Hammond was both naive and ignorant in his case- uneducated in Malcolm’s eyes. I’m not going to fault Hammond though, he had good intentions. Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) brings this point up when she askes Hammond how he could know what ecosystem to bring them back in and Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) supports this by bringing up his concern about mankind and dinosaurs being around each other at the same time and what the potential results of that could be. This philosophical/ethical debate scene alone trumps Jurassic World. As I said before, Jurassic World has no soul or heart. It has no PASSION. It’s a product of consumerism. Just as Hammond exploited genetic power, in a meta sense, the 2nd trilogy is abuse of financial power. Universal Studios was so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should. Steven Spielberg put heart and soul into the first film which was compounded by John Williams’ amazing score. That extends through The Lost World and JP 3 as they carry the same tone of wonder and adventure. It doesn’t feel special after being milked to death like everything. One of the earliest tragedies of this was Star Wars and making those sub-par sequels which I will discuss in a future post. Jurassic World is a silly film. Raptors being controlled like pets is one thing. Another is how they communicate with the Indominus Rex as if they actually have a language as sophisticated as humans. Sure, chimps and dolphins can communicate but it’s an instinct. The way it happens in JW is like they can actually think logically, rationalize, make battle plans, and have a full language. What’s next, are they going to read and write? On paper sure, it seems cool, but it takes away the grounded aspects of it and makes it absurd. It’s done merely for shock and suspense. JW is clearly more for younger audiences while JP takes the more mature route. In JW they really bring home the point of possession- that the dinosaurs belong to someone. John Hammond never did that. He never emphasized “that’s mine” like Simon or Dr. Henry Wu. Another silly point awarded to this movie is the team-up between Blue and the T-rex against the Indominus. Even though it was a hybrid, and albeit incredibly and unrealistically smart dinosaur, it was still a creature that was just doing it’s thing, but no, they had to make it intelligent to justify that it was enough to have a villainous edge to it, hence why Blue and T-rex absurdly and unrealistically teamed up. It’s a for-profit venture and generic. A Hollywood money check-off box. Not a spectacle or event film like the original.

The Lost World vs Fallen Kingdom

If no one has noticed, the 3 films of the latter trilogy parallel the films of the former. The first films of each trilogy are about introducing the respective theme parks to people, the 2nd films are about preserving the dinosaurs and relocating them to continue making a profit, and the 3rd films are about saving a child. While the Lost World isn’t so on the nose and in-your-face about relocating the dinosaurs for profit, Fallen Kingdom certainly is. In the Lost World, Hammond’s nephew Peter Ludlow plans to move the dinosaurs from Site B (Isla Sorna, Site A is Isla Nublar in the first one) to San Diego so people can keep enjoying dinosaurs in an incomplete Jurassic Park amphitheater. While the plot does smell of for-profit, it is thankfully overshadowed by the theme of adventure which the characters spend most of the time doing on the island of Isla Sorna. Two groups are on the island: Malcolm’s group with his girlfriend Sarah Harding, Nick Van Owen, Eddie Carr, and his (maybe adopted?) daughter Kelly. They’re there to document on why the dinosaurs should be left alone, put up to the task by Hammond himself while Ludlow has a team working for him led by Roland Tembo (Pete Postlethwaite) who are hired to tranquilize the dinos and transport them to the city. My point is, while all these shenanigans go down, there is ADVENTURE. PLENTY OF IT. On the island and in the city. While the scenes may not rival the T-rex scene from the first, there are lots of good ones, like the freaking DOUBLE t-rex scene, the city scenes with the giant cue ball, the T-rex ramming a bus and the Blockbuster, and just the two groups walking across the island while playing a great adventurous score by John Williams. I don’t understand why people be hatin on the raptor scene just because Kelly used her gymnastics abilities against them. Is it really that farfetched? That’s not even unrealistic for a movie. JW is unrealistic. While Ludlow was the “antagonist” he wasn’t self-serving or so selfish he put himself above others like Eli Mills. The man just wanted to continue the legacy and dream his uncle had albeit he was too overzealous about it. This is paralleled in FK with Eli and his boss Benjamin Lockwoode, Hammond’s partner who did not originally exist until this film. Remember, JP is based off a book and JP was solely Hammond’s idea. Lockwoode wishes to altruistically relocate the dinosaurs and leave them in peace while Mills wants to auction them off for millions of dollars on the black market. It’s all about the $$. He even kills Lockwoode when he becomes an obstacle. Preservation in the former, profit in the latter. FK goes into unrealistic territory again by playing with the concept of weaponizing the dinosaurs. Absurd. And to make the Indominus and Indoraptor out as villainous monsters who will stop at nothing until they kill their intended targets is also a negative. Animals are animals who just do their thing. I know animals like tigers apparently seek out vengeance but the way Indominus and Indoraptor do it, it’s like they’re literally thinking “Imma get ya, oh imma get ya and I’m not gonna stop.” It’s more willful than instinctual. While both Indo Rex and Raptor died fighting other dinosaurs, it still felt unnecessary because they were clearly teamed up against because they were perceived as the “bad guy”. I get they were a step up in intelligence but they came across as they just deliberately wanted to be dickheads and kill everything. They certainly got the bad rap and were put down for the transgressions of their makers. Genetic abuse of power indeed.

Jurassic Park 3 vs Dominion

Although Lewis Dodgson claims that his innovations are done in the name of science and for pharmacological benefit, he ain’t foolin us. For those who don’t recognize Dodson, he was the man who met with Dennis Nedry in the first movie and gave him the can of shaving cream acting as a container to store vials in. Dirty corporate espionage. He then capitalizes on the downfall of Jurassic World and provides a sanctuary in the Dolomite mountains for the surviving dinosaurs from the 2nd film. Also present in the film is humans using dinosaurs and trafficking them through the black market, because of course. While in Malta, dinosaur action scenes ensue, reminiscent of Fast and the Furious or James Bond or Mission Impossible. More adventure back please and less action. I want what made Jurassic Park special in the first place. It’s become a gimmick and over the top. And why, may I ask make Dr. Wu an overzealous antagonistic character? Why give him more character at all? He was just fine playing a tertiary character in the first film. We see him as the bad guy responsible for the monsters that were Indo Rex and Raptor. In the original film he was just the head scientist doing the job that Hammond wanted him to do. Now, he wants to make the most interesting/appealing/coolest kind of dinosaur regardless of how potentially dangerous it may turn out to be. The most ungrounded part of Dominion is the fact of using humans and filling in the gaps in their DNA. Enter Maisie Lockwoode, Benjamin’s granddaughter. She is a clone of her mother. A perfect clone. And now because her DNA holds the secrets of healthy genetics, Dodson and Wu actually resort to kidnapping to take advantage of her uniqueness and use her genetics to create a pathogen against locusts that Biosyn (Dodson’s company) released to control the food supply. I’m sorry but when did this become about humans? We do not care. Make it about dinosaurs again. Nope, wait until you hear the plot synopsis for the seventh JP film which I will bring up at this end of this post. JP 3 is just another simple, enjoyable, adventure-rescue film. The Spinosaurus isn’t a villain unlike the Giganotosaurus. It’s just doing it’s thing. The action sequences involving the Spinosaurus are all great as well as the scenes with the pterodactyls.

Thus, it should be clear where my opinion stands with the Jurassic Park franchise. Look, dinosaurs are awesome. Who would deny that? They’re cool, they’re interesting and awesome movies can be made about them if they’re done right. With passion, adventure, and soul. Not to make a buck, which Hollywood started doing somewhere around late 00s, early 2010s. Everything has to have sequels now or be rebooted. Because yes, the well does run dry. Originality is a difficult thing to keep alive. Sadly, we the fans, don’t really have the power to stop the powers that be from reboots or sequels. The only way Hollywood learns is after the fact. The reception from the fans and the financial success. But there’s the other side of the coin too- new films for a new a generation, so basically a double-edged sword. Don’t get me wrong, the latter trilogy are not bad films but the original they are not. There’s nothing special to them. More generic films that one would watch if they had nothing else whereas the first trilogy have rewatchability. With that said, peace out friends.