When I was a kid dinosaurs were huge. Not literally, well, yes, literally – kinda – I guess they were extinct, but… ah, you know what I mean: popular. So, when Jurassic Park came out in the cinemas I and everyone else in my school begged our parents to take us to the cinema.
Although I was pretty young when it came out 21 years ago (7!), I can still remember how moved, excited and terrified I was watching it and the profound impact it had on me for years after. I went from thinking dinosaurs were cool to reading everything I could on them and also went from having conversations with friends about Sonic The Hedgehog to theories of how dinosaurs died out and how food-chains, evolution and such would be different if they’d survived.
Sadly, the second and third films were nowhere near as impressive as the first. The second tried too hard to be Godzilla and the third tried too hard to be Aliens. I remember that by the time talk started about a forth film I’d completely lost interest in the Jurassic Park franchise; I doubt I was alone either. However, since there’s been a 13 year break between Jurassic Park III and this latest movie in the series – they’ve even decided against naming it Jurassic Park VI and gone with Jurassic World – I feel ready to give them another shot. Here’s the trailer:
To be honest, although the graphics and cast have me moderately excited – I’m a little turned off by the ‘hybrid dinosaurs’ thing and the focus on the darkness of ‘Jurassic World’ as opposed to the beauty and experience of a park filled with extinct animals (which the first movie did so well). I guess that fiction is more focused on overcoming dangers and horrors these days, but I don’t feel audiences are totally unwilling to be blown away by the beauty of strange new worlds as opposed to just its horrors (think Avatar – one of the most successful films of modern times).
The trailer suggests to me that Jurassic World will be a good action movie; full of impressive graphics, high-tech gadgetry, danger and jumpy scenes, but I don’t think it’ll offer today’s school children the same magical experience that the first movie gave me as a 7 year old… Maybe I’m just getting old!
What about you guys? What do you think?
Geoff Matthews
Julia Kitvaria Sarene
CGI looked pretty bad.