Hey Everyone,
Paul here…
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say, that Jurassic Park is the most underutilized franchise in modern film history. That first film was groundbreaking in ways that, even today, most people don’t understand. Jurassic Park changed movies forever and became one of the most successful and beloved blockbuster films of all time. The legendary Stan Winston, king of practical effects, and his team created all of the animatronic dinosaurs in the movie. It was the incredible marriage of practice effects and CGI that made the dinosaurs feel so real. While Stan Winston, is an incredibly important part of the success of Jurassic Park. CGI visual effects had never been used to the degree that they were in Jurassic Park. Not even close, not by a mile. Nothing else compares. When Steven Spielberg was developing the movie they were still contemplating using stop motion animation to put the dinosaurs on screen, that’s how new CGI was at the time. It was a CGI mock up, put together by a couple of the guys at Industrial Light & Magic, just showing the skeleton of a running dinosaurs, that convinced Spielberg CGI visual effects were the way to bring these dinosaurs to life. Spielberg was taking a huge gamble when he made this decision. Because if it didn’t work, it would’ve ruined the whole film. I cannot reiterate enough how new this technology was and how it had never even come close to being used on this scale before. The closest comparison would probably be the T-1000 in Terminator 2. Morphing, liquid metal is almost laughably simple to compared it to an island theme park, filled with genetically engineered dinosaurs. This was the film that kicked off the CGI revolution in blockbuster filmmaking. Even by today’s standards, the special effects in Jurassic Park hold up 100%. The T-Rex attack is just as spectacular now, as it was when it was in movie theaters.
Next year, we have another Jurassic Park film from director Colin Trevorrow, Jurassic World: Dominion, hitting theatres Summer 2022. Trevorrow’s last entry in the franchise, Jurassic World, was by no means an excellent film, but it’s the only Jurassic Park sequel that actually works. I think with Jurassic World, this was the first time we’ve seen a functioning park in the way John Hammond imagined. It’s just different and creative enough to stand above the other sequels. I particularly enjoyed Chris Pratt and his relationships with the velociraptors. My favorite scene is when a careless worker falls into the Raptor enclosure, prompting Chris Pratt to run straight into the cage without any weapons, and stare down a pack of Velociraptors long enough get his worker to safety. It was so jarring because we had seen over the course of several films how incredibly dangerous and deadly these animals were and here’s this guy standing just a few feet in front of them, completely vulnerable. The scene added a new layer to these fantastic dinosaurs, without taking away their inherent edge and menace. It was a memorable scene involving some of cinema’s best, scariest creatures.
Anyway, It looks like this new installment is finally giving audiences what they’ve been waiting for since the original film premiered. Those dinosaurs captured our imagination. The T-Rex, the Velociraptors, the stuff of cinematic nightmare. I think the question we’ve all been asking pretty much since we walked out of the theatre in 1993 is: What happens if they get off of the island? And that’s exactly what happens at the end of the last film (which was pretty terrible, the movie I mean), setting up what has the potential to be a great story.
Trevorrow didn’t return for the following film, Jurassic World: This Is So Bad I Can’t Even Remember The Name. With Trevorrow otherwise occupied another director was brought in for the last Jurassic World film, and while I don’t remember that particular filmmaker‘s name, he certainly was not up to the task. Luckily, Trevorrow is coming back for this new film and hopefully he can undo the damage done to the franchise.
Trevorrow was supposed to direct the final film in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, The Rise of Skywalker, but left the product project due to creative differences with Disney. JJ Abrams stepped in for Trevorrow and we ended up with fucking awful entries in 2 different beloved franchises as a result (Star Wars and Jurassic Park). If you’re a curious Star Wars fan, I recommend looking up Trevorrow’s plan for Rise of Skywalker, which are very easy to find online. I think you’ll agree that what he had planned, would’ve been far better than absolute dog shit we got from JJ Abrams in Episode IX.
Release delays related to the pandemic meant that a lot of film has been completed already, so last year Colin Trevorrow made a short film called Battle at Big Rock, that takes place sometime after the events of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. It’s definitely worth a watch, Especially if you’re a big fan of this franchise. Without spoiling anything, I’ll just say it involves a glimpse of what’s to come, now that humans and dinosaurs are living alongside. Here it is:
The cat is out of the bag. The worst fears of many have come true. We now live in a world where humanity and dinosaurs must adapt to living alongside one another for the first time in the history of other species. What is this due to the ecosystem? How often are people killed by predatory dinosaurs? How does this affect politics? Military? Economics? Academia? Science? I could go on and on. This is what I meant earlier when I said that this is been a incredibly underutilized franchise. You can see how so many different cool stories could be told when, once again, humanity foolishly plays God. Resulting in what’s sure to be a human/dinosaur shit show.
I was also very pleased to hear is that this is going to be more of an ensemble piece. Combining the casts from the recent films and the classics. Meaning Chris Pratt, Jeff Goldblum, Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Neill, and Laura Dern are all in this film, without one generation necessarily overshadowing the other.
As were heading towards the end of 2021, movie studios are already thinking about their largest projects in the coming year. So even though it’s still quite a few months away, Colin Trevorrow has released a six minute prologue to Jurassic World: Dominion and an accompanying commentary video featuring the director himself, discussing the footage, courtesy of IGN.com. It’s going to be cut from the film, but it’s still good material and it he wanted to put it out online for fans to enjoy. I’d have to agree with the director and say that I found it to be quite entertaining. You can watch the footage and Trevorrow’s breakdown below:
Director Breakdown:
Jurassic World: Dominion hits theaters in June 2022
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-Paul
World’s Best Media 