In a rare flicker of self-awareness from a mainstream Hollywood movie, the original Jurassic World addressed the fact that, in the years since Jurassic Park, people had become increasingly numb to the idea of dinosaurs. The park was struggling to excite its audience, and the money-hungry owners were desperately searching for ways to sell tickets—culminating in the creation of a hybrid dinosaur that, inevitably, escaped from its pen and started eating people. It was a neat way of working sequel fatigue into the story.
In 1993, those CG brachiosauruses—our first clear look at the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park—were pure movie magic. But these days it takes a lot more than Laura Dern gazing in awe at a giant computerised reptile to thrill an audience. Every sequel and spin-off released since has steadily diminished the impact and power of these creatures, and now there's no sense of wonder or mystery about them. Like the jaded tourists listlessly wandering around Jurassic World with glazed over eyes, dinosaurs just don't do it for me anymore.
The latest trailer for Jurassic World Dominion only confirms this. In just under three minutes, there are 44 separate shots of dinosaurs. Now imagine how many dinosaurs there are in the actual film, and how bored of them you're going to be by the end of it. In one shot we see Chris Pratt riding a motorcycle through Malta, absolutely surrounded by the things. Every inch of the screen is filled with computer-generated dinosaurs, which says everything you need to know about the approach the filmmakers are taking with this sequel.
More dinosaurs, more action, more CG, more noise. More returning characters, more callbacks, more fan service. More, more, more. Honestly, it's exhausting. Jurassic Park was a thought-provoking cautionary tale about the dangers of meddling with nature. Jurassic World and its sequels are shallow action movies with very little to say. They're entertaining, but I don't think I can sit through another 2+ hours of Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard being chased around exotic locations by unconvincing-looking dinosaurs.
Unfortunately, the concept of 'too much of a good thing' is lost on Hollywood. If an audience likes a thing, it's gonna keep showing them that thing, over and over again, until every last cent has been wrung out of it. Then in ten years, when the nostalgia has peaked, they'll bring the thing back and do it all over again. But while I'm sure filmmakers will continue to find new ways to reimagine Star Wars or Alien, the Jurassic movies feel like they peaked ages ago. I mean, what else can you really do with dinosaurs? Velociraptors in space?
It's telling that the main reason I still want to see Dominion is the reunion of Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler. I'm aware that this is precisely the kind of nostalgia baiting I criticised earlier, but I'm only human and I love those actors. As for the dinosaurs, I have basically zero interest in them—which is a wild thing to say about a Jurassic movie. In the original film, catching fleeting, terrifying glimpses of that T-Rex in the rain was utterly thrilling. Now when I see one stomping after Chris Pratt, I just see a collection of weightless polygons.
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