Having recently viewed Jurassic World Dominion at home, I thought that it would be a fitting opportunity to take a look back at the franchise, and briefly share my thoughts on each movie, as well as the overall narrative of the saga.
To begin, I was introduced to Jurassic Park at a very young age. My sixth-grade science teacher required our class to write a book report on a non-fiction scientific topic, and then give a presentation on that report to the class.
Our middle school had a book fair during this time, and I purchased a copy of Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton. I read the entire book, and then wrote the report, and gave my presentation to the class. At the end of that presentation, my science teacher, Mrs. Wafer, informed the class that Jurassic Park Wars not real, and that they had not cloned Dinosaurs! I was in disbelief.
At the time I mistakenly believed that fiction was fact, and that nonfiction was not. I recalled carefully selecting the book after seeing fiction on the spine of it, and presumed it was real. Mrs. Wafer was amused, but I was not.
I stop did not accept her assertion that Jurassic Park was not a real place, and that Dinosaurs had not been cloned. Two years later in the summer of 1993, I returned home from volunteering at a Baptist youth camp, and I learned that Mrs. Wafer had called, and asked if she could take me to see Jurassic Park in the theater!
I was shocked. She came to my home with her son and picked me up and drove me twenty miles to an area theater where she paid for my ticket and a drink, and let me to watch the movie.
I was awestruck by the opening scenes, and most moving to me were the Brachiosaurus eating leaves from the tops of the trees. They looked so gentle and peaceful, as if they had existed all along. I felt a deep sense of joy at what I saw.
Needless to say, I was amazed at the movie and has a lot of fun. It was a bright spot for me during a very turbulent time in my life. I was being bullied every day at school, and I was assaulted in class, in the bathrooms, and on the playground.
I hated school, and I hated the other kids because of how they mistreated me and rejected me. I became introverted and stayed to myself. I was afraid to go to school, and during this time I developed irritable bowel syndrome.
That same summer, my seventh-grade grammar teacher Mrs. Scoles called my great- grandmother and asked for me to stop by the school at the end of the year. So, I did, and I was taken to the school library where all of the teachers were working.
Mrs. Scoles stood up and had me follow her to her classroom, where she gave me two of the toy figures from Jurassic Park. They were a Dimetrodon and Velociraptor. She smiled and laughed when she saw how amazed I was to receive those toys.
I think that Mrs. Scoles was aware of what was happening to me at school, and she also knew how much I loved science and toys. Those two small acts of kindness by two teachers have never been forgotten, and both had a tremendous impact upon my life.
I bought and read The Lost World years later and saw the movie on VHS. I was amazed at the story, and quite honestly, I was more enthralled with the novel than the movie.
I felt that it was underwhelming to a degree, and could have been better had it more closely followed the plot of the novel. Jurassic Park III was even more of a disappointment to me, as it also pulled from the plot of The Lost World.
When Jurassic World was released my interest in the franchise was renewed, and I felt that same sense of awe return as I saw the new park. It seemed as if John Hammond’s dream had become a reality, and that lessons had been learned. I enjoyed the movie but was saddened by the conclusion of the film. I felt that it was a mistake to use the ideas of the original film as a soft reboot to the franchise. It left me with mixed feelings as a fan.
Fallen Kingdom was in my opinion, a critical misstep in creativity. I felt that it too, was underwhelming, much as The Lost World had been years prior. I knew that Jurassic World Dominion was going to be used to conclude the saga, and for the most part I enjoyed the movie.The conclusion was not what I was expecting and left much wanting in the way of knowing the end of the story.
I think that it was another misstep to bring the animals out into the modern world, which reduced their significance, and relegated them to more of a nuisance than the wonder of what they are. There are some good scenes, but there were also many avenues which could have better served the stories that were not taken. The most prominent being Isla Sorna.
I always felt that the sequels would have made better use of their time by moving the story there and allowing the sage to continue to evolve, while keeping the animals isolated from the world at large. In the novel The Lost World, its conclusion makes clear that the animals will eventually die out due to a disease infecting them which was caused by prions.
It was I think the author’s way of conveying how these wonderful animals weren’t meant to continue to exist alongside mankind. If anything, I think that the Jurassic World franchise should show us how fragile life on this planet is, and how utterly irresponsible we are in our care for it. We take little concern for our actions and decisions, not realizing that they are at the root of larger problems that they create.
That I think is the real lesson from chaos theory specifically, and these movies in general. We are not responsible enough with what we have been entrusted with by God, so how could we possibly undertake reviving an extinct species that we know very little about?
In the end I still enjoyed the movies, and I still collect the toys, which I think are one of the more lasting and positive aspects of the franchise. Jurassic World represents possibilities, but it also provides us with an opportunity to glimpse something much greater, that the world will never witness again.
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