Jurassic World.... terrifying even after 25 years!

 

It was 25 years ago when fans around the world watched dinosaurs on the big screens in Jurassic Park. The latest film in the series, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, may not match Steven Spielberg’s classic adventure, but it surely is a treat to watch.

When Jurassic Park was released, it had sent everyone into a frenzy, especially dinosaur fanatics. There was no precedent of using technology to create dinosaurs that looked so aesthetically pleasing that fans genuinely developed a connection with the beasts. 

However, the films have often been criticised for creating dinosaurs, especially for the purpose of entertainment. 

Jeff Goldblum who played the role of a mathematician, Dr Ian Malcolm, in the first movie was highly critical of multi-millionaire John Hammond’s brand of entertainment, that brings humans and dinosaurs together in the form of an amusement park and give people a chance to travel 65 million years back in time. 

Goldblum believed that the boundaries — electrical fences and paddocks — would not be able to hold off the beasts for long. He believed life could not be contained in a jar...life breaks free, life finds a way. 

While Hammond, played by the legendary Sir Richard Attenborough, praised the scientists for doing something no one had ever done, Malcolm simply responded by saying ‘your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn’t stop and think whether they should’.

The theme, best explained in the first film, continued in the sequels — that creating the park was a ‘very bad idea’ as it always ended in chaos. 

By the time the third movie in the Jurrasic Park franchise — Jurassic Park 3 — released in 2001, fans' interest had dwindled and the movie itself was a disaster, to say the least. 

However, Jurassic World (2015) introduced a new direction for the franchise. 

The introduction of a dinosaur that never existed tried to revive the dead series. The dinosaur was the first genetically-modified hybrid in the franchise, called the Indominus Rex. 

This idea of a hybrid was refined and further explored in the latest film, released earlier this month, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.

In the movie, Bryce Dallas Howard (Claire Dearing) and Chris Pratt (Owen Grady) reprised their roles from the previous film. 

The duo is sent back to the island (Isla Nublar) to save 11 dinosaur species facing extinction, while the State refuses to send help, all the while they are tempted by the main antagonist, Eli Mills (Rafe Spalls). 

Mills poses to have a private sanctuary where the dinosaurs can stay safe and secure, however, he actually wants to sell the 11 dinosaurs to fund his program to create a brand new hybrid. 

He also needs the DNA of the Velociraptor: Blue, the only extant member of her species in the world, to create a menacing, blood-thirsty creature called the Indoraptor. 

The creature later wreaks havoc in the film when it is released during the auction, terrorizing and kills several people.

Dr Malcolm is once again seen in a Senate meeting, warning mankind about the giant beasts. 

Towards the end of the film, many of the captured dinosaurs are released and they venture out in the city, with Malcolm saying the creatures were there before humans and if they are not careful, they are going be there after them.

Welcome to Jurassic World.

Though the film has jaw-dropping visual effects, the introduction of new dinosaurs and hybrid, along with the dark theme and the element of shock steal the show. 

Director JA Bayona, on several occasions, had stressed that the film’s purpose was to terrify people to a great extent, something that a lot of the earlier films didn’t do to the fullest. 

The fifth movie of the series is executed to near perfection, with no scene in the film that lags or drags. The story is so tightly and neatly bonded with the scenes that it makes for an enthralling experience.

If you are a fan of the franchise, you will love the film, and if you not, the movie will make you fall in love with the series. 

A sixth film will be released on June 11, 2021, where we will surely get to see more of these magnificent beasts, as there are no more parks, fences or islands. 

Will mankind survive this Jurassic World? We will have to wait three years for the answer.