Jurassic World took a record-breaking bite out of the box office this year and paved the way for a sequel that is set to arrive in 2018, but will it be any good considering just how bad the first one was?
The makers of Jurassic World promised to wash away the memory of lacklustre sequels to the 1993 hit ‘Jurassic Park’ and deliver a film worthy of the original. For me that was not the case; I was left cringing at some of the scenes, particularly the ‘dinosaurs are our friends’ parts. The CGI made me feel like I was watching a cartoon, while the characters were paper thin and boring. Gone was the terror and fun of the original,which had a great story and characters as well as dinosaurs that actually looked real. Fast-forward to 2015 and it would make you think that the evolution of film-making has made a giant leap backwards.
In Jurassic World a new theme park is built on the original site of Jurassic Park. Everything is going well until the park’s newest attraction, a genetically modified dinosaur, escapes containment and goes on a killing spree. It seems that there is confusion over just what to do with the sequel after this. The rumours of ‘weaponised’ dinosaurs could well spell the extinction of the franchise.
Jurassic World has been named as one of the most mistake filled films of 2015 also. Despite all this, it was one of the most successful films of the year, fuelled no doubt by nostalgia for the original, with fans taking their children to see it. It promised so much; a fully realized park, bigger and better dinosaurs. Instead they had to go with a chameleon dinosaur and Chris Pratt thinking he was in Guardians of the Galaxy 2. Let’s not go into the whole issue of the female lead running around in high heels for the whole movie!
Jurassic World 2 is due to be released in 2018 by Universal,and Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard are both set to return. It is thought that the action will be not take place on the Isla Nublar Island setting of both Jurassic Park and Jurassic World. Colin Trevorrow is back as the director. He told Entertainment Weekly recently that Jurassic World would be a different type of film from the first.
“I feel like the audience has given us permission, to a certain extent, to take this to the next level. I feel very strongly that it’s not about more dinosaurs. It’s about using this as a starting point for a much larger story about our relationship with these animals.”
Whatever story they go with we can only hope that it won’t be a Jurassic bore and that they try and recapture the brilliance of the 1993 film that started it all. Don’t break it if it’s not broken!