The short version? If you’ve seen Jurassic Park, you’ve seen this. Amoral Scientist? Check. Well-meaning billionaire founder? Check. Villain looking to make a profit on the dinosaurs despite the dangers? Check. Child dinosaur expert? Check. Humans armed to the gills with technology getting outwitted by stupid creatures? Check-a-rooney.
What makes this version different though? World is more self-aware about the cynicism plaguing today’s theme parks/entertainment. Corporate sponsorship is needed to offset costs; audiences are easily bored because they’ve seen dinosaurs so the geneticists need to make creatures bigger and scarier or else they won’t look up from their iPads. I guess I’ll throw in the cast which has no one from the previous three. We have a pair of kids (no idea who they are) visiting due to their aunt being the operations manager (Dallas Howard); the hero who has been training a quartet of velociraptors (Chris Pratt); the villain with plans to turn those “trained” velociraptors into weapons for use in the Middle East (Vincent D’Onofrio). No real scientists in the lead roles. Is this part of the dumbing-down of ‘Murica?
Are there any surprises? Not really. Anything unique? Some different dinosaurs here and there but nothing exciting. There were a couple things I did like you have to look for, namely a couple cameos of Jeff Goldblum via his character’s book and Brad Bird is the voice of the monorail.
My opinion obviously didn’t matter, there’s already plans for a fifth movie. Yawn.
Alamo Extras: Snippet from The Land of the Lost, trailers for Yor, Hunter of the Future (1983), Planet of the Dinosaurs (1977) and Dinosaurus (Sixties); Phil Tippet’s animatics for the kitchen chase in Jurassic Park; the same scene with kittens in place of the ‘raptors; Japanese TV prank involving a ‘raptor; an ongoing gag called “Dinosaurs Make Everything Better” in which famous movie scenes have a dinosaur chomping inserted; and the latest music video from DUM called “Clever Girl” with the band’s faces imposed on Jurassic Park actors.