(Throwback Repost) Jurassic World Recap: A Reflection Of Societal Vices Wrapped In 90s Dinosaur Nostalgia

By: Marcus Cardona (June 5, 2015)

JURASSIC WOOOOOORLD! *dinosaur roar* was just released onto the public. The lengthy 2 hour and 10 minute movie directed by Colin Trevorrow stars Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard and is the fourth installment of the Jurassic Park movies first directed by Stephen Spielberg based on the novel by Michael Crichton.

This movie did not fall short for fans of the original movies. And by fans I mean the 90s kids and fans of the original films who held such high esteem for the movie. To summarize the plot of every Jurassic Park movie. Some outrageously rich people find a way to bring dinosaurs back to life on a secluded island, they spend all their money on science to bring dinosaurs back to life, they need to find a way to make their money back, they create a park and monetize it by making it available to the general public to see and interact with the dinosaurs, dinosaurs can't be contained regardless of technology, employees are just doing their jobs, things go wrong, technology fails, people die, everyone needs to get off the island, there's a hero, kids, romantic interest, people not on the island are concerned and rack up crazy phone bills. It's a fairly easy equation with which the primary focus is dinosaurs that is all you really need. Essentially this was what kept our minds occupied before everyone got diagnosed with ADD - DINOSAURS.

Let's go straight into the movie. The movie opens with well-done CGI of the very creepy hatching of dinosaurs with claws and evil eyes galore. It then puts you right into Christmas Day as Tony Bennett's Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas plays knocking you back into childhood. As two kids are about to head to Jurassic World, the reopened and revamped park. One kid, a hormonally charged teenager acting like a moody teenager and his excited dinosaur obsessed brother... who's looking through a ViewMaster full of the 90's dinosaur drawings... in 2015... are sent on vacation to Isla Nublar in Costa Rica to see dinosaurs and stay with their Aunt who basically runs the park (man, luckiest kids) and the Aunt is too busy and sticks them with a babysitter (more on her later ;) ). This motif of having kids in the park is to show the shared fear of dinosaurs, the unknown, and survival between both the adults and children unprepared for these events. An equation that works so well. Because no one is prepared for dinosaurs... NO ONE. The movie retains many of the archetypes that made the original movie so great but Jurassic World also introduces new elements and new messages to take away from it. I'll dissect these and put them in bold.

When they arrive on the island the kids... at least the younger one is so excited to see the park and the dinosaurs and we see the interactions in the park as the dinosaurs have been made into attractions. The saddest thing is the petting area of dinosaurs as a girl hugs a brontosaurus and kids are riding triceratops (fictional animals or extinct animals... I know... either way). Animals in captivity has become a topic of interest in recent years with the documentary Black Fish. However, since the original Jurassic Park, the message of containing wild animals was an issue. It was the main plot line of Free Willy, Mighty Joe Young, and various 90's films. They delve deeper into proper treatment and handling of creatures in captivity with the introduction of Chris Pratt's character - Owen Grady (pretty much a raptor taming Indiana Jones). While some parks aid in keeping animals alive and safe. The interaction aspect, as opposed to just observation, is an unnecessary element in parks. However, it is being made popularized in maintaining sales and attendance in these parks.

Perhaps the bigger problem Jurassic Park is pointing out to us is the capitalism and monetization of natural resources. Anyone with a television has heard the phrases sustainable, climate control, fracking, etc. Where am I going with this? Jurassic Park is essentially built on the idea that if we bring we back dinosaurs - we can make so much money MUAHAHAHA. Dinosaurs being on Earth BEFORE was one thing. Bringing them back is unnatural. However with the world's need for the unnatural man-made force of money. Nature can GO F*CK ITSELF. Money is such a vice to humanity especially when nature takes the damage. The movie takes it further and kind of parodies the consumerism of humanity in the movie's main villain - THE INDOMINUS REX (brought to you by Verizon, also the Samsung Building, Jimmy Fallon, Jurassic World Mercedes Benzes and Jeep lines). The movie briefly makes fun of the product placement of companies but perhaps they're pointing out a bigger monster. The Indominus Rex is basically a Frankenstein of dinosaurs with added features created because park goers wanted more out of dinosaurs. Let's take the Frankenstein story and instead of a mad scientist just making a monster on his own the town of villagers just yell at Dr. Frankenstein to make a monster. While genetic modification was the primary problem in the original movie, Jurassic World takes it to the next level making light of the GMO's and the demand of the consumers. The human demand for more is a constant disaster creating vice.

New Girl's Jake Johnson's foreshadowing choice of clothing.

The Indominus Rex ends up being a monster produced by all these vices. The eccentric multibillionaire Mr. Murani still wants to exhibit the Indominus regardless of very tell tale signs. Like it trying to break out of its own container, it eating its own sibling, the fact that it has camo! (LIKE HELLO?! PURE EVIL?!?! YOU'RE RICH SHOULDN'T YOU HAVE RISK ANALYSIS SKILLS OR HIRE SOMEONE WHO'S LIKE THIS IS A BAD INVESTMENT)

This billionaire essentially says, "Yeah it seems pretty evil but just have Chris Pratt check out it's cage. Pure evil is expensive. Need to make that guap back."

We meet Chris Pratt's character who is an awesome field guy who used to be in the Navy and he's basically domesticated control and established dominance in training velociraptors (domesticated velociraptors = ultimate ally). Basically Chris Pratt type casted as a badass. Oh - before I continue further there's also a guy who works for InGen, the scientists who brought the dinosaurs back to life, and he wants Chris' raptors for the military. Weaponization a thing we've seen throughout the arms game of history. The subject matter of conflicts in X-Men and Iron Man. The need to have the newest and deadliest toys. Drones or velociraptors. It seems like weaponization is growing matter in maintaining our defenses. While the real world isn't weaponizing living things like raptors or mutant human beings, it's still a growing matter with attack dogs. Power to destroy is really the problem rather than the power to defend. As in the movie they need to ally with the velociraptors to destroy the Indominus but things don't turn out exactly as planned.

The movie goes on as disaster after disaster occurs. The Indominus escapes, casualties occur - some cool, some not so cool. The kids, the two adult lead characters get away safe, as the characters come together in tragedy. While the movie shows very separated characters at the beginning of the movie. The characters change and come together through tragedy. Isolation of humans perhaps a great theme in movies is that characters only come together in tragedy. However this goes beyond movies as this is human behavior. Why do humans isolate themselves from human and emotional connection and only connect during times of tragedy? Do we need to wait for the tragedy to occur before we can come together? Humans need to come together regardless of the highs and lows and middles of life (also they bring up the parents divorcing in the movie and never address it in the end... did the director and editors just forget to cut that out... is this going to be relevant in a sequel?) This blog entry again is not a review but to provide some insight on the meaning of Jurassic World. If the events of Jurassic World were real companies would go bankrupt, religious groups and environmental groups would protest, insurances and legalities of it all would take years to complete... but it's just a movie. Movies give such great story lines to elicit emotion and entertain us with stories of events in which the characters undergo conflict, growth, and change. However great movies and stories like Jurassic World provide messages that people don't pick up on. For the average movie goer Jurassic World is a high box office earning movie starring Chris Pratt and actors featuring great CGI of dinosaurs classified as a science fiction action thriller that will be subject to reviews on RottenTomatoes and can sell merchandise and toys. To other movie watchers it's a great story portraying a human created chaos theory that detonates in the perfect location and setting all human created driven by humanity's vices. The movie would've been awesome if at the end Chris Pratt is staring off into the sunset and then looking back directly into the audience and says "Do you know what caused this?" and a mirror just lowers to the movie goers. While that would get mixed feelings and affect product sales it would portray a great message to movie goers. If I got a little too real and emotional right there... sorry. This is a comedy blog so I'll share my comedic thoughts.

COMEDIC RELIEF SECTION

I got a man crush on Chris Pratt but also want to be Chris Pratt... it's weird.
I got goosebumps from the throwback section of the movie in the old park with the fallen banner, Jeeps, and night vision googles
Flying things are terrifying (Alfred Hitchcock was so ahead of his time, dinosaurs aren't real, low flying pigeons are real)
Best kill of the movie: The assistant babysitter getting picked up by a pterodactyl and the mosasaurus eating them both
Doublefisting margarita man
Domesticated raptors was my idea since I saw the first movie and my pick as a zombie apocalypse ally, vehicle: Nolan's Batmobile, weapon: Lightsaber
Bryce Dallas Howard's costume change... HELLO.
I was kinda hoping the t-rex and velociraptor would fist bump at the end after killing the Indominus, best team up ever... the Avengers can suck it