Steve Rewind
MemberCompsognathusJun-19-2014 1:50 PMThe Steven Spielberg directed Jurassic Park based upon the Michael Crichton novel of the same name was released in 1993 to an overwhelmingly positive reception from critics and was adored by fans.
The adventure that had been 65 million years in the making and $65 million in the marketing, hit theatres with a resounding roar gobbling up $47 million opening weekend, now that's even decent by 2014 standards so adjusted for inflation that's erm well let’s just say shit loads more!
To put it into context the 2nd highest grossing movie of 1993 was the Robin Williams comedy vehicle Mrs Doubtfire, wow 1993 must have been a baron year, opened to $20 million however that was a comedy so a direct comparison is unfair I guess. Hmm well Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III opened that same year and only managed $42 million in its entire theatrical run! I know it was a piece of crap but it was a family, action adventure so most comparable.
Anyway the film went on to break all records at the box office and it's innovations in CGI began a whole new era in film making, both a good and a bad thing since with this new CGI before most directors knew what they had they'd butchered it, over used it and now they were selling it!
I saw this film in small cinema on the Channel Island of Jersey and remember the sheer excitement in the run up to its release date.
I had the trading cards, the toys, the books, so basically anything and everything to give me an insight into what to expect, it was like having snack in the lead up to Christmas dinner, just enough to keep the hunger at bay with out ruining the appetite.Oh and the meal was delicious, I left that theatre stuffed! I had witnessed my first masterpiece on the Big Screen!
Much like Superman: The Movie had aimed to do in making the audience believe a man could fly, the Jurassic Park team had made us believe Dinosaurs were alive again!The phenomenal success of Dino-Mania meant that everyone knew they would be getting a second bite of the Dinosaurs. Now remember back in my day this was a time when studios didn't instantly snap a sequel in to existence.
Now days, man I am getting old using phrases such as now days and back in my day, sequels are actually being planned before the original! No film it seems starts off as standalone project, it's just a prequel to the threequel they really aim to make!So we were left to wait for more Dinosaur action!
Four year post jP, on a side note we joke that anyone born in 1994 is the AjP Gen like the film was our second coming, anyway in 1997 Spielberg delivered The Lost World: Jurassic Park.
Only Ian Malcolm returned for more than a brief cameo and the audience was initially responsive, flooding to see the second instalment of the franchise handing over happily $72 million opening weekend.
However over all the film received a lukewarm reception and failed to match the originals worldwide gross, even with inflated tickets, it dropped off around $250 million.
Even I was underwhelmed and after 15 minutes I took my Jurassic Park cap off and put the "Go jP" foam finger away and settled in to what was a pretty uninspired drab affair, full of bland characters and mediocre action. Ok the action was decent however when you don't really care about the majority, if not all of the characters, then their fight for survival ends up about as fun as watching the same characters queuing for the vending machine while you watch a TOHO Godzilla movie on the TV in the background.
However it was still the 3rd highest grossing movie of 1997 behind the very fresh Men in Black and the film every girl in the world went to see 8 times TITANIC! I only saw it 6 times so not a girl!
So what next?
Well thank fully the studio has left it till 2014 and never attempted a third entry.It's a shame as I would have thought we would be getting another Jurassic Park film before 2014? I mean that's a long...ok fuck it yeah there was a 3rd film why are you making me remember this!Jurassic Park 3 summary!No Spielberg, wasted Alan Grant, irritating side cast and a plot straight from a TV movie!The film only managed $368 million worldwide, almost half of what The Lost World raked in and that was with 2001 ticket prices. Everyone hated it! Critics and Fans!
It even ended up at number 9 in the box office charts for 2001, you may say "well top 10 is still top 10", well yes it is however when you come two places lower than Michael Bay's PEARL HABOUR!!!!Damn if that doesn't equate to a franchise killer!So now 22 years AjP the fourth film will tear into theatres in 2015, so what do we know so far?
I will break all the known facts into sections.
Section 1:Location!
The tourist attraction Jurassic Park was constructed by John Hammond's company InGen on Isla Nublar.Site B from The Lost World was located on Isla Sorna which was a research and development facility,Isla Sorna was also our setting for Jurassic Park 3. Jurassic World takes us back to Isla Nublar and a world where the attraction has been re built and open to the public and operating for a number of years.Receiving 10 million paying guest a year, and the guests can be charged anything the park wants *wink*.InGen is no more and a new Corporation is in charge, possibly with links to Biosyn and Lewis Dodson?The new corporation has opened the new park nearby the original as according to Scified.com the old visitor centre will feature at some point, now will it be a simple discovery by a construction crew before the bulldozers move in or will it be a hiding place in a pivotal scene? We will come back to that thought of a hiding place as a photo released yesterday will be analysed in the "Characters" section.
So this is the map that will be guiding customers around the resort. It would appear that all visitor accommodation etc will be based around the central lagoon.However notice the orange lines meeting in some form of hub at the top. Is this the transport hub that takes visitors to the rest of the park?It would make sense as most grand resorts require a form of mass transportation to ferry the large number of visitors around. So if these are shuttle bus routes or something else does that mean that there is no longer a car tour? Sad times! So from most of what has been leaked the guests will be less on a controlled Safari, as in the original film, and be experiencing a more traditional Zoo/ Sea World style park.
Now we see from this photo that the star symbol at the top of the map is indeed a mass transport hub for a monorail system. Damn combining Jurassic Park with a MonoRail? Ah what could possiblie go wrong? (Simpson's reference)
Ok so we've come this far looking a bit here and there about the park so now we have exhibit C.So the Park has a Golf Course?! Wow! Yeah I guess the worlds wealthy can't be impressed by a T-Rex unless they have worked on their handicap first? I find this both dumb and clever at the same time, since I think it is dumb that this place would have a Golf Course, however I know how seriously a lot of business people take their golf and it is a family park so therefore just because they are there with the family does not mean they care about being there, they can work on their short game? Long game? Some kind of golfing terminology, while the wife and kids go and play with Prehistoric predators! Dad of the year!
Ok so away from the wide world of sports, we can see that the Avery concept from Jurassic Park 3 is incorporated, so we can assume that the Pterosaurs will have a double helping of guests and staff at some point.Hmm the Egg Spinner? Either that is where you go to see the Dinosaur eggs or a non-copyrighted version of the Tea Cups?The most interesting thing from this picture is the Underwater Observatory.This means that for the first time in the franchise we will see Aquatic Dinosaurs!Now I know we have been spoilt over the years with those wonderfully realistic Asylum Movies on SyFy, so hopefully Jurassic World's attempt at these creatures will still have some awe left, I mean if you've seen one mega shark vs mega whatever you've seen them all right?Nah this is the most interesting prospect so far leaked.Think about it?! Combine a Mosasaurus in an aquarium that you can go underwater to view, possibly in a tunnel, with, if you look at the map, a water park then well I am going to have to see this film in 3D! If you are slow that was a sarcastic dig stating that this could involve a complete Jaws 3D rip off scene!
So finishing up with these pictures for this section, however they will be back at some point in further posts.We can see that there is also a river cruise to provide a floating main course for at least one lucky carnosaur.However I am most interested in one thing, as I can see that this has been put in their purely for a tense action set piece, also it would be explained very logically as well, but first...Gentle Giants Petting Zoo?REALLY?We are petting Dinosaurs now? I mean I know in the first film that when Alan, Tim and Lex took a break in the tree tops they petted a Brachiosaurus and it sneezed gunk on them and it was a cute scene and gave us more development of Grant's character. So I can see the idea that they want to take that scene and recreate that sense of Spielbergian wonderment and the next logical step is that the scene becomes and attraction as these are just big cows and we all like cows.However this does little to dispel the rumour that we will see trained/ tamed Dinosaurs, but we will get to that again in Characters.So yes also what I am most interested in from this map is the inclusion of the Bamboo Forest, why?Firstly from a logical view point this makes sense as Bamboo grows extremely fast and they have a fuck tonne of giant cows to feed!However is that just the cover for the fact that this must end up featuring in a scene similar to "the long grass" scene from The Lost World.I can see it now in my head and damn yeah that could look pretty awesome!Imagine being stuck surrounded by Bamboo and seeing the flicker of Raptors encircling your dead ass!
Ok so section two:
Dinosaurs!
Well it wouldn't be Jurassic Park with out Dinosaurs would it! Even though it may have taken them 22 years to finally have Dinosaurs on their Dinosaur ride? So we know that we get the T-Rex, we get Raptors, Mosasaurus, Triceratops, Gallimimus why? I don't know! They pretty much served their part in the original and I am not exactly crying out for more of them running and hoping they don't end up just doing a poor copy cat scene with them! I am especially hoping no one jumps on the back of one and rides to safety! Again we will get to that!Pachycephalosaurus, I am not sure what this home boy will be doing? I reckon based on this picture...
...he may be having a strop at some point. Now also though our pal Pachy has an arena!So question is...erm are they actually doing the prehistoric equivalent of cock fighting with the males?I'm no legal expert nor am I an inspector for the humane society, but if this is the case; is that allowed?I mean I'm not sure London Zoo would get away with an attraction that is basically Deer just locking horns?
So then there is the Gentle Giants Petting Zoo so we can assume the line up there, however I really want to see a Stegosaurus have a ruck with a T-Rex!!!So hopefully they have a Stegosaurus.
Now we come to the most contentious of issues surrounding the Dinosaurs!Yes the D-Rex or Diabolus Rex which is Latin for "please eat my guests".So this cuttlefish, chameleon, red eyed genetic super predator is supposed to give the park an edge, over all the other Dinosaur parks?So far from what we have seen I think it is already pretty spiffing enough.I am guessing the new company is Weyland-Yutani, what with this kind of thought process!This is where I start to question the direction of this film and begin to fear that it is not going to follow in Jurassic Parks footprints and more veer towards the aforementioned Jaws 3D and SyFy territory.I just think that this is a dumb plot device that will have characters either starting out as cartoon villains or suddenly switch from a normal bloke to Judge Doom!So anyway Colin Trevorrow came out a couple of weeks back to allay the fears of fans by stating that this new D-Rex is not a mutant freak and has been design to logically fit into the Jurassic Park Universe. Explaining that in the original movie the DNA had gaps which were plugged by amphibian DNA so the geneticists are taking the next obvious step, since they are also research scientists and not just Dino breeders.
However Trevorrow was quiet clear that this genetic tampering was not like they were making dog dinosaurs or god forbid a human hybrid disaster like in Alien Resurrection.
So this D-Rex is allegedly the mix of different species defence mechanisms such as active camouflage, entered into the genetic code of a mix of T-Rex and Raptor DNA.
So begs the question why? As previously stated the D-Rex is aimed to thrill audiences and continue the resorts popularity. I just can't help but wonder that maybe this creature would have been more suited to being bred and located on a Site B for study? Maybe they will introduce a sub plot that I will mention in the characters section with BD Wong to give a better understanding behind the motivations to create such a creature.So from that let's wait until we have a picture of this Alpha Psycho Death Monster before passing judgement and move on to some characters!
Section 3:
Characters!
Island security!So basically these guys may as all be wearing Red Shirts as their life expectancy is short!Now I am hoping that they have one or two actual characters who we connect with and don't just show up all credited with "Island Guard #..."I feel they should be introduced, as depicted, being all douche bag jocks who deserve everything they get but we still know who the hell is being crushed. At least give us James Cameron 101 grunts?Imagine a scene where this truck storms around and instead of going after the real Dino threat they start shooting at the Herbivorous! Ending up getting smashed up in a stampede with a Triceratops' horns impaling the vehicle and tossing it into a lake and the occupants drown! I hate these guys already!But imagine how good that scene could be with 30 large dinosaurs fendning off half a dozen armoured trucks!
Chris Pratt - Owen!
Now Colin Trevorrow has come out and said that Chris Pratt is a behavioural analyst who has studied Raptors and connected with their highly evolved intellect.This statement was released by the Director to dispel rumours that Chris Pratt had a posse of back flipping circus Dinosaurs as his butlers!I also think that maybe there are now a lot of preople frantically re writing scenes and setting up re shoots as we speak, as blatantly the film makers ideas that they thought would be loved, are actually crap and confusing fans! However will this still end up seeming like Chris Pratt Dino Whisperer?Trevorrow has already said that this is a Dinosaur on Dinosaur action film.So obviously the D-Rex is going to be the "bad" dinosaur, even though apparently there are no good or bad, which is a fair point as these a animals trying to survive. However there are good and bad people and we are just animals trying to survive.So who is Chris Pratt?Well from this photo he is going to be the prehistoric world answer to Dian Fossey.He will live with the Dino's, talk to the Dino's and be the outcast, hence the cabin, and not taken seriously by the "legitimate" scientists on the payroll until all hell breaks loose!Oh and he has a motorbike which means he's the cool Alan Grant!Pratt has even said that his character is the amalgamation of Grant and Malcolm.So again we see a parallel with Jaws 3D.Chris Pratt will be Dennis Quaid's Mike Brody and Bryce Dallas Howard will be Kay Morgan.I am seriously worried by how many times I am able to link this film to Jaws 3D and to think I was only joking that there wasn't a 3rd instalment considering Jaws 3D was the 3rd in a franchise spawned from a Spielbergian masterpiece! Will Chris Pratt aka Dr Do-Dino end up being less Alan Grant and more Braveheart? Will this film become a Dinoriders adaptation where we see him on his trusty Gallimimus steed rallying his Dino troops for battle with blue and white war paint?
Ok so who else we got so far?
BD Wong returns as Dr Henry Wu.He seemed like a decent enough fellow?Oh no wait this is rumoured to be our new Dennis Nedry!Merely speculation on forums and snippets on random sites, however the thinking appears to be that there will be a strained relationship with his employers that will, if not directly at least indirectly, lead to disaster.Now this is where we discuss the D-Rex sub plot I mentioned previously.Three options here I think:#1: BD Wong has a break down and actually creates a Dinosaur the executive running the show kind of asked for but adds a "be careful what you wish for" additional aggression to the creature?#2: The owners of the park also have a weapons division.Now assuming that genetically engineered Alpha predator bio-weapon experiments are illegal or fail to receive Pentagon funding the corporation decides to use the wholesome family resort to secretly develop these D-Rex's and perfect the science and creatures conditioning before unveiling them to the military?#3: People are just stupid and greedy and do this kind of dumb shit all the time!
Now recent photo from the film leads to more speculation!
Who are these guys?From IMDB this is Zach and Gray!Played by Nick Robinson and Ty Simpkins.Well if anyone isn't looking at this picture and thinking these kids are lost in the park once the shit hits the fan and have to run from set piece to set piece to survive? Well then why aren't you thinking that?So will these be the ones to seek refuge during their escape in the old visitor centre?
So that is enough for tonight!That is where Jurassic World is pretty much at so far.Check out more analysis as pictures of significance leak.I have not looked at ever photo for one simple reason...
...wow the employees have patches!!!
![[RUMOR] Jurassic World: Rebirth will feature an epic rematch between T-Rex and Spinosaurus?!](http://www.scified.com/articles/sm/rumor-jurassic-world-rebirth-feature-epic-rematch-between-t-rex-spinosaurus-22.jpg)
