Jurassic Park turned 25 years old earlier this week, and testimonials and tributes have been popping up all over the internet. How the film was a nerd haven. How it was a game changer. How it made history. How it was a “dinosaur-sized leap” in computer effects. How it was just a damn good movie.
Considering the 1973 Westworld and the original Jurassic Park novel were both written by Michael Crichton, someone was bound to point out sci-fi theme parks run amok as a recurring theme. Thankfully, the internet never sleeps, and has now catered to the need for a helpful video pointing out the exact similarities between HBO’s Westworld and Jurassic Park.
When all you care about is money, bad things happen. That’s the message of Jurassic World, where greedy theme-park executives hoping to spike attendance engineer the “Indominus Rex,” a genetically-modified dinosaur that immediately turns on its creators and runs amok. Designed as a cautionary tale about the dangers of building a meaner, badder monster purely for the sake of profits, Jurassic World works equally well as a cautionary tale about doing the same thing in movies. All of the rationalizations provided by Jurassic World’s employees — “Consumers want them bigger, louder, more teeth.” “Somebody’s gotta make sure this company has a future!” — could have been taken directly out of the mouths of the studio executives who approved this gene splice of a reboot and a sequel. Their creation — the Indominus or the movie, there’s basically no difference — is as advertised; huge, mean, and visually striking. But this experiment is not without consequences.
It appears that Steven Spielberg has new installments of two long-running franchises in the pipeline, because you never miss a good thing until it’s gone. According to the director himself, wheels are turning on both an ‘Indiana Jones V’ and ‘Jurassic Park IV.’