While theJurassic Parkmovies are famous for their dinosaurs, theJurassic Worldmovies prove there is a reason that Spielberg’s original blockbuster used them sparingly. By the timeJurassic Park’s ending rolls around, no viewer can reasonably complain that the movie didn’t feature enough dinosaur action. As such, audience members might be surprised to learn that the prehistoric creatures aren’t onscreen for as long as it seems. There are only 15 minutes of dinosaur screen time inJurassic Park’s 127-minute runtime, as shocking as this might sound.
AlthoughJurassic World Rebirthmight redress the imbalance, theJurassic Worldtrilogy failed to embraceJurassic Parkdirector Steven Spielberg’s “Less is more” approach. ByJurassic World: Dominion’s ending, viewers have spent a whole lot more time in the company of dinosaurs, but the effect isn’t what the movie’s creators intended. TheJurassic Worldmovies managed to make dinosaurs dull, while Spielberg’s sparing use of them made the original movie one of the best blockbusters of all time. Its earliest teaser trailer explains how.
Jurassic Park’s First Full Trailer Didn’t Even Need Dinosaurs To Sell You The Movie
Spielberg’s Original Blockbuster Held Off On Revealing Its Biggest Draw
The first teaser trailer forJurassic Parktook a major risk by featuring no footage from the actual movie itself. Instead, the promotional video depicts a miner unearthing a piece of amber from a mine and filing it down before a scientist places it beneath a microscope. The narrator explains that this chunk of amber found in a South American mine contained a perfectly preserved mosquito that carried dinosaur DNA. As the camera zooms in on the mosquito’s eye, the narrator promises that this DNA will be used to bring dinosaurs back to life in the eponymous theme park.
Jurassic Park’s first trailer features no dinosaurs at all, and the sequence depicting the miner finding the amber doesn’t appear in the finished movie. However, the teaser is as exciting as anything fromJurassic World Rebirth’s trailerand proves just how much Spielberg’s approach to the dinosaurs paid off. As he did with the shark inJaws, the director waited for as long as possible to reveal the main attraction ofJurassic Park. Much like a real theme park, the movie saved its main attraction for paying customers.
Jurassic Park’s promotional teaser promises a lot but doesn’t unveil anything, underlining just how confident Spielberg was in the movie’s story.Jurassic Parkitself follows suit, keeping the screen time of the dinosaurs to a minimum and waiting a long time to reveal major players like the T. Rex in all their glory. WhileJurassic World Rebirth’s hybrid dinosaur monsterlooks interesting, it is worth asking whether the creature would be even more intriguing if its existence was only hinted at in the reboot’s trailer.
Spielberg’s Jurassic Park Is A Textbook Example Of How To Make A Monster Movie
The Jaws Director Is A Master Of Monster Movie Filmmaking
Although many blockbusters leap from set piece to set piece as quickly as possible,the surprisingly patient pace ofJurassic Parkis a big part of what makes the original movie work. It is a long time before viewers reach the titular park, even longer before we see dinosaurs, and longer still before the T. Rex puts in its first iconic appearance. If the T. Rex was shown in the movie’s opening moments, as happened inJurassic World: Dominion’s opening scene, viewers would expect something new to outdo this spectacle shortly after.
Director Ridley Scott’s iconicAlienmakes it almost halfway to the end of its runtime before the titular monster appears on-screen for the first time.
AlthoughJurassic World Rebirthcan revisit some scenesthat didn’t make it intoJurassic Park’s movie adaptation, this pacing is the main takeaway director Gareth Edwards’ reboot should take from the original movie. Other iconic monster movies like Spielberg’s earlier blockbusterJawsor director James Cameron’sThe Terminatorare similar case studies in patient, suspense-centric storytelling outdoing pure, unbridled spectacle. Director Ridley Scott’s iconicAlienmakes it almost halfway to the end of its runtime before the titular monster appears on-screen for the first time.
The Jurassic World Trilogy Lost Track Of What Made The Original Film So Special
The Jurassic World Sequels Featured Too Much Action And Not Enough Suspense
This is a message that the reboot trilogy desperately needed to hear, astheJurassic Worldmovies traded tension for spectacle. With indestructible heroes who jumped from one life-threatening set-piece to the next without a scratch, theJurassic Worldmovies often felt more like superhero movies than suspenseful survival thrillers. This might have made financial sense after how successful 2015’s rebootJurassic Worldproved, but it would leave viewers yearning for even theunderratedJurassic Park IIIinstead of these weightless, tension-free CGI extravaganzas.
2015
71%
2018
46%
2022
29%
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdomfeatured more screen time for the dinosaurs than ever before, and their increased exposure made them less impressive, less awe-inspiring, and less threatening with each passing minute. Meanwhile, Chris Pratt’s central hero went fromJurassic World’s particularly well-trained, over-prepared expert to a veritable superhuman over the course of the trilogy, meaning viewers were never worried about his survival by the final film. By the time he was driving a motorbike onto an airplane to evade velociraptors running free in a busy city, the franchise had lost any connection to observable reality.
Jurassic World Rebirth Seems To Be Bringing Back The Best Things About Jurassic Park
Jurassic World Rebirth’s Approach Brings Back The Franchise’s Best Qualities
TheJurassic ParkandJurassic Worldfranchisees are both about dinosaurs roaming free in the modern world, so it goes without saying that they don’t need to feel entirely realistic. However,theJurassic Worldsequels lost their stakes when they made the heroes indestructible, and this issue was closely tied to over-exposing the franchise’s dinosaurs. If the movies hadn’t made dinosaurs an uninteresting inevitability,Jurassic World: Dominion’sFast & Furious-style chasewouldn’t have been necessary to keep the audience’s attention.
Fortunately,Jurassic World Rebirthappears to have learned from the mistakes of its predecessors. Even the marketing campaign looks more similar to that of the original film, with viewers barely seeing the dinosaurs in its publicity stills before the first trailer was released. The trailer does reveal a lot of dinosaur action, but the story is at least confined to one remote location and features a handful of characters who are woefully unprepared for their predicament.
InJurassic Park, seeing lifelike dinosaurs was still a breathtaking shock to the main characters and the audience alike, whereas, in theJurassic Worldmovies, this experience was par for the course.
For every expert like Mahershala Ali and Scarlett Johansson’s characters, there is a nebbish scientist or a stranded vacationer. This strikes at the core problem with the reboot trilogy, which is also the best thing about Spielberg’s original movie. InJurassic Park, seeing lifelike dinosaurs was still a breathtaking shock to the main characters and the audience alike, whereas, in theJurassic Worldmovies, this experience was par for the course.
