Jurassic World: The Review

 

MAJOR SPOILERS! 

For twenty-two years I have been true fan of the Jurassic Franchise. When I was five years of age I saw Jurassic Park in 1993 and it captured my imagination. The sequels, The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III continued Spielberg and Crichton's legacy about man resurrecting extinct animals that we call dinosaurs and the cost package and consequences that come with it. For fourteen years I waited, anticipated, and even wrote my own draft of a script for Jurassic Park IV, which now bears the name of "Jurassic World". I have seen the film and will endeavor in the following paragraphs to describe it.

This is not the Jurassic Park you grew up with. Spielberg has Hitchockian gift of injecting horror and terror, but doing most of it off camera. In his break out hit, JAWS, the most terrifying and most numerous shots of the Great White Shark were actually unseen and focused on victims being pulled under and struggling in water, rather than gruesome and gory scenes. Spielberg was master of suspense, and he knew what you don't see is as important and maybe more important than what you see. Spielberg applied this to Jurassic Park, giving us only two up close death scenes, although one is obscured by foliage (Muldoon's death by Shelah/Clever Girl).

Collin Trevorrow is a different director. He employs Spielberg's methods, but crafts this new fully operation Park with more carnage and on screen death. Jurassic World is by far the most morbid and darkest installment in the series. In fact, the scenes with the Pterosaurs attacking the tourists so disturbed the audience I was with, that many parents took their children out of the theater and did not return! In fact, adults and teens alike seem greatly distress by what they saw.

The Good

Jurassic World is a critique on the world system, how mankind wants more at the cost of killing everything we could have been content with. It shows that our desire to innovate and create the next thrill to top the last one can end up being the devil's doorway to utter destruction. The Indominus Rex, the new hybrid antagonist and carnivore is the embodiment of the contemporary obsession with bigger thrills, better chills, and the next best thing. The Albino Tyrannosaur should have remained named the Diablous Rex, for like the devil it wrecks havoc and comes "to steal, kill, and destroy." (John 10:10).

There is a very tender and tragic moment when Owen Grady (Christ Pratt) and Claire (Dallas Bryce Howard) come to the Plaines of Dead Apatosaurs. Owen and Claire approach an Apatosaur that is dying and the combination of the music and the look of the hurt and tender Behemoth moves you to tears. For this sweet gentle giant was ravaged and raped because of man's sin and creation of the I-Rex. In effect, the Apatosaur touches us because it existed and is in the Bible:
“Behold now, Behemoth, which I made as well as you;
He eats grass like an ox.
¹⁶ “Behold now, his strength in his loins
And his power in the muscles of his belly.
¹⁷ “He bends his tail like a cedar;
The sinews of his thighs are knit together.
¹⁸ “His bones are tubes of bronze;
His limbs are like bars of iron.

¹⁹ “He is the first of the ways of God;
Let his maker bring near his sword.
²⁰ “Surely the mountains bring him food,
And all the beasts of the field play there.
²¹ “Under the lotus plants he lies down,
In the covert of the reeds and the marsh.
²² “The lotus plants cover him with shade;
The willows of the brook surround him.
²³ “If a river rages, he is not alarmed;
He is confident, though the Jordan rushes to his mouth.
²⁴ “Can anyone capture him when he is on watch,
With barbs can anyone pierce his nose?" (Job 40:15-24).  

This description is no other than the Apatosaur or Brontosaurus. "His tail is like cedar," sounds like the tail of Apatosaur. "He is confident though the Jordan rushes to his mouth," this is the exact image from Jurassic Park when Brotosaurs are tredding in the river and worry not about the current because they have such massive legs and bodies that they cannot be swept away.

The agony of the Apatosaur is hard to endure. It is my opinion that the Apatosaurus and the other Herbivores represent the resurrected paradise. These creatures lived in time of Adam and Eve, and yet we conceive to create something; we bring the Forbidden Fruit, in this case the Indominus Rex, into the picture and it devours paradise. I do not believe it was the intent of the director to create this symbolism, the truth is the messages in movie are more of New Age and Mother Nature narrative that the characters espouse. But God spoke out of donkey to Balaam, and so He can do so out of a Director of horror.

Jurassic World at its core is about relationships. Claire who is a cold and calculated cooperate woman must wrestle with connecting with her nephews who come to visit the park and with her on and off love interest with Owen. Owen has a relationship with the Raptors, a relationship that is put to the test when the Indominus takes position as Alpha and commands Blue (Beta), Charlie, Echo, and Delta of the Raptor pack to kill everything in sight. This is the major shock and awe moment, that the Indominus Rex is part Raptor and thus commands the Raptor pack to go on a rampage. One could read into this that Indominus is the like the devil, able to turn those who once respected and even loved others into locomotives of death and destruction.

The Bad

As aforementioned, the carnage is constant through the last two chapters of the film. The Pterosaur scene is particularly gruesome with them picking up people and tossing them like ragdolls; and descending on ordinary families of all races and cutting them to pieces with their sword fish like breaks. Unlike Spielberg, these scenes are graphic with people being torn asunder and blood and bloodcurdling screams to complete symphony of death. This was when many parents took their children out of the theater.

The Velociraptors becoming villains is very invidious. The Raptors turn on the ACU soldiers and start tearing them apart, and even in quick scenes ripping their faces and hearts out. I was particularly haunted by a scene when Hoskins is in the Lab and Charlie the Velociraptor comes in. Hoskins says, "We are on same side!" Hoskins pleads with the predator and there is a pause, because the beast understand him, but then attacks Him and rips his heart out. Hoskins is heard shrieking blood curdling and blood splatters all over the window and wall. This scene has been difficult to forget. I think this is more traumatizing then the prior installments, because in former films we knew the raptors were dangerous and that they were antagonists; so when encountered you expected them to try and eat people. But in this film they are shown like military trained dogs, who you could qausi-trust, but then turn on you. I like to put it like this. In former films it was like you encountering a wild dog with foam at the mouth. You know its dangerous and so when it attacks you can process that it is a predator, and if you take pick hammer to its head you can justify the death. But lets say your beloved pet, a dog you have loved from a puppy, suddenly turns and tries to eat you, it is going to be difficult to kill it because of the bond you share and after putting it down, you will be more grieved than if it had been some wild unknown dog. The Raptors make you uneasy this time because you could trust them, they were more like pets, but when they turn predator, it makes you feel betrayed and uncertain of what they will do. In former films, you knew, they will try to eat you. This time, they may or may not eat you. This uncertainty causes greater distress on the mind.

The Indominus Rex has its fair share of insidious moments. The I-Rex has a spirit of murder behind it. From time I first saw images of the creature it bothered me. In Jurassic World this creature creates carnage in its wake that makes other horror movies seem tame. The Hybrid Horror not only devours whole scores of people, He also eats poor Herbivores. There is a sad scene, when an Akylosaur, those dinosaurs with armor spikes all over their body like chainmail and who have tail like a stone club or wrecking ball is attacked by the Indominus. The I-Rex bites on the spikes and flips the poor creature over like a tortoise and eats it as its screams. Scenes like this permeate the film and the chilling screams and bloodshed does not leave you. It has the mark of horror, as in the genre, that morbid and morose achievement that blackens the soul.

The Neutral

The Raptors somewhat redeem themselves in the climax when Owen is able to convince them that he loves them. They then plead with the Indominus, who turns on them with brutal force because of their hesitation to kill the humans. The Climax has the T-Rex from the First Jurassic Park teaming up with Blue the Velociraptor to take down the Indominus and in the end it is the Mosasaur who makes a meal out of maveloent hybrid. This was twist, because in Jurassic Park, the raptors fought againt the T-Rex and the Rex saved Alan, Ellie, and kids from death. But here the Rex and Raptor work together to get rid of the Rancorous Hybrid Rex.

While it is a relief the raptors redeem themselves and the old Rex makes her return after fourteen years, I did not find it could repent and route the prior scenes of rapine.

Final Verdict:

Jurassic World is not a film for Jesus Followers. The film's axis is horror, for it is a genuine horror film. The carnage, bloodshed, and macabre elements make this installment as defiled as the abomination that is the Indominus Rex. There are some lessons about not messing with nature, being too discontent as a society, corporate greed, and perverting God's creation for the amusement of people. But these elements cannot redeem the film's carnage. The shadow over this film is like wraith, yes Jurassic Wraith. That shadow seeks to enter the soul (mind and emotions) of the believer and it torments you with the images of slaughter and slaying of human & Herbivore life.

I asked myself a question that I think in this day and age is relevant. Would Jesus want to go see a film where dinosaurs devour and destroy His image? The Bible says, "You are made in image of God." (Genesis 1:27). So people are God's image and I find it disturbing that the Jurassic Films have at their center, the inevitability of mutilating, maiming, and making food of mankind. I honestly never thought of Jurassic Park movies as horror. Like many, I was too wooed and wowed by the fact that they looked like real dinosaurs. But now I see a more sinister undercurrent in the series.

I do not recommend Jurassic World. Definitely do not take your children to see it. It is PG-13 and that means in this case ages 13+ should only see it. I however, would advise even adults not see it. This movie unlike the first three installments keeps the carnage and cries of death in your mind long after the credits roll. To quote Alan Grant from Jurassic Park, "after careful consideration, I have decided not to endorse your park."