Jurassic World (Film): Critique 1/3

Zach and Grey visit their aunt Claire at her workplace, Jurassic World. But then the Indominus-rex, the park’s genetically engineered new species, breaks loose to cause havoc on the island.

 

People being upset that the carnivores don’t have feathers is pointless.

Wu said, “Nothing at this park is natural. We have always filled in gaps in the genome with DNA of other animals. And if their DNA was pure, they would look quite different.” Even in the beginning during Jurassic Park, this was explicitly stated.

Besides, the featherless look is what the public now expects from InGen. Why, then, would InGen change their dinosaurs to be feathery now? From an advertising and brand perspective, that would be a bad move. Not to mention the time and money it would take to modify all those genomes.

 

 

*****SPOILERS*****

 

Indominus-rex Genetic Traits

 

This initial criticism turns out to be a false alarm, making complete sense later on.

Henry Wu looks surprised when Masrani tells him the I-rex can camouflage and modulated its infrared output. He says cuttlefish can camouflage and that cuttlefish DNA was added to help the I-rex cope with an enhanced growth rate. He also says tree frogs modulate their infrared and that tree frog DNA was added to help the I-rex live in a tropical climate

            Now, the camouflage and infrared are well studied. So there’s no way Henry as a geneticist could have added those parts of the DNA to the I-rex without realising it. Hence I was surprised that he was surprised. His surprise was unbelievable.

On another note, it is known that certain traits are linked. For example, Henry points out that you can’t expect predatory characteristics without their associated behaviours. Also, in real life, foxes bred to be domesticated will look like dogs. However, even if the growth genes did also control camouflage (or tropical survival also control infrared), considering the latter of each pair is well studied, Henry would have to know they were linked.

            Later, we discover Henry added these traits deliberately. After all, not only does Hoskins talk to Henry about his side project but Hoskins brags to Claire about how a small I-rex that can hide from advanced tech would be a tactical advantage. So the I-rex having camo and infrared was definitely known to Henry all along.

Therefore, Henry’s surprised response to Masrani was an act. (As such, his ‘surprise’ was believable.) This obvious act foreshadowed just how sly, sneaky and underhand Henry was being with the I-rex.

 

 

Visuals

 

Being a key feature of this film and the franchise in general, the raptors were given special attention.

Each raptor is individually coloured and they have many more teeth than the Jurassic Park raptors. Well, Claire did say visitors wanted more teeth, and the geneticists are clearly capable of modifying genetics, so there’s no reason why these raptors shouldn’t have more teeth than the original raptors in Jurassic Park.

The raptors turn on the humans. Owen manages to look one in the eye and the expressions on both their faces made it look like the raptor would follow Owen again. And then it’s blown up. To see beautiful connection literally blown to pieces was powerful imagery.

When Blue runs back to join the fight with the I-rex, it’s in slomo. As she opens her mouth, the speed starts picking up, and then it’s at full speed when she screeches. This gradual increase into full-speed was a sound decision, especially when coupled with the actual sound.

 

The Indominus-rex also has special attention.

The I-rex is camouflaged near the river, when the first set of guards encountered her. This camouflage was animated spectacularly, both in regards to the hiding itself and the way the I-rex un-camouflaged itself.

Between the viewpoint (looking up) and I-rex (eating a guard) was a bunch of leaves. Blood splashed down on these leaves. Between the sun’s illumination and the other tree leaves’ shade, it gave an aesthetic brilliance to an otherwise gruesome scene.

The I-rex’s mouth opens so very wise in order to surround Zach and Grey in the hamster ball. To see its mouth open that wide, tall enough for a grown human to walk through without ducking, was utterly disturbing.

The I-rex throwed a raptor onto a big hot plate. It sizzled and everything!

 

Humans are less showy than dinosaurs but they still had some wow factor.

The shape (shorter as back, dagger-pointy at front) and colour of Claire’s hair is phenomenal. It screams, ‘I’m a powerful executive’. Claire’s executive hair. All these years later, it remains my favourite hairstyle on others.

Masrani and Claire are talking on screen, both slightly off-centre. Then Owen walks to stand between them on a lower level, dominating the screen. Such a brilliant shot.

All the guards’ heartbeats were displayed on the screen in the control room. As the I-rex killed them, their heartbeats went still on the display screen one by one. It managed to make the moment more serious than seeing the deaths alone could have been. Plus the quick succession of the deaths upped the anticipation considerably, especially when the gaps between two specific deaths were either shorter or longer than the rest.

Zach using and bone and banner as a torch was clever. These are the same bones and banner in the foyer from Jurassic Park.

 

Other creatures had attention, too.

The petting zoo and riding of baby dinosaurs was so incredibly cute. (Admittedly, riding infant dinosaurs doesn’t seem ethical, but it was still cute to see kids on dinosaurs nonetheless.)

Owen and Claire see a sauropod all sliced up. Then they look up and see a whole field of attacked sauropods. As the angle gets wider, more and more longnecks are shown to be injured.

A pterosaur is eating Claire’s assistant, then they are both eaten by the mosasaur. The pterosaur’s beak opens just as the mosasaur’s shuts. Brilliant cinema.

A pterosaur trying to carry a baby dinosaur in the air was really sad.

The film ends with the t-rex standing on the helipad overlooking the park, roaring over his kingdom.

 

 

Satisfying Story Points

 

My favourite points are to do with Claire.

Claire hears someone get crunched and eaten via the phone. Hearing those sounds remotely made those particular deaths gruesome. It elevated it from an animal attack to monstrous terror.

Grey says, “We need more teeth.” Claire said earlier that investors want more teeth, so dinosaurs needed more teeth to keep park funded/alive. In this situation, having more teeth would keep the humans alive. So she gets the t-rex.

 

Two specific ones relate to Owen.

The fact that Owen has trained the raptors to listen to him is an incredible idea. Seeing this put into practice with the I-rex hunt was genius.

Owen and co go into the Indominus-rex cage to investigate the claw marks showing that the Indominus rex ‘climbed out’. Turns out the I-rex was hiding in the pen. An idiot opens the big gate, rather than escaping through one of the small doors, thus allowing the I-rex to escape the pen. This mean the I-rex was smart enough to set a trap.

 

Henry Wu, the geneticist from Jurassic Park, has a much more prevalent role in this film. This was satisfying because without him there would be no dinosaurs. For someone so essential to the films, his character definitely deserved its own story arc.