The final part of the “Jurassic World” trilogy is in cinemas. It’s been almost 30 years since the first Jurassic Park film captivated viewers – the new film reunites with actors from yesteryear.
After “Jurassic Park”, the “Jurassic World” trilogy is now complete, and there is at least one who brings tears to his eyes: Jeff Goldblum (69) is asked about the end of the series in an interview in Cologne suddenly very emotional. “The friendships, the people I’ve worked with… it was heart-changing! Steven Spielberg, Richard Attenborough, Laura and Sam…” Laura and Sam are Laura Dern and Sam Neill, who were in the original film from 1993, the film that started it all. Now, in the grand finale, they’re back.
For the first time, “Jurassic World” does not play on an island
For those who are not so into the material: There are six films in total, which are divided into two trilogies. First there was the “Jurassic Park” series from 1993 to 2001, followed by “Jurassic World” from 2015 to 2022. The film, which now opens on Wednesday (June 8), concludes this second trilogy. Title: “Jurassic World: A New Age”.
Director Colin Trevorrow of the German Press Agency explains what’s new about it: “The first five films all played on an island.” That sounds banal at first, but that was basically the main idea: A limited space full of dangers from which there is no escape. But now everything is different, because at the end of the previous film, the dinosaurs escaped to freedom. Since then they have spread all over the planet. How this happened within a few years remains a secret for the screenwriters, but logic is often not exactly the strongest side of the science fiction genre to which these films can probably be attributed.
Dinosaurs and humans coexist in the new movie
In any case, the evening news almost daily now reports clashes of some kind between homo sapiens and the horned, spiked, multi-toothed returnees from previous geological ages. Attention, dinosaurs on the highway! “Oh no, not again,” moans an employee of the Agency for Dangerous Species. Some scenes have something parodic about them, for example when animal rights activists break into an illegal breeding farm and complain about the “medieval conditions” in keeping dinosaurs.
Spinning through what it would be like if dinosaurs and humans coexisted may well have its appeal. As if this story wasn’t fantastic enough, the screenwriters also invented a cloned girl without a father and a massive locust invasion unleashed by a mysterious biotech company from the Italian Dolomites. This is clearly too much of a good thing.
There is also the now all too familiar game of cat and mouse with starving carnivores that have to get bigger and more vicious from film to film. The only interesting newcomer this time is a feathered primeval lizard. Director Trevorrow says that portraying feathers convincingly is extremely difficult, and that would have been impossible just a few years ago.
Crews from both trilogies meet in the final film
The film isn’t really exciting, because the main hero Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) has quasi-superhero powers as a dinosaur whisperer and is able to keep the worst beasts at a distance with simple hand signals. The real draw is the juxtaposition of ’90s Jurassic Park cast and 21st-century Jurassic World crew. This is an opportunity for inside jokes and innuendo, and plenty of use is made of it.
Very nice, for example, the scene in which Sam Neill as paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant is visited in his research tent by Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) and she greets him with the words: “You haven’t changed at all!” Although everyone can see that it has been difficult for them to grow old – how could it be any different after almost 30 years? Elsewhere, the mathematician and chaos theorist Dr. Ian Malcolm asked if he liked Jurassic World. Answer: No, he belongs to the other team. It’s the two-legged veterans of the prehistoric “Jurassic Park” series by cinema standards who save this film.
It can be assumed that the whole thing will be a big box office success again. And that should in turn guarantee that the canvas dinosaurs will not become extinct for the time being. The “Jurassic World” trilogy may be over, but the next dinosaur trilogy is sure to come.
