Better Jurassic Park sequels
- Thread starter ThePest179
- Start date
I disagree. I though Laura Dern was horrible in JP, completely unconvincing as a scientist/paleontologist, unless the plot had her being under stiff medication for some reason - at least that's how she acted. If she was brought back in a major role in one of the sequels, I'd want her to get eaten half way through.
Well according to Spielberg the whole San Diego bit was based on a similar scene in London in the 1925 film version of ACD's work. Of course the T-Rex was brought to San Diego on the SS VENTURE - named for the ship that brought King Kong to the mainland in the 1933 and 2005 films.
I just rewatched the movie a couple days ago and I don't even recall any hints that the dinosaurs had been escaping to the mainland?
ThePest179
Banned
The novel is almost overt in stating it, but yes, I couldn't find any implications in the movie.
It is implied in JP2, not JP1. I think there was a scene where folks see evidence that there might have been other animals (raptors presumably) that stowed away on Venture. And I also thought the opening scene in JP2 with the compys was on the mainland. But I may be wrong.
Eh, honestly you could probably skip the first one. I like it, don't get me wrong, but the film is better, and the second was mostly written with the first film in mind rather than the first book anyway.
Same, Ian Malcolm is my favorite character.
I like the idea of doing some relatively 'minimal' changes to The Lost World, like having a smaller cast and cutting out the San Diego scenes.
Any more suggestions for JP III?
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This website had an article on how JP III could have been better: http://filmverse.com/2012/08/16/how-jurassic-park-iii-could-have-been-better/
And it raises some good points.
Overall I've been a bit disappointed with all the Jurassic Park sequels, even Jurassic World (though Jurassic World was fairly nice).
Overall my ideas would be:
Lost World: Jurassic Park
- Follow the book a bit more closely. The book itself was quite interesting and if done right, the fear factor on screen would definitely be there. Plus there was unused material from the first book anyway.
- Scrap the San Diego angle. Yes, a T. rex in a city made for some interesting action scenes, but storywise it makes Jurassic World seem downright ludicrous: There is no way that any park featuring ANY carnivorous dinosaurs is going to open after the San Diego incident. The US government is quite likely to draw up plans to napalm both islands after what happened in San Diego and they would quite likely have near universal support in the UN for it and I can't see Costa Rica opposing that (the Costa Rican government has to only see what happened in San Diego to imagine what might happen in Costa Rica if animals make it regularly to the mainland). Keeping the death toll moderate and crucially, ONLY on the islands, will make it more likely that a refurbished park would be allowed to open. If wearing a Jurassic Park shirt is in poor taste because people died, what does it mean to open a fully functioning theme park with the same type of animals that rampaged through a major American city eating people?
Jurassic Park III
- replace Tea Leoni
- make the landing of the son (Eric) and the mother's boyfriend (Ben) on the island more credible. We didn't need the boat attacked by some unknown (and presumably Ingen created) sea creature, but rather just have the boat hit some slightly submerged rocks while the driver is not paying attention (it's not like he would necessarily know the waters off Isla Sorna intimately anyway) and the boat capsizes and starts to sink. So Ben and Eric detach from the boat lest they land in the sea and drown (you could maybe show a shark attack against the boat captain after the boat capsized to heighten the sense of danger) and then the winds carry the pair to the island.
- As per the suggestions in the link above, have Grant not be be duped onto Isla Sorna since he is the protagonist. Instead have them maybe attempt to dupe Grant, but Grant smells something fishy and they eventually come clean when there story doesn't hold up. When Grant hears that their son is on the island and they aren't receiving any real assistance, Grant decides to help them (remembers helping Tim and Lex and the bond that developed; also thinks about the missed chance with Ellie and the family they could have had) but only under HIS terms (this would require removing his phrase that no force on heaven or earth would get him back onto that island (or presumably Isla Sorna)).
- again as per the link above, leave some of the mercs alive a bit longer rather than have them serve simply as appetizers for the spinosaurus. If you need spinosaur appetizers, bring more mercs (maybe Grant wants more firepower), but have at least 3 survive for longer after they make it onto the island. In particular have Udesky live longer so we get to know more about him as a character, so that when the velociraptors cripple him and try to use him as bait then the loss we experience is somewhat like the death of Muldoon in the first movie or even worse from the point of view of getting to know a character and connect with him
- Don't have the group be rescued by Ellie calling in the Marines. That's deus ex machina and a bit lazy. Grant is smart. He's experienced raptors before. and if he is coming in on his own terms then he would likely have some kind of plan for the raptors. At this point some of Grants unused scenes from the book (using poisoned eggs) might come in handy.
If Ellie comes in to save them, have her do it without the marines and simply pick them up on the beach or at the mouth of the river...or even out at sea if they make it out on a boat (maybe using some unused material from the second book where the heroes make it out on a boat).
The more limited nature of both JP II and JP III sets the stage up for a Jurassic World where you can have a LOT of people being eaten/killed when the new park (inevitably) fails. This would then cap off the franchise since after Jurassic World, there would likely never be another dinosaur park opened unless it only had the most passive herbivores.
EDIT:
- Don't have the Pterandons escape. Yes, it made for an interesting shot at the end when they flew past the choppers, but in terms of the story it added nothing (apparently they were originally supposed to get into a fight with the raptors close to the end scene but with that cut, they could have easily cut out their escape from the aviary too and removed them from the flight home...or from the boat ride home if Ellie helps rescue them from a boat). except questions as to what the hell happens to wherever they land. With less dinosaurs making it to the mainland and wreaking havoc it again makes for a nice set up for Jurassic World.
/EDIT
Jurassic World
- Downplay the military potential aspect. It worked for a bit, but after a while it seemed ridiculous.
- Have more staff that we get to know. Even Jurassic Park seemed to have more staff in the control room (and they at least played much larger roles) and just in general. And this is a now fully operational and larger park. With apparently just a couple of people in control.
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Scrap the San Diego angle. Yes, a T. rex in a city made for some interesting action scenes, but storywise it makes Jurassic World seem downright ludicrous: There is no way that any park featuring ANY carnivorous dinosaurs is going to open after the San Diego incident.
My son read that Jurassic World is meant to be a direct sequel to Jurassic Park and that they more or less hand waived away Lost World and JPIII as if they never happened WRT the story arc.
I don't know his source but it would not surprise me if that is in the fact the case.
My son read that Jurassic World is meant to be a direct sequel to Jurassic Park and that they more or less hand waived away Lost World and JPIII as if they never happened WRT the story arc.
I don't know his source but it would not surprise me if that is in the fact the case.
That wouldn't surprise me either if that is indeed the case. And it would make far more sense
Did some reading. And yes they are canon. But it seems the JW director decided to make his film a direct sequel to the events of JP without reference to the LW or JPIII. So they are still canon, but just not considered (or I guess relevant) for the events in JW.
Which makes me think that LW and JPIII would still have been much better had they removed the San Diego angle and overall just kept the animals on the island instead of having them escape in LW (T rex) and JPIII (Pterandons). An overall lower death toll (and one in which the deaths for the events in LW and JPIII aren't exactly high publicity deaths as compared to what would have happened in San Diego) would also make it a lot easier to establish the Jurassic World Park. After all some of the deaths in LW and JPIII might well be unknown to the new owners of the Isla Nublar park and when the Park finally opens as Jurassic World, it is unlikely that many in the media (if any in the media) would know about the deaths in LW and JPIII except that they would be unexplained disappearances of the persons in question and the rumours would be that they were killed by the dinos on Isla Sorna.
Did some reading. And yes they are canon. But it seems the JW director decided to make his film a direct sequel to the events of JP without reference to the LW or JPIII. So they are still canon, but just not considered (or I guess relevant) for the events in JW.
Okay, I am having a little trouble with that. It sounds like double talk to me on the part of the movie makers and studio executives. I do not see how II and III can be canon but irrelevant to IV unless of course IV takes place before II but it is pretty clear that it does not.
Now, the more I think about it, the more I think that in a "real world" sense, if you keep II the way it is there is no III or IV because a T-Rex rampaging through San Diego likely means that both islands get hit with a few tactical nukes in order to ensure that sort of thing never happens again.
Okay, I am having a little trouble with that. It sounds like double talk to me on the part of the movie makers and studio executives. I do not see how II and III can be canon but irrelevant to IV unless of course IV takes place before II but it is pretty clear that it does not.
Now, the more I think about it, the more I think that in a "real world" sense, if you keep II the way it is there is no III or IV because a T-Rex rampaging through San Diego likely means that both islands get hit with a few tactical nukes in order to ensure that sort of thing never happens again.
Any chance someone will make a Fan Edited version of Lost World that strips out the San Diego Scenes?
Someone made a Fan Edit of Terminator 3 which while a definate improvement sadly still was not totally salvagable. Lost World though could be I feel.
Someone made a Fan Edit of Terminator 3 which while a definate improvement sadly still was not totally salvagable. Lost World though could be I feel.
The Lost World: Jurassic Park
Speilberg and his crew go through the Lost World book and fix on Dodgson's crew going to the island, and also
Dodgson leads a combo of his team and Malcolm's from the book: himself; leading-man and geneticist Howard King who's done a deal with the devil to get ahead at work; "Doc" Thorne, a burned-out academic and engineer; arrogant rich-kid palaeontologist Richard Levine; Sarah Harding, animal behaviour expert; Kelly, because it's a Speilberg movie and she's a child, who stows away; some disposable meat; and Roland Tembo, big game hunter and last of his kind. Their plan is to bring data and eggs back from Isla Nublar (no need for Site B as the island isn't destroyed in the film), after Dodgson's first team found there are still living dinosaurs (and then died).
All of them have compromised reasons for being there except Kelly, Thorne's 'assistant'. She's the only one going "OH MY GOD DINOSAURS YOU GUYS" which, as this is a Speilberg film, starts to influence the others. Eyes are opened to the sheer wonder of these creatures, causing most of them to question whether they should be doing this. As the party come under attack by dinosaurs, Dodgson tries to exploit this by arranging "accidents" for Kelly. The second of these leads to a version of the trailer attack and now the cast are trying to get the hell out.
The film ends with Howard King giving up on redemption and joining Dodgson for an easy life, while Levine end up going the other way - which gets the latter two eaten as the raptors catch up and Tembo, who has tried to ignore any moral dilemmas the whole film, turns on the villains. Our heroes depart the island with the exception of Tembo, who walks back into the jungle with his gun and, in the last scene, finally has his showdown with the T-Rex.
A showdown he knows, and accepts, he's going to lose.
(Dodgson actor Cameron Thor is currently awaiting trial for alleged rape of a minor, so this film would end up being very uncomfortable on rewatch but, of course, nobody in 1997 would know that)
--
Jurassic Park III I'm too lazy to do a full treatment of but early plots had the dinosaurs escaping, with a subtitle of "Outbreak". So there we go. Thanks to boats stopping at or near Isla Nublar (which have also revealed the "urban legend" of Jurassic Park was true), dinosaurs have been able to get to the Costa Rican mainland. The Central American governments are discussing whether to bomb the damn island and be done with it, and an aging Hammond brokers a deal with Costa Rica to prove Nublar is safe and the dinosaurs should be left alone - that means assembling a team of returning and new characters under Grant, off to find and capture the dinos to calm things.
Unfortunately one of the dinos is a Spinosaurus. Why's that unfortunate? Ingen had only just made the damn thing when the Park went tits up and nobody realised she'd survived to adulthood; nobody is expecting it to attack the crew and tear up the place. Grant and Co have to stop her now, because the more people she kills the more likely Nublar is to burn.
(The Spinosaurus here is not just a threat but a tragic monster: she's the only one of her kind and in a hostile, confusing world, getting old and tired.)
Speilberg and his crew go through the Lost World book and fix on Dodgson's crew going to the island, and also
Dodgson leads a combo of his team and Malcolm's from the book: himself; leading-man and geneticist Howard King who's done a deal with the devil to get ahead at work; "Doc" Thorne, a burned-out academic and engineer; arrogant rich-kid palaeontologist Richard Levine; Sarah Harding, animal behaviour expert; Kelly, because it's a Speilberg movie and she's a child, who stows away; some disposable meat; and Roland Tembo, big game hunter and last of his kind. Their plan is to bring data and eggs back from Isla Nublar (no need for Site B as the island isn't destroyed in the film), after Dodgson's first team found there are still living dinosaurs (and then died).
All of them have compromised reasons for being there except Kelly, Thorne's 'assistant'. She's the only one going "OH MY GOD DINOSAURS YOU GUYS" which, as this is a Speilberg film, starts to influence the others. Eyes are opened to the sheer wonder of these creatures, causing most of them to question whether they should be doing this. As the party come under attack by dinosaurs, Dodgson tries to exploit this by arranging "accidents" for Kelly. The second of these leads to a version of the trailer attack and now the cast are trying to get the hell out.
The film ends with Howard King giving up on redemption and joining Dodgson for an easy life, while Levine end up going the other way - which gets the latter two eaten as the raptors catch up and Tembo, who has tried to ignore any moral dilemmas the whole film, turns on the villains. Our heroes depart the island with the exception of Tembo, who walks back into the jungle with his gun and, in the last scene, finally has his showdown with the T-Rex.
A showdown he knows, and accepts, he's going to lose.
(Dodgson actor Cameron Thor is currently awaiting trial for alleged rape of a minor, so this film would end up being very uncomfortable on rewatch but, of course, nobody in 1997 would know that)
--
Jurassic Park III I'm too lazy to do a full treatment of but early plots had the dinosaurs escaping, with a subtitle of "Outbreak". So there we go. Thanks to boats stopping at or near Isla Nublar (which have also revealed the "urban legend" of Jurassic Park was true), dinosaurs have been able to get to the Costa Rican mainland. The Central American governments are discussing whether to bomb the damn island and be done with it, and an aging Hammond brokers a deal with Costa Rica to prove Nublar is safe and the dinosaurs should be left alone - that means assembling a team of returning and new characters under Grant, off to find and capture the dinos to calm things.
Unfortunately one of the dinos is a Spinosaurus. Why's that unfortunate? Ingen had only just made the damn thing when the Park went tits up and nobody realised she'd survived to adulthood; nobody is expecting it to attack the crew and tear up the place. Grant and Co have to stop her now, because the more people she kills the more likely Nublar is to burn.
(The Spinosaurus here is not just a threat but a tragic monster: she's the only one of her kind and in a hostile, confusing world, getting old and tired.)
One idea that came to mind are the many stories of Mexican drug cartels and Middle Eastern dictators engaging in the endangered species trade. Using the Earth First elements of Jurassic Park II: The Lost World, imagine the FBI and FEA are interested in why so many prominent criminal underworld figires are going to Isla Nublar. To make matters worse InGen has sent several people with the expedition to "minimize corporate asset damage". Imagine Danny Trejo as one of the Mexican cartel hitmen, Marc Anthony as one of the cartel leaders. You can even have Dominic Cooper as the spoiled son of a Middle Eastern dictator.
ThePest179
Banned
An Expy of Uday?
It would be very pleasing to watch that little shit get eaten by raptors.