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This Scene Encapsulates Everything Wrong with Jurassic World
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May 2, 2025
For many, Jurassic Park is one of the best films ever made. With each Jurassic Park sequel, none could match the quality of the first installment. That trend would continue with the Jurassic World trilogy. But when the first Jurassic World premiered, this one scene encapsulates everything they did wrong with the Jurassic World franchise.
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Corporate felt genetic modification would up the wow factor
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They're dinosaurs, wow enough. Not according to our focus groups. There's an adage about too much of a good thing
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It generally refers to an exhaustion on our end, something that we once loved repeated over and over again
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But it's not just the repetition or overabundance that can wear us down
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It can be the lack of heart or absence of logical steps that made us fall in love in the first place
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Sometimes, like in the case of Jurassic World's worst scene, it's a steadfast belief that fan service is all a movie needs to succeed
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It could have been worse, John. A lot worse. The Jurassic World franchise is a strange beast
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a franchise sequel to one of Hollywood's most beloved films and its subsequent less beloved films
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The world movies themselves are a mixed bag. While you could definitely argue diminishing returns as the new franchise has gone on
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there was an excitement for Jurassic World. Set 22 years after the original Jurassic Park
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Jurassic World did a lot to capitalize on the nostalgia of the original movie while still being
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a fun romp. Filled to the brim with gorgeous set pieces, charming leads, and high action
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there does seem to be a genuine reverence from the director Colin Trevorrow. It's clear from
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the opening sequence he wants to make something special, something that replicates the same awe
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and inspiration of Jurassic Park. The camera follows two brothers, Zach and Gray, through the
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newly opened theme park on Isla Nublar. The music starts to swell and build until we get a reveal
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of the entire park. But that want soon perverses itself into a sort of coloring book
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Simple spaces to fill in with a palette they already know works. And that's never more clear than this scene
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which serves as a canary in a coal mine for sequels to come. I know why they wouldn't tell us what it's made of
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That thing's part raptor. After about an hour and a half of fine popcorn eating entertainment we brought here Claire Owen Zach and Gray have been on the run from the transgenic dinosaur Indominus Rex until they run into Owen pack of velociraptors led by Blue
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Owen convinces the raptors to help with knowing glares and whistles. The raptors engage in a fight with the pursuing Indominus Rex
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with all but Blue easily dispatched. As Owen and Blue do their best to slow down Indominus Rex
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Claire and the brothers hide in a gift shop. It's here some new leaps in logic occur
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As the three press themselves next to the wall, Gray looks at a stuffed animal and proclaims
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We need more. More what? Teeth. We need more teeth. This may not be the greatest leap as Gray has shown an affinity for numbers up until this point
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It's said his character was originally written as an autistic child with the majority of dialogue and plot points around this idea cut from the movie
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What we're left with is the skeletal idea that this kid is just super into numbers
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and believes teeth are like Simon Belmont's whip extensions in Castlevania, i.e. more equals better
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It's easy enough to shrug our shoulders and say, sure. The logic is kind of there
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especially from any child's point of view. But the real disconnect comes when a sense of certainty
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washes over Claire's face and she grabs a flare from a nearby first aid kit. Claire immediately
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runs through the carnage of Indominus Rex's attacks at Owen and his rifle to a conveniently
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nearby giant steel door. And this is the crux of the scene's biggest problem, its reveal. As Claire
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stands confidently with her ignited flair, we see a familiar silhouette stomp from the shadows. It's
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out of nowhere and completely unearned. But hey, everyone, you dig a T-Rex, right? Nobody cares
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And let's take a brief moment to talk a little bit about reveals in storytelling. Generally
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they are set up throughout the story, something alluded to or made mention of throughout the
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character's journeys until an emotional earned payoff. It's part of what made the original
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Jurassic Park carnage via T work In that film time and time again we saw the gigantic creature as an agent of chaos No rhyme or reason to its destruction other than it was a hunter and predator But in Jurassic
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World, we go back again to the movie's overall thesis that man controls the dinosaurs. After
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Claire reaches the fight, she simply tosses the flare towards the Indominus Rex with the T-Rex
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immediately attacking the new creature. And that's simply just strange. You could make the argument that the light of the flare illuminated the gene spliced creature
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but then you're undercutting the idea that a Tyrannosaurus Rex had no idea this other creature
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was present. The movies had already established the T-Rex's vision was based on movement, so
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the light of the flare was really for naught. What really seems to be happening is Claire
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marking the target she once attacked. And again, the whole moment just feels off
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whatever logistical shortcomings exist between owen and blue there was at least a concerted effort
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to establish their relationship but here we've been told nothing about the t-rex being biologically
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predisposed to bright lights or some animalistic feud we're simply left with the idea that her
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wanting indominus rex attack equals the t-rex doing her bidding and that sideways logic of
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humanity's once trumping biological nature or simple storytelling beats permeates this entire
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sequence. When the high-heeled Claire sprints away from what we have been told in earlier movies was
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nature's perfect predator, there's never really a sense of dread that something may happen to her
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She wants to guide the T-Rex to the fight, so she will. So what do we do now? Probably stick together
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for survival. And while there's nothing wrong with main characters surviving until the end
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there should always be story-based reasons they do. Without any sort of real danger for our main characters there no threat or danger either which means no tension and no engagement on our end But Jurassic World goes out of its way to repeatedly give us fan service instead of
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subverting our expectations of what a Jurassic movie can be, which is another harbinger of
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things to come with Jurassic World's franchise. This scene is indicative of the franchise's obedience to fan service and outright refusal
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to subvert our expectations. There is a dead set idea that the T-Rex becomes not just a force in the movies
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but its hero. Whatever shortcomings the original sequels had, and there are plenty
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they weren't necessarily as obsessed with simply hitting the high notes of the first movie
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And it's not just the story beats, it's the visual motifs. Jurassic World and its subsequent sequels replicate these images again and again
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From falling banners, dramatic helicopter entrances, to looming T-Rex heads, the Jurassic
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World franchise is dead set on mining our nostalgia. In their childhood fracking, though, they undercut why the T-Rex was so important in
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the first place. It's not simply because it looked cool, it's because it made sense
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Throughout the original film, the T-Rex is almost a horror villain, something unknowable
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and unpredictable stalking the shadows. But this scene specifically tells us the T-Rex is known and controllable
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While Jurassic Park gave us scientists and eccentric dreamers using their wits to survive
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this scene tells us those same obstacles can simply be overcome with a road flare
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It's not necessarily a bad movie once we separate our childhood love of the original
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and that's alright. The things we love withstand time. No matter what new iteration of a franchise resurfaces
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the original still lives in our hearts. But again and again, so many filmmakers and studios insist on refilming what are essentially highlight reels with new actors and special effects
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all the while not understanding what made us fall in love in the first place
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