I went to the theater and saw Jurassic World with my nephew not long after it came out. When we were leaving he asked me what I thought of it, and I replied with something akin to “It’s not Jurassic Park.” He scoffed at me, as teenagers do, and we continued on our way. I had trouble explaining to my nephew just what it was that was off for me, I just knew it wasn’t Jurassic Park. I didn’t have the same feelings watching Jurassic World as I did with Jurassic Park.
Later, I went and saw Jurassic World again with my best friend, and at the end of the movie asked her what she thought and related the above anecdote. She asked me what I meant, and I kind of thought here we go again, since I’d already had trouble explaining this difference once. However, she understood what I was trying to explain, and was able to sum it up nicely. Jurassic Park is a suspense movie, and Jurassic World is an action movie.
When I heard her say that I exclaimed “Exactly!” That was the difference I was trying to put my finger on, and couldn’t quite articulate. Part of the problem for me was that I don’t think I’d ever tried to categorize Jurassic Park. When explaining it I described the sense of tension I felt throughout the movie, and that’s what lead to the categorization of a suspense movie.
Now, all that being said, even though I didn’t have a concise categorization of Jurassic World, I enjoyed it much more the second time through. I knew what to expect and I wasn’t going in thinking it would have the same kind of feel as Jurassic Park. Chris Pratt as Owen Grady is easily the best part of Jurassic World. I also liked Lowery (who I thought was named Larry until I caught his name in the credits after the second viewing).
My favorite dinosaurs were the Velociraptors, made even better since Owen trained them and the “raptor pack” was able to be born. The “big bad” dinosaur, Indominus Rex, wasn’t bad. She had some cool abilities, but I feel some of the awe and scariness was lost in the way she interacted with the people and the environment. I felt there was a lot more general destruction, rather than hunting.
Both movies are a lot of fun, but for me Jurassic Park is definitely the winner.