Fixing What Was Wrong With Jurassic Park
Jurassic Park was certainly an unqualified success. With a 63 million dollar budget, it cranked out over 1 billion dollars at the box office, spawned 4 sequels with one more planned. It brought dinosaurs to the masses like nothing had before. Paleontology budgets skyrocketed, and so did new paleontologist recruits. Dinosaurs went from a few pages in a child’s school textbook to everywhere you could imagine; food, dresses, jewelry, cars, and more. While the movie certainly had a hugely positive effect for dinosaurs, it wasn’t without its flaws. Huge fundamental flaws that only those most familiar with dinosaurs would know. All the success of the movie is pretty much based lies, to put it dramatically. How much more successful would it have been if even most of it was true?
Tyrannosaurus
While the recent debate rages over scales versus feathers for the Tyrannosaurus Rex, that wasn’t all that Jurassic Park got wrong about the king of the dinosaurs. The whole vision based on movement thing was dead wrong. Just look at how ENORMOUS those eyes are. Nature doesn’t give you big eyes to restrict your vision. Not to mention, T-Rex still had a nose that could literally smell a mile away.
“My what big eyes you have grandma.” “All the better to see you with my dear.”
Dilophosaurus
The only thing about the dilophasaurus that the movie got right was the shape of it’s head. For all intents and purposes, what you see on the silver screen is essentially a made up dinosaur. I’ve already gone on at length about this poor little guy. Suffice to say that if you don’t even pronounce the name right, you’re starting off on the wrong foot. Or claw. Imagine being going down in history for something spectacular, but nobody ever pronounces your name right when they talk about it.
“A good name is rather to be chosen than riches.”
Velociraptor
The star of the franchise, arguably, the Velociraptor gets center stage in all of the movies. Well, real Velociraptors were the size of turkeys, ironically just like the kid described at the beginning of the movie. They also had feathers, possibly maybe even covered in them. This creative glossover was the most surprising given there was another animal which would have fit the bill much better.
“All that glisters is not gold; Often have you heard that told:”
What It Comes Down To
Imagine the effect on the story if Dr. Grant hadn’t been able to ‘hide’ from sight of the Tyrannosaur. Or if Nedry was never killed in his Jeep by the little green guy? How scared would you be of a small group of turkeys? You could honestly make this into a comedy by fixing all of what was wrong with Jurassic Park. Scientists knew all of this was wrong before Jurassic Park was even filmed. Stephen Spielberg himself knew this was wrong, but deliberately chose to go the route with more creative license. Given the success, there’s an argument to be made that his way was the right way. Ends justify the means and all that. I still think that even using the real science, there’s a great movie (series) to be made.
What The Next Jurassic Park Can Do Better
The money train has left the station for the Jurassic franchise, and I’m not advocating we even try to stop or slow it. Once the Jurassic World trilogy finishes though, I think that’s a good place to do a reboot. There are several ways to handle the movie series that should come next. You can reboot completely, possibly following the story and adjusting to where the science doesn’t match up. Maybe Alan Grant doesn’t make it back from his park tour, and Nedry escapes with the DNA samples. The Velociraptor would simply need a name change, along with some glue and feathers of course. Or you could do a follow up franchise that continues the current storyline. This time instead of creating ‘monsters’, the actual real dinosaurs were recreated and a new cast of characters are eaten, chased, and taught valuable lessons about crossing mother nature. The two biggest groups capable of accomplishing this change are the fans, and the scientists. Insisting on a little more scientific accuracy would be the goal, as movies are about entertainment and storytelling in the end. Creative license isn’t the enemy, and Jurassic Park is proof. I think compromise is the way to go with a new reboot series, with a good(er) balance between fact and fiction. As our society gets more and more of its ‘knowledge’ from TV and film, this would be an important step in advancing the agenda of dinosaurs.
