Re: Jurassic Park 4 Synopsis

[Mike Taylor <mike@indexdata.com>]

> Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 12:03:42 -0600 (MDT)
> From: Richard W Travsky <rtravsky@uwyo.edu>
> 
> http://us.imdb.com/Plot?0369610
> 
> 65 million years ago, a terrible disease plauged the Earth which
> brought about the extinction of the dinosaurs. In the early
> eighties, when InGen cloned the dinosaurs, they also brought this
> disease back with them and it has been present ever since before
> Jurassic Park (thus explaining the sick Triceratops and
> Brachiosaur).

Eh?  _What_ sick Brachiosaur?  I've seen this movie _a lot_ of times
(even more since my five-year-old found the video) and never noticed a
sick 'pod.  Unless you're talking about the one that snots all over
the kid?  But I didn't see any indication that this was an illness
(certainly not the kind that would cause a mass extinction!)

And others have pointed out that the original movie makes it perfectly
clear why the _Triceratops_ was sick -- we get the image of Ellie
digging the offending plant-matter out of a ... well, a big pile of
... well, anyway.

As for sequels: I guess I agree with everyone who argues that the
series is going downhill (though I _loved_ the Rex In The City segment
of _The Lost World_) but I would never let that be a reason not to
watch one of these movies.  I mean!  Dinosaurs!  Right up there on the
screen!

The thing that saddened me about JP3 was the the sense of wonder had
completely evaporated.  In the original JP, the pivotal scene of the
entire movie is when Grant and friends first see a dinosaur, the
_Brachiosaurus_.  That moment is not about movie monsters at all, it's
about awe and grace and beauty.  It is, quite literally, a "wonderful"
moment.  Then in _The Lost World_ there are a few moments that touch
on that, though it never really gives the theme space to grow.  And in
JP3 it's just, "Have we touched down yet?  OK, time for people to
start getting eaten."

>From a purely plot-related perspective, what I'd really like to see in
JP4 is more dinosaurs loose in the human-inhabited areas -- breaking
out of a zoo or something.  Raptors breeding in the sewers.  A
breeding pair of rexes establishing territory in Central Park.
Entrepreneurs setting up _Gallimumus_ farms.

 _/|_    _______________________________________________________________
/o ) \/  Mike Taylor  <mike@indexdata.com>  http://www.miketaylor.org.uk
)_v__/\  "Honesty may not be the best policy, but it is worth trying
         once in a while" -- Richard Nixon (ah, the irony of it.)

--
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