re: Let’s Overanalyze Jurassic Park and it’s Sequels

quote:

---

Arliss Howard (Ludlow in TLW) had an uncredited role as the adult Scott Smalls (who became the Dodgers' announcer) in The Sandlot.

---

Holy shite. And that's weird that it's an uncredited role. But I think in my memory I always assumed it was Judge Reinhold.

First off, I've never read the books.

This was a blockbuster film series to put dinosaurs on the big screen, nothing more and it worked.

The plots for the first trilogy were awful but it made money which was their only goal.

The reboot Jurassic World was somewhat better and tried to create a story but the next one wasn't very good.
I think they can wrap it up in a good ending.

Re: The Ice Cream Scene

quote:

---

John Hammond: They'll be fine. Who better to get the children through Jurassic Park than a dinosaur expert? You know the first [swallows] attraction I built when I came down from Scotland... was a flea circus. Petticoat Lane.Really..quite wonderful. We had uh...a wee trapeze, a merry-go-... carousel.Heh. And a see-saw. They all moved, motorized, of course, but people would say they could see the fleas, "Oh, mummy! I can see the fleas, can't you see the fleas?" Clown fleas, highwire fleas and fleas on parade. But with this place... I wanted to give them something that wasn't an illusion.Something that was real. Something they could see, and touch. An aim not devoid of merit.

Ellie Sattler: But you can't think through this one, John. You have to feel it.

John Hammond: You're right, you're absolutely right. Hiring Nedry was a mistake, that's obvious, we're over-dependent on automation, I can see that now. Now the next time, everything's correctable. Creation is an act of sheer will. Next time it'll be flawless.

Ellie Sattler: It's still the flea circus. It's all an illusion.

John Hammond: When we have control again--

Ellie Sattler: You never had control! That's the illusion! I was overwhelmed by the power of this place. But I made a mistake, too. I didn't have enough respect for that power and it's out now. The only thing that matters now are the people we love. Alan and Lex and Tim...John,they're out there where people are dying. So...[takes a spoonful of ice cream;swallows] It's good.

John Hammond: Spared no expense.

---

These are the words of either a completely demented egoist (Book Hammond) or a tragic old man (Movie Hammond).

Book Hammond responds with anger at this inflection point, Movie Hammond meekly surrenders to more level heads.

The disconnect is that Spielberg, as a blockbuster film director, doesn't have the heart to kill the dream of Jurassic Park. He's a showman who knows audiences want Jurassic Park to be real, who want dinosaurs to be real, and in this he actually sides with Hammond here.

If Hammond, the dreamer and architect of the audience's fantasy, is killed by the reality of that fantasy as an exclamation point; if the military comes in and firebombs the island to Hell; even if we see evidence that life has found a way to escape the island regardless - we as an audience lose the dream. A definitive statement of fact: "This will never work. It must never exist." is a Sci-Fi ending, not a fantasy ending.

I get why The Lost World was meh, since Crichton wrote it in a pinch to make the movie after the JP was a smash hit.

But I'll never understand why in JP3 they again go to Isla Sorna, and didn't instead set it back in Isla Nublar. They could've done what they did in Jurassic World where they find the remains of the JP park and an island taken over by dinosaurs, but instead we get a weird rescue plot.

quote:

---

How can someone be intelligent enough to hack into and reset this advanced security system for the entire park, yet this same person chooses to shine a giant flashlight at a Trex that she’s trying to hide from, and to that point was successfully hiding.

---

She was a scared 13-year-old girl. Hell, I'd probably pull a Gennaro if I were in that situation.

The life finds a way theme is interesting to me in that at least in the movie it is easier to create life then it is to destroy it. Like once you create it there is no stopping it. The one instinct every creature has is to survive. Yes you can kill a dinosaur or a bunch but somehow someway they will slip through the cracks and continue on.

quote:

---

I get why The Lost World was meh, since Crichton wrote it in a pinch to make the movie after the JP was a smash hit.

---

Didn't help matters that Spielberg threw out a good chunk of the book so he could have his stupid T-Rex rampage in the city.

Loved the first and second
Third was very meh to me

One thing that always bothered me was in the third movie why couldn’t Ben Hildabrand get out of the tree? Then I read that in the script they talk about how he was shielding Eric as they were crashing through the trees and died of internal injuries. RIP.

quote:

---

so he could have his stupid T-Rex rampage in the city.

---

Bite your tongue.