Jurassic Park 4

[Harpo Speaks]

So it's been announced that Jurassic Park 4 will be released in June 2014. And even though I have little hope of this actually being any good due to being burned by the sequels, I will still be sat in a cinema like an over-excited child when this comes out, purely because of my love for the original. That Tim can sure pat the back of a seat in a crisis.

I rewatched The Lost World a few months back, and I find it a frustrating wasted opportunity as there's some great elements in there - the truck/cliff set-piece, raptors in the long grass, Pete Postlethwaite - jostling against bullshit like the GYMNASTIC CHILD TO THE RESCUE moment.

Any thoughts on this news? Or on the films in general?

I still get chills at this exchange:

Ellie: We can make it if we run.
Muldoon: No...we can't.
Ellie: Why not?
Muldoon: Because we are being hunted.

[KLG-7B]

Jurassic Park 2 made me grow up a little. A crushing disappointment after the first movie was such an exciting early-90s pre-teen event for me.

[Noodle Lizard]

This'll be shit, I reckon.

[Sam]

JP3 is actually quite good fun. Shit, but watchable and superior to JP2 which is stuck in a no man's land of mediocrity: not good enough to touch JP and not schlocky enough to be JP3.

[Harpo Speaks]

This'll be shit, I reckon.

Heh, as I was creating the thread I thought, 'I'll go back into DIM just to make sure it's not been posted about already', saw your thread and expected it to be about this.

[pk1yen]

Was JP4 the one where the original idea was to go with human-dinosaur hybrids?

I hope to fuck I'm right in saying they threw that idea out ...

[Replies From View]

Was JP4 the one where the original idea was to go with human-dinosaur hybrids?

I hope to fuck I'm right in saying they threw that idea out ...

I heard they were planning to have dinosaurs with guns.

[Artemis]

I heard they were planning to have dinosaurs with guns.

They abandoned that after Aurora, mainly due to a fourth wall sequence in which a raptor strapped with a semi-auto breaks into Hammond Junior's private cinema and goes mental at them while they watch JP1.

As far as I understand it, the screenplay will introduce an African American T-Rex who will be shunned by the others but ends up being friendly. The remaining 'sours are all destroyed but the friendly Rex is kept alive and becomes a pet. The closing scene has him learning to speak English, ending as he looks straight to camera and whispers 'peace'. Cue ironical fade to white.

[El Unicornio, mang]

I thought JP2 was decent. JP3 was rubbish. I have a feeling this will be a reboot style affair though.

[SavageHedgehog]

I quite like all three. TBH they were all a bit thin, but look like Jaws compared to modern equivalents like the Transformers franchise

[Jumble Cashback]

The problem with Jurassic Park sequels is that none of them is actually in a park.

[Thomas]

I, like El Unicornio, mang, enjoyed The Lost World,[nb]'cept for that major plot hole with the ship's crew.[/nb] but I find Jurassic Park III to be gosh darn flip-awful terrible.

I hope they 'tape over' it with this fourth film, actually. Make it so it never happened. Make it so that burly Spinosaurus with jaws like shields of steel never happened.

[Dark Sky]

The problem with Jurassic Park sequels is that none of them is actually in a park.

3 is at least partly set in the park, isn't it?

[Thomas]

The second two are set on a whole other island. Which is sort of 'a' park,[nb]as in a deer park but for genetically resurrected monsters.[/nb] but not the Park.

The series is barely Jurassic either, to be fair.

EDIT - The word 'park' has broken for me. It's gone weird in my head.

[Dark Sky]

The second two are set on a whole other island.

Are they?!  Why are there dinosaurs on another island?!  Blimey that Richard Attenborough spread his seed far and wide, didn't he.

[Thomas]

Jurassic Park itself is on Isla Nublar, but films two and three are set on Isla Sorna, where the dinosaurs (and pterosaurs, o' course) are born 'n' bred.

[Zetetic]

but films two and three are set on Isla Sorna

As is the game Trespasser.

[mobias]

JP3 is actually quite good fun. Shit, but watchable and superior to JP2 which is stuck in a no man's land of mediocrity: not good enough to touch JP and not schlocky enough to be JP3.

The problem with JP3 is only one person gets eaten, and thats right at the start. JP2 was indeed utter shit, Its definitely Spielberg's worst ever effort as a director, but at least more people got torn apart by dinosaurs.

[Thomas]

That is indeed a terrible weakness, but one of my biggest issues with JP3 is the cheesy, ever-present, American Christmas film plot resolution - the divorced parents get back together, ahhhhh.

And we're supposed to care about them, somehow. We're supposed to be moved and bothered by the plight of these boring fools and their invincible, jungle-expert child. I wish they'd found his bones and teeth scattered around the Velociraptor nest site.

EDIT - Or that the mum pulled his greasy, partially digested head out of one of the piles of Spinosaurus dung. That'd be better.

At the time, as a child, the best bit of JP2 for me was the brief return of Lex.

[Cerys]

JP2 has the glorious bit in which a bloke gets stuck between a T-Rex's toes.  Fantastic.

JP4, I reckon, will have raptors infiltrating the downtown area of a major city, allowing for a little bit of politics as the government debates whether or not to do anything about it.  In the end, reason and compassion will win and the bad guys (mayor and his/her minions) will be eaten by an allosaurus, rather than building a giant wall around the 'infected area' and letting the raptors get on with clearing out the undesirable plebs.  You heard it here first, people.  You heard it here first.

[WesterlyWinds]

I think I've somehow managed to watch number 1 and 3 without ever seeing number 2. Strange. Might have had something to do with the fact I was only 6 when the second one came out so my parents wouldn't let me see it.

[Replies From View]

I want JP4 to feature dinosaurs that run a kind of PGL-type place with abseiling lessons and canoeing and things, and then it turns out that they are gradually going wrong and all the children are destroyed.

The one shot that hasn't been properly shown yet:  dinosaurs don't have lips[nb]Or do they?  I can't fucking remember now - it was ages ago wasn't it, dinosaur times.[/nb].  Have a bit in JP4 where a dinosaur is eating a particularly liquidy part of a child, and it just pours out between its teeth.  It could do hilarious acting with its eyes as this happens.

[Replies From View]

Might have had something to do with the fact I was only 6 when the second one came out

You are dead to me, young-o.

[QDRPHNC]

Is this the one where a guy leads a group of cyborg dinosaurs with guns onto the streets of Detroit to clean up the drug problem? Or have they changed that now?

[Glebe]

JP2 has the glorious bit in which a bloke gets stuck between a T-Rex's toes.  Fantastic.

Terrible sequel, one of Spielberg's worst films (although there are a few Berg movies I haven't seen). Couple of good moments (

Spoiler alert

the raptors in the grass, followed by the van cliffhanger, the ship crashing

[close]

), but its sub-par overall. Some of the CG is fairly poor too... ILM are generally great, but this and Men in Black II showcase some of their off-days.

[VegaLA]

My memory has double crossed me yet again. I honestly thought JP3 was set on the original Island of the first film, hence the reason why Sam Neil was going into one on the plane (or Copter, like I say, its been a while).

[WesterlyWinds]

You are dead to me, young-o.

I think you're getting confused, older people tend to die first[nb]I'm going to conveniently ignore the 'to me' part of your post[/nb]. Must be your age. Never mind deary.

[KLG-7B]

"Don't call me Timmy."

[ZoyzaSorris]

Strangely enough, I literally just downloaded and watched Jurassic Park for the first time in nearly 20 years before this thread came up as my other half had never seen it and we are working our way through old blockbusters. I originally saw it at the cinema three times as a young teen and loved it clearly (and the lady enjoyed it a lot) but by the time the second one came out I was more wrapped up in caning whizz and chirpsing yats so never bothered with the rest of the series.

I had downloaded the trilogy however, so we moved on to the second one yesterday. I couldnt believe it was Spielberg to be honest, it seemed proper b movie stuff with a real made for TV sheen. Vaguely enjoyed it as rubbish sunday night post-roast fodder though - and thought the bit where julianne was trapped on the slowly cracking windscreen was an amazing set-piece - was genuinely aggrieved at the humiliation of that fella being ripped in half after busting his balls to save his more photogenic and well-known team-mates. Apart from that and a few other bits people have noted it was clearly utterly lacking the effortless blockbuster charm of the first one. Can't imagine how they stretch it to a third, let alone a fourth - though imagine they could do some pretty damn special cgi dinos nowadays.

[thehungerartist]

Another vote for III over The Lost World here. Like many my age, Jurassic Park was my first truly memorable cinema experience and I loved the Crichton sequel (as a ten-year old admittedly) but was crushed by the film's crapness. Went into JP III with realistic expectations and came out having enjoyed an entertaining kids' monster movie. I often wonder how good a film the original would have been with greater fidelity to the novel and an 18 certificate.

There's an headachey version of the first movie out in April but - having caught the original on the Big Screen again during its limited released at the end of 2011 and being impressed even as a cynical adult - I'd prefer to remember this franchise as one film, thanks.

Re: Jurassic Park 4, nailed on home entertainment crud.