Jurassic World

Jurassic World has a lot to recommend it. It gives a feeling of wonder at the successful completion of John Hammond's dream, a place where people can see dinosaurs up close and in natural environments. Thematically, though, it's all over the place. Is it about Teamwork is Good, or Corporations are Bad, or Nature Cannot Be Overcome, or something else?

If you haven't been here before, please take a look at the Introduction to Generations, the Generational Attributes and the Four Stories in order to get up to speed on how all this works, and the terms being used.

It probably should be a Heroic story, with the main characters working together to take care of the crisis on Isla Nublar, perhaps even returning it to a state where it is a working tourist destination, or something better. That would have had the additional advantage of being a different sort of story from the previous films in the franchise. It might have worked as Redemption - Claire has some issues she needs to work out - but the circumstances of her salvation appear to be a) getting the kids to safety and b) getting romantically involved with her co-worker.  It's not a Prophet story - nobody is seeking (or achieving, for that matter) a better state of being. It does work adequately (not well) as an Artist story:  The pinnacle of achievement that was the Jurassic World dinosaur theme park  is destroyed by the hubris and bad planning of those in charge, with even those who get away scarred by the experience. The state of the characters at the end isn't that hopeless, though. Even the "triumph" of the Tyrannosaurus Rex at the end - telling us, perhaps, that nature will overcome - is weak, since she's not a character with which  the audience had any emotional involvement.

The setting appears intended as today or the near tomorrow. There's no war or spiritual awakening in progress. Perhaps it's a First Turning, with people excited about this grand technological future they are in, and everyone belongs to their company. (Unless I missed it, every adult we meet is an Ingen employee...) Owen and Claire are played by GenX actors, though, and seem to have associated Nomad characteristics - Owen, in particular, has some Indiana Jones in his DNA.

The original novel of Jurassic Park can be seen as an Artist story - it's a cautionary tale of the events on Isla Nublar, which hardly anyone survives, and the invocation of chaos theory seems shorthand for "you can't fix anything." (Michael Crichton, Silent Generation, b. 1942 often wrote stories where the hero barely survives in a world that is flawed and likely doomed.) The movie of Jurassic Park, as is typical for Spielberg (Boomer, b. 1946), puts a focus on the main character ( played by Sam Neill) as a father figure who needs to become the father figure he was meant to be, saving the children under his care. (Even that one had weaknesses, apart from the spectacle of watching lifelike dinosaurs on the screen).

Certainly there may be little point in nitpicking a film that was one of the most financially successful ever. However, it didn't earn that all on its own - as the latest entry in a franchise 30 years in the making, it did well enough. It might have done better. It was not successful in awards, and not much of a critical success, probably for reasons such as these. Could a generational analysis have helped?

•  To make it a Hero story, the teamwork of the main characters could have been accentuated. A meaningful sacrifice - perhaps by Claire or Owen, but even by Masrani or Hopkins - would have shown that there was something important worth saving.
• A Redemption story would have required a focus on a single character, which probably would not have worked. A future that encompasses Isla Nublar's Jurassic World is too large a canvas for such focus.  Claire's redemption could have been done more effectively, though.
• A Prophet story would probably have focused on Owen, finding out that he needs to be more than an Alpha to the Raptors, perhaps becoming a savior that was able to resolve all the issues by setting up a perfect Eden for the dinosaurs there. (A Guardian of the Dinosaurs?)
• An Artist story would have required that someone be truly blamed for the issues with the park - better still if that person was able to survive and thrive. An end-credits scene with Dr. Wu being shown as the mastermind of all this, a man who wants nothing more than to create dinosaurs, and willing to sacrifice anyone to do it, might have worked.