As fans await the next chapter in Jurassic Park's story, its new prequel is great for what it is but misses the opportunity to do more. In the thick of a 30th-anniversary celebration, Jurassic Park has high expectations, and people expect a lot from the iconic series. While Jurassic Park continues to commemorate a significant milestone, sometimes it feels more like a whimper than a triumphant roar as the franchise fails to live up to its full potential in its new prequel.
Based on the Michael Crichton novel of the same name, Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park launched a linchpin of pop culture, telling a tale of science taken too far on an island of cloned dinosaurs. After releasing in 1993, Jurassic Park had multiple sequels, all culminating in Jurassic World: Dominion's ending, billed as "the epic conclusion of the Jurassic era." However, without any further word of future movies or TV shows based on them, this new project had an opportunity to whet fans' appetites, only that didn't come to pass.
How 'The DNA of Jurassic Park' Could've Been More
Mainly filmed at Universal's Islands of Adventure theme park and utilizing scenes from the original movies, Jurassic Park began releasing a series of shorts acting as a quasi-prequel to the film. Entitled "The DNA of Jurassic Park," the shorts are portrayed as in-world employee orientation videos hosted by InGen's animated mascot Mr. DNA. While it provides a fun insight into Jurassic Park's past, covering everything from Triceratops veterinary care to what comes standard in Isla Nublar's customized tour cars, it fails to offer anything that audiences haven't already seen before and wastes its storytelling potential.
Previously, Jurassic Park used something similar to the analog format to assist some of its greatest stories. The events of Jurassic Park and The Lost World: Jurassic Park became expanded through the park's creator, John Hammond, by having the late Richard Attenborough read his haunting memoir in Trespasser. Meanwhile, Jurassic World added context to its stories with revelations such as Dr. Wu's video logs on the tragic origins of the Scorpios Rex in Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous. Additionally, Ian Malcolm in The Lost World novel suspected InGen had plenty of skeletons in its closet, something Jurassic Park III expanded upon and confirmed in the final two Jurassic World movies. Now more than ever, people want to revisit Isla Nublar to see what went on beyond all the theme park polish Hammond gave Jurassic Park's dinosaurs and learn the stories of the people who worked there, especially now that they're aware of Dr. Charlotte Lockwood, a clone who studied in their labs. As fun as it is to have Jurassic Park's iconic moments revisited through a talking DNA strand and the facade of a training video, the effort to expand the world rather than regurgitate it feels like a lost opportunity.
Jurassic Park's Shorts Highlight the 30th Anniversary's Shortcomings
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Being among the lowest-rated, Jurassic World Dominion left audiences wanting more, and not in a good way. Although supposedly a way of closing the book on Jurassic Park's and Jurassic World's stories, Jurassic World Dominion left little fulfillment. Another return to Isla Nublar was something sorely desired for Jurassic Park's 30th anniversary because three decades later, Jurassic Park still has a lot of unanswered questions, storytelling opportunities and an audience who wants to explore them. However, Jurassic Park failed to realize that it needed to do more than reflect on Steven Spielberg's movie and package it for collectors.
As great as the merchandising was and to see Jurassic World: The Exhibition expanding to new locations, as it stands, "The DNA of Jurassic Park" is the closest thing to new content the series received for its 30th anniversary, only to feel somewhat lacking. Unlike Lex Murphy, three decades are nothing to sneeze at, and a majority of Jurassic Park's celebration amounted to ways to expand collections. In a franchise that means so much, came so far and failed to bring closure, it's sad the Jurassic Park 30th-anniversary didn't deliver more meaningful content or new stories. At the heart of it, Jurassic Park was more than a movie; it was an adventure that lives on through its accomplishments, fans and its expansive legacy over 65 million years in the making.