More or less on impulse I decided to watch Jurassic World: Chaos Theory, which premiered on May 24, 2024. I had no particular expectations beyond being a bit dubious about the quality of the 3D computer animation. I was pleasantly surprised. I found it rather compelling, at least some something aimed at tweens and teens.
It's the second animated series in the sprawling Jurassic Park franchise. I haven’t seen the first nor, for that matter, have I seen anything beyond the first three films, much less read any of the books (including Crichton’s original), or played the games. So I’m not going to attempt to situate this in that whole mess. Suffice it to say that the protagonists are five of the six teenaged members of a group known as “The Nublar Six” (apparently from the previous animated series). We’re in a world where dinosaurs are now all over the place and there’s a Department of Prehistorical Wildlife (DPW – a pun?) charged with looking after them, protecting them and chasing them down as the situation may warrant.
Actually, all of the Nublar Six are present in the movie, but one of them, Brooklyn, is present only in flashback, of which there are many. She was murdered and that’s what the series is about: Who did it and are they after us?
Yes, they’re after us, and I suppose we more or less figure out who did it, but not really. Someone is capturing and selling dinosaurs on the black market. A related someone high up in the DPW is in on the scheme, and they get chased down, or at least one of them does. But we don’t find out who’s really behind it. That, presumably, will be the subject of the next series.
Anyhow, in the first episode, Darius, one of the six, is feeling guilty about Brooklyn’s death and he reunites with Ben, another of the six, who believes that Brooklyn had in fact been murdered. Darius is dubious, but they’re suspiciously attacked by some raptors. Darius is convinced. The first episode ends on a cliffhanger – I haven’t used that term in a long time – forcing me to watch the next episode to discover whether or not they escape the raptors.
I mean, of course I know they escape, because there’s no series if they don’t – that’s how cliffhanger’s work, but I went on to the next episode anyhow because I just HAD to find out. In the old days you had to wait at least week to get to the next episode. And on I went through the first four episodes in my first session (each episode runs 23-24 minutes). By that time four of the five remaining members of the six have been recruited to the hunt: Darius, Ben, Sammy (female), and Kenji. The fifth, Yaz, is recruited to the cause in the sixth episode, leaving four more to go.
During the action we learn about the complicated relationships within the six – Brooklyn and Kenji had broken up, Kenji’s dad was under house arrest, Sammy and Yaz are lovers, temporarily estranged – and see a lot of battles between humans and dinosaurs, and dino on dino action as well. Sammy has a pet dinosaur, who gets stolen, etc.
Our trio is racially and stylistically mixed, but all have the utterly smooth skin characteristic of computer graphics, though Kenji’s dad has a few facial wrinkles. FWIW, the dinosaurs seemed a bit more realistic to me, but that no doubt reflects the fact that I have no experience with living dinosaurs (nor does anyone else for that matter). There’s lots of big dinosaur teeth, stubby little dinosaur forelimbs, and close-ups of dinosaur eyes. In contrast, I don’t recall any close-ups of human eyes. I wonder what that’s about.
Anyhow, if you’ve got some popcorn sitting around just waiting to be munched, Jurassic World: Chaos Theory would be an excuse to munch it. BTW, Wikipedia notes that while cliffhangers date back to the Middle Ages, current practice dates back to the Victorian era, when novels were often published in serial form. I wonder how serial publication affects plot structure?
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