Colin Trevorrow
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Connections, in both directions
One scene evokes Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, another scene borrows heavily from Alien, and there are flourishes from Lassie and Jaws thrown in for effect.
One scene will even evoke warm comparisons to Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds.”
But best in show goes to the sequence where park visitors are attacked by pterodactyls that pluck them from the ground like mice—an homage to "The Birds" that amounts to Treverrow doing Spielberg doing Hitchcock.
Trevorrow has littered the film with sly callbacks to the original “Jurassic Park,” plus amusing nods to “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “The Birds” and many others.
He references countless other monster movies, including obvious ones like King Kong and Godzilla and less evident choices like The Birds and (especially) Aliens .
In its attempt to be bigger, louder and toothier, the film not only rehashes executive producer Steven Spielberg's original but borrows from his "Jaws" as well as "The Birds," "Oz's" flying monkeys and "Predator."
Directed by Colin Trevorrow and co-written by Trevorrow and his writing partner Derek Connolly—working from a script originated by Planet Of The Apes rebooters Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver— Jurassic World mixes many elements from the first film while shifting the mood from horror and suspense to action, not unlike what Aliens did by reworking the raw material of Alien.
Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard acquit themselves well in such moments, plus, any action scenes nodding to Aliens/Predator 2 play just fine with me.
A military verses dinosaur set-piece is a cartoonish tribute to the first encounter of the marines with the xenomorphs in Aliens , and the final showdown is a prehistoric prize fight that’s worth the price of admission alone.
He references countless other monster movies, including obvious ones like King Kong and Godzilla and less evident choices like The Birds and (especially) Aliens .
Everything about the action and suspense feels mercilessly pre-ordained and overfamiliar - its best sequences don't so much "steal" from Jurassic Park, Aliens , and Predator , as they use different colored crayons to fill them in - but the film's largely gorgeous CGI (I can only point to one shot where the effects fall apart, a child awkwardly "hugging" a baby brachiosaur) makes those borrowings enough of their own thing that it feels okay to forgive them.
Instead, sequel director Colin Trevorrow (Safety Not Guaranteed) seems content to execute a lesser Aliens: He’s got his Ripley figure in Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard), a brittle park manager who blooms into a protective Amazonian mom after a toothy hybrid goes rogue; he mounts generically staged action sequences involving flares and bared shoulders; and he sneaks in an evil military plot represented by an extra-wide Vincent D’Onofrio.
The End of Oak Street (2026)
Directed by David Robert Mitchell
influenced by Jurassic World (2015)
Visuals Themes Plot
Some of the violence feels unnecessarily cruel (think Jurassic World)…
Both of them straight‑up curbstomp the entire Jurassic World series like Peter, Michael, and Samir did that printer in Office Space.
With Jurassic Park, and more recently Jurassic World, near-monopolising movie dinosaurs, the arrival of The End Of Oak Street immediately begs an obvious question.
There is carnage. But there isn’t much gore, so while the (literal) head count is high, this isn’t as mean-spirited in its kills as Jurassic World, while the family is resourceful, sympathetic and believable.
They don’t rely on the fan-favorite dinosaurs from the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World franchises, choosing to fill in their universe with other dinosaurs.
…he’s landing closer to the Jurassic World films…
But despite the scientific high-mindedness and the triceratops-calf rides in the petting zoo, Jurassic World is primarily a theme park whose theme is carnivorousness, where the big-ticket attractions involve copiously toothy behemoths chomping down on tethered goats and gutted sharks (the latter bait possibly a dig at Jaws , executive producer Steven Spielberg ’s other vacation munch-fest) And just as your average theme park needs to upgrade its premium roller coaster from season to season, Jurassic World has decided that its next big draw is Indominus rex, a mammoth new species engineered from genetic this ’n’ that.
Coming 22 years after “Jurassic Park,” and 14 years after “Jurassic Park III” all but ruined the franchise, the reboot showcases plenty of reverence for the original while evoking memories of everything from “Godzilla” — the fun, old, rubber-suited movies, not that humorless mess from last summer — to “Jaws.”
Under the obvious supervision of Steven Spielberg, working with writer/producers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver and co-writer Derek Connolly, director Colin Trevorrow (“Safety Not Guaranteed”) stacks the emotional stakes while propelling the imaginative action-adventure – with nods not only to the 1993 original but also to “Indiana Jones,” “Jaws,” “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and “The Birds.”
His film abounds with references to key scenes from the 1993 beginner of the series, and unexpected, outrageous salutes to “Jaws” as well.
With the recent mega-success of Jurassic World and the reminder that people REALLY like monster movies, it seems all too convenient that one of the best monster movies of all time is celebrating its 40th anniversary this week.
It's a beat-for-beat repeat of Steven Spielberg's 1993 smash, "Jurassic Park," but with smoother effects and niftier gadgetry (and more product placement).
Like any good reboot should, the fourth “Jurassic Park” movie, director Colin Trevorrow’s “Jurassic World,” ignores not-so-hot sequels “The Lost World: Jurassic Park” and “Jurassic Park III” and starts fresh.
Like the Michael Crichton book on which it was based, Steven Spielberg’s original Jurassic Park (1993) takes place prior to the actual opening of the park, which we are left to assume will never open given what happens during the film, while the sequels The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) and Jurassic Park III (2001) both take place on Site B, a second island where the dinosaurs were actually created and that has since been deserted.
Director and co-writer Colin Trevorrow injects the moribund Jurassic Park franchise with new life by pairing the usual dinosaurs-running-amok formula with a seductive, Westworld-style story hook.
Jurassic Park is my favorite movie of all time so Colin Trevorrow was going to have to pull off some sort of miracle in order to meet my expectations.
Romancing the Stone (1984)
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
influenced Jurassic World (2015)
Dialogue Characters Plot
She and Pratt get a little wet and her hair relaxes as the romance kicks in, and the movie leaves Spielberg’s farm to evoke stuff like the bantering that Kathleen Turner does with Michael Douglas in Romancing the Stone.
The bickering romantic interplay between Howard and Pratt seems lifted from the 1980s “Romancing the Stone.”
He certainly gets more to do than Howard, whose part is like a third-generation xerox of the high-strung damsels-in-distress played by Kathleen Turner in “Romancing the Stone” and Kate Capshaw in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.”
Still, this retrograde Romancing The Stone subplot is much preferable to scenes of Claire’s nephews, teenage Zach (Nick Robinson) and preteen Gray (Ty Simpkins), getting some brotherly bonding in while trying not to be eaten.
Since Hollywood is always trying to remake popular old school movies from the 80s, a studio exec could do a lot worse than pairing Pratt and Howard in an updated version of Romancing the Stone .
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)
Directed by J. A. Bayona
influenced by Jurassic World (2015), The Book of Henry (2017)
Plot
But in forgoing the expansive canvas that is Isla Nublar’s wilderness, the screenplay, co-scripted by Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow, sometimes threatens to overshadow the fun dinosaur action with ho-hum human drama.
2015’s “Jurassic World” featured an irresistible premise: the failed dinosaur theme park promised in Steven Spielberg’s 1993 original is finally realized, open and thriving.
Three years have passed since the collapse of the Jurassic World theme park there.
En 2015, siguiendo dicho manual de instrucciones, Colin Trevorrow facturó con Jurassic World una película más efectiva como estudio autoconsciente del Hollywood actual que como relato de aventuras.
Clutch the kids tightly folks, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom will have them jumping out of their seats.
Trevorrow and his favored co-writer Derek Connolly deliver a rather un-inspired continuation of the progression of the dinosaurs and their endlessly stagnant journey, so much so they make the re-booted Planet of the Apes properties play like brilliant socio-political pulp manifestos (and the disastrous shadow of Trevorrow’s The Book of Henry still looms large as an indicator of taste and unhinged egotism).
While the characters Pratt and Howard portray are very much in the vein of The African Queen duo Katherine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart (one pristine methodical, the other scruffy adventurer), when the dino-crap hits the fan they quickly resemble other iconic roles, with Bryce Dallas Howard channelling the likes of James Cameron’s female action heroines Ripley ( Aliens ) and Sarah Connor ( The Terminator ), while Chris Pratt does his best job auditioning for the Indiana Jones role which many have predicted he has secured.
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Directed by Steven Spielberg
influenced Jurassic World (2015)
Visuals
I made a note to myself at one point that “Jurassic World” keeps channeling “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “Dawn of the Dead,” or at least trying to.
But his vision for Jurassic World is enchanting, gratifying, and sure-handed in a way that’s uncannily like Spielberg ’s early period, back when Spielberg was the ’80s king of the gee-whiz blockbuster and movies like Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) were massive, four-quadrant hits.
Pratt effortlessly pulls it off, and if Disney is really considering casting him as Indiana Jones in a "Raiders of the Lost Ark" reboot, well just hand him the fedora and whip, and I'll be the first to buy a ticket.
Jurassic World Rebirth (2025)
Directed by Gareth Edwards
influenced by Jurassic World (2015), Jurassic World Dominion (2022)
Visuals Themes Plot
While Rebirth isn’t as dependent on homages as, say, Jurassic World, this sequence is so indebted to Park‘s kitchen sequence that it is robbed of nearly all of its effectiveness.
…its central ideas lazily rehash those of 2015’s Jurassic World…
The suspiciously survivable shop gives us one of many sequences that's reminiscent of something you've seen earlier in the franchise, or perhaps in another one, and it's in that reconstruction that Jurassic World Rebirth most closely tends to metatextuality.
…trying both to honor the previous films’ absurd and dead-end “world-building”…
Set five years after the events of Jurassic World Dominion…
…it’s already far up the charts after the two originals, and the beautifully enjoyable Jurassic World.
The Goonies (1985)
Directed by Richard Donner
influenced The Book of Henry (2017), Jurassic World (2015)
Themes Music Visuals
But director Colin Trevorrow ( Jurassic World , Safety Not Guaranteed ) is also attempting to emulate the tone of pictures like The Goonies , Radio Flyer and Stand By Me while also mixing in more elements that are as equally upsetting, making this one of the more unusual feel-good tales of self-discovery and familial empowerment to ever see the light of day.
The influence of Spielberg can be felt in some of the misadventures Henry and his younger brother get in to, which are reminiscent of “The Goonies,” to an early poster that mimicked the work of Spielberg artist Drew Struzan, to Michael Giacchino‘s music, which hums with the warmth and earnestness of the very best John Williams‘ scores.
The brothers are straight from The Goonies, and, of course, Spielberg is merely among the most talented of directors to combine fantasy (or doom) with a broken-home story line just to build a stronger house.
In the manner of Spielberg-produced flicks like The Goonies (85), Trevorrow tells it largely from the perspective of Claire’s nephews, 11-year-old dinosaur freak Gray (Ty Simpkins) and girl-crazy 16-year-old Zach (Nick Robinson).
Crichton’s book was meant to be a cautionary tale about tinkering with nature and biology, akin to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
The galloping gallimimus herd and screen-filling T-rex head of ’93 now seem almost as quaint as the stop-motion ape of the 1933 “King Kong” after the VFX breakthroughs of “Lord of the Rings,” “Avatar” and the two recent “Planet of the Apes” movies (whose writer-producers, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, share “Jurassic World” screenplay credit with director Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly).
Also on the chopping block is the recent obsession with “requels” – ie the sequel that’s really a sly remake à la Jurassic World and Ghostbusters: Afterlife .
Ever since the world flocked to the one-two punch of Jurassic World and Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015, major movie studios have been exploiting a whole new way of rehashing beloved franchises.
Whatever you call it, big franchise pictures like Jurassic World , Ghostbusters: Afterlife , or even never-rebooted MCU entries tend to have at least one or two characters who can speak self-referentially about the events of previous installments.
They make fun of “The Witch,” “Jurassic World,” “The Last Jedi,” Jamie Lee Curtis, David Arquette and Courteney Cox’s divorce and on and on.
But as the commercial success of Star Wars: The Force Awakens , Jurassic World , and Ghostbusters: Afterlife makes clear, requels can be big business.
Like Ghostbusters: Afterlife , the 2018 Halloween , and Jurassic World , these films have to offer something new, but not too new.
Kong: Skull Island (2017)
Directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts
influenced by Safety Not Guaranteed (2012), Jurassic World (2015)
Themes
Working from a screenplay by Dan Gilroy (“Nightcrawler”), Derek Connolly (“Jurassic World”) and Max Borenstein, director Jordan Vogt-Roberts (“The Kings of Summer”) keeps things moving as he updates the old-fashioned adventure flick.
There seems to be a renewed interest in creature features, first with Godzilla in 2014, then with Jurassic World in 2015, but Kong outshines them all with a smart, fun, action-packed story, stellar cast, and stunning special effects.
Sometimes these combinations work quite well—with his take on “Godzilla,” Gareth Edwards came up with one of the very best films in the 50-year history of that franchise—and sometimes, as was the case when “Safety Not Guaranteed” auteur Colin Treverrow was given “Jurassic World,” the results have been dire personality-free messes.
This is the rousing special effects extravaganza that Jurassic World should have been: director Jordan Vogt-Roberts barely has any pretense of a story and instead lets the creatures—who are frightening, awesome, and vivid—bellow and shriek for themselves.
With a story by John Gatins ("Need for Speed"), screenwriters Dan Gilroy ("Nightcrawler"), Max Borenstein (2014's "Godzilla") and Derek Connolly ("Jurassic World") have reimagined Kong as a Vietnam era anti-war movie, the film's real villain Lt. Colonel Preston Packard (Samuel L. Jackson), itching to kill after having 'abandoned' the war in Vietnam.
The eager, teeming screenplay is credited to Dan Gilroy (“Nightcrawler,” “The Bourne Legacy”), Max Borenstein (“Godzilla”) and Derek Connolly (“Jurassic World”), with story by John Gatins (“Flight”).
Nevertheless, two movies later (not to be forgotten, but “Fallen Kingdom” now looks like an Oscar contender compared to “Dominion”), Pratt can’t be bothered to show a silver of emotion, only smoldering close-ups that might rival Ben Stiller in “Zoolander.”
Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
Directed by Jonathan Dayton
influenced Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)
Themes
Produced by the people behind Little Miss Sunshine , and apparently inspired by an actual newspaper ad, Safety Not Guaranteed has at its centre a typical mumblecore character.
From the producers of Little Miss Sunshine.
The humor is very dry, but also very smart and usually capitalizes on awkward situations; think " Little Miss Sunshine ."
Because the producers of "Safety Not Guaranteed" were also behind "Little Miss Sunshine," there's a good chance Plaza's adventures in quantum physics will be exactly what she needs to get past her own beautifully tragic history.
When the film is not saluting its venerable predecessor, camp is, mercifully, the order of the day: Trevorrow clearly realised it would be impossible to recreate the awe and emotional impact of the original film, and instead seems to more than occasionally huff from the same Nitrous oxide that fuelled the other dino movie of 1993, Roger Corman’s Carnosaur, though with regrettably less gore.
Trevorrow indulges in dino-carnage and it’s closer in execution to Peter Hyams’ The Relic , Joe Dante’s Piranha or any monster nasty with Roger Corman’s fingerprints on it.
This movie falls in the same general category as Colin Trevorrow’s Safety Not Guaranteed, a low-budget genre flick with more ideas than money that popped up at film festivals, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
“Prime”,”Safety Not Guaranteed” and “Project Almanac” had more going for them in terms of plot, but the performances could still have made this work.