I Think I’m Done With the Jurassic Park Retrospective
Let me set the scene for you guys. Yesterday (June 22nd, that is), I resolved that after my lunchtime walk, I would finally sit down and start work on the penultimate part of my Jurassic Park retrospective, writing a review of the animated series Camp Cretaceous. However, as I looked at the empty page for my prospective article about the show and perused the Wikipedia article for the show, a certain thought dawned on me:
Goodbye, everyone! I’ll remember you all in therapy!
I finally had to be honest with myself that writing a full-length review for both Camp Cretaceous and Chaos Theory, going into as extensive detail about the characters, story, represented dinosaurs, etc., was something that I really didn’t want to spend the next two or three months of my life on (let’s be honest here; with my rate of productivity, two or three months is probably a conservative estimate of how long it would have taken). Writing such detailed reviews of the films is hard enough, but trying to condense four or five seasons of television? I’m not going to go as far as to say that it’s beyond my abilities. However, considering that this retrospective has dragged on for over two years now and that I’ve been neglecting several other ongoing projects because of it (not to mention that I have important real-life things to worry about, especially since I’ve finally gotten serious about getting a driver’s license), I think it’s finally past time to admit that enough is enough and that it’s far past time to put this project behind me for good and all.
Still, though, I don’t want to lay this retrospective to a long-delayed rest without giving you guys at least some idea of what I actually thought about the animated series. So, without further ado, here are my condensed reviews of Camp Cretaceous and Chaos Theory:
Final Thoughts: Camp Cretaceous
Discover what happened on the other side of the island.
Back when it was first announced, many franchise fans were apprehensive about Spielberg and company making an animated kids’ show set in the Jurassic Park universe. They needn’t have worried, though, as Camp Cretaceous, despite toning down the violence and profanity just enough to (barely) qualify for a TV-Y7 rating, still treats its setting and characters with the respect and maturity the franchise deserves. Indeed, many fans and critics even argued that it was the best thing to come out of the franchise since the original film. Do I agree with that assessment? For the most part, yes, though enough problems are holding it back to keep me from calling it great. Before I elaborate on those, though, let me give you the TL;DR on the premise.
Jurassic World has a new summer camp on the opposite side of Isla Nublar from the main park complex and has invited six teenagers to be the first to test this once-in-a-lifetime experience. They include the wise-beyond-his-years dino nerd Darius Bowman (Paul Mikel Williams), the snarky spoiled rich kid Kenji Kon (Ryan Potter), the resourceful lifestyle vlogger Brooklynn (Jenna Ortega), the athletic yet introverted Yasmina “Yaz” Fadoula (Kausar Mohammad), the enthusiastic and gregarious farm girl Sammy Gutierrez (Raini Rodriguez), and the shy and nervous Ben Pincus (Sean Giambrone). The adventure seems harmless enough at first, even with the campers occasionally getting into dangerous encounters with the Neo-Mesozoic wildlife (usually at Kenji’s prompting), much to the chagrin of their counselors, Roxie and Dave (Jameela Jamil and Glen Powell (yes, that Glen Powell)). Here’s the thing, though: all of this takes place before the Indominus rex breakout. When all hell subsequently breaks loose, the campers have to overcome their differences and work together to outsmart the various carnivorous animals if they are going to survive the rush to get to the ferries before they pull out…or, failing that, to find a way to eke out a living on the island filled with ravenous prehistoric beasts until someone comes along to rescue them.
Probably the biggest aspect that helps this series stand out is its characters. In contrast to the World, where the human characters are often underwritten to the point of being boring, the Camp Fam is brimming with personality. True, sometimes their character traits are a bit cartoonified for comedic effect, especially in the first season before the shit hits the fan: Kenji’s laziness, Brooklynn’s influencer-isms, Ben’s hypochondriac tendencies, and so on. Once the story really gets going, though, we see the characters mature into their best selves as they pull together for survival. Darius’ determination, strategic planning, and knowledge of dinosaurs help make him the de facto leader of the group despite being the youngest member. Kenji quickly gets over his selfish nepo baby tendencies and matures into a dependable teammate. He also proves surprisingly perceptive of the other campers’ emotional states and adept at navigating conflicts as a result, like helping the other campers get over their sense of betrayal when Sammy is revealed to be spying for a rival corporation and helping Yaz get over her guilt about being a burden to the others when a twisted ankle temporarily renders her unable to run away from the dinosaurs.
Ben’s arc is especially interesting, as undergoes through arguably the most radical change out of all the main characters after the Pteranodons knock out of the monorail toward the end of season one. For the next few weeks, he is alone in the jungles of Isla Nublar with only Bumpy the asymmetrical Ankylosaurus, the clothes on his back, and whatever improvised weapons he can build for protection. All of this turns him into a fearless, gung-ho warrior with a badass Ankylosaurus steed. Granted, Ben’s arc isn’t always handled as realistically as I would like. His going toe to toe with Toro the Carnotaurus and winning feels way too far-fetched to take seriously, even with Bumpy’s assistance. Season Three also gives him a questionable subplot where Darius has to convince him not to stay on the island alone because he doesn’t want to leave Bumpy. That felt especially stupid since the highly unstable Scorpius rex was still on the loose at the time. Despite these missteps, he still comes across as a highly endearing character, especially with his adorable relationship with Bumpy.
The series also gives us several fun villains for our heroes to face off against, both human and dinosaur. Season 2 gives us the so-called eco tourists Mitch and Tiff (Bradley Whitford and Stephanie Beatriz), who turn out to be big game hunters who want to collect the dinos as trophies, while Season 3 gives us the highly unstable Scorpius rex in the first half and Dr. Wu in the second half (Greg Chun replacing BD Wong), who holds Brooklyn hostage to extort the other campers into returning his laptop so he can recover his genetics research. Despite all of them being appropriately intimidating villains, their menace is somewhat undermined by the fact that this is a Y7 show, so none of the kids are allowed to be killed by the dinosaurs or the humans trying to exploit them. This especially hurts the potential suspense generated by the Scorpius rex, which never lives up to its in-universe hype as the most unstable and bloodthirsty hybrid of them all. It does come the closest to actually killing one of the campers when it sticks Sammy with some of its venomous quills, but we all know the writers would never go through with something that severe.
Another area where the series falls flat is the animation. Don’t get me wrong, the animation is fine for what it is, and it does just as good a job as the films in rendering the dinosaurs with as much detail as they deserve (anatomical inaccuracies notwithstanding). Still, the movements can feel a little stiff at times, especially when the dinosaurs are fighting with one another, which weakens the action. There is also the issue that the rainforest on Isla Nublar never feels like a rainforest, with the trees being rendered as an open canopy forest most of the time. This feels especially egregious when the campers stumble across the Jurassic Park visitor center in the season 3 episode “Clever Girl.” When Zach and Gray find it in Jurassic World, it looks like an ancient ruin. In Camp Cretaceous, however, it looks more like its been abandoned for a few years at most, with none of the thick jungle foliage we saw in the film.
Another area where I feel I have to dock points is the story, especially in the later seasons. The first three seasons all have very competently written stories that follow the campers as they use their wits to outsmart the various threats they encounter, whether in the form of dinosaurs or humans with ill intent, and unravel conspiracies and deal with the twists that come with them. But the fourth season, in which the Camp Fam finds themselves stranded on an island owned by Mantah Corp after the Mosasaurus wrecks Mitch and Tiff’s yacht, is where the story starts to lose me, for two main reasons (spoiler alert for anyone who hasn’t seen the show yet).
The first reason is that the show gets carried away with sci-fi concepts that, in my opinion, are a little too far-fetched to fit comfortably within the Jurassic Park universe. Among these are the Bio-Robotic Assistant Drones, or BRADs (Roger Craig Smith), the doglike drones programmed by the psychopathic roboticist Kash Langford (Haley Joel Osment) to help maintain Mantah Corp’s island, including by siccing them on his fellow employee, Dr. Mae Turner (Kirby Howell-Baptiste), when she gets in his way. The regular BRADs are bad enough, but the BRAD-Xs, which look like bipedal crocodiles, look like they walked off the set of Star Wars. Could you imagine Dr. Alan Grant or Owen Grady stumbling across these things in the main film series? No? Well, now you know how ridiculous these things feel to me.
The other far-fetched sci-fi concept is, unfortunately, the main driver of the conflict in the last two seasons. Mantah Corp’s ultimate plan for its dinosaurs is to force them to fight each other for the sick amusement of its bourgeois clientele using chips inserted into their brains to control them against their will (another one of Kash’s inventions). I know this is a weird thing to say about a world where dinosaurs have somehow been brought back to life, but this feels way too scientifically advanced for this setting given that, aside from cloning technology, the Jurassic Park universe feels no more or less technologically advanced than our world. Likewise, the domed biomes (desert, forest, tundra, etc.), make Mantah Corp Island feel very out of place within the greater canon and really hurts the creators’ assertions that Camp Cretaceous is canon in the World trilogy’s story.
None of this is helped by how the conflicts between the campers aren’t as well handled in the fifth season, especially the one between Kenji and the others when it’s revealed that Kenji’s father, Daniel Kon (Andrew Kishino), is the president of Mantah Corp. Kenji is convinced the dinosaurs are out of danger once Kash loses control of his chipped Velociraptors and gets eaten, whereas the other campers distrust Daniel despite having no evidence to back up their hunch. The series seems to expect us to view Kenji siding with his father as a betrayal of the Camp Fam, but it’s hard not to sympathize with him for being angry at the others after they cause a dino rampage that nearly gets Daniel killed. Sure, the other campers are proven right in the end (especially after Daniel chips Bumpy despite Kenji begging him not to), but it’s hard not to blame them for almost driving their friend away by jumping to conclusions.
Don’t let my negativity in the last few paragraphs make you think Camp Cretaceous isn’t worth your time, though, because I think it most definitely is. The characters are much more vibrant and well-developed than in the World films, the stories are just as full of mystery and suspense as the best scenes from the live-action side of the franchise, and the animation does a good job of carrying the story despite being a bit basic at times. Sure, the later seasons kind of dropped the ball as far as the plot goes, but even they offer several standout scenes, like the gang fighting through BRADs and a Nothosaurus to fix the island’s geothermal core before it explodes and the scenes where Darius and Dr. Turner interact with Big and Little Eatie, the island’s resident mother/daughter T. rex duo.
Ultimately, Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous earns a 7/10 from me. It probably would have gotten an 8 had the plot not gone off the rails in the last two seasons, but it’s definitely still the best thing to come out of the World phase of the franchise. Or at least it was until…
Final Thoughts: Jurassic World: Chaos Theory
Chaos comes home…
It really is amazing that the kid-friendly spin-off of Jurassic World Dominion managed to handle the “dinos and humans living together! Mass hysteria!” concept better than the big grown-up blockbuster. Be advised, though, that kid-friendly is a relative term here, as this show plunges the Camp Fam into a much darker story involving government conspiracies, lingering mental and emotional trauma, and the cast even having to solve a main character’s supposed murder.
It’s been six years since the events of Camp Cretaceous, and the Nublar Six have gradually drifted away from each other for various reasons. Darius (a returning Mikel-Williams) is working for the Department of Prehistoric Wildlife (DPW) and helping relocate problem dinos. Kenji (Darren Barnet replacing Potter) is working as a climbing instructor and is estranged from both his father and Darius, his adoptive brother. Yaz (a returning Mohammad) has secluded herself on a supposedly “dinosaur-free” island to heal from her PTSD, estranged from Sammy (a returning Rodriguez), who is running a ranch all on her own. Worst of all, though, Brooklyn (Kiersten Kelly replacing Ortega) is presumed dead after having a run-in with an Allosaurus while on a journalistic investigation, which has sent shockwaves through the Camp Fam. Indeed, it is Darius’ obsession with tracking down the Allosaurus that has alienated him not just from Kenji but the rest of his family, as he feels guilty for ignoring a call from her that fateful night.
One night, though, Ben (a returning Giambrone) shows up at Darius’ cabin, claiming to have uncovered evidence that Brooklyn had stumbled across a criminal conspiracy involving dinosaurs and that her death was no accident. He is proven right when a pack of Atrociraptors and their creepily silent Handler (Sumalee Montano) attack their cabin. Thus, the duo set off in Ben’s van to reunite the surviving campers and figure out who is after them before it’s too late.
Perhaps the common phrase “It grows up with its audience” is the wrong one to use in this context, especially since the first episode of Chaos Theory premiered only 13 months after the last episode of Camp Cretaceous, but that seems to be the vibe the creators were going for. It certainly grew up with its characters, placing them in a far more adult situation inspired by 1970s conspiracy thrillers like All the Presidents’ Men and The Parallax View and pitting the Nublar Six against a nebulous entity that wants them dead for unknown reasons. Of course, given that this is a spinoff of Dominion, it’s probably not that big of a spoiler to reveal that Soyona Santos (a returning Dichen Lachman) and Lewis Dodgson (Adam Harrington replacing Campbell Scott) are behind it all, Still, it’s how the Nublar Six draw upon their Isla Nublar-forged resourcefulness and survival instincts to not only outsmart their pursuers but find out who they are and why they want them dead that is the main reason to stay tuned.
Another big reason to stay tuned (and I promise that this is the only other major spoiler in this review) is what the writers do with Brooklyn after it’s revealed that she survived the allosaur attack (mostly; she lost a hand in the skirmish) but decided to let the others think she was dead so she could continue her investigations in secret. It’s fascinating watching her resort to such dubious methods to subvert the conspiracy from within, especially when she ends up becoming Soyona Santos’ right-hand woman. It’s an interesting examination of deep cover journalistic practices as we wonder what kind of lines she’s willing to cross in her efforts to take the bad guys down, and whether she’ll manage to pull herself back from the brink before she truly goes beyond the point of no return. Of course, her seemingly choosing Santos over the Camp Fam is played for all the drama it’s worth as the others struggle to process her seeming betrayal, with the group arguing over whether or not she had a good reason not to go with them to the point that Yaz and Sammy briefly end their relationship when they fall on different sides of the argument.
Speaking of Soyona Santos, the series gives us some excellent human villains. Santos herself is given much more time to shine, displaying much more of her Machiavellian wiles as Brooklyn gets drawn deeper into her circle (indeed, the scene where Brooklyn first meets Santos is easily one of the scariest the franchise has ever put out). The series’ other original villains are fine enough on their own, from the corrupt DPW head Dudley Cabrera (Philip Anthony-Rodriguez) to the Senegalese geneticist Dr. Sarr (Ike Amadi) who turns out to be enough of a mad scientist to make Dr. Wu look sane. But the one who really steals the show is the Atrociraptor’s Handler. If Santos looks like she wandered in off the set of a James Bond film, then the Handler looks like she wandered in from a David Lynch production. With her extremely pale skin, bug-eyed blank stare, robotic movements, and the way she never speaks above a barely audible whisper (preferring to let the whistle she uses to communicate with the raptors do the talking), she’s less the corporate style of Jurassic Park villain we’re used to and more akin to a slasher movie villain, right down to her Michael Myers-style coveralls. Some fans have even gone as far as to call her the best human villain the franchise has ever had, and it’s not hard to see why. The animators did an excellent job creating a villain who totally commands the screen with her menacing, uncanny presence.
I should also probably spare a word for the real stars of this franchise, which, unlike in Dominion, are actually allowed to be the stars of the show this time. Perhaps it’s just that the series format actually allows our scaly friends more room to stretch their legs, Still, it’s very refreshing to see the “dinosaurs living with humans” angle get fleshed out, with all the problems and wonders that it entails (which is helped by the fact that the mutant Biosyn locusts don’t show up until late in Season Three). We see the DPW at work, both its good side, represented by Darius and his mentor Ronnie (Carmen Moore), and its bad side, represented by Dudley Cabrera and the various mooks that try to take out the Nublar Six at various points during their journey. The “raptors as attack dogs” premise gets played for all the nightmare fuel it’s worth, as is the smuggling operation as the Camp Fam learn more and more about it.
The second season is the most interesting examination of dino-human relationships to me. Our heroes stumble across a farm in Senegal that not only exists in a symbiotic relationship with a local herd of Stegosaurus (who help protect it from predators) but also has its own pet Gallimimus named Geba, who gets kidnapped, with the farmers’ daughter, Zayna Mballo (Anaiya Asomugha), tagging along with the Camp Fam to help rescue him. We also get treated to modern-day African wildlife that are just as dangerous as the resurrected dinos, like the hippopotamus that attacks the group and then gets in a tussle with a Suchomimus, and the lions waiting on the riverbank in the dark that can only be seen by the lights of their eyes. We also get to see new genetically altered horrors once the group reaches Dr. Sarr’s secret lab.
Another interesting angle explored in dino-human relations is when the group goes to stay with Ben’s Italian girlfriend, Gia (Beatrice Granno), and her grandmother, Nonna (Isabella Rossellini), who just so happens to live just outside the valley where Lewis Dodgson has set up his dinosaur sanctuary. Not only does Nonna have a superstitious fear of dinosaurs (something that proves problematic when Bumpy’s egg hatches into a new tiny Ankylosaurus dubbed Smoothie while the group is staying at her house), but the Pyroraptor has escaped containment and is unleashing a reign of terror on the countryside, which the group has to deal with as it stalks closer to the village.
As you can probably tell, I think Chaos Theory holds up a lot better than Camp Cretaceous. Probably the only things that don’t really work for me are the attempts to tie it more directly to Dominion in the third and fourth seasons. For instance, while I do enjoy the scene where the Nublar Six help take down Santos for good, I can’t deny that there’s a bit of a “fanfiction” quality about it, as if the writer was trying to shoehorn their OCs into a story that wasn’t built with them in mind. Also, the attempt to have the gang reconcile with Dr. Wu in the fourth season ended up falling flat for me, mostly because it’s still not made clear what happened to the doctor to make him change his mad scientist ways. It’s not all bad, though: the gang rushing to the helicopter drone they rode in on to save a severely injured friend only to find that the live-action cast of Dominion got to it first is morbidly hilarious.
In the final tally, I give Jurassic World: Chaos Theory a 9/10. It’s got an excellent hook of the Nublar Six trying to outrun someone trying to kill them, which is played for all the suspense and intrigue it’s worth. It does a much better job showcasing the “dinosaurs and humans living together” premise than Dominion. It dives deep into the characters’ psychologies (Kenji’s grief over Brooklyn and his father’s deaths leading to borderline suicidal recklessness, Yaz attempting immersion therapy to conquer her PTSD, Brooklyn’s rationalizing of her increasingly morally dubious methods of taking Santos down, etc.) and gives them excellent and intimidating villains to face off against. Most importantly, though, it gives us great and well-animated dino action. And I think it deserves its reputation as the best thing to come out of the Jurassic Park film franchise since the original.
Oh, and if you wanted to hear my thoughts about that Hidden Adventure special, I didn’t get around to watching that before Netflix purged all its interactive “choose-your-own-adventure” style properties. Sorry!
And with that, I can finally declare my retrospective of the Jurassic Park franchise complete. And it only took me two years and two months!
I don’t have that much more to say. I do have plenty of updates on my future plans now that I don’t have this retrospective hanging over my head anymore, but I think those deserve their own dedicated article, so expect that either tomorrow or early next week.
Until then, stay safe, have a wonderful rest of summer, and remember that life…uh… finds a way.
