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'Jurassic Park 4' Dead and Buried
Written by Lex Walker
Monday, 08 December 2008   

jurassic-parkA moment of silence please for the Death of Jurassic Park 4.

The Eulogy [read: eugoogoly]: It's no question Jurassic Park was a monumental film. With special effects that garnished two Academy Awards and performances by the likes of Attenborough and, most notably, Jeff Goldblum that kept the film downright hilarious amidst all the awesome reptilian action - Jurassic Park made 1993 an epic film year.

Unfortunately for 1997 and 2001 the sequels were less than perfect. The Lost World had some great raptor scenes -- and great Goldblum scenes -- it ultimately wasn't up to the par of dino-awesomeness set by the original. But despite its pitfalls it ended up earning over $600 million and all questions of a third sequel were confirmed.

In retrospect, we almost wish The Lost World hadn't done quite so well. Jurassic Park II brought some cool visuals but ultimately floundered - horribly. While The Lost World had us rolling our eyes over a T-Rex in the city, Jurassic Park III lost us at every turn. It was just bad. Although there were pterodactyls - so let's not complain too much.

With that said, can we all agree there's a communal sigh of relief going out for news of Jurassic Park 4 being canceled (for now)? If the first JP showed us anything it's that you can't just gloss over all the quality assurance aspects of a Dino film with special effects. What made JP so great was Spielberg's vision and the fact that it was still somewhat grounded in Michael Crichton's original story (not so for any of the sequels). Sure he helped engineer some really awesome dino-robotics and he gave us a raptor kitchen scene that to this day is awesome - but the bottom line is Spielberg knew there had to be substance in between all the flash.

Jurassic Park 4 is dead for now. Thank god.