Film Corner: Jurassic World

[Content Note: Misogyny; violence/animal attacks in both trailer and description.]

Below, the trailer for Jurassic World, the latest installment in the Jurassic Park franchise, coming to a theater near you later this year:


Video Description: Overhead tracking shot of a dinosaur enclosure on the island. Ominous music. Cut to Chris Pratt, a thin white young man dressed like Hipster Indiana Jones, in an enclosure with three raptors. They snarl at him. He holds out his hand, palm-forward, in a "stop gesture." They stop. In voiceover, he explains, "It's not about control." He says to the raptors: "Stand down." They stand in place, snarling. He holds his position firmly. In voiceover: "It's a relationship." The dinosaurs aren't happy about being held in place, but respect his manly power-gesture. In voiceover: "Based on respect."

Cut to Pratt, in a beige Henley shirt, talking to Bryce Dallas Howard, a thin white young woman with red hair, dressed in an all-white suit. "These animals are thinking, 'I gotta eat,'" he explains to her. Inserted footage of raptors running at night. "'I gotta hunt. I gotta—'" He bites his lower lip and pumps his fist forward, indicating sex. She rolls her eyes. "You gotta be able to relate to at least one of those things." Oh ho ho he is such a rapscallion! And she is so uptight! I bet he will needle her into loving him in no time!

Cut to a tracking shot over the theme park, which is full of tourists. Adventure music. In voiceover, Howard says, "Every time we've unveiled a new attraction, attendance has spiked." Montagery! People in a safari vehicle, with dinosaurs running alongside them. Kids viewing a dinosaur through a large log with a window in it. An audience watches a water show with a huge aquatic dinosaur that eats a shark, and everyone cheers. "That was awesome!" says one white tween boy to another.

In voiceover, Howard says, "Corporate felt genetic modification would up the wow factor." Montagery! A helicopter flying toward the island. Science-y tubes! Large eggs in incubators. Some kids in a clear plastic bubble on safari in the park. Cut to Pratt and Howard talking to each other. Pratt says, "They're dinosaurs. Wow enough." Cut to BD Wong, a thin middle-aged Asian man wearing a lab coat, who says, "She was designed to be bigger than the t-rex." Cut to Pratt running his hand along a stone wall scarred with huge talon scratches. "What happened to the sibling?" he asks. "She ate it," Howard replies. OH SHIT!

And thus the premise has been sufficiently set up, so that the trailer can launch into a series of scenes about EVERYTHING GOING HAYWIRE! Giant feet! Chris Pratt running away from giant feet! "We have an asset out of containment!" Howard yells into a mobile phone. Chris Pratt running! Vincent D'Onofrio makes a horrified face! Tourists running and screaming! Chris Pratt running and sliding!

Now slow it down, yo: Some military-type dudes creep through the jungle with big guns. Beep beep. "What is that?" Howard asks, in the control room from which she and Pratt and the other nerdz are watching the military hunt. Pratt: "Her tracking implant; she clawed it out." Howard: "How would it know to do that?" Pratt: "She remembered where they put it in."

Blood drips on one of the military-type dude's arms from above. He looks up and OH SHIT! Dinosaur screaming! Dinosaur grabbing people! Dinosaur dragging people! Cut to Pratt and Howard overlooking a field of dinosaur carcasses. Howard puts her hands to her mouth and gasps, "Oh god." Pratt snarls, "She's killing for sport."

MONTAGERY! Kids in the bubble getting attacked and screaming! Tourists running! "You got 20,000 people; you got no more boats!" Howard looking horrified. "You don't have enough guns!" Vincent D'Onofrio is being a real Debbie Downer! Shooting at a dinosaur with a huge devouring mouth is futile! CHOMP! "If we do this, we do this my way," says Pratt. Which means ON MOTORCYCLES!

More montagery! Motorcycles and raptors tear through the jungle at night. Helicopter! Shooting! "Light it up!" yells D'Onofrio. Grenade launcher! Explosion! Helicopter! Crashing glass. Screaming dinosaur. Flying dinosaurs. Running ladies' feet. Motorcycle. "They're communicating." OH SHIT! Screaming dinosaur. "We're talking about an animal here," Howard says. Attacking dinosaur. "A highly intelligent animal," Pratt says, leaning into HER FACE so she gets it, man. Screaming dinosaur. Chaos. Running tourists. Huge aquatic dinosaur leaping out of water to eat flying dinosaur. OH!!! SHIT!!!

Jurassic World. June 12.

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You might have noticed I highlighted some words in my transcript! That is because I can't even remember the last time I heard "she" used five times in a movie trailer! Whooooooooops too bad it refers to a killer dinosaur!

Notice, at 1:11, the exchange between Pratt and Howard: Pratt: "Her tracking implant; she clawed it out." Howard: "How would it know to do that?" Pratt: "She remembered where they put it in." The dinosaur is "she" when Pratt (a man) is talking about her, and "it" when Howard (a woman) is talking about her. Huh.

So, basically, this is a story of a female beast brought into a manufactured world by people who want her to be polite and decorative and then murder her when she goes on a rage-filled rampage because she wants to be her whole self.

I gotta be honest: It kinda makes me root for the dinosaur.