When I was living in the Bay Area, my family had a tradition: At least once every summer, almost always in the middle of June, we would all journey to the West Wind Capitol Drive-In in San Jose for a double feature.
Going every year meant that we got to see a vast variety of films. We beheld animated gems like Laika’s “ParaNorman” (2012); superhero sagas like Marc Webb’s “The Amazing Spider-Man” (2012); and retro thrillers like J.J. Abrams’ “Super 8” (2011).
One film franchise, however, took the crown for our most regular viewing at West Wind: the “Jurassic World” series. Even after I moved away from California, seeing each new installment at a drive-in is a tradition I’ve kept alive—and I’ll continue to do so next month, when “Jurassic World Rebirth” debuts.
For years, the original “Jurassic Park” trilogy was a staple of our family movie nights. The first film was our favorite, while the sequels proved contentious (to this day, moviegoers still mock the “Alan!” dinosaur from 2001’s “Jurassic Park III”).
Yet as Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) casually declared, “life, uh, finds a way.” Despite the indignities the “Jurassic World” films have endured, gripes about actual nostalgia goggles and Bryce Dallas Howard’s high heels couldn’t keep the series from biting into the global box office.
Yes, “Jurassic World” (2015) failed to please the fanbase at large; “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” (2018) was favored by few besides writer Phillip Iscove (a devotee of the film’s “gothic dinosaur haunted house”); and “Jurassic World Dominion” (2022) was such a cultural punchline that a Judd Apatow film lampooned its COVID-era production.
Still, none of these absurdities stopped me and my family from buying tickets to each new installment at the drive-in, where we would sometimes experience a double bill that placed beastly blockbusters in conversation with one another.
When we first saw “Jurassic World,” for instance, it was presented alongside “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” another film featuring CGI behemoths (built by gifted scientists, no less) with an insatiable appetite for organic life—story similarities that illuminated the films’ thematic differences.
Unlike Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), who envisions Ultron (James Spader) as a protector of humanity, “Jurassic” baddie Dr. Henry Wu (B.D. Wong) knows full well that the new breed of dino he is creating (dubbed the Indominus rex) will prove too big to contain, an inevitability he confronts with perverse altruism.
By fulfilling his gruesome contract to the utmost, Wu makes his corporate overlords regret their hubris—and even better, he chastises them to their faces for their greed, a plot point that brought me back to the days when my dad persuaded me to read Michael Crichton’s “Jurassic” novels as a teenager.
Bringing a sadistic edge to a tale later softened by Spielbergian wonderment, Crichton imbued many of his characters with a ruthlessness that the films often failed to capture. John Hammond and Lewis Dodgson, for instance, may be corporate rivals, but like all “Jurassic” villains, they are united in a tragically familiar pursuit: money over science.
By contrast, Richard Attenborough played Hammond as a kindly grandfather in “Jurassic Park,” while Campbell Scott’s Dodgson in “Dominion” recalls his role as Peter Parker’s soft-spoken father in “The Amazing Spider-Man” (in a now-infamous subplot of that series reboot).
In the “Jurassic World” films, Wu best embodies Crichton’s critique of capitalists who masquerade as innovators, edging out Eli Mills (Rafe Spall), who auctions off dinosaurs like an arms dealer. Without Wu, there would be no dinosaurs to sell (or inadvertently let loose into the world).
By the time “Dominion” was released, I had moved to Oregon, so I saw it at the 99W Drive-in in Newberg. Like its immediate predecessors, the film was derided by many (due in part to rising Chris Pratt fatigue), but among all the sequels in the franchise, it’s the one I defend with critical tooth and claw—for two reasons.
The first is Lewis Dodgson’s Biosyn spreading locusts around the world to consume any non-Biosyn GMO crops—a storyline strongly reminiscent of the work of James Rollins, another author to whom my dad introduced me.
The closest thing to a Crichton successor in today’s literary scene, Rollins wrote the “Sigma Force” techno thrillers, which have been steady bestsellers for over 20 years (plus, Amazon has announced an upcoming streaming series adapting Rollins’ creation).
In “The Doomsday Key” (2009), Rollins pits Sigma Force against a European biotech firm manufacturing GMO’s that threaten to contaminate, you guessed it, non-GMO crops. As a fan, I savored “Dominion” as a stealth Rollins tribute, and proof that a proper “Sigma Force” adaptation would be possible.
I also vouch for “Dominion” because its heroes take on a dinosaur smuggling ring based on Malta. My mom’s family proudly hails from that tiny nation at the center of the Mediterranean, and it’s rare to see Malta play itself on screen (as opposed to ancient Rome, Jerusalem, or King’s Landing).
Malta will reappear as a filming location in “Jurassic World Rebirth,” but this time, it’s putting its sea face on. Judging from the trailers, this is where Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, and Jonathan Bailey get to meet a wild Mosasaurus, here to teach a master class to all the other ocean megafauna.
These actors bring much promise to the new film, as do screenwriter David Koepp (returning to the series for the first time since 1997’s “The Lost World: Jurassic Park”) and director Gareth Edwards (with his experience directing thoughtful sci-fi creature features like 2010’s “Monsters” and 2014’s “Godzilla.”)
Millions of moviegoers are projected to attend opening weekend for this latest round of dinosaurs running (or, for the Mosasaurus, swimming) wild. And I, for one, will not fail to catch “Rebirth” at the 99W Drive-in as tradition commands.
