Movie News: New Jurassic World Trailer

Sequels find a way…

The official trailer for next June’s Jurassic World is landing on the Internet with all the explosive force of the fiery asteroid that wiped out the Earth’s reptilian rulers millions of years ago. Judging from the footage, the movie seems little more than a remake of the original, ground-breaking Jurassic Park (1993)…

…but darned if I don’t want to see it!

The Frankenstein-esque fooling around with nature has been ratcheted up several notches, but the trailer makes no bones (fossilized or otherwise) about the fact that, if you saw Jurassic Park two decades ago, you’ll be getting more of the same, albeit on an even grander scale, with Jurassic World. A dinosaur Disney World, kids in peril, grave warnings about knowledge man was not meant to know (with recently-minted galactic guardian Chris Pratt filling in for Sam Neill and/or Jeff Goldblum this time around). It’s nothing you haven’t seen… but this trailer works on me, and makes me want to see it all again.

I hope Jurassic World will, despite initial impressions (awesome though they be), still serve up some new elements, in terms not only of plot but also thematically. I wonder, for example, whether environmental concerns might figure into the story this time around. I mean, how sustainable could a theme park be where whole sharks are on the main attractions’ feeding menu? And does our ability to create new species absolve us of responsibility for caring for the many species of life now on the brink of extinction, often at our own hands?

Not that I want the movie to be a grim and serious philosophical piece. I am now looking forward to getting lost in dino-fueled science fantasy for a few hours this June. Jurassic World was not on my personal radar; as of today, however, I can hardly wait.

If only we Christians were as good as Hollywood is at getting folks excited to see and hear stories they’ve seen and heard before!

What do you think the church can learn from artful trailers like this one about firing people’s interest in God’s story? And what are you looking forward to in Jurassic World?