Palaeo-Redo: Jurassic Park

Hello, and welcome back to a Palaeo-Redo instalment for Mesozoic Mind, where I try and look at how I would either do a palaeo-work if I were making it, or how I'd remake and update it. Given that we celebrated our first anniversary with it, how about we do Jurassic Park?

The Lost World: Jurassic Park

Starting off The Lost World, I would actually split the film into a two-parter film for more breathing room for the story. The first part would move the freeing of the captured dinosaurs more to the climax, with the finale being the village chase and the escape. The ending is of the bull T. rex, as well as several other dinosaurs (three Triceratops, some raptors, procompsognathus, and a Mamenchisaurus just for a full other Lost World homage), being captured and ready for transport.

The second part (no doubt released in 1998) would be about the dinosaurs on the mainland in San Diego and the efforts to recapture them (the much beloved Roland Tembo helps out with this) and send them back, as well as seeing the impact of how InGen's genetic efforts are affecting people and society.

Second. try borrowing a bit more stuff from the book (Michael Crichton's literary sequel, not Arthur Conan Doyle's) it was adapted from as well as a few more from the book. For instance, I'd bring over the DX prion virus as a plot point, where bringing the dinosaurs to the mainland risks it spreading to to other animals (like birds) and eventually humans.

Dinosaur-wise, I'd add a few more to the lineup. The majormost edition would be Carnotaurus in place of the raptors (for the most part). They wouldn't have the colour-shifting camouflage of the book, simply have a pattern that blends well in forests, but they would still be treated as dangerous and terrifying creatures.

Others that would also appear are:

• Dilophosaurus appears as the man-sized adult during the stampede and camp scenes.
• Yandusaurus (in place of the novel's Dryosaurus) as the token small ornithopod on the island.
• Therizinosaurus, portrayed as a digging creature as therizinosaurs were thought to be in the 1990's. It would a brief fight with either one of the T. rexes in the first half.

A few of the other dinosaurs would also get expanded roles. Mamenchisaurus for instance would in addition to the above have at least one juvenile specimen be among those captured, while a courtship scene between two adults would also feature in the first part.

Overall I would emphasise themes of containment in contrast with the first film's theme of breaking out, whether it be keeping dinosaurs on the island, a plan, or egos and emotions. TLW actually has these, might I add, I just intend to make them more prominent.

Sarah Harding would be a bit more savy and intelligent like in the books, not making dumb decisions like approaching baby stegosaurus when the adults are nearby,

Finally, the character of Kelly would be removed, as she is pretty much unnecessary to the plot and we don't need more dumb kids in JP movies.

Jurassic Park III

The plot would be radically altered from the one we got. For starters, the plot would be about Biosyn setting up shop on both Isla Sorna and another of the Five Deaths destabilising the ecosystem of Isla Sorna by using the island for their own experiments, ranging from new GMO crops to capturing and making their own dinosaurs to create livestock, which are destablising the ecosystem of . However, the government catches onto it and sends agents to thwart it and eliminate them. Alan Grant is brought in as a consultant, under the guise of helping find a missing person for "Paul and Amanda Kirby", which are merely aliases here. Chaos-fuelled hijinks ensue as both sides' plans go wrong and the dinosaurs go on the attack.

The film (and franchise) ends with Biosyn's operations being shut down and the invasive species being eliminated, with the dinosaurs being left to to their own, but at the same time, its clear the genetics revolution kicked off as the tech is adopted by other corporations, the future uncertain.

This JP3 would be more about human-on-human action, with gunfights and vehicle chases and the like, but still with dinosaurs at the core of the plot and as actual characters.

The main dinosaur antagonist would still be Spinosaurus, but the big fight with the rex doesn't happen until the climax to let it build up. Otherwise, there wouldn't be too many new dinosaurs (besides Ankylosaurus), since the lineup is crowded as it is, and returning ones could fill roles easily.

The main theme of this movie would be coming to agreements, just as the first had breaking out and the second had containment, whether its between two groups or species. Another is escalation: Biosyn is making more then InGen ever did, and has more broad horizons for just using genetics for entertainment, but food and medicine.

Jurassic Park

It may seem very blasphemous to think Jurassic Park can be improved, so for this I'll instead make it a reboot around say, 2018. I would include elements in the book not found in the film, like a darker, more cynical tone and . Naturally, one of the biggest differences would be dinosaurs are up to date (for the time), so you get the raptors and other relevant dinosaurs being feathered, while the sauropods and Stegosaurus have proper un-elephantine feet.

However, one of the major story change around this time would be that unlike previous movies, the dinosaurs would not have actual dino DNA in them, instead being wholly original genetic hybrids cobbled together from bird and reptile DNA, in order to fit the whole illusion theme. 

John Hammond would be younger, around 40 to 50, and be based off techbros and billionaires that preach innovation and benefiting humanity but in reality only cares more about profit and power, which is basically him. Yeah he would be partially based off Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, why you ask?

Species lineup for this film is mostly fictional since biologically the hybrids are not even dinosaurs let alone archosaurs proper, though they still would be called the genera they're based on for the most part.

• Cockatricia manufactius (Velociraptor)
• Genotyrannus (Tyrannosaurus)
• Mbielumbielu (Stegosaurus)
• Talostitan (whatever sauropod is in it)
• Velocidraco (Gallimimus)
• Cristatidromeus (Dilophosaurus)

(Parasaurolophus is absent because it was just set dressing in the original)

Now that I'm done all this, how would you personally alter or remake Jurassic Park? By any rate, bye for now! Be on the look out for when I inevitably do the Jurassic World trilogy - after seeing Dominion!