The 70’s were considered one of the golden periods of cinema in Hollywood, with many proclaiming it the high water mark of the art form, the greatest decade ever. In fact though, there was an extreme dichotomy going on, and this movie fell victim to two competing cinematic trends, falling squarely between the cracks. A box office bomb at the time it was released back in 1977, it has in recent years undergone a resurgence in reputation, with luminaries such as Tarantino and Stephen King listing it in their favourite movies. William Friedkin (pictured below), the director, himself considered this his greatest movie, leading to the restoration from original prints that took place in in 2013, which in turn led to the first release in 4K for home theatre in 2025.

A company man accompanying adventurous mercenaries for hire, led by Scarlett Johanssen, isn’t quite enough to tick all the screenwriting 101 requirements, and so on the way they find a family on a cross-the-ocean sailing trip who strayed too close to the prohibited area and were shipwrecked. This completes an ensemble including the requisite mix one expects in a movie of this sort: dubious company man; likeable kid; loyal father; weary mercenary dealing with loss, scholar with a good heart and various others who have so little backstory you just know they are soon going to be dino-food.

And the rest plays out probably pretty much like you can now imagine in your head. Which is good and bad.. Good, in as much director Gareth Edwards (Rogue One, Godzilla, The Creator) knows what he is doing with developing edge of the seat action scenes in a visual effects -heavy movie. Bad, in as much as the script he is working from treads no new ground and feels an all too familiar re-hash. In the story, the island was a laboratory developing genetically mutated dinosaurs (including “Distortus-Rex”!!), presumably so there is an excuse to show something ‘new’ we haven’t seen before. In reality, knowing these creatures are entirely made up, we lack the awe in knowing we are looking at a best guess of what once roamed the Earth, taking away one of the fundamental elements that made the first movie so magical.

And it wasn’t just the dinosaurs that held our interest if you recall.. Michael Crichton as a writer loved to research and bring ideas that were scientifically plausible and linked to current research, even while being in the realms of science fiction – hence we got Jeff Goldblum’s quirky and amusing interjections on the notions of chaos theory. None of the wit, or the sparky dialogue, and very little intriguing characterisation has made its way into this movie alas. Seems it’s not just the dinosaurs that were being cloned, the story was too.

So look, it’s nonsense, and disappointing, but I’ll confess it still has some pretty exciting moments, looks good, and while the characters are poorly written, the cast do their best. It might be formula, but it’s a well tested formula, and I found myself enjoying it enough in the moment.

The effects of the dinosaurs are excellent, the hunting scenes (human hunting dinosaur, and later of course, dinosaur hunting human) are well executed, although the island they visit looks curiously artificial and unlikely, at times. I did hear some ‘wow’s and ‘aww’s in the screening I was in, so the movie works on some level. Just don’t expect the World from it.

I remember reading that the bigger the dino, the smaller the brain. I don’t know if that really was true then, but it seems to be the case now.