10 Lessons Jurassic World 4 Can Learn From The Director’s Past Movies

By Ben Sherlock Published 1 minute ago

Universal has hired The Creator’s Gareth Edwards to direct Jurassic World 4, and there are a few key lessons to take from Edwards’ past movies.

Summary

• Give the dinosaurs more screen time in Jurassic World 4 to keep fans happy, unlike Godzilla's limited appearance.
• Develop emotional bonds between characters in Jurassic World 4 to avoid the lack of depth seen in The Creator.
• Maintain tighter pacing in Jurassic World 4 than Rogue One to ensure a great movie, not just a good one.

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Universal has hired Gareth Edwards to direct Jurassic World 4, and there are a few key lessons that the new movie can take from Edwards’ past work. In January, Universal officially announced that a fourth Jurassic World film was in active development with original screenwriter David Koepp writing the script and Steven Spielberg acting as an executive producer. The studio was initially in talks with Bullet Train’s David Leitch to direct the project, but those talks broke down due to creative differences. Instead, Universal has tapped Edwards for the director’s chair.

Edwards has proven with The Creator that he’s a visionary sci-fi director, proven with Rogue One that he can handle lucrative I.P. in a way that satisfies long-time fans, and proven with Godzilla and Monsters that he’s adept at making monster movies. But Edwards’ previous films were far from perfect. There are a few key lessons to take from their mistakes &- and their triumphs &- to ensure that Jurassic World 4 can be as great as possible when it arrives on its projected release date of July 2, 2025.

10 Jurassic World 4 Should Show The Monsters More Than Edwards' Godzilla Remake

The dinosaurs need more screen time than Edwards' Godzilla

When Edwards made his big-budget filmmaking debut with the 2014 remake of Godzilla, the film was criticized for its title character’s limited screen time. It was admirable that Edwards concealed the monster for so long and built up Jaws-style suspense by teasing the monster instead of showing it. But at the end of the day, audiences go to Godzilla movies to see Godzilla, and they go to Jurassic movies to see dinosaurs. In Jurassic World 4, Edwards needs to give the dinosaurs a lot more screen time than he gave Godzilla.

9 Jurassic World 4 Needs More Emotion Than The Creator

The Creator has great visuals, but lacks emotion

While The Creator earned positive reviews with its stunning visuals, it lacked the emotional resonance required for a Lone Wolf and Cub story to land. Stories like The Mandalorian and The Last of Us have succeeded as surrogate parent-child adventures because they’ve invested the time to round out the relationship between their lead characters. In The Creator, that investment wasn’t there, and it made it tough to get truly attached to Taylor and Alphie. Jurassic World 4 needs to take more time than The Creator to develop the emotional bonds of its characters.

8 Jurassic World 4 Needs Tighter Pacing Than Rogue One

Rogue One has structural issues that prevent it from being truly great

There are some really great moments in Rogue One, but its script has structural issues (probably brought on by an endless slew of rewrites in the middle of production) that prevent it from being truly great. The first act introduces the characters and conflicts succinctly, and the third act is a thrilling battle set-piece, but it really drags in the second act. Jurassic World 4 needs to have tighter pacing than Rogue One to be a bona fide great movie and not just a very good one.

7 Jurassic World 4 Should Honor The Franchise Mythology Like Godzilla

The faithfulness of Edwards' Godzilla reboot was one of its greatest strengths

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One of the best things about Edwards’ Godzilla reboot was its faithfulness to the source material, which is something that had let down Hollywood’s previous attempt to revamp Godzilla. Edwards needs to take a similar approach to Jurassic World 4. It should honor the legacy and mythology of the Jurassic Park franchise, and maybe even go back to Michael Crichton’s original source material for fresh inspiration. The Jurassic franchise has less history than the Godzilla franchise, but there’s still plenty of material to be mined.

6 Jurassic World 4 Needs Better Casting Than The Creator

John David Washington was miscast as the lead in The Creator

John David Washington has proven that he’s a terrific actor with his deep, nuanced, compelling performances in BlacKkKlansman and Malcolm & Marie, but he was woefully miscast as Taylor in The Creator. He doesn’t have the charisma of an action hero like Michael Biehn or Arnold Schwarzenegger, and he doesn’t share a lot of on-screen chemistry with his young co-star Madeleine Yuna Voyles. With Jurassic World 4, Edwards needs to make sure to cast every role with the right actor for the part.

5 Monsters Proved That Monster Movies Are Really About The People

Edwards' debut feature is a character-driven monster movie

Before being handed the keys to giant franchises like Godzilla, Star Wars, and now Jurassic Park, Edwards made his directorial debut with the low-budget sci-fi horror flick Monsters. With Monsters, the story of a photojournalist journeying through Mexico’s monster-infested “Infected Zone” on his way back to the U.S., Edwards exemplified the defining quality of all the best monster movies: they’re all about the people. Much like Monsters, Jurassic World 4 should keep its focus on the people and have the dinosaurs provide a dangerous backdrop.

4 Jurassic World 4 Should Lean Into The Darkness Like Rogue One

Rogue One has a darker, more serious tone than the average Star Wars film

One of the best parts of Rogue One is that it has a darker, more serious tone than the average Star Wars movie. It left behind the franchise’s usual lighthearted silliness for a grimmer tale of resistance fighters taking on a ruthless dictatorship. By hiring Edwards to helm Jurassic World 4, Universal has a chance to make a really dark, gruesome, almost horrific Jurassic movie. The previous attempts at darker Jurassic films, like The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, have been disappointing. It’s time the franchise delivered a nail-biting dinosaur-infested horror movie.

3 Jurassic World 4 Needs More Rounded Human Characters Than Godzilla

Edwards' Godzilla remake was let down by paper-thin human characters

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While Edwards’ Godzilla movie was praised for its visuals and faithfulness to the source material, it was let down by its paper-thin human characters. The only character with any depth &- Bryan Cranston’s Joe Brody &- was killed off in the first few minutes, and what remained was a cast of one-dimensional archetypes (the stoic soldier, the concerned scientist, the helpless spouse, etc.). From Alan Grant to Ian Malcolm, the Jurassic franchise has a long history of three-dimensional human characters fleeing from the dinosaurs, and Jurassic World 4 needs to follow in that tradition.

2 The VFX Of Jurassic World 4 Should Be As Stunning As The Creator

The Creator managed to deliver mind-blowing visuals on a modest budget

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While there were some storytelling issues in The Creator, what the VFX crew was able to do on a relatively modest budget was really impressive. Not only do the VFX shots look totally real and seamless; they offer a stunning vision of the future. With a lucrative I.P. in the title, Edwards will surely have a bigger budget to work with in Jurassic World 4 than The Creator, so the effects could be even more impressive. It’s a matter of allocating enough time and money to the VFX team to allow them to do their jobs under acceptable working conditions.

1 Jurassic World 4 Needs The Crowd-Pleasing Fan Service Of Rogue One

Edwards can deliver the Jurassic version of Vader's hallway massacre

Edwards proved he can pull off fan service in a way that is wildly satisfying without being preachy or pandering with Darth Vader’s thrilling climactic hallway massacre in Rogue One. In Jurassic World 4, Edwards needs to deliver the Jurassic version of the Vader hallway massacre. Exactly what that would entail depends on Koepp’s script, but it would probably involve a T. rex or a pack of velociraptors &- or both, like the finale of the first film. After the underwhelming Jurassic World Dominion, the franchise is in desperate need of some crowd-pleasing fan service.