Jurassic World 2 Is No Longer 'The Impossible' Dream

Top-notch director hired for Universal's sequel to the billion dollar blockbuster.

jurassic world 2
Universal

If most moviegoers had mixed feelings towards Jurassic World, I was positively loathsome of the monstrosity and harbour real fear that it will forever be used as a Hollywood template for how using nostalgia and adding CGI razzle-dazzle to a braindead script that has absolutely nothing else going for it, can deliver huge box office returns with a beloved franchise.

You couldn't pay me all the money in the world to sit through it again and we're all waiting for the inevitable reboots/re-imaginings/decades-later sequels to Back To The Future, Jaws and The Goonies that none of us can stop. Not when Jurassic World made $1.67 billion. Not when there is this much money to be made.

And yet, it's amazing how one tweet can change everything and now, unbelievably, has me genuinely excited for the sequel to Jurassic World.

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Universal's Frank Marshall; Thrilled to announce JA Bayona is on board to direct JW2. Welcome to the team @FilmBayona!

ja bayona
wikipedia

JA Bayona is a top-notch director who delivered the perfectly precise and atmospheric Spanish-language horror The Orphanage several years back that was high on the genuine creepy factor and chills.

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He's since delivered The Impossible, that Tsunami 2012 disaster movie that starred Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor and was highly effective in depicting an end of the world scenario that actually benefited from its CGI, heightening the nightmarish backdrop for its characters and refreshingly didn't detract from the believability, just enhanced it.

This is what Jurassic World 2 should be. Authentic and not see-through fakery with thinly veiled "characterisation". Something verging on real terror and emotion...

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This is a director who, at least to date, hasn't delivered corporate studio affairs and has a true authorship on his work and refined quality. This is a promising step for Jurassic World 2 and one that may yet revive quality to a franchise that has been nothing but a disappointment since Steven Spielberg's breathtaking 1993 original.

Though it's still kind of hard to shake off that niggling feeling that money talks and from the giganticpopcorn munching receipts Jurassic World made, Universal have the resources to convince the best filmmakers out there to forget their resumes and turn in a phoney movie.

Jurassic World 2 is expected in 2018.

Editor-in-chief
Editor-in-chief

Matt Holmes is the co-founder of What Culture, formerly known as Obsessed With Film. He has been blogging about pop culture and entertainment since 2006 and has written over 10,000 articles.