To keep us waiting before the release of “Jurassic World: Dominion”, Universal and Netflix have created The French Dispatch an animated series that takes place during the events of the first “Jurassic World”. A chance for Journal du Geek to return to the land of dinosaurs, thanks to “Jurassic World: The Cretaceous colo”, in a spoiler-free guaranteed review!

The third (and final?) Opus of the Jurassic World trilogy won’t hit theaters until June 2021. If the health Tralala crisis doesn’t make things worse by then, Netflix and Universal are keeping the “dino nerds” waiting. new animated series. In eight 25-minute episodes, Jurassic World: The Cretaceous Camp follows a group of young teens’ tormented vacation on Isla Nublar, the island where John Hammond spent a fortune reviving L’Homme de la cave dinosaurs in a wilderness park. The plot of the series takes place in the shadow of the disastrous events of Jurassic World, Colin Trevorrow’s film, in which Indominus Rex, a hybrid dinosaur created by geneticist Henry Wu, closes a new ultra-modern park called Jurassic World. After an incredible Battle in spin-off Big Rock, set between Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Dominion, can Cretaceous Colo succeed in quenching the prehistoric thirst of a “dino nerd”?

Mediocre always finds a way
Let’s be clear from the start: no, Jurassic World: The Cretaceous Colo certainly doesn’t fit into the 1990s animated series adapted from other blockbusters like Godzilla, Men In Black and (especially) Batman. Instead of exploring the full potential offered by the world depicted on the big screen like its predecessors, this animated Eugénie Grandet series loses itself in contradictory twists and turns and becomes what it is meant to be. Netflix classifies it, incorrectly, between content recommended “for children” and “recommended for ages 7 and up” . In its first episodes, this series is indeed very childish, if not too much. Let alone the animation, closer to Paw Patrol that something that justifies Universal’s budget reflects this well. However, from the second half of the season, the tone changed drastically. The dialogue and relationships between the characters are a little more mature – but enough to make the change noticeable. The stakes are borrowed from more seriousness and especially the “number of kills” (number of deaths) and the dangers literally increase from episode to episode. The series then approaches more of a “teen movie”” suspense than a teen adventure story. Such contrast definitely has its bright side but, looking back, none of it is helpful regardless of the age and maturity of the viewer. On the one hand, youngsters are likely to be surprised, if not frightened, by the drastic increase Boîte noire in tension and gravity – eventually matching the movies in some places. On the other hand, the older ones will experience it as a prolonged withdrawal from what they perceive as a false start, if they allow themselves to look further. In short, at the end of the eight episodes of Season (first?) of this Jurassic World: La colo du Crétacé, viewers really have the impression of following two series: a family version, more commercial and less engaging, and an original, more mature and working version.

However, the series’ flaws don’t just boil down The House of Gaunt to this annoying duality. Far from it! The first part of the series is riddled with glaring concerns about logic and credibility – the second half is also not to be completely excluded. On many occasions, characters find themselves at the foot of walls, ready to be devoured voraciously by monstrous giant lizards, before miraculously fleeing. The narrative does not call for any turnaround that Les Intranquilles could justify or give shape to their escape. The characters survive, most of the time, by running on their little feet. At the start of the series, the young protagonist lacks the ingenuity or responsiveness that once characterized the characters Tim and Lex in the first Jurassic Park or even Eric in Jurassic Park III. The series also performs several teleportations which, in a realistic space-time continuum , is often not possible.

Another recurring drawback of this Le Sommet des Dieux series is its relative weight. As to its lackluster credits, the first part of the series tries to make up for its lack of creativity by bringing out a large number of dinosaurs very quickly, rather than sending them drop by drop. Another testament to its duality, the series seems to recognize its mistakes in limiting the presence of dinosaurs (and their numbers) to their most dramatic moments. Ditto for the cliffhangers Debout les femmes at the end of the episode which very often sells more tiresmore suspense than excuse, considering the episodes that followed. The trigger, which allowed leader Darius to join Hocus Pocus the Cretaceous camp as he dreamed, also proves it (not to mention a serious “knowledge” error, from the foreground of the first episode!). Also, for those interested, the French version of the series unfortunately embodies the mediocrity that characterizes the series (and, more specifically, the first part). Bland, he doesn’t even try to write down the slight accent that, in the original, gave the series’ ten characters a bit of personality. And no: the only cameo in the trilogy, Henry Wu, is not voiced by the original cast, BD Wong.