Since Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is coming out (with that godawful poster) it's about time we had a chat about why Jurassic Park was brilliant and Jurassic World was terrible. Buckle Up. 
1/ Jurassic Park was a good movie for a lot of reasons. The dinosaurs, the cinematography, the performances, the dinosaurs again.But what made Jurassic Park *great* was a reverence for intelligence. Everyone in that movie, literally everyone, is smart and capable.
2/ The kids were smart. The snivelling Lawyer was smart, Even the fat slob bad guy Dennis Nedry was smart. In fact, The movie goes to great pains to show that he's the best there is at his job.
3/ For an early 90's action movie, this was a revelation. The 80's was full of 'shoot first, ask questions later' action heroes that were idolised for their can-do attitude and straight talkin', folksy stupidity. John McClane, Rambo, Martin Riggs: that's what a hero looks like.
4/ Smart people filled exactly two roles: the bad guy (whose smartness was a weakness exploited by the hero) or the bumbling sidekick and bully victim. Smart people were a plot device, existing only to be protected by the strong-yet-stupid hero, or defeated for thinking too much.
5/ The message was pretty clear: Nerds are there to be mocked. Jocks are the heroes. As for smart women, forget about it. Nerd girls don't get dates, let alone action scenes. (Ripley being the exception, but only just)
6/ Then along comes Jurassic Park. A film where the baddest motherfucker on the screen was a chaoatician ladykiller with a black leather jacket and 400 dollar shoes. The idea of a rockstar mathematician blew my mind when I saw it as a kid. You can be cool AND smart? sign me up!
7/ It's not just limited to Ian Malcolm. A Teenage hacker girl and a badass paleo-botanist to this day are some of my favourite female characters of all time. Some of the dialogue between them and the men around them are just epic. ("Dinosaur eats man. Woman inherits the Earth.")
8/ That's what makes this film so great. Sure the dinosaurs are awesome, but the film isn't about them. We've seen dinosaurs before. The film is about a bunch of smart people being smart and being celebrated for that smartness, not shit all over for it.
9/ I can't overstate the impact this had on me. Can you imagine anything more inspiring to an insecure nerdy kid who had been fed a steady diet of movies where the only characters you can relate to are punchbags for the hero? I know I'm not the only one who feels like that.
10/ Then we get Jurassic World. Fuck. That. Movie.
11/ All of the progress that the first film had made was thrown out of the window. The 80's tropes are right back in there; The hero is a cowboy. The love interest literally chooses between work & life, like being good at your job is unseemly for a lady. She runs in high heels.
12/ There are exactly two smart people in this film. Number one is Henry Wu, mad scientist. He's the bad guy. In case you couldn't tell, he literally wears a bad guy black turtleneck shirt from the moment you first see him on screen. Boo, mad scientist! Science is bad!
13/ Number two is the nerdy little brother. His entire character arc is essentially 'man up, stop crying and thinking about things so much, and jump off this cliff.' thats it. He is there literally to tell children to stop being such fucking geeks.
14/ I saw JW in the cinem. I happened to be sat right by some young kids seeing the film with their parents. They were giggling and whooping at the spectacle, and it was spectacular, but did they leave the cinema feeling validated for who they are?
15/ Jurassic Park gave an entire generation of kids permission to be a bad ass and a fucking mathematician, or riot grrl hackers. Jurassic World tried to sell us Starbucks. /end
