Monday, September 17, 2012 at 7:07AM What Might Have Been: 'Jurassic Park' Directed By James Cameron? Sounds Good to Me
James Cameron circa 2012 and I are not on the best of terms. To this day, I still can’t wrap my head around the success that Avatar had. Simply because I can’t find anything within the movie that I like. To me it feels like a movie from a filmmaker who believes his own hype. Now Cameron circa early 90’s and I…we have no problems. I say this because Cameron talked about his pursuit of trying to make Jurassic Park and I have to admit, I would’ve liked to seen that version.
Cameron was talking with the Huffington Post and while pimping the release of Titanic on Blu-ray the subject of Jurassic Park came up. Seems Cameron was hot to make the movie but was beaten to the punch by one Steven Spielberg.
Cameron doesn’t seem too broken up by it and had this to say about Spielberg’s film:
“But when I saw the film, I realized that I was not the right person to make the film, he was. Because he made a dinosaur movie for kids, and mine would have been Aliens with dinosaurs, and that wouldn’t have been fair.
“Dinosaurs are for 8-year-olds. We can all enjoy it, too, but kids get dinosaurs and they should not have been excluded for that. His sensibility was right for that film, I’d have gone further, nastier, much nastier.”
I love Jurassic Park and Cameron does make a good point about Spielberg’s sensibility being right for the movie, but the James Cameron of the early 90’s, coming off of Aliens and Terminator 2, making Jurassic Park? One can only imagine how awesome that movie might have been. Sure it probably wouldn’t have been the huge moneymaker that JP turned out to be, but as it plays out in my head, it's possible that I would have loved his version immensely.
And who knows, making Jurassic Park might have given us a different James Cameron today. A James Cameron that still knows how to make enjoyable films.
Reader Comments (5)
Did you see Avatar in theaters or wait til it came out on DVD? I think why it was seen over and over again by so many people was simply the world he created and the new technology he brought to us. Some of us still appreciate the technology side of films and once again Cameron delivered new ground breaking technology. The amazing visuals of the world he created can still sweep people away and they get lost in these worlds. The depth of the 3D was incredible and i can still remember the first time seeing the part where they climb to the top of the great tree and she flies the banshee. Looking out and seeing the waterfalls hundreds of feet below them and having it look so realistic because of the 3D depth was mind blowing! Sure the story might not have been Oscar worthy or memorable but i think it was good enough to get us through. So many people, myself included, are still blown away by the technological side of the films. I think it is an art in its own right and should not be overlooked. Of course it is better when you can have great effects and visuals with great story telling and acting, but nothing will touch the visuals of the world of Pandora for awhile. That is why they have the technological categories at the Academy Awards, so the computer geeks can be celebrated along side the book geeks. I enjoy both sides of it and that is why i own thousands of movies in my DVD/Blu Ray collection. And yes i own a 3D TV as well and even have about 10 3D Blu Rays. Like i said...i like all aspects of movies
Cameron DOES know how to make enjoyable MOVIES (they're not FILM anymore). 3 billion "Avatar" dollars of us - 200 million just off the 3D rerelease of "Titanic" - know he does. What he DOESN'T do is listen to whiny bloggers.
I don't think you would have come away from "Jurassic Park" thinking it so much as a DINOSAUR movie if Cameron did it. And since really the development of CGI dinosaurs was something that just happened to have come about unplanned during the production (the galimimus "flocking" scene was the only one originally planned) would the production have had the freedom to have developed those techniques given Cameron's driven directorial style? It IS interesting to know he was once vying for that production but it would have evolved into a very different beast indeed with him over its creation.
I saw Avatar in the theaters (in Imax 3D) and yes the money that was spent on the movie was wisely spent, but I still can't get behind a movie that no life to it. The excitement that Cameron brought to Aliens, Terminator 2, the last hour of Titanic and even True Lies was missing from Avatar.
Cameron is definitely not listening to me or anyone else for that matter. But as a film lover, I'm entitled to my opinion and that opinion is the movie was smug, self indulgent and boring.
I meant no dis respect Mr Dietz. I was simply trying to state why i thought Avatar was such a huge success. I think it was simply because of the visuals and that was enough for most. I agree it didn't have quite the same excitement and emotional impact of his other movies. Although i did think the bringing down of the tree reminded a lot of the Titanic sinking and had the same impact on me. I just simply was trying to say that the reason people flock to these more visually loaded movies without a great script is because we are still blown away by what can be done with CGI. For some of us it never gets old, kind of like watching fireworks on the 4th of July. In many ways it's always the same but still grabs our attention. I prefer a great script to go with my visual feast like this summers Avengers and Dark Knight, but i enjoy most movies either way.
I always think there was simply a portion of the audience - certainly those from the blogger-verse - whose reaction to "Avatar" was somewhat asperger-like, in that they simply didn't get the social cues, as it were, given off by a movie telling it's story mostly by archetypicalized characters. I think this simplification of character and narrative was a large part of its global success as that translated well to other countries. I always think if the movie had been done in the style of say - the later "Battlestar Galactica" tv series, it would have been a flop as that subtlety doesn't translate well.
It WILL be a bigger challenge to do that again as the "Avatar" saga now expands over more chapters.But because they've made such a fantastic universe based on genuinely fascinating conjecture, that sense of "this could happen" - just like it did in "Jurassic Park" - could continue to meet expectations.