Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard: Jurassic World’s Secret Weapon
The best movie pair of the decade that one on saw coming
It’s been two weeks since “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” came out and it has already crossed $1 Billion globably. Despite it’s mixed reviews and not performing as well as its predecessor (click here for a side by side), majority of the public still love these dino movies. From the science-fiction, to the horror, to the action, these films have a lot to offer. But in these new installments, Jurassic World has offered something different. Something that I think could take “Jurassic World” and raise it above “Jurassic Park”, and that is Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard’s Owen and Claire.
A big difference in the Jurassic Park and the Jurassic World movies is the core of the films. Within Jurassic Park, the center of those films were about dinosaurs eating people and the question of ‘even though we can do it, should we do it?’. As entertaining as dinosaurs eating people is (which was extremely in the 1990s), there isn’t much growing space for potential sequals. So when those sequals were made, which were also about other people going to the island and getting eaten by dinosaurs, they weren’t nearly as successful as the original. They had nothing new to offer.
That’s not the case with “Jurassic World”. Here, the soul of “Jurassic World” doesn’t lie with the dinosaurs or the island or the park at all, it’s in it’s human characters. Particularly Howard’s character Claire, and her relationship with other people around her, especially Pratt’s Owen.
Think about it, both Jurassic World movies take place over the course of a day, (probably two days for Fallen Kindgom). These aren’t just action/horror science-fiction movies, they’re intense character pieces where we watch these two characters adapt, change, and learn more about themselves, while hunting dinosaurs.
Let’s look at the original “Jurassic World” first. It starts off with Claire as the head of the park that just built a new hybrid dinosaur in order to increase ticket sales. She’s a business women. All she cares about is money, profits, sales, customer approval rates, and approval from corporate. She lives and breathes the park, with no social life or friends and family. Then we have Owen (or as I like to call him Indiana Jones with dinosaurs) who’s in charge of training Velociraptors. He’s social, comfortable in the jungle, and a natural leader. But he’s also foolish, acts on instance (which doesn’t always end well), not the best negotiator, and perfers to do everything himself (as well as Claire). Against all odds, Colin Trevorrow was able to write two alpha characters, pair them together (successfully!!), and have them learn something about themselves through each other.
But this story wouldn’t be successful without the right actors for the part. With storytelling (especially on film) chemistry matters. You can have the best script, with the best director, with producers providing millions of dollars for it, but if your actors don’t have chemistry, you’re screwed. It’s a big risk (putting the success of a multi-million project on two people) and puts a lot of pressure on the actors chosen and the casting director because there’s a big difference between liking the characters and rooting for them.
Lucky for us, Colin Trevorrow had an amazing casting staff (headed by John Papsidera) and booked two actors that not only are good actors, good actors with stunts, but good actors that can do stunts and actually have chemistry.
At the time the first Jurassic World film was being made, both Howard and Pratt weren’t A-list stars (Howard was still Ron Howard’s daughter and that bitch from “The Help” and Pratt was the funny guy from “Parks and Rec”), they were just good character actors which is why Trevorrow casted them. Being character actors, Howard and Pratt are extremely committed to their roles thus were extremely committed and passionate about the project. By the time they were shooting, both Howard and Pratt knew what their characters’s motives were, what they wanted, what they feared, and what felt them. Meaning if a line felt unnatural to their character, they would bring it up and would openly collerbate with each other and Trevorrow in order to tell the most organic story they could.
Bryce and Chris also care about this project. The Jurassic World franchise (which it is now) means so much to them becuase they are part of the generation that saw Jurassic Park in theaters (Pratt being around 13 and Howard 12). They remember watching Jurassic Park in theaters, being awe-struck by the dinosaurs and that entire movie-going experience. These are two actors that love acting and all the perks that comes with it, but they also love filmmaking and storytelling and want their films to be amazing and provide an audience the same experience they had when they were younger. So they pour their hearts, bodies, and souls into their films, and you can see (and feel) that. Which is incredibly nice, as a movie goer, to be able to tell that the actors on screen actually care about the project and their character as oppose to seeing their role only as a paycheck.
Howard and Pratt are also really close friends which is just an added bonus for their character’s (and film’s) success. Their kids are best friends and they genuinely like each other in real life. They trust each other and support each other which only enhances both of their performances and characters in the long run.
No one can predict the success of a film. It’s impossible. There are too many variables that vary on a film-to-film basis. But there is something everyone can agree on it’s that one of the reasons why Jurassic World is becoming a brillant franchise is because of the human story it surrounds and the actors that carry it. Here, it’s all about Claire and Owen. It’s their story. It’s about them learning to trust one another, take responsibility, and grow, just with a couple of dinosaurs running around.