A comparison between two brilliantly similar, and yet very different films... both of which I love!

Alright, so I went and saw Jurassic World last night! Full disclosure: I loved it! However, I can say I hardly breathed after the first half hour because things got so intense! There are quite a lot of things in it that made me like it, and many of these can be found in HTTYD. Though I didn't enjoy it as much as either HTTYD film, I would like to do a quick post here concerning it. I want to compare and contrast it with HTTYD, and in doing so maybe pick out elements that made me enjoy both of them so much. I will warn you of two things: 

1) This post will possibly contain MAJOR spoilers, so do not click the read more if you have not seen it.

2) Jurassic World is a PG-13 film for a very good reason. It has quite a lot of violence, and if you watch it and don't find yourself disturbed at certain points... you seriously need psychiatric help! So, though I really enjoyed the film, don't think it is as clean and beautiful as HTTYD. It isn't. And when I say I enjoyed it, know I enjoyed it for the story and the suspense... not the many rather grizzly scenes you will see if you watch the film.

So, onto the review!

These are so beautifully alike, and yet so starkly different. One of the major differences between the two is the one is a live-action, PG-13 thriller, while the other is a CGI animated, PG, action adventure film. The genres are also technically different. Jurassic World is Sci-fi, while HTTYD is fantasy. So, with all that being stated, and I am sure it was pretty obvious to all of you, let me get down to some of the more fun stuff.

First off, the concept of training highly intelligent reptiles. In JW, Owen Grady is working with a team of four Velociraptors. These dinosaurs are notorious for the nightmares they unleashed when they escaped the in the first park/film. Many would happily claim that the raptors are the main antagonists of the first film... or at the very least they are the most frightening. These creatures have a reputation for being utterly lethal, even killing when not hungry. They are incredibly intelligent, they work together in packs, and they have some of the most lethal armory of any of the dinosaurs in the park. Sounds ever so slightly like a Night Fury. Hyper intelligent, extremely fast, lethal, and so deadly that they have become legendary. While Owen trains Blue, Charlie, Delta, and Echo, Hiccup trains Toothless. Both of them are doing something that seems extremely unlikely, but how hard is it to train a raptor? And in what ways is training Toothless different?

Well, first off, the raptors relationship with Owen is based mostly off of respect. He has taught them that he is their "alpha" (is that not just so cool?). He respects them, and they respect him back. The raptors are much more high strung than the dragons of HTTYD. For instance, the raptors appear to work very much off of hunting instincts. Yes, they are incredibly smart, but almost all their smarts seem to revolve around hunting and killing. Though they work in a pack, they are competitive with one another, and they will fight for dominance. A raptor is smart in the way reptiles can be smart, they are unbelievable hunters... able even to think creatively. But, I will strongly state that the dragons of HTTYD are also intelligent, especially Toothless. The difference is that the dragons in HTTYD seem to display a mammalian form of intelligence, very much like what might be seen in primates or orcas. Toothless, like many mammals, is able to feel empathy. While the raptors respect Owen, even to the point of fighting to the death for him, they don't appear to love him. Their may be small affection, but it isn't love. They are cunning and dangerous, but not exactly capable of experiencing much emotion. They also, like practically all reptiles, lack a way of expressing emotion. This makes the raptors very dangerous to be around. You can't always tell when they are angry or hungry, and that means at times they may seem calm while really being coiled like a spring and ready to kill the first thing they come across. This actually happened in the film. One of the major human antagonists reaches out to Blue (the dominant raptor) to try and calm her. Owen has done this sort of thing, and the raptor seems somewhat convinced by the gesture. However, in an instant she bites down onto the man's arm, throws him to the ground, and breaks him through a wall of glass paneling as she mauls him. It was, literally, sort of what you could see happening if Toothless had rejected the forbidden friendship moment (just WAY more PG-13 than what you could ever see in HTTYD). So, just to go over the point again, the raptors are not empathetic like Toothless, and they don't show emotion. This means that they can make great teammates... but they would never be able to be a best friend. They just lack the capacity to feel that deeply. Owen cares for his raptors, and when he sees the first one die, he is shocked and saddened, but I can say with certainty that he wouldn't call them his best friends.

As I mentioned earlier, we get a forbidden friendship moment in JW. We actually get several! But before I go into that, I need to cover another similarity between the movies. JW has an alpha. Yes, and that alpha takes control of Owen's raptors and turns them against him. It feels very much like HTTYD2! Scarily so! However, it is not nearly as shocking. The raptors have always been deadly, and it only took a little to push them over the edge. They do feel more easily forgivable than the dragons... because even though they kill people, they seem much more instinctual and much less feeling than dragons, especially Toothless. Still, the raptors turning and following the I-Rex as their knew alpha is a frightening moment, and it is very reminiscent of the horrifying moment in HTTYD2. I did really enjoy that similarity... because it puts a trainer and his animal (or in Hiccup's case, two best friends) in an incredibly tense, angsty, and emotional situation. So, yep, there is a lot of alpha stuff in JW! I love the concept of animal hierarchy, and I'd actually say that what you see in JW is more like what we see in our world than what we saw in HTTYD. But, I still think HTTYD is very realistic, it just has to be taken while viewing dragons as unique species, as species far more specialized than most other animals. Anyway, alphas!

The forbidden friendship moments come at two notable points at the climax. After Owen has lost control of his raptors to the I-Rex, the raptors begin to chase him. Blue kills the one man who tries to calm her, and Owen watches the scene in horror. She then begins to chase Owen along with two of her fellow pack-mates. It doesn't take long for Blue to have Owen along with Clair (the manager of the park) and her two nephews surrounded. Owen asks her if it has really come to this, and the raptor hisses cooly. Their is no way to tell what she is thinking. Owen reaches vulnerably forward, and he takes off a buckled camera that security has strapped on Blue's head. He does this slowly, unable to know whether or not she will do exactly what he watched her do earlier and bite into his arm. But she calmly lets him do it, and then she and the other two raptors make it clear that they do not intend to harm their real alpha, the man who has cared for them their whole lives. He gives them the signal, and the three raptors attack the I-Rex. It is quite a climax, but I won't go completely into it just in case someone is reading this who hasn't seen it (shame on you!).

Both films deal with similar ideas of animal loyalty, and while HTTYD is more built on a friendship, JW does shine out as well. If you liked HTTYD and can tolerate a fair amount of suspense and frightening violence, you may enjoy Jurassic World. I'd say that HTTYD is a more tasteful movie with a better crafted story, but the sheer suspense of JW is well worth seeing. Unlike HTTYD, it is not limited by a PG rating, and that means the training dynamic becomes a lot more tense and a lot scarier. I'd still say HTTYD2 disturbed me more with Toothless in the Red Rage because I cared so much more for Hiccup and Toothless, but if you are in the mood for another "Toothless found" style triumph, I'd highly recommend Jurassic world. I think Hiccup would like Owen... but I'm not sure how well Toothless and Blue would get along!

Anyway, tomorrow is the anniversary of HTTYD2, so I hope all of you can do something special in memory of the unbelievable film!