It’s not exactly the content we asked for, but it’s the content we get. The Jurassic World motion comic series returns with the third installment titled, The Roar That Rules It All, but unfortunately, the roar wasn’t all that impressive.
After the first installment, A Rising Tide, there were many plaguing questions on the quality of this series, but faith was restored during the second release, Dinosaur Crossing. With The Roar That Rules It All, we are back to wondering why we are here in the first place. It’s very hard to take the motion comics seriously when the product isn’t taken seriously in itself.
Despite the issues that we will get to later, The Roar That Rules It All does reveal scenes that Jurassic fans have been dying to see play out after the release of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. From the moment the Tyrannosaurus Rex roared at the lion in the zoo and the Pteranodons lurked above Las Vegas, the fandom has been itching to see what happened in the following minutes, hours and days. While the Las Vegas incident goes as predicted, the T.Rex face off covers strange ground fairly quickly. It was a joy to see how the zoo employees reacted hastily, getting the animals to safety, but also freezing from terror at the size of the massive beast. It showcases how easily lions can become non threatening when in the shadow of the apex predator.
The zoo sequence does bring up a lingering point we’d love to see addressed. Battle At Big Rock showcased the “first” major human/dinosaur interaction since Fallen Kingdom as described by Colin Trevorrow in a recent interview with Collider:
“There have been a few sightings, but this is the first major confrontation between dinosaurs and humans”
In the year since the breakout at the Lockwood Estate, were the events showcased at the end of the film directly sequential to the film or do they take place over a year later, after the events of Battle At Big Rock? There are no indications within the motion comic, so it does keep us wondering. One would assume the T.Rex in the zoo encounter is a pretty major showcase of human and dinosaur interactions.
Visually, there are two especially standout sequences from The Roar That Rules It All. As this is a motion comic, it can handle itself splendidly in that regard at times, switching between panels and showcasing the art in unexpected ways. Specifically, the way they use the T.Rex to break from the panels and roar at the zoo employees is spectacular. All throughout the Rex sequence, there are fun panels, illustrating how imposing the creature can be against unprepared forces. Further on in the motion comic, we also get to see the Pteranodons rip across the panels, causing havoc for the Las Vegas strip. Pteranodon attacks are automatically violent and scary due to the nature of the attacks, so seeing it in motion comic form didn’t fall short of expectations. What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.
While the motion comic features a few fun sequences and reveals interesting tidbits such as the Pteranodon pit stop at Lake Mead, the overall story and how it all comes together is a bit of a mess. Unlike Dinosaur Crossing, this installment hinges on a lot of dialogue to tell the story. At times it can be confusing, disjointed and rushed, to the point where the dialogue doesn’t seem to matter all that much. Words for words sake. We could have certainly used a few more words to explain what in the world was going on with the helicopters. Was the plan truly to run off the Tyrannosaur with a block of cement? Certainly if helicopters were scrambled fast enough, they could have sent one with weapons instead of construction materials. Was that even concrete?
Yes, sometimes the dialogue can be rushed and confusing, but often the motion comic drags, placing awkward silences between dialogue beats for no reason whatsoever. This can’t be stressed enough, editing can fix these jarring moments. Instead of rushing the dialogue, shorten the gaps to help move the story forward. If they are so insistent on fitting within the three minute time frame, let the editors have more freedom and give the actors something to work with in the script.
A Rising Tide and The Roar That Rules It All both have the same issues when it comes to the audio quality. It’s bad. These motion comics are professional releases, so it’s concerning when the voice actor audio sounds like it was recorded on a cell phone. Each audio cue from the actors lacks tone and atmosphere to match the situation. Instead you can hear the punching in and out of the clips, distracting away from the overall experience. The sound effects and use of music, done well, can only do so much to hide the ongoing issues in this series. As an official release, this is just disappointing.
It hurts to write such a harsh review of Jurassic content. It really does. We can only hope for quality content in the future. Since Universal sparingly gives Jurassic an expanded universe of stories, you’d expect the content to be more impressionable. By the time Jurassic World 3 debuts, we will have all forgotten about this motion comic series and the creators of the films can erase them at will...
Written by:
Brad Jost