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Credit: Inside the MagicThe Jurassic Park franchise isn’t having its best year. It has performed well financially, as the latest sequel, Jurassic World Rebirth, grossed over $860 million worldwide. But the film is absolutely terrible.
Led by Scarlett Johansson’s Zora Bennett, the seventh installment in the long-running franchise follows a team of specialists sent on a mission to retrieve life-changing genetic material from mutant dinosaurs on a third InGen island.
Despite some impressive set pieces, the film completely retcons the storytelling evolution of the previous two sequels, the characters are horribly written, and the plot makes no sense whatsoever.
More Jurassic Sequels Are on the Way
There’s been some light at the end of the tunnel, though. Recently, the park management simulation video game sequel “Jurassic World Evolution 3” was released onto all major consoles, which seems to be appeasing fans who weren’t impressed with Rebirth (largely because it still features dinosaurs thriving on a global scale).
And we also got to see some proper footage of the upcoming first-person action-adventure title “Jurassic Park: Survival”.
But another sequel has now arrived (on November 20): Chaos Theory Season 4.
Jurassic World: Chaos Theory Season 4: Spoiler-Free Review
Hold Onto Your Butts
We all know that Chaos Theory is a show starring kids and probably made for kids. But at times, it feels like it was written by kids. If you’re just looking for some mindless dinosaur action, there’s plenty of fun to be had with the animated side of the Jurassic franchise; however, like its predecessor Camp Cretaceous, which ran for five seasons, Chaos Theory‘s poor writing hides behind the animation.
If the same story were told in live action like the films, it would undoubtedly be ripped apart by audiences and critics in the same way Rebirth was.
The backend of Season 3 impressed fans by running parallel with the events of the 2022 film Jurassic World Dominion (Season 4 continues that trend), but it ultimately amounts to nothing more than cheap nostalgia.
Showrunner Scott Kreamer is adamant that Jurassic animation is canon. But we’re talking about a TV show that has literal robot dogs and five invincible characters that have somehow gone from wide-eyed teens to international spies. Speaking of those big eyes, the people in this show genuinely look like eerie, fever dream-induced marionette puppets.
And then there’s the issue with plausibility regarding its relationship with the movies. The Nublar Six are rarely more than a stone’s throw the likes of Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) and Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard), and yet they never meet. Are we really supposed to believe that they’re always somewhere nearby during the films yet, inexplicably, never actually cross paths with the movies’ characters?
Why is the show so terrified of crossing paths with them when it has no trouble bringing in the likes of Lewis Dodgson, Henry Wu, and Soyona Santos?
Not only that, but their latest adventure is an almost beat-for-beat repeat of the events of Dominion. Dinosaur chases through the streets of Malta? Check. Quetzalcoatlus attacking a plane above Biosyn Valley? Check. Giganotosaurus-watch tower attack in the jungle? Check. Dilophosaurs in the Hyperloop? Check. Forest fires? Check. It’s the whole nine yards.
What a series of truly weird coincidences, right? But apparently, the show is 100% canon.
The kids even have their own pet dinosaur, Smoothie, a baby Ankylosaurus — their equivalent to Blue’s baby, Beta, in the film. But none of these things are anywhere near as annoying as the leads: Darius, Kenji, Yaz, Sammy, and Brooklynn — the most sanctimonious, emotional, and cringe-inducing characters in the entire Jurassic Park and World franchise.
There’s rarely a scene when at least one of these characters isn’t balling their eyes out for some reason, whether it’s because certain friendships are strained, or because a dinosaur is being mistreated in some way. Can we please stop it with the whole dinosaur-welfare thing now? It didn’t work in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018), but Camp Cretaceous and Chaos Theory are still flogging that dead Apatosaur.
Thankfully, Chaos Theory Season 4 is the last one. For now.
Watch the official trailer below:
Chaos Theory stars Paul-Mikél Williams as Darius Bowman, Darren Barnet as Kenji Kon (who was previously portrayed by Ryan Potter), Sean Giambrone as Ben Pincus, Kausar Mohammed as Yasmina “Yaz” Fadoula, Raini Rodriguez as Sammy Gutierrez, and Kiersten Kelly as Brooklynn (who was voiced by Jenna Ortega in Camp Cretaceous seasons 1 — 5).
All nine episodes of the final season are now available to watch on Netflix.
Have you watched the fourth and final season of Chaos Theory yet? Let us know your thoughts in the comments down below!