SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING & DESIGN

FOUNDATION IN NATURAL & BUILT ENVIRONMENT

Name: Kimberley Fay Bernard Lo

Student ID No.: 0324237

Films Selected: 2012 (Disaster Film) and Jurassic Park III (Adventure Film)

Word Count: 985 words

Subject: English 2 (ELG30605)

Written Assignment 1: Compare-Contrast Essay

Lecturer: Mr. Gopighantan Mylvaganam

Session: Friday (2pm-4pm)

Submission Date: 4th December 2015

Prewriting

1st paragraph (intro)

Details of the essay

o Explanation of the meaning of disaster-adventure movies

o Explanation of the meaning of genre

The chosen two movies

o Disaster movie – 2012

o Adventure movie – Jurassic Park III

Brief synopsis about 2012

Brief synopsis about Jurassic Park III

2nd paragraph

First similarity between 2012 and J.P III

o Family

3rd paragraph

Second similarity

o Death

4th paragraph

Third similarity

o Survival

5th paragraph

Fourth similarity

o Teamwork

6th paragraph

What I have learned from writing this essay

Briefly describe the overall essay

A movie genre is defined as a term that categorize movies of different genres. A few examples of movie genres are disaster, adventure genre, sci-fi, action, historical and many

more. What are disaster movies? What are adventure movies? Well, disaster movies are movies that consist of disastrous events where the disaster is used as a monumental

spectacular event with the human nature’s struggle against itself is used as the main focus. As for adventure movies, it is defined as exciting stories that revolves around the conquest and explorations of a character usually found in exotic places. The disaster movie that I have

chosen is 2012 and the adventure movie I chose is Jurassic Park III. 2012 was directed by Roland Emmerich and produced by Harold Kloser, Mark Gordon and Larry J. Franco. The

main character of the movie is played by John Cusack potraying a frustrated writer who struggles to keep his family alive when a series of global catastrophes threatens to annihilate mankind. It is basically two and a half hours of heaving and cleaving and crashing and

crunching (Pond,2009). While Jurassic Park III is a movie directed by Joe Johnston and produced by Kathleen Kennedy and Larry Franco. The main character is played by Sam

Neill. It is about an odd couple that convince Dr. Alan Grant to go to Isla Sorna, resulting in an unexpected landing and unexpected new inhabitants on the island. Jurassic Park III is cynically amusing, not least when it takes digs at the previous films, and, most surprising of

all, it actually may leave you wanting more (Chattaway, 2001). Thus, I would like to explain the similarities that I have found between the two movies.

There are many similarities that can be found between 2012 and Jurassic Park III,

first of which are in terms of family. In both movies, main character Jackson Curtis and Dr. Alan Grant travelled with families in search of safety. In 2012, Jackson Curtis travelled with his two children alongside several other people to survive the disaster that were happening on

earth. They were to travel to find the 9 arks in the world where they could find safety and survive the mass destruction that was ongoing. While in Jurassic Park III, Dr. Alan Grant

travels to Isla Sorna alongside the Kirby’s a wealthy family. Isla Sorna is known for having dinosaurs everywhere. Dr. Alan Grant and The Kirby’s mission was to find the Kirby’s missing son Eric who travelled there with his friend Ben.

Furthermore, another similarity I have discovered while understanding these two movies were death. Throughout the movie, Jackson Curtis met a few companions along the way and seen them died. Likewise with Dr. Alan Grant, a couple of his followers died along

the way too. In 2012, Jackson and his children’s travel towards finding one of the 9 arks with friends that are alongside them including Sasha a pilot who flew them to China is killed after

trying to save them. Also from this movie, many lives were lost due to the natural disasters that were happening including mega tsunamis and massive earthquakes. As for Jurassic Park III, during Dr. Alan Grant and the teams search for Ben and Eric, they encountered a dead

Ben’s body which was decomposing on a tree. Soon after, Dr. Alan Grant and the team were separated leading to one of them to die being attacked by velociraptors, a type of dinosaur

found on that island.

As for the third similarity that I have found is the ability of the characters in both movies to survive. Both main characters of each movie, Jackson Curtis and Dr. Alan Grant’s

main role were to survive with the people they were travelling with. They both went through great extent of survival and near death experience to survive. From the movie 2012, it can clearly be understood that with all the chaos and havoc happening everywhere because of the

end of the world, the characters main point was to survive and find shelter in one of the nine arks. Same goes with the movie Jurassic Park III, in the movie it is shown that Dr. Alan Grant

and his team’s main purpose was to survive the Island that are filled with carnivorous dinosaurs while looking for Eric and Ben, and get back home to shelter.

The last similarity that I have found while comparing these two movies is the

teamwork between everyone. Since Jackson Curtis and Dr. Alan Grant’s main idea was to survive, having a stable teamwork was the best option in hopes of survival. In 2012, it is

portrayed that Jackson and his family met many different people along the way, they all worked together to help each other to safety. Showing that as disaster stroke, everyone are to work together no matter of different culture. Similarly to Jurassic Park III, Dr. Alan Grant

and the Kirby’s worked together to save each other in the island as soon as they were attacked by the carnivorous dinosaurs that were roaming around the island. This shows that

helping each other out is the best key to survival.

As a conclusion, after writing this essay I have compared and contrasted a bit of both movies in term of their similarity. The info research that I have found from both movies concludes how giving up is not the key if survival is what you seek. Both main characters of

each movie shows great dedication to viewers that in life teamwork is the only option we have as we encounter difficult situation in life no matter what race or country you are. It gives

me great happiness that I could see the dedication in Jackson Curtis and Dr. Alan Grant’s to make sure everyone that they have met and are with them are safe, even with the dangerous situations that they encountered along the way. Lastly, I believe that with the hard work that

is put in helping each other will all be rewarded at the end of the day although they may be mishaps along the way but I know that after every bad situation, good things will arise.

Reference

Chattaway, P.T. (2001). Review: Jurassic Park III (dir. Joe Johnston, 2001)

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/filmchat/2001/07/review-jurassic-park- iii-dir-joe-johnston-

2001.html

Jurassic Park III (2001) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0163025/

Pond, N. (2009). Movie Reviews “2012”

http://www.wilsoncountynews.com/article.php?id=25402&n=movie-reviews-2012

2012 (2009) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1190080/