Camp Cretaceous:
Season Three
Season Three kept the thrills coming with the introduction of the Scorpius Rex – a welcome and horrifying addition to the island. We also got a clear connection to Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom towards the end of the season, which was a lot of fun. The series is definitely starting to feel stretched out – particularly because there was an available boat for most of the season but the kids kept finding reasons to stick around a little bit longer. And why the heck does Ben want to stay on the island?! I know he’s ‘found himself’ and is gonna miss Bumpy, but I’ve got two words for you – toilet paper. There are amenities that real life can afford, and Jurassic Park cannot. That, and the fact that Ben definitely has some kind of family back home he was willing to turn his back on. Wake up, man.
Blue made a welcome return to the show this season, and played a very interesting role that the “Jurassic World” era has been leaning into since the beginning. Velociraptors used to be villains, but now they’re like homicidal dolphins – and by that I mean they’re so smart that they’re almost human except for their murderous tendencies. Well, maybe they’re not so different from us after all. Anyway, the way Blue interacted with our protagonists this season was very interesting. And getting back to the Scorpius, that was a seriously creepy monster. We all know at this point that none of the kids are in real danger, but that doesn’t make the Scorpius any less intimidating. The asexual reproduction thing that got introduced was a neat idea, too. I wonder if that’s gonna be used as an explanation for the propogation of dinosaurs whenever Dominion comes out.
This season finally ended with our heroes getting off the island, but it did so in a way that left the door open for them getting sent back in very short order. I really hope that’s not the case – we’ve spent three seasons on this island, and it’s time for the kids to find a new problem. Then again, we know because of timing that there’s a volcano about to erupt on the island, and it would be a lot of fun to witness that through the kid’s perspective. I’m just over watching these kids trying to find a way off the island when adults continue to be inexplicably absent and/or evil. Keep the dinosaurs, but find a way to lose the escape thing.
In a sense, that’s been this franchise’s whole problem. We all love the dinosaurs, but there’s only so many times you can throw people onto a dino-infested island before it gets ludicrous. That’s why I found Fallen Kingdom so refreshing, because it’s opened the door for a much more open-concept idea of dino-based storytelling. If dinos are gonna be everywhere now, then our kids don’t have to be on the island. Maybe a future season of Camp Cretaceous will be on the mainland, where the kids have to come to terms with the fact that they’re never going to be safe from dinosaurs ever again.