Correct me if I'm wrong, but explorers didn't start looking like JP explorers until a couple years after release... longer since concept and filming. It's quite the over-design for something on guided rails and I only say that as if I were someone with today's nitpick mentality seeing the film for the first time. By definition, yes I'm reaching lol.
Externally they're literally just 1992 Ford Explorer XLTs with a custom bubble sunroof, mounted spotlights, and few other small flourishes. Out of those, only the sunroof is particularly special, the rest are run-of-the-mill add-ons you'd see on Jeeps and trucks, especially at the time. The internal design is more customized, with custom leather seats and interior, and of course the touch panel.
I honestly don't know what about any of that is overdesigned though, even you're trying to engage some kind of hindsight criticism. Like, what is it
supposed to look like? What makes more sense to you in your 1993 state of mind? Because visually, if you gave it a normal paint job the average person wouldn't even realize it was customized from the outside. And technically, the tech to make that
exact tour vehicle and powered track system existed back then - so it's entirely realistic/believable. It's literally a large scale, low-speed slot car. Epcot had Test Track just 5 years after this movie, and that track system is basically the same exact thing, but
more advanced and expensive (length of track aside).
How is it comparable to this utter ridiculousness?
Regarding JW, it's a sci-fi zoo/resort. Not quite a Disney World or Universal Studios. A more spaced out safari park with specialty animals. I'd like to imagine that in a sci-world where dinos are magically created and mixed and matched, that holograms and gyrospheres could very well exist. Besides, I liked how the hologram was used to distract the raptor at the end even if I found it hard to imagine a kid spending time interacting with it when the real thing is part of your ticket price. (Headcanon: used to help educate and ease the kids who may be a bit too afraid to see the real thing).
But the fact that it's dinosaurs aside, we already have a close analogue in the real world - Disney's Animal Kingdom, a hybrid zoo and amusement park. To clarify what I've been talking about though, think of the park as a real-world location. Imagine you're going to a tropical, volcanic island to see prehistoric beasts in massive enclosures emulating their natural habitat. Doesn't "white and blue space-like sheen" take you out of that experience as opposed to the safari/jungle expedition theming of the original park, and its use of striking colors line green and red? That's what I'm referring to when I speak about the park's theming in terms of Universal and Disney. Because when you walk into those parks, they sell you on the experience
hard. Every little flourish is built to support the theme when you step into Pandora or the Wizarding World. Jurassic World fails in that department, across the board.
Taking another step back, when you talk about how you imagine such and such in a sci-fi world, the thing is, it's not
supposed to be some different sci-fi world. The whole idea is "what would happen if we had the ability to make dinosaurs" and the more layers of overt science fiction the more you divorce from that and it loses any sort of grounding. Outside of the fact that dinosaurs have been cloned, it should be
this world. Just like how I wouldn't expect, say, light sabers cropping up in Inception, despite the dream reading tech being pure fiction, as it would shatter the illusion, I don't expect Jurassic Park to have generic sci-fi trappings like holograms cropping up with no fan-fair, as if they're just some normal thing.
It's particularly bad given that this isn't some new IP or something - both books and all three prior movies exist in a world that is otherwise supposed to be the same as our own, only a company managed to secretly create dinosaurs. Jurassic World then creates a significant divergence from the series history, overall DNA, and visual palette. It
immediately feels like the odd-one-out.
