Following hot on the heels of Harry Potter: A Forbidden Forest Experience (with at least one of the presenters advising that they’d worked on both), Jurassic World: The Exhibition is the next would-be popular and potentially populist exhibition to hit Melbourne.
The experience is a curated tour through a massive 3600-square metre shed that has been given over to the prehistoric world in the inner northern suburb of Brunswick. The Jurassic movie franchise was, of course, first conjured up by Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy and Gerald R Molen in 1993, and explored in at least half a dozen Hollywood films since then (with a new one due next year). And it has now been given the immersive exhibition treatment, so visitors can suspend their disbelief and see those awe-inspiring, gigantic, and not so huge, creatures up close and in person.
And it’s a lot of fun. As long as you don’t look up at the ceiling too much or mind the hordes of influencers vying for the best photo opportunity at every spot. Shepherded in groups, visitors are guided through the exhibition a room at a time by a team of endearingly excitable rangers (all decked out in Jurassic World ranger uniforms), who explain the format and deliver their spiels each step of the way.
The journey begins on a ferry, with porthole like screens descending to reveal the “ocean waves” outside and a screen up front laying out what can be expected once the ferry docks.
Then it’s into the first space where an impressively tall animatronic brachiosaurus greets visitors head-on. It’s a great way to start, even if some of the surrounding flora isn’t quite as convincing. The journey then continues through a series of spaces, including a “laboratory” with a bit of tech showing what the insides of various dinosaurs’ eggs would look like, plus some friendly neighbourhood lab assistants bringing out baby creatures for a look and a pat – resolutely refusing to break the fourth wall as they do so.
The animatronic baby dinos may look a little Disney-fied, with those big appealing eyes, but the rangers and lab workers throughout the experience are sticking rigidly to their scripts – recounting scientific facts and enacting their trepidation that a belligerent T-Rex is about to burst out of its compound to attack the carnosaurus in the opposite cage – while also happily offering to take photos or direct visitors to the next part of the exhibit.
The velociraptor-taming section could have been one of the high points, but the puppetry element is a letdown compared to the “no strings (or legs) attached” effects featured in the other parts of the journey.
It’s definitely family entertainment, with the entire spectacle aimed at the younger section of the market rather than serious palaeontologists, though those of a nervous disposition (or just the very young) may find the final section a touch unnerving… especially the nicely judged element of the light that suddenly gets knocked askew by a clearly bad-tempered beast.
Jurassic World: The Exhibition opens in Melbourne today (2 August 2024) in time for the school holidays at The Fever Exhibition Hall, 62 Dawson Street, Brunswick Vic. Tickets.
