YMMV / Jurassic World: Battle at Big Rock

• Awesome Moments:
  • Nasutoceratops vs. Allosaurus! Especially when the Papa Nasuto arrived in time to save his family.
  • The Human Family working together to protect each other from the Allosaurus, from the parents saving the baby in time from the dino's jaws, to the brother evacuating his sister, to the parents fighting it off with a metal stick and a fire extinguisher, and to the 8-year-old daughter shooting arrows at the Allosaurus' face! Not bad for a newly blended family who know little about dinosaurs.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • The short film largely introduced a reasonably accurate Nasutoceratops to the public eye.
  • While the Allosaurus already has this status after its on-screen debut in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, its gaining a main role in the short and an awesome design (with non-pronated hands) as an adult made it even more popular.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The tagline "Is this the new Normal?" is this, at least for people in Germany and Austria; after spring 2020 when politicians in both countries described living with the limitations introduced because of the Covid-Pandemic as "die neue Normalität" ("the new Normal").
• Idiot Ball: The parents could have avoided attracting the attention of the Allosaurus had they covered the baby’s mouth to stop it screaming, they don’t and as a result the dinosaur destroys their RV and almost eats them and the baby.
• Narm:
  • The somewhat clunky exposition to set up that the family is indeed a new family, which as a detail isn't even really needed. They basically turned to each other and say, "It has been two years since we married and our children from our respective previous relationships do not approve."
  • The little girl shooting the Allosaurus with a crossbow brings back painful memories of a raptor meeting its end in The Lost World: Jurassic Park via teenage gymnast. Granted, here she doesn't kill it or even seriously wound it, just gets it to leave.
• Nightmare Fuel: Despite its short length, Battle at Big Rock is one scary as hell short.
  • The Allosaurus, a violent, bloodthirsty aggressive monster of a dinosaur. The predatory beasts of Jurassic have always had their moments of horror, but this is the first time in the film franchise where one of these predators deliberately goes after a human baby. Though fortunately, compared to the first Michael Crichton novel the baby lives.
  • When its foiled in its attempt at eating the baby, the Allosaur furiously breaks its way into the overturned camper, its jaws snapping at the family and shredding the camper like it was confetti.
  • Before all this though, the Allosaur mauls the cute baby Nasutoceratops, lifting it off the ground and shaking it as it's screaming. The baby survives, but Jesus.
  • While it's Played for Laughs in the short itself, the video of the little girl being chased by Compies can be this when you keep in mind how dangerous they can be (especially when a similar situation, played much more seriously, happened in The Lost World and Compies in the novels did kill at least one child).
• Special Effect Failure: The shoddy visual effects in the closing credits, particularly the shot of the Mosasaurus eating the shark.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: A series staple that transfers in this short, the special effects by ILM and Legacy Effects bringing the dinosaurs to life are outstanding.
• Win Back the Crowd: Not that the fanbase or general public was too put off, but some elements in Battle at Big Rock helped shore up some wants in the fandom.
  • The short is dark, scary, and menacing without being too over-the-top. Some worried the series was increasingly treading towards lighter hearted affair to appeal to children, and this short brings back the scarier feel from the first two movies.
  • After Fallen Kingdom hammered in the sympathetic angle to the dinosaurs and only treated the hybrid Indoraptor as a menace, its refreshing to see a natural theropod be shown as not evil but still dangerous.
  • The Allosaurus, arguably the face of the Jurassic apex predators, finally getting a starring role as the main theropod is something many felt was a long time coming, especially given the title of the franchise.
  • With the two Jurassic World movies largely just calling back to the first film, having multiple very obvious shout outs to what many felt were the underappreciated second film was well liked.
  • The Allosaurus, in a first for the franchise, does not pronate its hands.

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