“Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous” Season 4 Review – Not Without Issues!

Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous season 4 ended up being quite the mixed bag as the writers tried to do something different and expand the overall Jurassic Park/Jurassic World lore.

Warning: This review of Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous season 4 contains spoilers.

While the premise of Jurassic Park/Jurassic World is an enjoyable one, the long-running franchise has yet to figure out what to do with the dinosaurs once they leave the theme park setting. Unfortunately, after letting the kids leave the main island at the end of Camp Cretaceous season 3, the fourth season also faced the same issue. At this point, I hope the writers of Camp Cretaceous decide to end the entire series in the fifth season because this is getting ridiculous.

With the kids escaping the Jurassic World island on a boat, the premiere episode of season 4 showed them getting attacked by a Mosasaurus. Of course, none of the kids died or faced any severe injures. Instead, the crew found itself on a new island owned by Mantah Corp. While the fandom’s been waiting for more information about Mantah Corp, I think it’s true when they say one should be careful about what they wish for. 

Due to JW Camp Cretaceous season 4 focusing a lot on Mantah Corp, we got a story that leaned too much into sci-fi. Yes, I understand that JP/JW is a sci-fi IP featuring a world where technological advancements led to the creation of dinosaurs. However, when advanced robots enter the scene, it just feels weird. Also, robotic minions just don’t come across as a threat when compared to vicious dinosaurs.

With how things were handled in the latest season, I continue to be concerned about what will happen in the upcoming Jurassic World Dominion film, which will have people trying to handle escaped dinosaurs in numerous locations. I wonder if the robots, or some version of them, that appeared in Camp Cretaceous season 4 will make an appearance in JW Dominion.

The island also had different artificial terrains to accommodate various dinosaurs (including hybrids). There’s also a sabretooth tiger. I mean, if you have the technology to create dinosaurs, making a sabretooth tiger falls under the realm of possibility. I would have loved to see a woolly mammoth walking around in the cold terrain.

It’s revealed that Mantah Corp’s interested in finding a way to control dinosaurs. The episodes had the main cast trying to foil the plan to inject baby dinosaurs with implants that put them under the control of certain voice commands. Seeing a baby sauropod being forced to listen to commands in Camp Cretaceous season 4 was well animated. It was kind of tough to watch. Apparently, the technology will be used to have dinosaurs battle each other. Think Pokémon fights but with dinosaurs.

Of course, the technology to control dinosaurs will have military applications, too. Trying to get dinosaurs to follow commands on the battlefield was a part of the first Jurassic World movie.

The genius behind figuring out how to communicate with dinosaurs through vocal commands was a new character named Dr. Mae Turner, a Behavioral Paleoneurobiologist. I liked Dr. Mae. She’s a bit kooky due to being the only human working on Mantah Corp’s island for a while now. However, she stepped up to protect the kids when she realized what was actually happening with her research and the dinosaurs she had grown to care for. She also served as a way for the writers to talk a bit about instinct vs scientific data, pitting her research of communicating with dinosaurs with Ben’s bond with Bumpy.

As far as character development is concerned, it was interesting to see the writers have Yaz go through PTSD. She thought escaping the main island would be the end of it. However, getting stranded on Mantah Corp’s island more or less broke her. I felt for Yaz when she saw nightmare after nightmare of the Indominus rex and the other bad dinos the main cast previously faced trying to get her. Yaz’s fear even stopped her from running away during a dangerous situation. Her friendship with the rest of the kids, especially with Sammy, helped her through it.

Sammy, who had no choice but to work as a spy for Mantah Corp to protect her family, had to deal with controlling her anger and want for revenge to ensure the betterment of her group.

Ben’s character development had him striking a balance between his original worrisome self and the survivalist he had become over the course of the previous seasons. I think that by the end of the fourth season, he was in a good place.

Brooklynn’s arc involved realizing she wasn’t going to be good at everything alone and that it was okay. The main group was very dependent on her when it came to fixing things or figuring out certain stuff. Camp Cretaceous season 4 freaking had her hacking into one of the robots under a time crunch. It was a very big ask, and I liked how Brooklynn handled the situation and talked to her friends about the pressure she felt.

However, a thing I wasn’t a fan of was Brooklynn’s relationship with Kenji. I have no idea where their romantic feelings for each other came from. In my opinion, she shared more in common with Darius. The two even spent a lot of time together onscreen in the previous seasons. But oh well. As far as my opinion goes, I think the writers decided to add romance to Kenji’s life due to what happened in the finale.

Fans have been wondering about the owner of Mantah Corp for a while now. Camp Cretaceous season 4 finally gave us the answer. Turns out, that the mastermind behind the nefarious Mantah Corp was no other than Kenji’s father Daniel Kon. With the finale ending with a cliffhanger, it’s obvious the fifth season will explore the relationship between Kenji and Daniel. And that’s exactly why I think Kenji got his romance with Brooklynn. Their romantic relationship will be used for drama. Sigh!

Darius, in my opinion, was unfortunately sidelined in the latest season. He spent a lot of time away from the group and didn’t even realize what they were all mentally going through until later in the season. The group’s current circumstances had them choose between leaving Mantah Corp’s island on a supply plane or staying behind to stop the experiments on dinosaurs. I think Darius made the right choice of protecting his friends when it really mattered.

Coming to the queer representation in Camp Cretaceous, while the sexualities of the entire main cast haven’t been revealed, the premiere of season 4 did have Brooklynn mention her two Dads and how she learned a lot from them by lending a hand in the projects they worked on in their garage. So, at least, we know that queer people exist in this fictional world.

While I enjoyed certain moments in Camp Cretaceous season 4, overall, the latest season failed to deliver. It can even be considered the weakest entry yet. Having said that, I’m looking forward to what will happen to the main cast in the fifth season.

The 11-episode long fourth season of Camp Cretaceous is available for you to stream on Netflix. According to Netflix, the latest season amassed 16.9 million hours of watch time during the first week and came in at number 7 on the Global Top 10 list (for TV shows in English).

What did you think of it?

Let us know.

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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