Jurassic World (Colin Trevorrow)

[TGM]

JURASSIC WORLD

Director: Colin Trevorrow

imdb (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0369610/?ref_=nv_sr_1)

http://static1.i4u.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/main_image_large/images/2014/11/jurassic-world.jpg

[Barty]

A big meh. There's some enjoyable stuff, and Chris Pratt does his best to be fun, but my god that screenplay needed a rewrite. Underdeveloped plot-lines, generic characters, poor structure, etc.

It did make me want to watch Jurassic Park again, which of course is so far superior in every way.

[Wryan]

Mostly agree. This was sort of bland. It overplays nearly every hand it has (stiff exec's clothes and hair get progressively dirtier as she loosens up and gets out in the field, Beergut McMilitaryMan, the pack hunter alpha stuff), giving it a really obvious vibe. As Peter Griffin would say, it insists upon itself. Pratt is just okay. I was hoping to have more fun, and there was some fun to be had, but even the climax was hobbled a bit by people not getting the fuck out from underfoot the rampaging dinosaurs and some silly slow-motion. Also, dunno what was going on with the close attention paid to the teenager and his wandering eyes--"lol boys gonna be boys even with a girlfriend he might have broken up with in a deleted scene, who knows! what fun!"

Original is unimpeachable. But I admit this movie had a hard road to begin with, considering how much I love JP. It seemed like the trailers gave away the best bits...until you realize they were actually just showing the few good parts. Mostly everything else felt like filler or just felt weak.

EDIT: Wait, I liked Irrfan Khan. There we go.

[transmogrifier]

It's a mess. The whole entire military weapon angle is completely half-arsed with unclear motivations and relationships at its core (and not helped by being just a terrible idea to begin with in a practical sense; there's a reason the army currently doesn't use trained tigers or alligators or whatever the hell), while the velociraptor training is just as poorly sketched, amounting to a couple of reversals to build cheap suspense and that's about it. There are a tonne of poorly realized secondary characters - e.g., the assistant who is supposed to be looking after the kids, Judy Greer, David Wallace, the weird smugness of Wong, even Khan's character is all over the place - in support of the stereotypical leads and a grand total of 0 exciting set-pieces. I don't like The Lost World much, but that scene on the cliff with the trailer is 100 times better than anything this film has to offer.

Oh, and having Howard's character run around the whole movie in high heels actually started to piss me off by the end.

[Morris Schæffer]

Wow! Projected estimates were way short. Not 100 million or 120 million, but close to 190 million.

[Mal]

It could overtake Avengers for the biggest weekend ever once tickets are counted, which is crazy.

Too bad the film isn't better, the Dino action was satisfying- but the people action was meh, with Jake Johnson being the only occasional beacon of enjoyment. An ok summer popcorn film.

[Irish]

Wow! Projected estimates were way short. Not 100 million or 120 million, but close to 190 million.


I've heard $200MM domestic US, $500MM worldwide (biggest Friday ever?).

Which means there will be a dozen sequels and this franchise will never die.

[Morris Schæffer]

I've heard $200MM domestic US, $500MM worldwide (biggest Friday ever?).

Which means there will be a dozen sequels and this franchise will never die.

That's okay. I had a lot of fun. Although not quite sure what sequels are gonna be about seeing as another park has basically flopped yet again. I wish they would have fashioned a genuine action scene around the Mosasaurus rather than having the thing pop up at conveniently timed intervals. Moreover, the Gyroscope is the worst idea in a long, sad history of bad ideas.

[Morris Schæffer]

Crap. 100 million in China alone. How can forecasted grosses be so way off the mark for the USA? I've been following box office receipts for tentpole films and most predictions are usually more or less on the money.

[transmogrifier]

I've heard $200MM domestic US, $500MM worldwide (biggest Friday ever?).

Which means there will be a dozen sequels and this franchise will never die.

Let's hope the next few ones are good.

[Watashi]

They need to take the Jurassic Park franchise into Planet of the Apes territory. Get off the island. I want to see dinosaurs actually ruling the world.

[Dukefrukem]

"No one is impressed by dinosaurs anymore"... Okaaaaay? So this movie doesn't take place in our modern universe. If you're going to try to convey an idea like that, you need to be a little more subtle. There was enough confidence for three humans to enter her cage the Indominus Rex when they have no idea what types of dinosaurs it is made up of it? The whole special weapon plot is stupid. Domesticated raptors is stupid. So terribly stupid. This movie is stupid.

[D_Davis]

I'm still shocked people are actually watching this. Especially SO DAMN many people.

[Dukefrukem]

Oh and btw, Trans and I agree again on his Lost World line. That scene is so much better than anything in this movie. There was no T-REX scene in Jurassic World. There was no Cliff scene. There needs to be a climax of some sort. Jurassic World had nothing.

[Ivan Drago]

Sure, Claire's progression is in-your-face in the beginning, and the kids are inconsistently written, but I was willing to forego all that once I got what I paid for, and that's dinosaurs creating chaos. In the end, I was entertained by this more so than The Lost World and Jurassic Park III combined.

Although, I was thinking to myself that Irrfran Khan's character would have been a better villain.

[Watashi]

I'm still shocked people are actually watching this. Especially SO DAMN many people.

It's been 15 years since the last sequel. People are in the mood for another Jurassic Park movie. The marketing have been playing heavy on the nostalgia factor. It also helps to star the hottest current actor right now.

I haven't seen it yet. Probably won't. I don't like the director and the trailer looked boring.

[transmogrifier]

The trailer IS the film, pretty much. It has the same depth of characterization, plot coherence, and thrills.

[Morris Schæffer]

I'm still shocked people are actually watching this. Especially SO DAMN many people.

Of course you're not. We live in an age where millions flock to Michael Bay movies and this movie isn't nearly as dumb or obnoxious as them other movies. Although there is some dumbness.

[Morris Schæffer]

Domesticated raptors is stupid. So terribly stupid.

I think there's a line between what you want to see and what is genuinely stupid. Raptors are animals, it is therefore not inconceivable they could be trained. "Domesticated" is a big word as their ferociousness is never truly taken out of the equation as an earlier scene makes reasonably clear. Furthermore, later on the whole thing is turned upside down indicating it isn't quite clear cut

It worked for me, but if I had to choose, I'd prefer them as villains.

[Dukefrukem]

Furthermore, later on the whole thing is turned upside down indicating it isn't quite clear cut


Yes it was clear. There's basically a shot of Chris Pratt thanking the last raptor for its help as it turns and runs away.

[transmogrifier]

Yeah, the whole raptor thing was a bloody mess. We have a scene where Pratt is literally seconds from getting attacked by the raptors when defending the dumbass worker, and then he doesn't interact with them again and then suddenly he has full control over them and they are a well-trained pack of hunters....until they are not.....until they are again. Just dumb.

[D_Davis]

I always forget how much people like these movies. I saw the first one in the theater on opening weekend, and thought it was OK. I haven't seen it since, nor have I seen the others.

I forget that to a lot of people, especially those in the generation right after mine, these films are a super important part of their childhoods and lives.

[transmogrifier]

I always forget how much people like these movies. I saw the first one in the theater on opening weekend, and thought it was OK. I haven't seen it sense, nor have I seen the others.

I forget that to a lot of people, especially those in the generation right after mine, these films are a super important part of their childhoods and lives.

Here are the first movies I saw in a theatre:

1. Labyrinth
2. The Princess Bride
3. Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol
4. Batman
5. Gremlins 2: The New Batch
6. Jurassic Park

It has huge positive memories for me.

[Spinal]

"No one is impressed by dinosaurs anymore"... Okaaaaay?

Yeah, that makes no sense considering people are still impressed by lions.

[Dukefrukem]

Here are the first movies I saw in a theatre:

1. Labyrinth
2. The Princess Bride
3. Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol
4. Batman
5. Gremlins 2: The New Batch
6. Jurassic Park

It has huge positive memories for me.

Wow. I may have to try to figure out which movies I first saw in theaters.

Earliest one I can remember is Aladdin- 1992.

Edit: nope.

All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989)
Honey I Shrunk the Kids (1989)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II (1991)
Aladdin (1992)

I may have seen the Land Before Time and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

[Peng]

My parents may have taken me to movies prior to this, but the first time I vividly recall seeing a movie in theater is Babe: Pig in the City, especially laughing my ass off at the bungee-jumping climax.

[Pop Trash]

I'll play:

1. The Secret of Nimh
2. E.T.
3. Snow White
4. Return of the Jedi
5. Indiana Jones/Temple of Doom

[D_Davis]

Snow White and Star Wars are the two that I remember.

[Skitch]

You guys are making me feel really damn old.

The Rescuers, Return of the Jedi

[Pop Trash]

Snow White and Star Wars are the two that I remember.

Oh right. I forgot about those Disney rereleases.

[number8]

Holy christ. Biggest opening weekend of all time, beating The Avengers' domestic record.

Its international numbers is also #1, beating Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by almost $30 million.

It's the first movie to ever earn half a billion dollars in one weekend.

[Pop Trash]

Holy christ. Biggest opening weekend of all time, beating The Avengers' domestic record.

Its international numbers is also #1, beating Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by almost $30 million.

It's the first movie to ever earn half a billion dollars in one weekend.

I thought Millennials weren't going to the movies anymore?

[Morris Schæffer]

You guys are making me feel really damn old.

The Rescuers, Return of the Jedi

E.T. The Extra Terrestrial. I was 5 years old. After that, it's a bit of a haze. I know I went back to theaters at around 1990 as I saw Die Hard 2, Beverly Hills Cop II, Total Recall and Home Alone.

[Ivan Drago]

That's okay. I had a lot of fun. Although not quite sure what sequels are gonna be about seeing as another park has basically flopped yet again.

Call the next one Jurassic Universe.

I want to see dinosaurs fight in space.

[Irish]

I thought Millennials weren't going to the movies anymore?

More than half the money was made from 3D and IMAX shows. I'd be interested in a comparison of JW vs other blockbusters on that basis.

[number8]

Wouldn't the movie whose record it broke, The Avengers, be fairly comparable?

[Winston*]

Why isn't inflation taken into account with these numbers?

[Irish]

Wouldn't the movie whose record it broke, The Avengers, be fairly comparable?

Maybe?

I don't keep an eye on the breakdowns, but the last number I saw for JW was something like 62% of the box office came from premium ticket sales. Even for this type of movie, that seems high to me.

Taking that into account, the record breaking box office is less impressive. There's a ton of hot takes out there trying to explains JW's success, but it seems pretty simple to me: Charge people more per ticket and you'll make more money.

[Stay Puft]

First movie I ever saw in a theatre was Ernest Scared Stupid. I have vivid memories of this. I would have been 7 at the time.

I had no idea there was so much demand or nostalgia for Jurassic Park. I guess I'm really out of the loop.

[Dukefrukem]

Why isn't inflation taken into account with these numbers?

Gone with the Wind is still number 1

[Fezzik]

Call the next one Jurassic Universe.

I want to see dinosaurs fight in space.

I saw a post somewhere on social media that noted that the Jurassic movies seemed to share a naming convention with the Super Mario Brothers Games:

Super Mario Brothers / Jurassic Park
SMB 2: The Lost Levels / Jurassic Park: The Lost World
SMB3 / JP3
SM World / Jurassic World

Based on this, they surmised that the next Jurassic Movie would be called "Jurassic Galaxy," so maybe you're not far off?

(Personally, my vote is for Jurassic Kart - Dinosaurs racing cars).

[Dukefrukem]

I would like no more Jurassic Park movies. This was not a fun experience. I'd rather watch JP3 than Jurassic World.

[number8]

Why isn't inflation taken into account with these numbers?


Taking that into account, the record breaking box office is less impressive. There's a ton of hot takes out there trying to explains JW's success, but it seems pretty simple to me: Charge people more per ticket and you'll make more money.


Gone with the Wind is still number 1

I guess this answers all of these: if you think about it, what would be the point of doing that math? Box office numbers are about the spectacle of how much money was moved, regardless of currency value. While you do have stat sites like Box Office Mojo maintaining charts with the inflation adjustments, ultimately no one cares about that because what the industry measures and reveres is the big dollars, not the popularity that we (as fans who don't make money from the movie's success) translate the big dollars into.

It's pretty much implausible to get an accurate record of popularity anyway, no? Even if you were to count number of ticket sales instead of prices, screening models have changed drastically over the years. The Gone with the Wind record that duke is referring to is total box office, since comparing the opening numbers would be pointless since a lot of movies used to have a staggered release. GWTW didn't even open wide until a year and a half after it started playing in select theaters. It also stayed in theaters far longer than today's theatrical lifespan of blockbusters that has shortened thanks to home video and an oversatured market. Similarly, the simultaneous worldwide release model that global opening numbers are based on is a fairly new thing, so you'd also have to take that into account. All in all, inflation and premium sales are not the only adjustment you'd have to make to get a proper "who drew the biggest crowd" comparison.

The way I look at it, at least, how much of Jurassic World's half a billion dollars is premium sales doesn't matter, because what I find noteworthy isn't the number of people who went to see it, but the amount of money people were willing to give to it.

(Fun fact: GWTW's gross also includes premium tickets. Even more so, actually. For that first 1.5 years of roadshow screenings, MGM charged almost 3x the regular ticket price. And you thought IMAX surcharge is steep!)

[Dead & Messed Up]

I saw a post somewhere on social media that noted that the Jurassic movies seemed to share a naming convention with the Super Mario Brothers Games:

Super Mario Brothers / Jurassic Park
SMB 2: The Lost Levels / Jurassic Park: The Lost World
SMB3 / JP3
SM World / Jurassic World

Based on this, they surmised that the next Jurassic Movie would be called "Jurassic Galaxy," so maybe you're not far off?

(Personally, my vote is for Jurassic Kart - Dinosaurs racing cars).

The next one would technically be Jurassic World 2: Rex's Island or Jurassic World 64.

[Morris Schæffer]

Call the next one Jurassic Universe.

I want to see dinosaurs fight in space.

Trevorrow:


"I'm intrigued by the idea of applying what happened with nuclear power to dinosaurs: it started very small and was then used for a weapon and then as power, and finally spread to the point where there's 22 different countries with that capability. The power to make a dinosaur has always been localised to InGen and Jurassic Park, but what if that goes open source and many different types of interests can make a dinosaur? There's also room in exploring a world where we have the same relationship with dinosaurs as we have with other animals on this planet. I'm not sure I'm going be the one to carry it on, certainly not from a directorial standpoint. In my personal opinion, this franchise will be better served by having different directors in the way they're doing with Star Wars. Each of those Star Wars movies will be very personal and have completely new visions. There are some pretty cool Spanish horror directors whose Jurassic Park movie I'd love to see as a fan."

[Dukefrukem]

This is going to make more than Avengers...

[Dukefrukem]

Oh and. I particularly love that first twitter handle.

http://cdn.barstoolsports.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Jurassic-World3.png?148664
http://cdn.barstoolsports.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Jurassic-World.png?148664
http://cdn.barstoolsports.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Jurassic-World4.png?148664

[bac0n]

Eh, as far as throwaway summer fun goes, it scratched that itch. We saw it in Imax, and in particular when Pratt was on the hunt with the Raptors, he on his motorcycle, they bounding down the forest, was pretty exhilarating, and when ol' T-Rex and D-Rex finally squared off, I was grinning from ear to ear.

Sure, all the characters except Pratt were annoying as hell, but eh, I was expecting no less.

[Skitch]

This was just...damn...fun. I knew every spoiler going in and still had a lot of fun. Easily the best since the first. I will minus one entire point for her heels. That was so irritatingly dumb, even in THIS movie. Especially when they had the perfect opportunity (in original JP building) to swap out for some boots or anything. Plenty of other faults, but who cares, its a monster movie about dinosaurs aimed at teens, and it works just fine for that.

[Lazlo]

I had fun with this. Plotting and characterization is a mess but the action is exciting. I am pretty well convinced that you can play John Williams' theme over almost anything and I'd be on board.

[Morris Schæffer]

http://youtu.be/X4mVIJ5eTBY

This was 2010.

[dreamdead]

Insultingly generic cast of characters, nonsensical military angle, and idiotic moment-by-moment shifts between pathos and silly "look at the fun" for Khan. The younger brother was cast as a jerk for too much of the film (while likely a nod to the young girl in JP) and the best moments are luxuriating in a score that remains solid.

Ugly.

[Henry Gale]

SPOILERS ABOUND

It's the sort of movie that I like to think I liked but have so little passionate feelings about one way or another to really know. Even only two and a half weeks later.

The kind of movie I have seen, but when I see TV spots for it I forget I have and momentarily look forward to another version with the potential I still see.

A movie I so wanted to ignite the excitable kid in me that I still know is there with just the right special pieces of work, but seemed to have been all tuckered out and fallen asleep. (Anecdotally, as the end credits rolled, I turned around to see two of the kids in the row behind me had done just that. And one of them had a Finn & Jake T-shirt on, so I know he had good taste.)

It plays like a big-budget movie that was destined to have made $60 million that everyone would make the butt of easy jokes while I'd try to defend for the stuff in it that's actually pretty good. (ie. John Carter, Jupiter Ascending, Lone Ranger, Land of the Lost, etc. But even then I like those significantly more than this.) Instead, it's climbing towards ten times that (only domestically too), and it just kind of bums me out that it'll get to the point of making more than every truly great movie this year combined. My 8 bucks is just as much a part of it as everyone else's, but the movie's own failings are still its own problem.

Jake Johnson and Lauren Lapkus' big scene towards the end comes as such a welcome (if all too late) shock because it's an actually humourous(!) glimpse of a relatable(!) human beings(!) engaging in believable human error that works towards storytelling for a self-contained moment, rather than relying on cheap ignorance to propel it — for instance, no one being told the Indominus can completely camouflage, having one guard on it that doesn't even seem to care about it anything but his lunch (because he's a bit overweight amirite?!)— or throwing out awkward lobs at questionable character development without any resolution — Older brother has a girlfriend at home! He checks out many girls on the island! He flees from dinosaurs! The end. [/his arc]. The movie's a mess, and at its best I think it works in a very care-free way. But at its worst, it seems to know, but doesn't seem to care at the end of the day.

Irrfan Kahn's character might be the most consistently enjoyable performance because of just how much he plays into the absurdity of his role. When the movie should inherently be leaning into the fallacies of his character's views, providing all the leeway to really drive his end of the "corporation + militarization = bad" thematics.... instead he just dies (hilariously, and I'm still not sure it was intended to be as funny as it was) on those terms (simply to dispose of him since he's no longer needed) making D'Onofrio the easy villain for the remainder of it.

And speaking of all the corporate elements of it, it feels like it wants to go all the way meta with its ideas of art vs. commerce about Jurassic World: The Park in the film and Jurassic World: The Movie as one indiscernible entity, but just when we do get a bunch of product placement snowballing into Johnson's really amusingly sheepish dialogue about the need to brand everything with company titles after Howard's "Verizon Wireless presents the Indominus Rex" rightfully lands with a thud for everyone but Verizon Wireless, it completely seizes that self-aware commentary immediately afterwards and moves along with the product placement as not-so-subliminal mise en scène.

To and extent, it seems to feel slightly embarrassed about its own existence as such a corporatation-inflated, resuscitated, and even gleefully pandering franchise play, and leans so heavily on its 1993 elements (the score, the design of the action and characters of both species, and of course the script's detour to the original Jurassic Park grounds that for some reason are still there but I'll allow it since it may be the film's strongest sequence) that you'd think it'd all lead to something totally unexpected, transgressive and excitingly subversive to spin the whole thing on its head to make a stand for itself as the beginning of something modern and something brand new.

Instead, it literally unleashes the original Spielberg T-Rex when the characters and it as a film see no other viable options left for survival. The Splash Zone dinosaur that feeds on dead weight (of both shark and British assistant character varieties), maybe the most memorable animal in it, jumps out to put the movie's main original attempt at a dino antagonist to rest. The O.G. T-Rex then slinks back into his luxurious home that his 1993 work paid for, visibly annoyed that he was forced to get out of bed for this.

---

Post-script summary of sorts:

I did have mild fun while I watched it. (For real! Despite everything I said above!) But for analogy's sake, if it's a piece of paper, it's so thin that the tangible liquid excitement dripping from other stuff I've watched recently (and even memories of watching the original as a kid) is dampening this to the point near-disintegration in my mind. I'd have rated it about a 6 immediately after, and probably a 5 or lower now, but I'll give the enjoyment I had in the moment the benefit of the doubt and float back and forth between those two numbers as a rating.

So obviously the big take-away here is, if you need to watch one dinosaur-related Universal Pictures tentpole from recent times, make sure it's Land of the Lost! On Blu-ray and DVD now! (Subway promotional items (https://www.google.ca/search?q=land+of+the+lost+subw ay+cups&biw=1366&bih=603&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAWoVChMIh8Td6NjHx gIVTjKICh277AGo#tbm=isch&q=land+of+the+lost+movie+subwa y+sandwiches) no longer available)

[transmogrifier]

I honestly cannot believe that it has made this much money. Surely word of mouth is not that great?

[[ETM]]

Has to be one of those "oh, hell, I'll see it" things. It's the JP franchise, beloved actors, and all those saying how nothing special it is mention that they had "dumb fun". Once it gets rolling, it's the BO reporting that keeps people going to see it.

[Morris Schæffer]

I honestly cannot believe that it has made this much money. Surely word of mouth is not that great?

I understand your shock, but know that I alone have already seen it 456,879 times. I've discovered new things every single time. The last time it was a leaf tucked away behind another leaf for instance.

[D_Davis]

I honestly cannot believe that it has made this much money. Surely word of mouth is not that great?

Prepare for the never-ending onslaught of even more mediocre sequels.

Maybe they'll figure out a way to tie it into the MFU.

[Spinal]

Teenagers love Colin Trevorrow. That's the conclusion I'm drawing here.

[Dukefrukem]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXGCyjJh48I

[Ivan Drago]

Read over this thread and realized I never posted the first movies I saw in theaters.

The Lion King
Toy Story
Batman Forever
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie
Can't remember if I also saw Batman: Mask of the Phantasm or Casper

[Dukefrukem]

Read over this thread and realized I never posted the first movies I saw in theaters.

The Lion King
Toy Story
Batman Forever
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie
Can't remember if I also saw Batman: Mask of the Phantasm or Casper

I definitely saw Batman Forever and Power Rangers in theaters as well.

[Irish]

Original is unimpeachable.

Oh, it's peachable. I can peach it. :D

But first: I watched about half of Jurassic World wondering why and how they had made Jessica Chastain so unattractive (ahem). That reflects my level of involvement in this movie.

Assorted comments on everyone's comments:

- It's bland, yeah. There aren't any good set pieces. What annoys me the most are the interviews I read in the build up to release. Bullshit about a "whole new story," etc from guys like Spielberg. That was a lie. There was no story outside "dinosaurs go chomp." That wouldn't be a problem if the movie had enough spectacle, but it doesn't have spectacle either.

- The second biggest annoyance (out of many, many) is that they introduced plot points to fit a particular scene (Rex has camoflauge on demand!) and then dropped them once the scene was over.

- Seeing this did make me want to view the originals again, which I did, or tried to do. I barely made it through the second one and didn't bother with the third.

- The character writing was uneven and awkward, but it wasn't necessarily more awkward than the Jurassic Park or Lost World. The characters in those movies have maybe one or two lines of backstory at most. Several of them are brushed off or disappear without warning (Goldblum in JP, Vaughn in LW). Goldblum is ignored after the TRex attack in JP; he's got maybe 2-3 lines in the rest of the movie and none of them are significant. Laura Dern is introduced in one role and then kinda sorta serves another (the movie says that she's some kind of paleo-botanist but then she spends are great deal of JP's runtime playing vet to sick dinos. Uh, what? Vince Vaughn tries to passively murder a dude by taking the ammo out of his weapon in the middle of the jungle, and then sorta hightails it out of the movie before the climax.

- The teen kid's arc in Jurassic World is supposed to mirror Sam Neil's arc in the first film and Jeff Goldblum's arc in the second film. At least, that's what I think they were going for. He starts out as a self-involved shit. He's annoyed at the family trip. He's constantly brushing the little kid off. Over the course of the film, he comes to realize that, gee, family really is important when you're about to become dino-chow. Little kids are lovable when they're not being eaten alive. Trauma forces him to reconnect with his brother (awwwww).

- Similar to that is Khan. I think he was supposed to be the movie's super-ego. Sorta the Jeff Goldblum of the piece. Half humanist and half comic relief. It doesn't really work because he's a billionaire dude and everybody's boss, which makes him unrelatable. A poor workaday schnook can't fly a helicopter, his attempt might be charming or funny. But a super rich dude? He's just an asshole.

- There are a lot of visual call outs to Jurassic Park and Lost World, but the last scene here is supposed to mirror the ending of JP. In that first movie, the three raptors threatening our heroes fail to take down the big Rex (who appears out of nowhere and saves the day). In JW, the opposite occurs: Star Lord's custom trained raptors successfully (more or less) attack Big Rex while Little Rex lends a hand. Yeah, it's dumb. But you can see hints of the idea someone had during what must have been endless spitballing conference calls.

- I didn't find the military angle so dumb because there's a precedent there. First, there's the historical one: The US government, in its infinite wisdom, have actually trained animals and fish (?) to help out on military maneuvers. (Granted, nobody is running around with grey wolves and spitting cobras as they infiltrate insurgent villages, but still.) Second, there's the thematic precedent: We can argue that these movies are all about the American reliance on technology over common sense, on a variety of levels. Finding a military use for InGen tech doesn't seem all that far fetched, especially as the second movie had a horde of characters who were interested in capturing and exploiting the dinos as much as they could.

- The first two movies start on a jungle island and involve dinosaurs attacking humans. Jurassic World starts with a suburban family driving two teenagers to the airport. I haven't seen a blockbuster with that little sense of its opening since the brutally dull, unending courtroom scene at the start of Iron Man 2.

- I think all of these movies are bad. The started out as thin, stupid summer action movies and got thinner and stupider from there. Like a lot of popular stuff from the 80s and 90s (Terminator, Aliens, etc), there isn't enough of a premise to support a decade spanning franchise.

- The first one sort of works because Spielberg is clever in the way he pastes over the shortcomings in the script. He's relentless with his pacing and his edits. He hammers the ever living shit of of William's score to goose what are otherwise visually dull scenes. He pulls every trick he can out of the cheap horror movie playbook-- messing with perspective and the limits of the camera-- to create suspense. If you can step back from Spielberg's skill a bit and see what he's doing and how he's doing it, it's a shitshow of a movie. The first hour is almost wall to wall exposition, explaining and re-explaining how we brought dinosaurs back from extinction. The plot is non-existent. There are two subplots, one of which is resolved about thirty minutes in. The movie introduces more than a half dozen named characters in the first twenty minutes. It has three separate introduction scenes before anybody steps foot on the island. The characters make little to no sense. Most of the actors can't create a full fledged performance because their characters are so thinly drawn. Instead, they fall back to aping a personality (cf Goldblum, God love him). The ending is pure ass deus ex machina in a movie where the human characters did little to solve their own problems over the entire runtime. It's basically a PG-13 slasher movie, and a cheap one, with dinosaurs instead of Freddy or Jason. The sequel doubles down on almost every badly element in the first.

- That all said (ugh), JP is a dumb summer action movie made when dumb summer action movies were smarter. One of the more interesting things about it is that everyone in the film is either highly educated, highly skilled, or both. I mean, outside the little kids, everybody in that memorable TRex attack scene has an advanced degree! They all went to grad school! How often does that happen in a summer blockbuster? It at least allows them to have weird, interesting conversations an, on the surface, seem like interesting people. Compare that to Jurassic World, where most of the characters are either bland or incompetent. The paleo meets chaos theory heroes of the first film become workaday Navy stiffs and console jockeys in the the reboot.

[Irish]

Holy fuck that's way too long, lol. That's embarrassing --- moving on!

[Skitch]

Hahaha thats a lot of thoughts about blandness. :D

[Irish]

Shhhhhhhhhh

Let's move on before this gets any more awkward. :D

[Dukefrukem]

Jurassic World 2 June 22, 2018

[D_Davis]

Shhhhhhhhhh

Let's move on before this gets any more awkward. :D

You've been writing a lot, lately, about a lot of stuff that you don't seem to really love.

[Peng]

OK, I didn't go into this expecting good characters or anything, but this bunch of people is beyond colorless. And the dinosaur action is not as fun as I hoped, all quick actions and no build-up to let much of it sink in or be too thrilling (saved for a few smaller set-pieces, like the kids' first encounter with Indominus Rex). I like it better than the third one, but I went in expecting more brainless fun and less watchable apathy.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Finally saw it. Figured I would be first in line originally on account of mothereffing DINOSAURS, but the reviews really put me off. $5 second-run 3D show tonight, and I have returned to say

This is a dumber movie than I thought. And a more cynical one too. A tonal misfire, with gruesome, cruel deaths interrupted by shitty sub-sitcom jokes. Trevorrow apes images from the series but never bothered to study how Spielberg stages action (you know who can stage action? Gareth Edwards). Every character sucks, except maybe Khan, who mostly made me long for the best possible version of his "lovable" CEO ignoramus, i.e. John Glover in Gremlins 2. The finale is preposterous. Howard's high heels are preposterous. Pratt is a terrible person, especially when he makes no effort to talk to the raptor about to eat the military guy. Everybody else is stupid. Supremely stupid. This park is run by idiots. Oh, and speaking of cynicism, how about the assistant who gets pulled from one dinosaurs to another like she's a dog treat? The reason the original park shut down was due to planned corporate espionage. Here, it's because the park has literally no meaningful contingency plans. The film never establishes groundwork for what the Indominus can do. Maybe they think this makes it unpredictable and mysterious (wild card, bitches), but instead it exists as a creature of convenience, doing whatever the story needs it to do at any point to keep the story from stopping.

Worst of the series. I know nobody likes JP3, but at least Johnston can put together an action sequence.

[Skitch]

I like JP3.

[Dukefrukem]

I like the first half of JP3. Sam Neil makes it work.

[Dukefrukem]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8tmJbaFuYM&feature=youtu.be

[Ezee E]

This has the same thing going for it that the Marvel movies have.

Easily predictable, somewhat likable, and rushes along at a fast pace the entire length. There's really not a scene that stands out, as there's never any buildup or a true sequence. Consider Spielberg's noteworthy Jurassic Park scenes of the T-Rex intro, the trailer scene, or the Raptor hunts... None of that is here.

Pratt and Dallas Howard are likable enough to be characters that I certainly wouldn't mind seeing again. Same goes for Khan.

But yeah, that was that.

Would be nice if the series could get away from the Raptors and move on to something else.

I won't even discuss the poor logic of the movie. The movie kind of glances right over it too.

[Grouchy]

Wow, this movie is a steaming pile of T-Rex shit.

[TGM]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTHmvNv3G_s

[Dead & Messed Up]

It's a bummer that video spends a lot of time on CGI and color correction. Even the sexism has been unpacked a ton in think pieces. Why not talk about Trevorrow's difficulty in crafting spectacle and suspense, or maybe how the script fails every main character on a story level? I mean, there is literally nothing to Pratt other than his unfettered rightness.

[Dukefrukem]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTHmvNv3G_s

I think that's when I gave up on the movie. When the line: "no one is impressed by dinosaurs anymore".


"No one is impressed by dinosaurs anymore"... Okaaaaay? So this movie doesn't take place in our modern universe. If you're going to try to convey an idea like that, you need to be a little more subtle. There was enough confidence for three humans to enter her cage the Indominus Rex when they have no idea what types of dinosaurs it is made up of it? The whole special weapon plot is stupid. Domesticated raptors is stupid. So terribly stupid. This movie is stupid.

[Philip J. Fry]

Agreed with the post above. Bad movie.

[Dukefrukem]

They mo-capped the Ratpors?!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5a7JKjVB8rs

[Skitch]

I guess it makes sense, easier than animating it from scratch.

[Dukefrukem]

This thing looks so real


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ul26r2rbhE4

[Morris Schæffer]

This thing looks so real


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ul26r2rbhE4


Loool Duke! :cool:

[Morris Schæffer]

Bayona it is!

[Peng]

A sure-fire director who we know can handle actual characters, disaster sequences, and a sense of horror? Count me in!