Top Twenty Films

[Louise]

Sooo...Jurassic World was better than I expected, yay! Yes, there were some cheesy parts, but I went in with very low expectations and I was pleased, especially with the second half. It was better than it could have been, let's put it that way. I came home feeling pretty pumped and happy!

Random observations:

First of all, just to get this out of the way, there was no cameo by Goldblum or other people from the first film. There *is* one very brief reference to Goldblum, but he doesn't actually appear. I thought "well, if there's no JG, maybe there'll be a cameo by Sam Neill or something..." But, there isn't.

The only person from the first film who appears is B.D. Wong, and I have to say, he was very good. Very intense, plays the coolly arrogant scientist yet also functions as the voice of reason, in a way. I was kind of impressed.

This type of movie isn't very character-driven, so I won't spend much time talking about the other actors. Chris Pratt was fine, he doesn't do much for me but I didn't find him objectionable, I didn't have strong feelings either way about that role/character. There were no female characters as cool as Laura Dern. (Come to think of it, almost all the main characters in the first film were scientists, and in this one, almost none of them were.) All the leads in this movie were just sort of serviceable and acceptable, nothing super-impressive, but not actively bad, either.

I kinda enjoyed the fact that there was a fanboy-type character with a Purist/Nostalgic type of attitude who obliquely referenced the events of the first movie. There was actually a fairly good sense of continuity with the first film.

There were def. a lot of references to the first movie, visually as well as script-wise. The perilous situations the characters got into tended to echo some of the most memorable/dramatic set-pieces from earlier. You'll see what I mean, when you watch the movie. People being trapped inside a car, hiding behind a car, having a car fall on them, the predators sniffing around the car, etc.

The notion of the raptors being tamed or domesticated, to any degree, was pretty dumb. However, this was not handled as badly as I had feared. It's a cheesy concept, but it didn't ruin the movie.

The "new" species of genetically-modified dinosaur, Indominus Rex, is not scary, because we all know it's not real. T-Rex is still where it's at, and the audience knows it. Everybody loves T-Rex.

I don't think the pure fear from the first movie will ever be duplicated. This one *did* have some enjoyably scary moments, it was better than I'd expected, in that regard, but I think the problem is the CGI. You need animatronics, because that makes the creatures seem real. I'm not entirely sure if there was any animatronics in this movie, or if it was all CGI, but even *good* CGI doesn't feel viscerally real, and that's where the primal fear is. The dinos have less mystique in this movie; the terror has kind of gone out of the raptors. IDK. There were still some enjoyably tense moments, but when the special effects from a quarter-century ago are more convincing that the current "state of the art", you have to ask yourself whether having everything computer-generated is the way to go, or whether something has been lost.

There was hella product placement in this film. It was really shameless. Starbucks, Coke, Jamba Juice, Samsung, Jeep, Mercedes, you name it. It was pretty noticeable.

Oh, and I had not known that Vince D'onofrio was in this movie. I used to find him kinda sexy* when he was on Law&Order. Not to be shallow, but he is looking...uh...portly, these days. He made a rather weak villain, but I think that was intentional, the character was supposed to be kinda weaselly and despicable.


So, yeah. No Golblum, and Chris Pratt riding his motorcycle with raptors as if they were just bloodhounds or something is pretty lame, but it wasn't handled as badly as it could have been. And T-Rex still rules. Yaayy, Jurassic Park! The theme music still stirs up those excited, nostalgic feelings.

This is just a rather quick, superficial review, I might say a few more things, tomorrow. I give this maybe a 7 out of 10. IMO it picked up steam in the second half and got progressively better as it went along.

*have we established by now that Louise is usually attracted to the weird men? Yes, yes, we have.