#jurassic 4

[jimsuggs-blog]

“It’s not about control, it’s a relationship, based on respect”

[jimsuggs-blog]

[jimsuggs-blog]

[obscurica-blog]

Bigger, Scarier... Less Teeth: Jurassic World Review

There’s a reason why the first Jurassic Park film’s considered a classic, and why its franchise’s further installments have critically failed again and again. And it’s a lesson unlearned for Jurassic World. 

To contextualize this, you need to remember how the first film went. Specifically, remember--there was a transformative moment, relatively early on. The key moment that transported both cast and audience from the mundane beginnings of an ornery paleontologist scaring kids with fossilized claws to a land of prehistoric majesty.

The framing of this moment is a critical strength to the first movie. The style is almost documentary--capturing the brontosaurus (now a real dinosaur again!) as a breathing, independent entity. Humanity is of no interest to it--in fact, the human world is left behind entirely as the camera pans back and away.

“They do move in herds.”

The contrast with Jurassic World is unflattering. We are treated to gorgeous shots, yes--of humans in canoes paddling past diverse setpieces. Of glass-tubed passages packed full of tourists gasping as the Tyrannosaurus Rex chows down on pre-set bait. Of a Seaworld-esque demonstration of a Great White Shark getting treated as so much chum for the monstrous maws of a Mosasaur.

But it’s all curated. They look like the animatronics of a Disney river-ride. Even when the camera is dragged over to the park’s restricted zones, where they presumably run wild, the shot is disappointingly narrow. In a film whose running theme is the disconnect between soulless corporate interests and the raw untamed wilds, they ironically never get past the soulless corporate interests layer. The humans in the new film are always in the foreground--even when moving past a herd in a high-tech gyroball (”rated against .50 cal bullets!” just moments before the genetically engineered horror pushes a claw through the glass), even when getting chased around, the central focus is on human reaction.

Contrast to how hunts are conducted in the original film. Especially in the iconic kitchen hunt, when the brother/sister duo has to outsmart a pair of hungry raptors.

But also throughout the first film. The dinosaur’s perspective is frequently used. More importantly, they’re frequently contrasted with the humans’ reactions. The original film does a good job of alienating the two worlds from each other--whether it be the vicious pack-hunter mentality of the velociraptors, or the lumbering curiosity of the T-Rex wondering why the innards of the flipped-over jeep doesn’t taste good, it’s all at a sharp contrast to the wild panic of the humans displaced from the comforts of civilization. But the theme park nature of Jurassic World drowns out everything else in a flood of clueless artifice.

In fact, much of Jurassic World’s problems are simple enough. They try to be like the original film, try to copypaste its tropes and thematic elements, and fail to understand how the pieces fit together. They use the same theme of science applied beyond our understanding, use the same trope of siblings helping each other survive, and use the same general theme of sensible survivalists struggling to clean up after the machinations of businessmen. 

But it’s all kludgy. The lines are delivered flatly. Chris Pratt sticks out like a sore sarcastic thumb amid a torrent of flatly delivered lines and robotic by-the-numbers dialogue. The actors do a decent job of elevating the trash they’re given, so that there’s some minimal semblance of humanity on the speechwriters’ props, but trash on a pedestal still stinks.

They tried to make an action horror out of a dinosaur thriller, and missed the point. They tried to humanize the raptors, making them like dogs, and missed the point. The most obviously “this is supposed to thrill you” moment, when the flare (a callback to JP1) is used to summon the dread king from his primeval throne, is clumsy and tone-deaf, and a vast departure from the innocent deadliness of how the original T-Rex is portrayed. 

“They want them bigger, scarier... more teeth,” said the distracted businesswoman, explaining how she plans to make an already overcrowded theme park even more profitable to a bunch of telecom suits. But a film that so readily demonizes cutthroat business strategy is ironically blind to its own sins along those lines. 

In its pursuit of a Jurassic Park summer blockbuster, it’s created a tepid generic Syfy entry. 

I want my money back.

[obakebrainpaint-blog]

Is it just me, or does anybody else notice the large amounts of similarities between the Indominus Rex from Jurassic World and Rudy from the 3rd Ice Age movie?

Especially if you directly compare it to this image from the trailers:

The more I think about it, the more parts of it from some other angles look like the Vastatosaurus Rex from the 2005 King Kong remake, too...

[the-imaginative-hobbyist]

Really cool new Mercedes-Benz commercial promoting the latest Jurassic Park "Jurassic World". Has a new look at the Indominus Rex!

[the-imaginative-hobbyist]

"Jurassic World" Viral Video

[halfheartedrages]

All that being said... I’ll definitely be buying a ticket to see this movie. >w< Probably in 4D if I can get it together.