Jurassic World (2015)

[The Shadow]

Alright, I've not seen Jurassic World yet so I'm just popping in until I can see the movie. I realized this week that in creating the story for this movie they have missed a golden opportunity to strongly link JW back to Jurassic Park.

Chris Pratt's character in JW (Owen Grady) should have been Joseph Mazzello's character (Timothy Murphy) in JP, even with switching actors this detail still could have worked. It does not seem at all far fetched that Hammond's grandson might take an interest in training velociraptors in the years after surviving the events of JP.

[Shin_Edda_Robo!!!!!]

Saw this movie. I LOVED IT.

Man this was so much better than Avengers 2. Easily. So much fun. Tons of fun.

DID I MENTION FUN!?

Indominus Rex is a scary lady yo. They knew how to rack up the suspense with this one, and it was nothing but dread whenever it appeared. Or DIDN'T appear...

That claw mark scene was really spooky..

The ending fight was just a sight to see! The way it ended was quite a surprise and I loved it.

Some weird awkward moments for me though.

That kiss was so weirdly placed. Couldn't it have waited till the end of the movie? At least it would have fit better, stereotypical as it would be.

[jellydonut25]

Wait.

I think The Shadow HAS to be joking right?

You think someone almost eaten by raptors would ever want to go near them again? I wouldn't buy that. This isn't a surfer getting bit by a shark and still surfing. This is a dinosaur trying to eat someone. I'd bey Tim Murphy is a corn farmer in Nebraska.

[Tom R VanSlambrouck]

[mr.negativity]

[Henry88]

$511,800,000
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id ... cpark4.htm

[lhb412]

Wow. I don't think anyone expected the movie to be this enormous hit. I mean, the #2 opening of all-time after The Avengers?!

Hopefully, this bodes well for Legendary and Universal's plan to inundate us with monsters. I mean, it is a plan I can get behind. Oh, and I suppose Kong is the next big dinosaur movie on the schedule, right?

[jellydonut25]

[Tom R VanSlambrouck]

IGN reported that Jurassic World could actually outdo the Avengers opening weekend we'll have to wait until Monday monrning when the final tally comes in regardless I'm really happy for Jurassic World it was such a fantastic film.

[Moonlight SY-3]

Just saw it last night, thought it was fantastic! Just about everything I hoped would happen, happened. Very satisfying. I enjoyed all the interactions between the characters, both human and dinosaur. Fantastic movie!

[mr.negativity]

[XvGojira]

[lhb412]

^Then prepare for a lot of end of the year think-pieces about monster movies and space operas replacing superheroes.

[Russzilla]

[Tom R VanSlambrouck]

I'm really curious how Star Wars is going to do compared to JW. I'm not as excited for it as I was JW but it does look interesting.

[XvGojira]

I've seen a few comments about how they doubt Star Wars will top JW simply because it's Christmas. The top December weekend take was the first Hobbit movie with $84.6 million.

Whereas JW topped June's second biggest opener (Man of Steel) by over $90 million.

And it makes sense. Everyone's cash is stretched already from buying gifts and other seasonal expenditures. And all the family time and what not that usually takes precedent over seeing movie.

[klen7]

but Star Wars isn't a movie. it's an event.

[planetxleader]

[Benjamin Haines]

[mr.negativity]

[XvGojira]

[Gman2887]

[MekaGojira3k]

[jellydonut25]

bleh, I don't even WANT to compare these three movies. They have three different agendas, exist in three different universes, and actually feature the input of a grand total of three different studios (as WB was involved in PacRim and Godzilla). I guess I'd probably say PacRim > Godzilla > Jurassic World, but what I'd really say is that Jurassic kinda shoots the middle between each of those two movie's own strengths and weaknesses, and I actually never find its weaknesses as weak as either of those films, but neither do I find its strengths quite as strong.


It seems we can't have a big blockbuster film released anymore without it becoming a lightning-rod for controversy. I don't know if this is because we're in the era of bloggers and sites wanting clicks and people fabricating reasons to be offended/upset, or if (for this particular film) people are just taking up the torch Joss Whedon threw this movie's way back when that scene between Howard and Pratt first dropped, but I've seen SO MUCH made about "sexism" in this movie, and I just can't wrap my head around it.

Is Bryce Dallas Howard's character a bit of a cliché and a stereotype? Yeah. Is Chris Pratt's character just a teenage male fantasy dropped onto the screen? DEFINITELY. Does that mean the whole movie is evil and sexist and hates women? Not at all. Sometimes, and especially with a movie like Jurassic World, a thing can just be what it is, instead of having some deeper meaning projected onto it. When Bryce Dallas Howard winds up taking care of her nephews at the end and caring about them, it's not her biological clock kicking in and telling her she needs to become a "real woman" and start making babies...it's her realizing that she loves her family and has been neglecting them in favor of pursuing her career. It's kinda as simple as that. Jurassic World is about as deep as a puddle, the movie's entire PREMISE is that 22 years ago, a whole bunch of dinosaurs killed at LEAST 5 people, and a dinosaur park was essentially proven to be an unsustainable ideal so obviously the best plan of action is to clone more dinosaurs and create a park that hosts over 20,000 people per day. This is a STUPID movie. Conventional criticism KINDA falls by the wayside when we're dealing with something THIS dumb.

Then there's the other group of people who speak ill of this movie...those who claim Trevorrow is a hack compared to Spielberg and Jurassic World is just raping the corpse of a once-great movie for financial gain. These people act like the original is hallowed ground that ought not be tainted by corporate shilling...without realizing that the original film was optioned and given to Spielberg before the book was even out, and that was fast-tracked given the book's popularity, AND that was merchandised and shilled out sixteen ways from Sunday. This isn't some holy, sacred movie franchise. It's dinosaurs. Dinosaurs that run crazy and eat people. It's like getting upset that the new Friday the 13th movie is too much of a sellout shill of a movie. DUH.





All of that said, the skinny is, I had a blast. It's a deeply flawed movie, and I think the script could have used another pass (or perhaps the film was a touch too heavily edited?), but it's a blast. It's what a summer blockbuster SHOULD be. It doesn't take itself overly seriously, it doesn't over-emphasize the drama and the fate of things, and it doesn't pontificate. In all those ways, when it just "devolves" into a bunch of fight and chase scenes, it never feels like the movie's at odds with itself. It's just a fun ride the whole time.

Like I said, the script IS pretty bad. I especially thought the first exchange between Pratt and Howard was too much "Oh you scamp! Sexually harassing me in the workplace is silly!" and there are definitely things said after big sequences or moments that seem to be paying off something that was cut or just doesn't make sense.

Also, the movie has pathetically few practical effects, and it was legitimately the only thing that I walked out of the movie thinking was disappointing. Seems all those practical raptors they made were just for behind-the-scenes and promotional pics, and I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if no practical model existed for any of the dinos in the movie aside from the raptors seen in behind-the-scenes stuff and the one animatronic that is in the film. And hey, don't get me wrong, I get it, I get what era we live in, I wasn't expecting a practical Mosasaurus, and given everything the T-Rex and I-Rex do in the movie, I'm more or less okay with no practical versions of them (or the various flying dinos) appearing at all. But when we're in the petting zoo area and the couple little triceratops are CGI and the kids are riding on CGI trikes and the raptors are in that harness thing where it's their heads only and that's CGI...it pissed me off, if I'm being honest.

Still, I think the characters are fun and quirky (except Pratt, who isn't remotely quirky, but is played by Pratt, so he's fun), the villains (both D'Onofrio's human villain, and the I-Rex) actually filled me with some "you're a bad guy" feelings, and the action scenes are very well-staged and there's great pacing throughout the movie, with enough breaks and down time between big moments to never wear out their welcome.

AND DAT CLIMAX! I'd pay just to see the final 15-20 minutes on a loop for the 2-hr running length of the film.

I legitimately think at LEAST 50% of the people who don't like this movie just don't like to have fun and are dead inside.

As for a rating out of 5. It's really tough, because if I'm being honest and critical, it's like a 3.5 out of 5, but that just FEELS too low for something I enjoyed this much, so I'd nudge it up to 4/5.

[DannyBeane]

After watching it a second time all I can think was