'Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom' Review · 9:27pm Jun 22nd, 2018
What's up!
So, I was able to go see the midnight premiere of Jurassic World last night with some friends and I desperately feel the need to talk about it. Jurassic Park means more to me than any franchise ever in the history of the world.
Anyhow, there will be some mild spoilers below, so avoid if you don't want spoilers and enjoy this picture instead. If you don't mind a few spoilers, carry on.
So, as I mentioned above, I love Jurassic Park and everything about it. I have all the existing movies and I have them in four different mediums: VHS, DVD, Blu-Ray, Digital. I'm pretty obsessed. I mean, check out this pic of me and some friends from last night. I'm the one in the Jurassic Park shirt, by the way, and I couldn't resist a photo opp with that cardboard cutout advertisement.
That being said, I've been waiting for this movie since the moment it was teased on Facebook back in 2015. I knew they were getting a director that specialized in suspense and horror films and that the tale itself was supposed to be much darker and depressing this time around. I was looking forward to a scarier, more intense experience than the last movie.
Did I get what I wanted? Did it hold up to its end of the bargain?
Yes! ...and not so much.
Let me explain.
The director, J.A. Bayona, did a great job with the screenplay and writing he was given. He tried to play to his strengths wherever he could and it paid off extremely well. He doesn't rely on jump scares or other tired cliches to make your heart race. Instead, he uses the entire atmosphere of a scene to keep you engaged. The opening sequence, in particular, was a thing of beauty. Nothing was given to you on a silver platter to scare you. Instead, you had sheer darkness, rumbling thunder, building music and footsteps closing in from the darkness to tell you all you needed to know. 'Twas quite glorious.
There were also other examples I could go off of. Like how the movie steadily gets more and more claustrophobic from beginning to end, making you feel as if you're trapped alone with these creatures as much as the humans are. It was a very genius concept to work with.
To that end, actually, any scene where the dinosaurs were the main focus was fantastic. The creature moments, the full display of their nature and interactions with each other was beautiful every moment they were on screen. They went above and beyond in that aspect.
Now, if only the people were better.
Chriss Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard are fine, but they don't really show any growth. That kinda peeved me. Well, Bryce's character, she grew a bit, but it didn't severely impact the storytelling enough to add a different vibe overall. But that's neither here nor there because I thought the villains were the real let down here. You've got a douche and that's about it. No other motives except for being douchey. I would've loved some more depth.
I feel if they had capitalized on the overall scope they were given to make the villains more engaging or sympathetic even, it would've gone miles to take the film to the next level.
All that being said, I enjoyed the movie immensely. I had a lot of fun with it and the dinosaurs are bad-ass as ever and taking names and taking down greedy assholes as they always have. (I love the T-Rex from the first movie keeps getting to play hero. It makes me happy.)
Final Score: 8/10
That being said, I do wanna take this one step forward as far as recommendations go. I personally think this movie should be seen by everyone just because I think it's awesome, but there are a few things to keep in mind:
- For those of you have kids who might be sensitive to such things, there are some relatively brutal kills in this movie. You see a guy's arm get bitten off and swallowed and another dude gets torn to pieces and tossed around between a few dinosaurs.
- If you don't already like Jurassic Park or aren't at least okay with it, you probably won't like this movie. But if you like the franchise or are at least tolerant of it, you'll find some things to enjoy.
- Don't go into this movie expecting a deep, horrific film or something like that. This is a suspenseful action film with some emotional subplots to it. If you're okay with that, you'll have a good time.
Anyway, keep it real, guys!
-Famous
(Actual scene from the movie, btw. Rexy is awesome.)
mmmmyyeeeeaaahhhhh...I'm sorry but I need need NEED to see "Incredibles 2." My 9 year old self can't be contained
4887573
I'm not super hype on it. I like the original Incredibles, but it wasn't my favorite. A new Bug's Life would get all my money, though.
4887577
No. Please. Don't do that to me man. I've LONG accepted the fact that A Bug's Life, the first movie I've ever seen in my life, just won't get a sequel. It's been TOO long
What would it even be about? Hopper coming bad but all messed up? I loved bugs life but what other story could they tell with that universe?
4887573
Why not both? Incredibles 2 was awesome. Personally I think Syndrome is the reason for the main villain's motive, like being the one to indirectly cause it given what we know he's been doing ever since that relocation law went in effect.
When you see the movie let me know what you think about that. It's something to consider as being a possibility.
Hey Famous, have you seen Matpat's theories about the movies yet? They make a lot of sense in context especially how to make Jurassic Park and World successful and permanently safe for tourists. My recommendation on the first one's events if I had any input in the theme park is give the Raptors actual human intelligence and ability to speak and train them with love, respect, and rattatouie the movie and the classic cartoon fight scenes with a dust up pounce effect on how to deal with dangerous troublemakers like a certain guard with weapon making motives the proper way. I.E. Hold up rope/ball gag and sic them on him.
Minutes later guard is tied up and carried off by the raptors and tossed in the closet so he's no longer an issue while we deal with the park. And someone make the Indomidus area bigger and wider and make her know love.
4887774
I'm actually not familiar with those theories, but you can bet I'll be looking it up.
4887778
Look for game theory on YouTube. He has a separate segment called film theory on the channel for movies and shows while the main segment is game related. His most recent one is Can You Sue a Superhero? for the Incredibles.
There should be 2-3 theories for Jurassic Park now and oh man plenty of FNAF as the series was unfolding from game 1.
To be fair, the human "villains" have never mattered in Jurassic Park as a whole. The true "bad guy" of every JP story is human arrogance, selfishness and greed; the antagonists are literally just there to give those concepts physical form so the audience can properly visualize THE driving force behind everything that happens. Other than that, the human villains just exist to be douchebags that suffer an oh, so cathartic end when their misdeeds literally come back to bite them in the ass(and everywhere else). That's their purpose, and that's why they tend to be more caricatures than people. As far as Fallen Kingdom goes, I feel nothing embodies that idea more than the auction scene where Mills practically pops a boner as he watches the dollar figures climb higher and higher.
I also felt the protagonists were fine, but I'll go a bit further and say that Claire didn't really *need* to grow in this film. I mean really, where else could the character have gone under the given circumstances? And as for Owen, I'm just glad Chris Pratt was apparently allowed to be more...Chris Pratt-y. I thought Owen was way too serious in Jurassic World, to the point where I wondered why the hell they bothered to cast an actor whose arguably most well-known attribute is his comedic timing for such a bland, largely humorless role. So I was just glad to hear him crack a few jokes and actually have some fun with his character.
4887764
Objectively, I agree that the Incredibles 2 is a good movie. Personally though I didn't really like it. I know I'm letting my personal feelings get too much of me, but I really find the fact that the movie treats human willpower as weaker than some blinking lights to be an enormous insult. Not only that, I find it a really lazy way to write a villain; no charisma, so just give them the ability to effortlessly make anyone work for them.
Like I said, that's my personal opinion. Do I think it deserves a good rating and that everyone should watch it? Yeah, I kinda do. It's a good movie, no doubt about that.
The picture is oh so cute
I just went to see the movie today and I loved it
. The lack of character growth for Owen didn’t really bother me since he didn’t change all that much during the first Jurassic World. He was always right about the raptors being not-so-good
footclaw soldiers. Also about how making a fusion of a T. rex, velociraptor, and cuttlefish was a terrible idea.My favorite part from Fallen Kingdom was when the ladder wouldn’t come all the way down and Franklin had to avoid all the lava and the dinosaur’s gaping maw of death in order to get a rolling chair. I feel like this scene captures the pure terror I feel whenever I try to stand on one of those chairs without falling over.
Also Owen playing with the baby raptors was ADORABLE. I’ll take 4 to go.
4888642
Oh god, baby Blue was adorable. She cuddled him!!