Jurassic World

[adamgreer]

Posted: 6/12/15 at 8:55am

Anyone else see it yet?

 

It was, for my money, everything a good summer popcorn flick should be. Sure, a lot of the dialogue is clunky, the plot is outlandish, and it requires a suspension of disbelief (the way that woman runs in HEELS is unparalleled). However, it was a fun two hour romp, and it was cool to see the park "open." Theres no way you can't get chills when John Williams' main theme begins to swell as the gates swing open. 

It's not as good as the original film, but leaps and bounds better than either of its two sequels. I really appreciated the many homages to the original film, though I think they missed a fun opportunity when one character is hiding from a raptor in a pipe to have him say "clever girl." 

 

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 6/12/15 at 9:13am

I saw it too and agree with you. It was a lot of fun. As good as the original? No. But way better than the previous two sequels. And I thought the effects, CGI included, were fantastic.

[Bilbo3]

Posted: 6/12/15 at 9:28am

I'm seeing it tonight. Very excited.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 6/12/15 at 9:37am

Mildest of spoilers, I guess....

 

 

I did unintentionally giggle when she turned her skirt and business jacket into a little romper suit by rolling up the sleeves, and suddenly she went from being cold-hearted corporate woman to dinosaur hunter. I understand they were in a rush, but she could have taken two minutes to go put on a more sensible outfit and some hiking boots. 

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 6/12/15 at 9:38am

She was no Laura Dern.

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 6/12/15 at 9:41am

I agree that it falls somewhere between “Jurassic Park” and “The Lost World” in overall quality, but I’d cheat it nearer to the second than the first.  My expectations were tempered going in, thinking, “If it’s not well-written, at least let it be full of action-packed fun.”  And I was a little disappointed in the action.  Firstly, it takes awhile to get going.  So did “Jurassic Park,” but there was substance and setup in its first third – not so here.  There’s also no buildup of tension or suspense, so the action just happens spontaneously.

There are two really fun set pieces, one of which is the crazy climax that almost makes up for everything that’s come before.  It also has a handful of nifty visual homages and some funny meta commentary on the original park/film.  Chris Pratt manages some dimension with his stock character; Bryce Dallas Howard does not.  She is wooden and boring, and you don’t understand why a nice, down-to-earth guy like Pratt’s Owen would have the slightest interest – let alone a sustained one – in her.  All of the supporting characters, who get quite a bit of screen time, are unmemorable, generically written, and acted on a scale from adequate to “hey, he/she came really close to doing something there.”

Oh, and the new dinosaur is not scary in the least, despite several attributes that should make it terrifying.  Just as in the first film, the raptors steal the show.

And, perhaps the movie’s most unforgivable offense, Irrfan Khan and B.D. Wong are given just one scene together. And it’s not a love scene.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 6/12/15 at 9:43am

I haven't seen it yet, but a friend of mine who works for Universal and saw an industry screening a few weeks ago. I find his tastes usually line up with mine and he was pretty excited by it. He said while not as good as the first movie (but what could hope to be) it still had that certain something that made him feel like the excited pre-teen he was when he first saw the original. That was enough for me to feel some excitement about seeing it and hope to find some time next week to do so.

[Wilmingtom]

Posted: 6/12/15 at 11:41pm

"...it requires a suspension of disbelief (the way that woman runs in HEELS is unparalleled)."

Adam, this made me laugh in a good way.  The movie is about a dinosaur theme park.  The shoes are the least of the "suspend your disbelief" stuff.

 

[Marianne2]

Posted: 6/13/15 at 11:06am

Thanks for the review. I was debating wanting to see it because the 3rd one was so horrible. Now I might.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 6/13/15 at 11:12am

I'm going at 2 today, but opted out of 3D. For one thing, I'm tired of the damn glasses. Mainly, for some reason it's just so not Spielberg to me.  I know, I know, he didn't direct this. Still, I want to try and feel some of the magic of the original at the Ziegfeld.  Still a great memory.    

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 6/13/15 at 11:35am

"I'm going at 2 today, but opted out of 3D. For one thing, I'm tired of the damn glasses. Mainly, for some reason it's just so not Spielberg to me.  I know, I know, he didn't direct this. Still, I want to try and feel some of the magic of the original at the Ziegfeld.  Still a great memory.    "

 I'll always remember watching Jurassic Park opening weekend in a packed theater on the Jersey shore. Especially the T-Rex attack on the SUV and the kitchen sceneThis movie didn't live up to that (but how could it?) but there were flashes of that.

And while this is another reboot...it was nice to go see big summer blockbuster that was fun...instead of another overblown, gloomy, "dark" superhero reboot.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 6/13/15 at 9:11pm

I probably agree with everyone else's takes.  Howard's vocal fry in the first half hour is a startling negative.  She speaks like a perfume sample provider at the Short Hills Mall, not someone who'd run ... let me just say it ... the only dinosaur amusement park slash zoo in the world, a phrase that can still make me giggle.  She doesn't do much in the first act to establish the needed gravitas (not because she's female, but because she's eerily Stepford like, with that damned voice) and that hurts the film's premise, a tad, because we actually like the turns in which her character is proven to be both fearless and slightly off-center. A hot dog in a crisis. If only she didn't seem so post-adolescent.  A quibble, because the movie has many pleasures and thrills.  No big spoiler, but just when it gets slow, along comes an homage to THE BIRDS that compensates big time for some of the by the numbers stuff before it, and for me kicked the movie up a needed notch.  I was a little surprised that Pratt had less impact on the story, though he's certainly generically heroic.  And if he were any butcher we'd need a hunting license just to get into his movies.  

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 6/14/15 at 12:06am

Went last night with a few friends- I've never seen the original and only know the basic premise, but I had an absolute blast. Yes, it's not necessarily a good movie, and I'm not sure I'd want to go again, but seeing those kickass dinosaur battles in a theatre full of excited fans was the best. 

 

SPOILER

Was anyone else, however, disturbed by the death of the assistant character? Most of the deaths were fairly quick, but hers was drawn out in the most gruesome way, even though that character did nothing particularly wrong. For me, it was the one wrong note in an otherwise great popcorn movie. 

[Auggie27]

Posted: 6/14/15 at 12:19am

SPOILER RESPONSE.

 

Yes, it's the one death in the film that is startling and unsettling.  It's of course a big visual reference to Spielberg, and the JAWS finale to her 3 part death was the most spectacular and disturbing.  Gratuitous? Well, close enough.

[Taryn]

Posted: 6/14/15 at 7:52pm

Saw it today and had an overall fun time.  My biggest issue was how much time the film spent telling Claire she was just not being enough of the right kind of woman.  (You're so uptight, unlike me and my rugged courage!  Of course you'll want babies later, Claire, they're so worth it!  I can't believe you don't know your nephews' ages off the top of your head!  Dinosaurs are people too, Claire!)  Dude, sometimes women have awesome careers and run the operations for an entire park of DINOSAURS and sometimes they aren't interested in kids and what the hell, I usually have to do brief math to even remember my own siblings' ages.  It was just an obnoxious amount of ****ting on a female character for not being feminine enough.  (Ironic, since they made a point of how feminine her appearance and clothing was.)

SPOILER RESPONSE

Yes yes yes that death was so weirdly brutal.  It was actually getting laughs in my theater, which was disturbing and weird.

But man.  Owen hunting with the raptors and Claire setting the t-rex loose made it all worthwhile.  My headcanon is that the t-rex is the same one from the first film.

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 6/14/15 at 8:22pm

"SPOILER

 

Was anyone else, however, disturbed by the death of the assistant character? Most of the deaths were fairly quick, but hers was drawn out in the most gruesome way, even though that character did nothing particularly wrong. For me, it was the one wrong note in an otherwise great popcorn movie."

That was one of my favorite moments of the film. The audience I saw it with burst into applause when it happened. I was much more distressed by the mortally wounded brachiosaurus than I was by any of the human deaths.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 6/14/15 at 9:02pm

I saw this yesterday and thought it was just ok. I agree with you, Erik, about the wounded dinosaur engendering more sympathy than the humans. 

On the positive side I liked Pratt a lot and loved Jake Johnson. It's too bad the latter didn't have more to do as I thought he stole every moment he was on screen. The raptors and their sequences were pretty awesome too.

The CGI effects were great.

On the negative side of things the first half hour was very slow and the plot overall was uninspired. More like a reboot of the first film rather than a true sequel. I HATED Howard and had no clue why she was running this park. I mean she was making remarks like, "They're not that smart. They're only animals." She was a humorless shrew, plus did anyone else notice that she spent the entire movie in high heels?!?! (Also, why would she have worn that purple tank top under a white dress?)

As if we needed characters to root against more than Howard, the two kids were foisted upon us. Tim and Lex these two were not. It was painful knowing from the start that if any four characters where going to survive, Howard and the kids would be three of them.

If this had been any other summer popcorn flick I would have enjoyed it more, but my expectations were high after hearing that this film was going to put the franchise back on track after JP3.

 

[Auggie27]

Posted: 6/14/15 at 10:06pm

I'm in the minority, I appreciated the Spielbergian first half hour, that more formal, elegant pace as we were reintroduced to the setting, the milieu, the tropes, and all set to the iconic John Williams score (so good WQXR in NY, our classical station, plays it with regularity, appropriately, up there with Copeland's film work). The movie has a great use of the unities -- it's just one day, isn't it?  And from the minute the boys throw open the shudders on their balcony and reveal the establishing shot of the park, we are re-immersed into all that Creighton and Spielberg first revealed, with reverence and nice referencing (the discovered jeep has real poignance; and the tee-shiret on eBay--smart writing, to squeeze in enough annotating and exposition).  It wasn't the usual sequal-itis shorthand.  So I was fine with the pace, notes on Claire and Howard excepted. 

Updated On: 6/14/15 at 10:06 PM

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 6/15/15 at 1:05pm

I watched the original on blu-ray again last night and it is a much better movie. You're right those 2 kids are no Tim and Lex. I did like the younger kid though. But I was rooting for the older to brother to get eaten.

I think part of the reason I enjoyed it so much is because after the third film my expectations were so low.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 6/15/15 at 8:19pm

Just got back from it and thought, "Eh".

 

It took up two hours of my time.  It was slow to start and I really didn't care about any of the people in it.

 

Well, except for Chris Pratt.  Mmmmmmmm.  Chris Pratt.

[BroadwayNYC2]

Posted: 6/16/15 at 2:46pm

I had a great time, but I was disappointed by Pratt. I'm usually a huge fan and thought he lit up the screen in Guardians of the Galaxy. Here, I found him wooden and too stoic, especially in the beginning of the film. Bryce Dallas Howard didn't bother me. I wish John Krasinski (who was up for Pratt's role) and Emily Blunt played the two leads.


And why can't Judy Greer run from the dinosaurs? Always a bridesmaid it seems.

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 6/16/15 at 2:55pm

I was a fan of Pratt's snug pants.

[Brian07663NJ]

Posted: 6/16/15 at 10:56pm

Saw Jurassic World tonight in IMAX 3D real surround sound etc. It was AWESOME! Complete blast to the past when I saw the original 20 years ago!! Rare a movie lives up to all I hoped it to be!

Not wasn't supposed to be thought provoking. Just an action packed exciting summer movie.

I felt more down over the field of dead dinos than the assistant being tossed around like a chew toy! 

And I loved the joke about the eBay tshirt! I still have mine! I wasn't thinking to even dig it out and wear it to the movie. Ha

[wonkit]

Posted: 6/17/15 at 10:15pm

I saw this on Monday. What a disappointment! The writing was pedestrian - awkward and predictable. I thought everything about the Howard character was off-putting and her acting was wooden at best. The kids were annoying and I really didn't care about any of the other characters. They might as well have put the villains in black hats.

We saw this movie in 2-D and I have to say that the special effects were fuzzy and rushed looking - presumably designed to work better in 3-D. The only time I cared about what I was watching was the death of the brachiosaurus. 

 

If this is the best of the summer blockbusters, I don't think I will be spending much time in the multiplex.

[Lavieboheme3090]

Posted: 6/18/15 at 2:45am

Wow. Wow. Wow. This movie sucked. 

*spoilers* 

It has been 20 years since the 1st Jurrassic Park movie, and this movie managed to suck out any actual sense of wonder of discovery of the living world and replace it with a terrible CGI "monster" movie. I put monster in quotes, because what the first film does so beautifully is set up the idea that these creatures are animals. So we create a new big bad that goes of the rails I get that, but the scene with the pterodactyls WTF was that?

The most gruesome death in the Franchises history is given to an addis adapt that had NOTHING to do with the plot. Maybe instead of showing us that for 90 seconds we could have given any of the other characters some sort of development. They even managed to make Chris Pratt unlikable. 

Alas the sequel was already set up. The Embros are off the island and we all get to look forward to more senseless killing and terrible CGI effects.

 

 

 

 

Updated On: 6/18/15 at 02:45 AM