Dustin: 3.5 of 5 stars Nick: 3.5 of 5 stars Average: 3.5 of 5 stars (Live canary)
Dustin: Jurassic World is an amped up sequel/reboot of the Jurassic Park series, and is the best since the original. The tagline should be “Here we go again!” as this time the genetic engineers have spliced a T-Rex with a velociraptor to create the Indominus Rex, the biggest, scariest dinosaur we’ve seen yet, which serves as a metaphor for both the series and summer blockbusters in general.
Nick: I want people to know where I stand when in comes to the Jurassic Park series so here are my ratings for all of the films: Jurassic Park = 4.5 stars, The Lost World = 2 stars, Jurassic Park III = 3 stars. Jurassic World is easily the best sequel and brings the awe back to the dinosaurs.
Dustin: Jurassic Park is still a solid adventure/special effects film even seen today. I saw the sequels only once when they both first came out, which was enough. I remember being disappointed by The Lost World. I forgot Jurassic Park III within minutes of walking out of the theater. (I remember a few months later when it came out on DVD, I said, “They made a Jurassic Park III?!” Then I remembered I had actually seen it!)
Jurassic World is certainly the first of the sequels to actually feel like a worthy continuation of the series. I wouldn’t say it brought back the “awe” of the dinosaurs. There is no buildup like in JP. The characters seem mostly bored with the dinosaurs, as the technology to clone them has been around for 20 years now in the film’s universe.
Nick: I by no means meant to suggest this film brings back all the awe of the original, but it has more than the last two installments. There is a reason we follow around the youngest cast member and his slightly older brother through the amusement park. As the littlest one is impressed by everything, even a T-rex eating a goat, the older one is only impressed by the things we have never seen before and is suppose to represent the audience of today.
Now to Jurassic Park III, I just want to defend it a little because director Joe Johnston seems to like to make his films with CGI that makes them look like B-movies, which I am a known sucker for, and it brought back Dr. Alan Grant who was just like Indiana Jones in my eyes growing up. Considering the original films were both made by Spielberg and they are both about scientists who are dragged into adventure I don’t think it’s that ridiculous of a notion.
Dustin: You know how much I hate bad CGI. I would rather have a puppet or a guy in a rubber suit.
Nick: I by no means meant to suggest this film brings back all the awe of the original, but it has more than the last two installments. There is a reason we follow around the youngest cast member and his slightly older brother through the amusement park. As the littlest one is impressed by everything, even a T-rex eating a goat, the older one is only impressed by the things we have never seen before and is suppose to represent the audience of today.
Now to Jurassic Park III, I just want to defend it a little because director Joe Johnston seems to like to make his films with CGI that makes them look like B-movies, which I am a known sucker for, and it brought back Dr. Alan Grant who was just like Indiana Jones in my eyes growing up. Considering the original films were both made by Spielberg and they are both about scientists who are dragged into adventure I don’t think it’s that ridiculous of a notion.
Dustin: You know how much I hate bad CGI. I would rather have a puppet or a guy in a rubber suit.
I liked how this movie seemed to comment on summer blockbusters. I recently rewatched Jaws, which was the original summer blockbuster. In Jurassic World, a great white shark is fed to a Mosasaurus thing. The scale of today’s summer blockbuster compared to Jaws has gotten ridiculous, and the filmmakers know it.
Nick: Well if the CGI is solid in this film and makes other blockbusters look foolish then I’d say the characters are about on par with the $100 million movies of today. They make the main male character the James Bond where he knows everything and is, besides one little slip up, infallible. While the main female character is a hundred times worse! She’s belittled for not settling down and having kids and is forced to watch her sister’s kids and treats them coldly until of course they get lost in the middle of the jungle with the Indominous Rex always lurking. She’s then made to chase after them in heels because the script requires her to do so, and yet we still get Chris Pratt giving her shit for wearing them. Then we get a lot of useless backstory for the two main characters, including one scene where they first meet (on screen) and it turns into a squabbling match between two people who went on ONE DATE, seemingly a very long time ago? I personally believe people can care for characters who have no relationship to each other before a dinosaur attack, especially when it entails two kids who are trapped out in the park… Would she not have gone out for them if they weren’t her nephews?
Dustin: There were a lot of people in the park, so I don’t think she would have gotten as invested in those two if they weren’t her nephews.
Nick: But the rest of the people were at least contained together and weren’t out in the park where the dinosaurs roam.
Dustin: I agree the characters weren’t very deep. I’d call them Crichton-esque. Characters in Michael Crichton’s novels tended to be treated as devices to keep the plot moving. So I guess they were true to the source material in that sense.
My wife and her friends also commented on the high heels Bryce Dallas Howard’s character wore throughout the movie. Saying it wasn’t realistic. I was like, “The movie is about a theme park that clones a new type of dinosaur, and you’re complaining because the footwear isn’t realistic?”
Then again, I would complain about that too if I were a woman, because the rules of genetic engineering as they exist in the movie are explained, but we know a normal woman couldn’t run around for hours in high heels.
Nick: My problem with that is not the realism, but how you said the movie looks at the current state of films and tries to fix them with using better CGI, but the story and its characters exist in a more ‘60s era adventure where the women and children are helpless and quite stupid, while the man is incredible and mocks the woman for her womanly ways.
Jurassic World did have many fun Easter eggs such as the final fight scene that of course includes a T-Rex and velociraptors! The main characters also walk through the old park and kids stumble upon the old park vehicles. The movie served almost as much as an homage than a standalone film. That’s not a complaint because I quite enjoyed it! I was obsessed with Jurassic Park and had many toys representing that fact.
Dustin: The movie also had plenty of visual nods to the first film, with shots that looked almost identical. This Web site did most of the work: http://www.thegeektwins.com/2015/02/jurassic-world-trailer-scenes.html#.VZGAfmMmyNU
I remember a few more, like Indominus Rex doing the same pose as the T-Rex in the original and a shot of a velociraptor giving chase to a moving vehicle from the side mirror.
Nick: I like that the film ends with the possibility of the sequel being like one of my favorite childhood cartoon shows, Dino-Riders! The commandos take the DNA and it sounds like they might equip them dinos with a whole lot of armour!
Nick: My problem with that is not the realism, but how you said the movie looks at the current state of films and tries to fix them with using better CGI, but the story and its characters exist in a more ‘60s era adventure where the women and children are helpless and quite stupid, while the man is incredible and mocks the woman for her womanly ways.
Jurassic World did have many fun Easter eggs such as the final fight scene that of course includes a T-Rex and velociraptors! The main characters also walk through the old park and kids stumble upon the old park vehicles. The movie served almost as much as an homage than a standalone film. That’s not a complaint because I quite enjoyed it! I was obsessed with Jurassic Park and had many toys representing that fact.
Dustin: The movie also had plenty of visual nods to the first film, with shots that looked almost identical. This Web site did most of the work: http://www.thegeektwins.com/2015/02/jurassic-world-trailer-scenes.html#.VZGAfmMmyNU
I remember a few more, like Indominus Rex doing the same pose as the T-Rex in the original and a shot of a velociraptor giving chase to a moving vehicle from the side mirror.
Nick: I like that the film ends with the possibility of the sequel being like one of my favorite childhood cartoon shows, Dino-Riders! The commandos take the DNA and it sounds like they might equip them dinos with a whole lot of armour!
Dustin: I don’t think they need to do another sequel. How much bigger can these movies get? And what comments can they make on man playing God or how big and loud blockbusters have gotten that they haven’t already?
Nick: I’m not saying there should be another sequel, but considering how much money the movie has made in two weeks already makes it a certainty there will be a sequel. If it’s like Dino-Riders I could find myself enjoying it on a B-movie-like scale. Or maybe this is one of the next three Mad Max sequels that have already been greenlit! It will be dinosaur-with-guns chases instead of vehicles!
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