Monday, July 13, 2015

Movie Monday: Jurassic World (Spoilers)


Jurassic World, or as I like to call it “the only movie in June worth seeing,” but I suppose Jurassic World is shorter. After fourteen years since the last film they decided, “What the hell? Let's make another one!” And so they did! Before we go any further allow me to briefly go over the other films.

I was four or five years old when I saw Jurassic Park when it came out to video, never saw it in theaters. I loved it. I was a huge dinosaur fan and had all these toys to play with so I really, really enjoyed it. I liked the Lost World, too, and consider it an all right sequel. Didn't like the third movie as much. Completely forgettable.

So, when I found out they were making a fourth one I got excited. Originally, I thought this was a reboot, but found out before going that it's another sequel so I was curious to see how they would continue it. Let's dive right in and see what Jurassic World has instored!

  Blows on whistle Stop!

Introducing the star of our show, Star-Lord Owen Grady, a former navy turned Raptor trainer/researcher who established a relationship with four Velociraptors named Blue, Charlie, Delta, and Echo. Good luck telling them apart. I gotta hand it to the movie, this is something we've never seen before. An actual human having a friendship with one of the more dangerous types of dinosaurs out there.

Owen takes his job seriously and shows respect to the dinosaurs he's working with, but don't worry, this is Chris Pratt, he still lets out the occasional joke or two that you can laugh at. The character is overall likeable and easy for the audience to get behind. Only really loses his temper around idiots, and God knows he's surrounded by a lot of those in the movie. And when the film requires him to be a badass you know he's going to rise to the challenge like no one's business.

  Welcome to the Umbrella Corporation. Our business is life itself.

Okay, so she isn't evil, but how awesome would it have been if she was? Claire Dearing is the park's operations manager and sees to the day-to-day activities of Jurassic World and is the one to bring in Owen to check out their newly created breed of dinosaur, the Indominus Rex. Even the movie makes fun of this name.

Claire is cool. I was worried going in that she was going to be your typical ice queen and it would be up to Owen to melt her heart, but none of that happened. She is a little distant at the beginning mainly because she's married to her work. When her nephews are in danger she's worried about them and things of that nature.

You get to see her kick ass, even though the nephews are less than impressed which is just bullshit, and she has the idea of getting the T-Rex to fight the Indominus Rex which is a lot more of a sound idea than using the Raptors since the T-Rex is the same fucking size! 

  Just when you thought it was safe to go off alone after the park tells you the ride is close.

Here we have our obligatory children characters for the movie, Gray and Zach. Gray is the little one, Zach is the big one. They're the nephews of Claire and are sent to the park by their parents who are filing for divorce. Huh, wonder if they can get in a support group with Blake?

They're decent. Not really much to be said about them. Gray acts like a kid, and Zach acts like a teenager. Their only one real stupid moment is taking off on their own for the Indominus Rex to find. You ask yourself, “Why are kids so stupid?” Answer, “They're kids.” Kids do stupid things.

  I'm not bad, I'm just written that way.

Victor Hoskins is in charge of Jurassic World's private security force and a major A douchebag. He believes that dinosaurs like the Raptors should be deployed in the military to replace human soldiers to save lives. As cliche as it is for people to use monsters and such as weapons, I kind of want to see that. How cool would it be to see dinosaurs in military situations? Okay, it might be cheesy as hell.

Hoskins sticks out as so much of a sore thumb that it's surprising anyone ever trusted this guy to be in his position. You just know he's waiting for an excuse to take over, and the incident at the park gives it to him. By that point you're just waiting for him to be killed off because there isn't much to him as a villain. Just be a creep, say some things the good guys disagree with, and die.

My god, Henry Wu is a better villain and he's slated as the tertiary antagonist. They could have taken out Hoskins entirely and just replace him with Wu, at least he's a more interesting character. Granted, he does get a bigger role than any of the other movies, but is still such a minor character at the end of the day.

  FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!

Moment of truth, are the effects good? Yes. The CGI on the dinosaurs are designed well, and you believe they're really there with maybe the exception of the Raptors. I never questioned the existence of the Mosasaurus, but that's mainly due to the fact it can eat me.

I don't know if it's just the design choice of the Raptors in this movie, or the fact you see them more than any other dinosaur giving you time to adjust, but either way if you're used to CGI in your movies you're going to notice. Not that it's bad to the point that it will spoil the film for you. In some shots they look really, really good. In other shots not so much.

  Cue nostalgia music.

The park looks fantastic. You have a bunch of people going through everything and watching the dinosaurs at work instead of just a select few. We've gotten to the point where people have become bored of dinosaurs and sees them like we see animals in a zoo, hence the creation of the Indominus Rex to begin with.

Later down the line a bunch of Pterodactyls get set loose and attack the visitors at the park, sweeping them away into the air to eat them. You were expecting it all movie (mainly because the trailer gave it away) and when it finally happens it's like, “Oh shit!” Sadly, they don't take advantage of having large groups of people there except for that one scene, but it kind of makes sense they'd evacuate the park as soon as possible after something like that.

  This is for Jurassic Park III!

At the end the park is evacuated, Claire releases the T-Rex and we get the best closing fight scene the movie could have closed out on. Both Indominus and the T-Rex are biting into each other, the last remaining Raptor teams up with the T-Rex and gets some shots in, and Mosasaurus gets the finishing blow. I love the fact they saved the T-Rex to the very end and had all that buildup to her reveal, and it was worth it!

The bad guys take off with all the samples they were working on in the lab, Hoskins gets eaten by a Raptor, the children are reunited with their parents, and Owen and Claire get together because... survival. I should try that line on a woman some time.

Jurassic World is fun for the whole family. If you're fan of Jurassic Park then I recommend this movie. Enjoy.

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