- Mar 25, 2010
- 721
- 528
Jurassic World is an odd film, one that I'm finding my feelings on slightly hard to describe. You can maybe Call it a Love-Hate-Hate-Love relationship. The film is flawed and lives up to it's own hype, but not quite my own expectations.
What keeps the movie down is the lack of suspense that was in the first film. Had Spielberg directed the flick I feel it would've came out much, much better. There are some "oh sh-^" moments, and the one death Briman referenced was indeed probably one of the most terrifying and brutal things I've seen in a PG-13 film in a while. I feel they rushed the story a bit and wish they had shown the development of the park and played up the story of the kids a bit more as an intro.
The film is very unapologetic, in the sense it does play down the "wonder" of the dinosaurs, unlike what the original did oh so well, and instead places it's emotional connection in the nostalgia of being a kid in a theme park, You connect to the film from remembering your first time watching the original, Perhaps your first time stepping foot in an amusement park. These sequences are excellent in their own right, but at the same time I feel like it was a cheap way to create a connection the the story they are telling here, and because of this, the story doesn't stand on it's own two legs but on the legs of the nostalgia of the original, which keeps the film from excelling from a good popcorn action flick to something as memorable and time-honored as the original. The dinosaurs come second to the "stolen nostalgia" and are used to make more of a statement regarding the respect of wildlife, and they are shown with the audience reaction in almost a campy, satirical sense. I'm not quite sure what the director was trying to achieve here, other than making a comment on the notion that perhaps we as a species are just as violent as the animals we keep in captivity, and praise them for doing what they do, But when the animals attack any human, the cheers stop even though they are just doing what they do.
The dinos appear mostly in CGI, though there are a few, and I do mean a very few animatronics/puppets used for a few close up sequences. Lots of missed opportunity here. The unveiling of the I-Rex is underwhelming, for me at least. It doesn't become "scary" until it gets out and you see it for the first time, and when you do see it in it's full glory for the first time, it feels extremely rushed, though this happens well into the film, the buildup and subsequent rampage lack the subtleties, suspense and finesse of the first encounter with the T-Rex... Even though this scene pays homage to the scene with the SUV in the first film.
The human characters are your typical action movie archetypes, with above average development. Chris Pratt's character, Owen shows a bit more intelligence then your average leading action hero and has a sense of depth to him. Then, for the leading lady, Bryce Dallas... Well let's just say her character, Claire is going to cause a lot of feminist uproar, even though I don't view her character as flawed, weak or "typical" throughout the whole of the film, In fact her character's story and a lot of the not-so-subtle camp displayed by her and in her interactions with Owen seem to imply the director was trying to make a point... a point I'm going to let you decide on.
Two more standouts, B.D Wong is excellent as usual in a smaller role and Ty Simpkins as "Gray" the younger of the two main adolescent roles, without his acting job this film would fail. He holds together the very fabric of this film, keeping it from becoming the ultimate exercise in camp. I hope he has a very long career. There were also a couple good supporting performances from Omar Sy and Jake Johnson.
The other characters were very weak. Vincent D'Onofrio has one of his worst performances in recent memory, to the point where I thought he shouldn't have even been cast in his role. His and a few other performances weigh the film down in scenes where it had a chance to excel. Between the bad performances and sometimes bad dialogue and the SUPER-obvious foreshadowing you'd think perhaps the script should have had maybe just one more minor re-write or edit.
I find my problem with the film, is that besides relying too heavily on what we've come to know and love from the franchise as the connection point to the film, it eschews the intimate, close-up nature of the encounters and the wonder and excitement of them all in favor of an extremely fast-paced, post-2000's style action flick. I understand why, as I'm sure in directing the film there were choices to be made, and it needed to be shot one way or another way. I was hoping Colin would find proper balance between the delights of the style of the original and the new style of filmmaking. Yes, we're in a much larger setting, yes there are more characters, Yes were telling the story of Jurassic World, and not Jurassic Park. But somewhere, somewhere on the timeline of when this film was being made the Director forgot exactly what made Jurassic Park special and decided telling a larger more "popcorn" oriented story was more important then seeking out to truly connect with the audience through this film, though there were several missed oppurtunities to excel from summertime mediocrity to truly outstanding piece of Cinema.
Despite it's many shortcomings, The film does indeed stand up to the hype, but it simply does not excel to become the movie that the original deserves. I'd buy the DVD or Blu-ray if I was looking for something to add to the collection. But I wouldn't go out my way to pre-order the collectors edition. I'd see it maybe twice in theaters. 7.2/10.
What keeps the movie down is the lack of suspense that was in the first film. Had Spielberg directed the flick I feel it would've came out much, much better. There are some "oh sh-^" moments, and the one death Briman referenced was indeed probably one of the most terrifying and brutal things I've seen in a PG-13 film in a while. I feel they rushed the story a bit and wish they had shown the development of the park and played up the story of the kids a bit more as an intro.
The film is very unapologetic, in the sense it does play down the "wonder" of the dinosaurs, unlike what the original did oh so well, and instead places it's emotional connection in the nostalgia of being a kid in a theme park, You connect to the film from remembering your first time watching the original, Perhaps your first time stepping foot in an amusement park. These sequences are excellent in their own right, but at the same time I feel like it was a cheap way to create a connection the the story they are telling here, and because of this, the story doesn't stand on it's own two legs but on the legs of the nostalgia of the original, which keeps the film from excelling from a good popcorn action flick to something as memorable and time-honored as the original. The dinosaurs come second to the "stolen nostalgia" and are used to make more of a statement regarding the respect of wildlife, and they are shown with the audience reaction in almost a campy, satirical sense. I'm not quite sure what the director was trying to achieve here, other than making a comment on the notion that perhaps we as a species are just as violent as the animals we keep in captivity, and praise them for doing what they do, But when the animals attack any human, the cheers stop even though they are just doing what they do.
The dinos appear mostly in CGI, though there are a few, and I do mean a very few animatronics/puppets used for a few close up sequences. Lots of missed opportunity here. The unveiling of the I-Rex is underwhelming, for me at least. It doesn't become "scary" until it gets out and you see it for the first time, and when you do see it in it's full glory for the first time, it feels extremely rushed, though this happens well into the film, the buildup and subsequent rampage lack the subtleties, suspense and finesse of the first encounter with the T-Rex... Even though this scene pays homage to the scene with the SUV in the first film.
The human characters are your typical action movie archetypes, with above average development. Chris Pratt's character, Owen shows a bit more intelligence then your average leading action hero and has a sense of depth to him. Then, for the leading lady, Bryce Dallas... Well let's just say her character, Claire is going to cause a lot of feminist uproar, even though I don't view her character as flawed, weak or "typical" throughout the whole of the film, In fact her character's story and a lot of the not-so-subtle camp displayed by her and in her interactions with Owen seem to imply the director was trying to make a point... a point I'm going to let you decide on.
Two more standouts, B.D Wong is excellent as usual in a smaller role and Ty Simpkins as "Gray" the younger of the two main adolescent roles, without his acting job this film would fail. He holds together the very fabric of this film, keeping it from becoming the ultimate exercise in camp. I hope he has a very long career. There were also a couple good supporting performances from Omar Sy and Jake Johnson.
The other characters were very weak. Vincent D'Onofrio has one of his worst performances in recent memory, to the point where I thought he shouldn't have even been cast in his role. His and a few other performances weigh the film down in scenes where it had a chance to excel. Between the bad performances and sometimes bad dialogue and the SUPER-obvious foreshadowing you'd think perhaps the script should have had maybe just one more minor re-write or edit.
I find my problem with the film, is that besides relying too heavily on what we've come to know and love from the franchise as the connection point to the film, it eschews the intimate, close-up nature of the encounters and the wonder and excitement of them all in favor of an extremely fast-paced, post-2000's style action flick. I understand why, as I'm sure in directing the film there were choices to be made, and it needed to be shot one way or another way. I was hoping Colin would find proper balance between the delights of the style of the original and the new style of filmmaking. Yes, we're in a much larger setting, yes there are more characters, Yes were telling the story of Jurassic World, and not Jurassic Park. But somewhere, somewhere on the timeline of when this film was being made the Director forgot exactly what made Jurassic Park special and decided telling a larger more "popcorn" oriented story was more important then seeking out to truly connect with the audience through this film, though there were several missed oppurtunities to excel from summertime mediocrity to truly outstanding piece of Cinema.
Despite it's many shortcomings, The film does indeed stand up to the hype, but it simply does not excel to become the movie that the original deserves. I'd buy the DVD or Blu-ray if I was looking for something to add to the collection. But I wouldn't go out my way to pre-order the collectors edition. I'd see it maybe twice in theaters. 7.2/10.
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