Jurassic World (2015)

[solaris]

A solid 7/10... for some reason the comparison that keeps coming to mind is 'The Mummy'. Slight & cheesy as hell, nothing revolutionary, but loads of fun. All of the dino action sequences were amazing. I loved the Pterosaurs-attacking-the-tourists scene (poor British intern lady). I kind of switched off whenever the action stopped - and Pratt was great but surprisingly subdued.

 

Credit to Trevorrow for pulling this off. The world building & geography of the park was great - it felt completely real. Not sure where they can go for a sequel (that won't feel like a retread of TLW), but I'll be seeing it either way.

[Gazz]

Not sure where they can go for a sequel (that won't feel like a retread of TLW), but I'll be seeing it either way.

 

Jurassic World is just a stop gap on the way to this:

 

 

But honestly weaponised military-owned dinosaurs seem to be next on the agenda considering where World left off.

[AniNate]

I think the genre's gotta shift somehow, it can't just be about wild dinosaurs attacking humans anymore. There's two ways they could go, either establish the dinosaurs as actual characters, or continue with the raptor training arc and have them join forces with humans against a common enemy

[Hatebox]

I think the genre's gotta shift somehow, it can't just be about wild dinosaurs attacking humans anymore. There's two ways they could go, either establish the dinosaurs as actual characters, or continue with the raptor training arc and have them join forces with humans against a common enemy

 

"Our scientists have developed raptor voice boxes!"

[Cmasterclay]

It was an entertaining summer blockbuster that didn't feel as pushed off an assembly line as AOU and felt more organic. My main issue with the movie was a lack of build. What JP1 did so incredibly was building up both the majesty of the park and the contrasting horror. This film was edited wayyyy too fast. It didn't slow build up to the incredible majesty of the park with swelling music and hidden shots- it just kind of threw it all out there in a big wide pan. And unlike the genius T-Rex chases with the water, or the raptor kitchen chase, it just didn't build up horror movie tension to any degree. It focused more on action rather than building tension and horror through slow build and smart editing. That held the film down. But I enjoyed it enough.

Edited June 13, 2015 by cmasterclay

[Gopher]

^^ Considering this is a movie that's literally about pushing a Jurassic Park remake off the assembly line...

The whole movie could be summed up for me in the first time we hear the iconic John Williams score. Is it when we see beautiful dinosaurs? Nope. It's when the camera pans from the hotel to the resort, with crowds and buildings and Samsung and Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville. From then I knew we were in trouble.

[Gazz]

^^ Considering this is a movie that's literally about pushing a Jurassic Park remake off the assembly line...

The whole movie could be summed up for me in the first time we hear the iconic John Williams score. Is it when we see beautiful dinosaurs? Nope. It's when the camera pans from the hotel to the resort, with crowds and buildings and Samsung and Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville. From then I knew we were in trouble.

 

Literally just said that above. 

 

Spot on though. The music is begging us to feel wonder and awe but the sweeping imagery is akin to a dime-a-dozen Disney World ad. So very corporate.

[baumer]

Seriously, the T-Rex stepping out of the shadows is probably the biggest "HOLY SHIT!!!" blockbuster moment in recent years

 

This is no BS, when I was 12 and I saw Rocky 4 in Kokomo Indiana with my mom during the winter of 85, and with a packed theater, when Rocky finally cuts Drago, my mother clapped and cheered for Rocky to beat his ass, just like many of the other patrons did.  I joined in because I realized it was ok to do that.

 

That's how I felt with the TREX coming out.  I felt a swell of emotion, like seeing an old friend for the first time.  It was an unbelievable sight to see the TREX come out for battle.

[Caboose]

Everything about it was either just dumb enough to work for you in a good way or too stupid to make you care. YMMV.

[BadAtGender]

Mediocre.

 

Jurassic World is a collection of a shaky plot points, poorly fleshed out characters, and sometimes head-scratching nods to the original. It's fine as a breezy summer afternoon movie, but there's little that sticks as particularly good or memorable.

 

Given that Trevorrow's directing debut was such a character driven piece it felt strange to see all the weak motivations at play here. Pratt and Howard do the best they can, but there isn't a whole lot for their characters to work with. D'Onofrio's Hoskins does some enjoyable grand-standing but even he can't make his character more than a mildly shady opportunist, unlike Wayne Knight's Nedry who was greedy and despicable and most of all specifically active about driving the plot forward.

 

Even the one thing I was really hoping for to be great: Michael Giacchino's score, felt sub-par. The integration of John Williams' original themes was ham-handed and their specific use had me scratching my head.

 

Overall, despite the impressive visuals, the film lacked tension to really get me invested. It's never did anything to make me hate it, but there's little to love, as well.

 

2/5. 3/5 if I'm feeling charitable.

[Ruthie]

You know, I just can't keep up with BOTers. On one hand there's a cry for movies filled with substance, good characters, practical fx and plots that aren't run of the mill. On the other hand there's so much love for this movie. I officially and proudly accept my Out-of-Touch award.

[Empire]

^^ Considering this is a movie that's literally about pushing a Jurassic Park remake off the assembly line...

The whole movie could be summed up for me in the first time we hear the iconic John Williams score. Is it when we see beautiful dinosaurs? Nope. It's when the camera pans from the hotel to the resort, with crowds and buildings and Samsung and Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville. From then I knew we were in trouble.

That moment was one of the best & worst parts of the movie for me. I loved hearing the iconic theme again in theaters, but that was a horrible time to play it. Should have been during a scene showing something majestic.

[CoolioD1]

I thought it got cool at the end but most of it just sorta happened in front of me.

[CoolioD1]

But I thought bdh's assistants death was cool. kinda weird tho. felt like the kind of overkill you'd usually only see reserved for the villains.

[AniNate]

You know, I just can't keep up with BOTers. On one hand there's a cry for movies filled with substance, good characters, practical fx and plots that aren't run of the mill. On the other hand there's so much love for this movie. I officially and proudly accept my Out-of-Touch award.

I think the reason I was all on the trailers for this and not the actual film was because they overplayed the rote monster horror tropes that I've gotten pretty sick of. The movie itself leans toward a much more enjoyable action-adventure tone, and it's a lot easier to suspend disbelief about the inciting incident than I expected Edited June 13, 2015 by tribefan695

[Kalderic]

I loved it. It is exactly what I want from a big summer movie. Nothing more, but nothing less. The CGI worked for me, and the end fight is super fucking awesome. seriously. It was totally worth it and I want to see it again. 

 

A-

[kaijukurt]

This is no BS, when I was 12 and I saw Rocky 4 in Kokomo Indiana with my mom during the winter of 85, and with a packed theater, when Rocky finally cuts Drago, my mother clapped and cheered for Rocky to beat his ass, just like many of the other patrons did.  I joined in because I realized it was ok to do that.

 

That's how I felt with the TREX coming out.  I felt a swell of emotion, like seeing an old friend for the first time.  It was an unbelievable sight to see the TREX come out for battle.

Couldn't have said it better myself!

That's the kind of scene that gets a great WOM going.

[Cmasterclay]

^^ Considering this is a movie that's literally about pushing a Jurassic Park remake off the assembly line...

The whole movie could be summed up for me in the first time we hear the iconic John Williams score. Is it when we see beautiful dinosaurs? Nope. It's when the camera pans from the hotel to the resort, with crowds and buildings and Samsung and Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville. From then I knew we were in trouble.

I agree completely that it was a terrible use of the wonderful theme and the resort/sponsors aspects were emphasized entirely too much, but the actual action, plot, and emotional beats had way more soul and sense of wonder to them than anything as souless as the "guess it's about time we churned out an Avengers sequel $$$" that every second of AOU had for me. I certainly see your point, but I was more engaged with this film than Ultron. I still enjoyed, on the "stupid summer blockbuster" scale, San Andreas a hell of alot more than both (obviously I consider Mad Max to be in an entirely different league, nay, an entirely different dimension). But that's different strokes for different folks, I guess! I see every point you had for JW, and I know because I've felt that way with generally liked enough blockbusters like Ultron and IM3 (Marvel shade), so really its just about certain moments resonating more emotionally across certain otherwise indeciperable summer blockbusters- and really, it might just amount to a crapshoot.

[Frozen]

I really enjoyed the movie, but I agree with the critics who say it didn't live up to the original. Most sequels never do, but for me it was the characters that were the problem. The characters in the first film were awesome. They were all very well developed and they were played by very talented people. These characters and cast lacked that completely, minus Bryce.

 

I liked the storyline, actions scenes and visual effects though. One thing that kind of did bug me was the not knowing if the T-Rex was the same as the original film. I read in the other thread that it was supposed to be. If so, they should have made that known.

[Frozen]

I'm just going to list a few of my thoughts about why this movie was so dumb before this movie vanishes from my mind entirely.

 

The whole I-Rex escape scene is just flat out silly. I can get behind that its an intelligent animal but this is ridiculous. How does an animal know that there are heat senses monitoring it and that it can hide from them with its abilities and set up an elaborate escape plan of luring them into the cage and then escaping free when they run to escape. Its ridiculous.

 

As is knowing that it has a tracking bug inside it. Firstly, I highly doubt that unlike what is stated in the film that it remembers where it was put in. You are not putting a tracking bug in a fucking I-Rex unless it was under heavy sedation. Even if it somehow does remember where it was put in.....so what? How in the hell is an animal meant to know that it can be tracked by what was put inside it?

 

As is the I-Rex talking to the raptors and convincing them to turn on the humans. We have seen so far that it is a non stop killing machine, and now we are somehow meant to believe that despite looking completely different to the raptors, it knows that it can talk to them in a language that it apparently learnt in complete isolation away from all other animals??? WTF!?!

 

And that really is just the tip of the iceberg.

 

Christ this movie was dumb!

 

At some point I was waiting for them to reveal what DNA was in the I-Rex and I was sure they were going to say it had human DNA. That would have made so much sense. That would have explained it's intelligent, it's memory, it's ability to plan it's escape, it's killing for fun and it's knowledge of human things like heat sensors, etc.

 

But no. They really dropped the ball on that.