Jurassic World - Discussion and Grading

[Turd Ferguson]

I really enjoyed this movie. As someone who's been to Universal Studios Orlando, they did a really good job making Jurassic World look and feel like a real life theme park, with the little touches like a Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville, Starbucks and Ben and Jerry's. Adding to that all the merchandise, and of course, the $7 sodas

I liked the idea that the park runners grew just as complacent as the tourists when it came to dinosaur containment. They hadn't had an incident (besides the former raptor feeder), so why shouldn't the Indominus Rex be any harder to contain than an average dinosaur? It was exciting to see the snowball effect of fuckups culminating in the pteranodon attack on main street.

I was skeptical at first about Chris Pratt's raptor squad. Over time, I realized that all three movies beforehand beat us over the head on the idea that raptors were extremely intelligent, even more so than primates, so I slowly warmed to the idea. Seeing it in action, though, I really liked that the raptors really had no allegiance to anybody, and were still as dangerous as ever.

The highlight of the movie for me was the mosasaur. Everytime the mosasaur popped up on screen, it was doing something badass.

I could overlook the CGI (some of it was a little shoddy), but the biggest disappointment to me was the CGI for the T-Rex, which, for some reason, looked really fake to me. Almost like its mouth was made way too big, almost to a cartoony effect.

Overall, I really liked this movie and look forward to seeing what they have in store for Jurassic World 2.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

The satire isn't dripping from every pore in the first portion of the film, but it's there.

The only thing wrong with this movie is a bit of the pacing; there seemed to be a struggle between "yeah, you know shit's going to go wrong" and "look at this amazing place" for the first hour of the movie or so.

Other than that, FUCK YEAH DINOSAURS

Spielberg avoided that problem by having a raptor attack in the first minutes of the film.. so that way.. even though we waited for almost an hour before another attack came.. our awe was always tempered.

 

[Mach5]

$24.3 million on Tuesday!

OK... This thing may actually have a shot at beating Avatar.

 

[Corran Horn]

I really enjoyed this movie. As someone who's been to Universal Studios Orlando, they did a really good job making Jurassic World look and feel like a real life theme park, with the little touches like a Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville, Starbucks and Ben and Jerry's. Adding to that all the merchandise, and of course, the $7 sodas

I agree - that was very CityWalk/Downtown Disney. They even had a Pandora store.

 

[Skywalker]

I'm still bummed we didn't get to see the Pepsisaurus.

 

[davejames]

I actually thought the pacing was fine, and appreciated that they actually took the time to establish the setting and atmosphere first, and gradually build up to all the action. Unlike most movies nowadays (ahem, Age of Ultron), that insist on throwing a huge action sequence into the beginning of the movie that you have no emotional investment in whatsoever.

And that one training sequence-gone-wrong with the raptors did happen fairly early, which I thought was exciting enough.

 

[Nightowl1701]

So, you know how people are grumbling about how Bryce/Claire went through the whole movie fighting/running/driving in three-inch perma-pumps, especially when releasing and then outrunning Grumpy Old T-Rex in them?

Yeah. Turns out that was all her idea.

 

[davejames]

So, you know how people are grumbling about how Bryce/Claire went through the whole movie fighting/running/driving in three-inch perma-pumps, especially when releasing and then outrunning Grumpy Old T-Rex in them?

Yeah. Turns out that was all her idea.

I can understand the complaints about the heels, but everything else I just find completely baffling. I saw nothing at the end of the movie suggesting Claire was "giving up" a professional career in order to be a mother. Or that all she really needed in her life was a strong man and to get laid.

No, all the movie was suggesting was that she needed to loosen up a little and make a bit of room in her life for something besides just work. Which seems to me like a pretty harmless (and healthy) thing to say, whether it's directed at a man or woman.

 

[Corran Horn]

I'm still bummed we didn't get to see the Pepsisaurus.

That discussion was the most realistic part of the whole movie.

 

[Frontier]

I'd put it ahead of JP3, but behind JP/TLW. I think it had a lot of stuff better than TLW/JP3, but I felt it lacked in characters and truly exploring the concept of the island. The plethora of nostalgia and throw-backs where awesome though. And that final battle was everything I've wanted for years.

I still think they should have brought the kid who played Tim back. He's 30, a working actor, did The Pacific for Spielberg in 2009. I think having him would have given much more emotional connection back to things. Especially if he now owned/operated things. He could have easily played the same role as Masrani absent the helicopter aspects.

Ugh, thinking of it now, imagine a grown-up Tim running the island and being the one to open Paddock 9 at the end... that would've been much more significant...

 

[Doctorwhovian]

^The concept of Tim running Jurassic Park was actually used in the IDW series Jurassic Park Redemption. Funny thing is, he intends to breed only herbivores, but Wu-also in the series-goes behind his back and clones carnivores, working for another bad guy.

I do remember a while back there were rumors that they were going to use the Murphy siblings as the main chracters, with Keira Knightly possibly being the lead as Lex. However, given her sort of crappy attempt at an accent in Jack Ryan, maybe not a great idea.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

^ Yeah, I couldn't imagine Tim ever signing off of Jurassic World having a T Rex or velociraptors, let alone an Indominus Rex, considering what happened in Jurassic Park. Dr. Wu turned out to be a prick in both the comics and the movies, didn't he?

 

[Beagleman]

Dr. Wu turned out to be a prick in both the comics and the movies, didn't he?

Don't forget the book!

 

[sojourner]

Chris Pratt's character should have been Tim.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

^ Yeah, I couldn't imagine Tim ever signing off of Jurassic World having a T Rex

And not just any T-Rex, its the same one that tried to eat him in the first movie.

 

[marillion]

Well, considering the movie set up a sequel and the amount of cash it's raking in, I don't see why the kids, Tim especially, couldn't conceivably be part of the next one (or two)...

What would really make me laugh is a short scene with Alan Grant watching carnage unfold on a TV screen and just shake his head... "I told 'em.. I told 'em so!"

 

[sojourner]

The scene in the movie with the bubblecar thing reminded me of a story about Walt Disney World. When it first opened in Florida there was a race track attraction with little two seat cars that could actually be steered. The intention was to go around the race track, however, kids being kids, the cars were taken on rampages off the course causing havoc in the park. The attraction had to be shut down and guide rails installed on the track that the cars were forced to follow.

In a real park those bubble cars would have been remotely controlled.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

I think the area where they steer the spheres is enclosed.. there could be proximity detectors to keep kids form using them as bumper cars.

In the film, there was an open gate of that enclosure. Yeah, there might have been a crisis, but that doesn't explain why that gate was open.

I liked the theme park stuff, but the material, while visually cinematic, wasn't cinematic enough to actually: we're watching people watching dinosaurs.. and it hurts that the people we are watching are dull as dishwater. Why not edge a little closer to point out that theme parks are kind of strangely absurd places to begin with.. these theme park had everything that a real theme park would have, and that;s great, but what it didn't have was an approach to telling us about theme parks. I mean, as amazing as watching Hollywood Studio's stunt show is, watching a movie with people watching the stunt show inherently makes it bland as we are two times removed. To overcome this, filmmakers have to bring a bit (not a lot) of self awareness to the material. That was provided by Jeff Goldblum in the first film. Even before we meet dinosaurs.. when we are in a helicopter - he makes that scene so memorable.

 

[sojourner]

I think the area where they steer the spheres is enclosed.. there could be proximity detectors to keep kids form using them as bumper cars.

In the film, there was an open gate of that enclosure. Yeah, there might have been a crisis, but that doesn't explain why that gate was open.

The implication there is that I-Rex broke the gate.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

could be.

But why would it use the gate.. it could have broken the fence anywhere Or stepped over it