Normally I go to the movie theatre during the week, and usually in the afternoon. Needless to say I have never been to an opening night, or even an opening weekend for that matter. That changed last night as I went to see Jurassic World; a film I will confess I had some trepidations about, given the previous sequels. Being new to the opening weekend scene, I thought I could purchase my ticket thirty minutes or so before the movie started.
I was laughably naïve. I wanted to catch the 7:40 showing. I had to settle for the 9:40. I should have started waiting inside then. But instead I decided to grab a bite to eat. When I returned I decided to wait inside, where I discovered to my horror a line of thirty or so people waited for my movie. Of course it didn’t take me long to go native and I began to silently scoff those people arriving a mere twenty minutes before the movie started. Any sane person would arrive two hours ahead, of course.
Now, about the movie itself, I’m going to try and avoid any spoilers, which may be hard since I’ve never done a spoiler-free review. This also means this review may be a tad short. So if you thought I was padding out the story with an intro story, you are correct.
As previously stated, I had some hesitation about this movie, in direct contrast to, and despite my excitement. I, like others, snorted at the raptor bros motorcycle scene. And this movie had kid characters too. Ugh. But I found I liked the characters. They are predictable, and painted in broad strokes, but the performances are entertaining. These are character types though, so don’t expect to be wowed by the conflicts and developments.
Not a lot more to say about them. Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) is funny and charming. Dr. Clair Dearing (Bryce Howard) is likable and easy on the eyes, so everyone has a lead character to ogle, regardless of your personal preference.
About the effects, I’m going to break character and not bitch about the CGI. If you know me at all, you should know I hate bad CGI with a passion. The CGI is acceptable. At no point did I ever feel like I was watching a cartoon (or a shitty movie). The creatures look fairly real, except a few Pterodactyls, but that would be a spoiler to go into details.
The pacing is odd, because there are a lot of characters, and more than one story going on at once. And sometimes it felt like the movie forgot about the Indominus Rex with everything else going on. In fact, I forgot that asshole a few times. Not necessarily a bad thing, because otherwise this would have been another chase movie, like The Lost World turned into. When the I-rex is on screen though, she steals it. I would make a scene chomping joke, but I’m better than that.
Now let’s talk about the raptor bros. This isn’t a spoiler because it’s covered in the trailer, but Owen Grady is not a swaggering, dino commanding action hero. In the scene where he has to go into the raptor pen, it’s pretty clear he is trying hard not to piss himself. I loved that scene for that. He has tentative control over the raptors, and even states they are wild animals, and can’t be tamed like pets. In the motorcycle scene, he has used training techniques to make the raptors want to hunt the Indominus Rex, so it’s less team-up, and more stirring up the hunting dogs and letting them loose. The raptors lead him, not the other way around. I say all that, because in the trailer it can be taken out of context.
I won’t recount the plot because the trailer covers it pretty much. Although I will say the ending is somewhat more metal than the original, and way better than the end of the other two. Overall, I seriously enjoyed this, and may see it again. It does have a few plot issues, but they are forgivable, plus there is one Easter egg moment that basically gives Jurassic Park 3 the middle finger. Speaking of Easter eggs, there are about half a dozen callbacks to the first movie that old fans should immediately see.
A strange thing for a movie sequel these days; this movie captures the adventure fun of the first movie, while upping the ante without becoming absurd.
I give it 4/5 because of the pacing, and some cut-aways that break up action, and some jokes do fall flat.