Thursday 18 June 2015

OJ's Movie Review - Jurassic World

I've been waiting for 14 years, some people have been waiting for 22, well...now its here.

Jurassic World, finally the fourth Jurassic film is in cinemas. It's about a new theme park that finally realized John Hammond's dream of a dinosaur zoo; but because its now been open a while people are starting to get bored and so they create a new dinosaur mixing various DNA.
   Now let's start off with the good stuff. The world building is amazing, you go round this theme park and you believe this could be a real attraction, the way they show off buildings and exhibits its like a Disneyland promotional video so I really liked that. The whole look of Jurassic World was just really nice visually. Another thing I enjoyed was the new dinosaur itself, called Indominus Rex; it looked powerful, creepy and threatening every time you saw it; its abilities were also interesting and so it was great addition to the franchise and it contributes to my most favourite part of the film which was the third act - a real gem of a sequence in there. Of course, Jurassic World is a sequel and it knows it; although there were only a few references to the first film in the dialogue, and something special which I won't spoil, most of it's callbacks were through the music which sounded awesome. The soundtrack fits so well in the franchise its amazing, some of the beats, some of the instruments definitely were inspired to not only Jurassic Park but I think I heard The Lost World in there also which was fun. But the callbacks didn't stop there, which brings me to the negatives...
  Jurassic Park had a lot of iconic scenes and in Jurassic World it recreated one or two which gave you some nostalgia and you smiled at the obvious reference, but then it did it again, and then some more and it started to teeter on the edge of ripping-off; thankfully I don't think it did but I did have quite few moments where I noticed and was like "Wait, that looks just like...". So if you haven't seen the first film or not seen it in a long time, you might feel out of the loop when the shot builds to something you know should be important. Another thing that I wasn't a fan of was that there was too many characters; this film is flooded with various characters who all have their own back-story and B plot that it sometimes drags away from the main thing; the two kids for instance were given a line of back-story which was never touched upon again and the human antagonists were basically there to leave strands for a sequel. There was just a lot of unnecessary story.
   In the end, Jurassic World is a fun film. It's entertaining to watch but it just doesn't have the charm and wit of Jurassic Park, it tends to fall more into monster-movie somewhat which is fine, but just so long as you expect a cliché or two and some very cheesy scenes (such as catching a fly in mid air with your hand). But seriously though, it was great to go back to this franchise!

8/10

Monday 8 June 2015

OJ's Movie Reviews - Jurassic Park 2 & 3

I already reviewed the first Jurassic Park when it came out in 3D, so now in preparation for Jurassic World I'll look back on the not-so-fan-favourite sequels.

After one of the most popular blockbusters of all time Steven Spielberg adapted the second novel,The Lost World: Jurassic Park. It brings back the character of Ian Malcom played brilliantly by Jeff Goldblum and goes to the Site B of Jurassic Park with a team to study how the dinosaurs have been living since the disaster of '93. Although not as good as the first film, The Lost World isn't actually that bad; the special effects and animatronics still hold up to today creating some convincing dinosaurs both with the old favourite's T-Rex and raptors and a whole bunch of new ones. Also the soundtrack I really enjoyed as well, John Williams is one of the best composers in the business and here he creates some memorable scores again.  As regards to the plot, it can be a bit jumbled at times and some of the pacing is off but it's fun to see the locations they go to on the island and of course who didn't love that Tyrannosaurus rampaging through San Diego? Overall in my opinion it is my least favourite of the franchise but it doesn't deserve a lot of the hate it gets.

Next up we have Jurassic Park III which has original character Alan Grant take a couple of people on what he thinks is a tour of site B; obviously all does not go well and they get stuck on the island. Although the plot has little complexity to it and is basically a slasher-film with dinosaurs, I really enjoy Jurassic Park III. I think it has more of an abandoned facility feel than the second film did with all the over-grown jungle visuals and sets; these work really well when showing the super-intelligent raptors which make for some thrilling and suspenseful scenes. And yes, I love the Spinosaurus! I know people hate the fact it killed a T-Rex but I think the addition of the Spino makes this film more unique and diverse. In the end it's the sort of film you can sit back with some popcorn, turn your brain off and watch dinosaurs eating people.

So those are my thoughts on the two sequels and you can read my review of the first movie by clicking here.