I'm going to talk about what stands out in this gigantic hit that spawned two sequels, when you've watched it ten times (maybe more).
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Here's a question for you. What movies do you regularly watch and rewatch with your significant other/partner/spouse? I think it's a fun question because you can see how two distinctly different people line up with one another or you run into an unexpected favorite that you share. Stuff like that. It adds personality to both parties as a couple. It also means you might discover an unexpected wealth of knowledge about a very niche movie. I bring all of this up because I have precisely that kind of knowledge about Jurassic World, a movie Sharon and I have watched about ten times both because we own it and it fits into that category of dumb fun we both enjoy. Sharon likes dinosaurs and animal attack movies. I like finding new funny things about movies I've seen a bunch. So instead of a standard review, I'm going to talk about what stands out in this gigantic hit that spawned two sequels, when you've watched it ten times (maybe more).
The Setup
Taking place well after the original Jurassic Park disasster, World exists in a future where the park is...working. Hammond's dream has been realized and the park is a financial success. But is it enough of a success? Hoping to pull in new crowds and new advertisers, the scientists at the park have created a brand new, supremely lethal dinosaur to impress guests....and it just got out.
Some movies are fun to watch over and over because you find something new every time. Maybe it's a background detail or an acting choice, but there's tons of movies that reward you with repeat viewings. Other times you really start to appreciate certain scenes and moments, and you know exactly when they happen now, so you can get amped for them. It doesn't matter how many times I see it, the daylight charge at the end of The Two Towers gets me every time.
And with a movie like Jurassic World the fun of rewatching is like taking out a red pen to circle what works, what really doesn't and any oddity that you can't make sense of, despite seeing the movie ten plus times. So that's what I'm sharing today. The things that are undeniable, at least from my perspective, about this movie, having seen it so much.
So let's start with the most obvious.
The Non-Expository Dialogue is Piping Hot Trash
Dialogue has never been the core appeal of the Jurassic Park franchise. The main appeal is seeing dinosaurs on the big screen, equally more wondrous and terrifying than they've ever been before. But something that you don't notice until it's missing is how so much of the original film's "movie-esque" dialogue including catchphrases like "spared no expense" feel natural for the characters on screen.
As much as people enjoy reciting Jeff Goldblum's famous line "life finds a way," it actually works better in the film because Goldblum does his signature stumbling over himself trying to finish a sentence deliver versus looking straight into camera and delivering it straight.
Everyone makes sense and comes across like a real person whether they're talking about the morality of the park's existence or observing a brontasarus enjoying its leafy breakfast.
By comparison, the characters in Jurassic World look, sound and behave like B-tier sitcom characters that just so happen to be in a movie where dinosaurs are real.
The alleged banter between Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Pratt is the most glaring. After both characters have been introduced separately, Howard's Claire and Pratt's Owen meet at his trailer because the park's owner wants Owen to give his opinion on the new dinosaur.
We've already gotten a hint or two that Claire and Owen have a bumpy history, so now's a great time to let that shine and explain that tension.
What we get is an exchange where it seems like both characters are trying to say the grossest, dumbest or most cliched things they can say. This includes Owen propositioning a woman that is most definitely his boss, razzing her for not wanting to have margaritas because of her diet, and allegedly bringing an itinerary to a first date while Claire feebly defends herself from behavior no human woman has ever really done.
And that's one scene. Almost every other scene in this movie that is driven by character dynamics or emotions has the same problem. The two brothers and Claire's nephews are only modestly better and mostly exhcange plot-relevant information with one another and only have one or two moments of legitimate bonding. The scene where the youngest brother reveals that his has concrete evidence that his parents are getting divorced is one of the most unintentionally funny moments in recent memory as he tearfully delivers the line "I Googled them, they're divorce attorneys," while sounding like a Will Ferrell character having a breakdown.
Just one clunker of a comment after another that removes all of the on-screen charisma that got these actors these parts. Which is doubly frustrating because most of the exposition works really well.
The Info Dumps Are Genuine Entertaining And Much Better Thought Out
As cringe as Chris Pratt's Owen Gradys interactions are with Claire, when he's dumping exposition or chewing people is when this movie is at its best. The best thing about his character is that he seems to be the only one who's treating the dinosaurs like animals, with understandable drives and desires, like animals. He's not trying to pretend that the raptors are all his buddies nor is he blown away by the mere existence of dinosaurs. He respects every aspect of them, including their lethal capabilities.
So even if the science is impossible or this is a bunch of movie talk that sounds good, it works. Just like the Mr. DNA cartoon did in the original film.
These exposition dumps also highlight exactly how dangerous the Indominus Rex is and not so subtly forshadows exactly how dangerous this entire situation is. So when BD Wong goes off about all of the complicated work he did and points out how none of Jurassic World is "natural," it's a nice reminder that our heroes having been playing god for quite some time. Also speaking of BD Wong.
These exposition dumps also highlight exactly how dangerous the Indominus Rex is and not so subtly forshadows exactly how dangerous this entire situation is. So when BD Wong goes off about all of the complicated work he did and points out how none of Jurassic World is "natural," it's a nice reminder that our heroes having been playing god for quite some time. Also speaking of BD Wong.
BD Wong's Voice Sounds Exactly Like Val Kilmer
I want to be clear that I don't think BD Wong is attempting to imitate Val Kilmer in this role, or ever really. But my god his voice and even his cadence sound exactly like prime Val Kilmer. To an astonishing degree. And by the tenth time it gets more and more erie.
Because I can see how someone can/would look like someone else. That happens due to genetic happenstance. But someone speaking the same way despite growing up in two very different environments is wild to me. Ok onto actual movie analysis stuff again.
There's Too Many Ideas
The original Jurassic Park is about two things. Wonder and hubris. There's inherent wonder in seeing a dinosaur in real life and then our characters all pay for Hammond's hubris (aka believing that he could create life on this scale and control it). There are character beats that go along with that (aka Alan Grant softening on kids by saving and bonding with Hammond's grandchildren) but those are the big ones.
Jurassic World is about...so many things.
So here's a handful of the big ones and I'll point out the ones I think they should've focused on:
- The military industrial complex
- How capitalism can/will kill us all
- The dangers of playing god/hubris
- A movie long self-conscious meta-commentary on audiences inability to be wowed by seeing dinosaurs in a movie
- How extreme circumstances can highlight what really matters to you.
- What happens when people stop viewing animals as animals
This wack a mole approach to conflict/plot really keeps this movie from feeling insightful or punchy as a whole.
The most effective element, in my opinion, is everything around the creation of the Indominus Rex. The creation of a brand new predator and dinosaur is exactly what I'd expect from someone running a park like this. You might be making money, but this isn't cheap and the repeat business is down, so now it's time to bust out something splashy and new to please our investors. The fact that Claire has a meeting with potential sponsors for this new dino is a dead-on parody of the world/economy we find ourselves in.
So seeing a field full of the peaceful dinosaurs that the Indominus Rex killed, is brutally effective at highlighing the folly of playing god and not thinking about your moral obligations to the beings you created after the fact.
It is very easy to see why the next film in the franchise Fallen Kingdom, chose this sense of responsibility as its driving force and theme and includes a number of more effective emotional moments than the original film.
But so much of this is undercut by a well-performed role that weakens this theme: Irrfan Khan's Simon Masrani. Now having our big time CEO present for all of this isn't a bad idea, and I think the way he goes out it fitting as well. But we've got a giant problem. The movie wants us to like him.
Like yeah he's a bit aloof, but he seems to be cut from the Hammond mold of being enthusiastic about the park and wanting the guests to have a good time. And he gets very mad when he discovers all of the things his company is up to without his knowledge. All of which the movie portrays as people actively undermining him or casual carelessness.
Which doesn't work, because the reason Indominus Rex is here is to bump up attendance, profits and investments. And it's silly to imagine Claire is doing that on her own because she's a girl boss type. There should be clear and obvious pressure that's driving this forward, which in turn makes it even more clear that the resulting disaster is (points at the people running the park and creating the dinos) their fault.
Instead it's all abstract or two steps removed from our central characters. Claire speaks broadly about needing to increase attendance. But her boss doesn't seem to care about that. But he does care about "my new dinosaur." So many moments in this movie seem primed to hammer home the theme of capitalism and "growth at any cost" being the enemy, only to be contradicted by the next scene or replaced by a new baddie.
Like Vince DiNofrio's entire role. I swear his role solely exists so we could get that scene with raptors running alongside Chris Pratt's motorcycle. Because his idea of raptors being the perfect assassins is really really stupid. It's not even clear who he works for, but he seems to be either directly involved with the U.S. military or likes to sell to them. Right after Khan dies he takes control of the operation because...he spoke the loudest? His guys have guns? Really unclear.
And it is another giant distraction from the movie's best idea and theme.
This entire segment is a giant digression about the military industrial complex because somehow Khan didn't know that his giant unnamed company was somehow in bed with the U.S. military...and we also really want to pay off this raptor training with another dino action sequence.
I'd much rather this all be some kind of damage control for the park. Like Pratt's raptors will demonstrate the value of his program and how they can use dinos to keep the worst dinos in check. It just reeks of the insecurity running through this movie. Which leads us to the meta-commentary.
Some Cringe-Worthy Directing Choices
I'm pretty positive on the majority of the dino action in this movie. It's engaging. Properly chaotic and the CGI holds up reasonably well.
However.
There's a handful of moments that are needlessly cruel or silly. I'll point out two.
The first is the treatment of Claire's British assistant. Claire's assistant is given the not-so-fun job of looking after Claire's nephews, when she should be the one looking after them. And while Claire certainly comes around to feeling responsibility for the boys, that same regret doesn't seem to apply to her assistant. Who, after losing track of the boys because they gave her the slip, is scooped up and pecked by pterodactyls before being eaten like chum by the Mossarus like a part of its feeding.
For context, this level of disrespect was given to the "scum-sucking" layer in Jurassic World.
In the silly category we have the return of Blue, who arrives to give T-Rex an assist to take down the Indmonius Rex for good. Structurally this moment is a solid pay off. Blue turned to help Chris Pratt but the rest of the pack has presumably been taken down. Darkest hour and all that. So Blue arriving for a kill is great.
The shot though...silly as fuck. Like it's video game cutscene level bad. Because it would be really cool to see Blue's eyes and call, but seeing her zoomed out with the tail swishing looks like a silly kids cartoon where they just summoned their protector beast. Yay Blue! So dumb. Then again, maybe this movie just hates itself.
Does This Movie Hate Itself?
An undercurrent running through this movie is that this movie is garbage. Like at its core, as an idea, this is stupid, soulless corporate trash and it shouldn't have been made.
One thing that's left out and papered over is how on earth the park got the green light after three movies worth of nonsense. Because this is a continuation of the series, not a reboot. It's closer to a legacy sequel if anything.
So the idea is that the park is operating as John Hammond would've wanted and is doing just fine. There's a bunch of childlike wonder happening. No one is getting hurt. We're even learning about how to train raptors. Shit's cool.
And the movie has nothing but disdain for anyone who doesn't appreciate the old vision and features a number of characters who hate how commercial, a theme park with dinosaurs for the record, is. Those characters include Jake Johnson basically playing Nick Miller as a security operator who loves the old park because it had "heart." You can gauge what that means about the current one he's working at.
Even characters who give the green light to bad decisions, like our overly hands-on CEO, seem to deify John Hammond's original vision.
It's really easy to read this entire movie as an argument against itself. If you didn't make the Jurassic World theme park, you wouldn't have created the circumstances to that created the Indominus Rex and dozens, if not hundreds of people, would still be alive.
Now it's up to the only smart/responsible people in the room, and the "real" dinosaurs" to clean up your mess and restore balance. Hence why it's a team up of raptors the T-Rex (the OGs from the original movie) and a Mossasarus (another actual dinosaur) to take this genetic super predator down.
So many times what is "new" breaks down, while what is old, including an old ass jeep from the original film, works.
Conclusion: They Crafted the Set Pieces Before the Script Didn't They?
Watching Jurassic World as many times as I have, I get the distinct impression that the set pieces were either what the movie was sold on or what was solidified before the rest of the movie got filled out.
This is something some Marvel directors have spoken about. Which is that directing any movie for the superhero studio can feel less involved because the set pieces are "taken care of" depending on whether said director also wrote the script. It's why I think James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy can feature action beats like the simulated single take hallway fight from Vol. 3, something no other Marvel film has really tried. He wrote it. So he's gonna film it.
The joy and fun that comes from the basic Jurassic Park idea of playing with dinosaur action figures, is omnipresent in these scenes. It's terrifying to see a Mossasarus eat a shark like a killer whale at SeaWorld. It also kicks ass.
But writing a world to justify that on top of a movie world that's already been explored three times, and originally by perhaps the greatest living dirctor, is a heavy task.
What's ironic in that a script all about the refutation of all that's natural or contructed versus what's real, what Jurassic World lacks is Jurassic Park's heart. I get why this script sounds and feels so self-conscious. Because deep down, I think Colin Trevorrow knew they would always be in the original film's shadow. Hence why the plot centers around dinosaurs being passe and the need to up the ante to impress everyone again.
But what I think movies like that miss, is that while the spectacle is so effective in a movie like Jurassic Park, the characters are what make us care. You want someone like Jeff Goldblum who is both a bit of a lothario who chides a rich benefactor but also willing to grab a flare and run to give two kids, he does not know, a chance to escape the T-Rex. Unfortunately the solution they came up with is to simply play this scene in reverse with Bryce Dallas Howard running in heels and, flare in hand, to lead the T-Rex to the big dino fight...which is occuring right by her nephews. Jurassic World tries so hard to recreate the feel of the original film's signature characters and can't. Because, as Jake Johnson pointed out, they're missing something. Heart.
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