Monday Movie Mania - Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

DH and I intended to see The Incredibles 2. I asked for tickets for The Incredibles 2. But I only glanced at the theater number and not the title on my actual ticket.

We found seats in a very packed audience. The lights went down, but the logo for Universal Studios rolled across the big screen instead of the Disney and Pixar logos. DH and I looked at each other. He shrugged and said, "Well, we were planning to see this next week." So we stayed.

After the movie, I check our stubs and receipts. It wasn't just the movie that was screwed up. So we asked to see the theater manager. I was polite, listed the issues, and merely suggested that the girl who waited on us seemed overwhelmed and might need some additional training.

I give the manager props. She went above and beyond to make everything right. In fact, she refunded our tickets, even they both DH and I emphasized we'd planned to see Jurassic World 2 the following week anyway. So, many kudos to the manager.

Which bring me to the movie itself...


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SPOILERS


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PROS
1) Ummm...dinosaurs?


CONS
1) A world-class cast totally wasted trying to work with a redundant, repetitive, uninteresting script.

2) That's not even taking into account the total lack of character development. The previous four movies at least made a token effort.

3) You're going to figure out the one twist with the introduction of that character.

4) Making female characters dumber than a box of rocks. I thought we'd gotten past that. Or was this backlash to #METOO?

5) We've reached the limit when Spielberg and crew make DINOSAURS BORING!


Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is one of those movies we would watch when there's nothing better to do on a cold, snowy January night, and it shows up on Netflix, FX, or TNT. Actually, I'd probably watch it for a few minutes before popping in Guardians of the Galaxy if I was in that much of a Chris Pratt mood. So, I guess it's a good thing we ended up watching it for free.

Overall, I give Jurassic Park: Fallen Kingdom 3 stars out of 10. And those 3 stars are for Scar the T-rex's scenes.

Monday Movie Mania - Jurassic World

We made it to Jurassic World back in June, but the Fourth of July weekend was insane. Let's just say it included a visit to the ER. In my efforts to finish A Question of Balance, I didn't get a review written.

Until now.

The late Michael Crichton's world of cloned dinosaurs is back. Literally. If you've seen Jurassic Park, it's pretty much the same damn plot, just twenty-two years after the original incident on Isla Nublar.

So quite frankly, I'm not going to give you my normal "Spoilers" warning. Seriously, kids, if you haven't seen any of the Jurassic Park movies in the last two decades, you shouldn't be reading blogs online either.

The real highlight of the movie is Chris Platt. That man has charm to spare, and his character Owen uses it to train one of the deadliest of the dinosaurs, and fan favorite, velociraptors. He's the Grant/Malcolm of this version, Mr. Common Sense.

Bryce Dallas Howard's Claire Dearing is this version's Hammond/Gennaro, the "we'll do stupid things to prove we can" types.

And of course, we have two cute kids in danger to bring the male and female leads into the requisite romance.

The Indominus Rex was kind of cool for a GMO dinosaur. B.D. Wong was the only cast member from the original movie who made an appearance in this one, though Sam O'Neill's character was mentioned.

Beyond that, I really can't recommend this one unless you've got kids to be entertained on a rainy afternoon. I'd have been happier if they'd done a more original story. The amusement park theme has already been used. It might have been a better movie if the focus had been on the military subplot, but I'm not a Hollywood writer.  *wink*

I give Jurassic World a 5 out of 10.