For anyone else who saw Jurassic World, you know that it’s a very worthy sequel to the first, surpassing both The Lost World and Jurassic Park 3.
I was pleasantly surprised with it, since I had mentally forced myself to set the bar pretty low, just in case, you know? It’s been heavily advertised for over 6 months, ever since the first trailer came out on Thanksgiving, with the websites and everything following, so you never really know if they’re promoting it heavily because it’s really good or because it’s really bad, luckily this time it was really good.
No one knew how popular it would be though, it’s surpassed all of Universal’s and even Colin Trevorrow’s (most likely) expectations, making $500M in it’s opening weekend, the fastest of all time, and now it’s gone on to reach the $1B mark in two weeks, surpassing my predictions of $750M total. I think the resurgence of the Jurassic Park name after 14 years, new dinosaurs, a fresh director, and of course, Chris Pratt, had a lot to do with the popularity. There’s dozens of Instagram accounts and websites dedicated to this movie, ever since news of a final script came out, now what are they going to do? I guess wait for the sequel, which is inevitable. How could Universal pass up another $1B? That would be pretty dumb of them.
Anyway, on to the actual review! Spoiler alert, of course, but if you haven’t seen it yet, why not??!!
I thought it was great, I saw it twice in the theaters, and it was fun both times, even though I already knew the ending the second time I watched it, it was still just as exciting and fun.
The Indominus Rex
The first time I saw it I thought I knew what to expect, but I really didn’t. I thought the trailers had given away too much, but they really didn’t, a lot of the plot and even subplots weren’t revealed through any of the trailers. The one thing though, I wish they hadn’t revealed so much about the Indominus Rex in the trailers, it would have been more of a surprise. I have a few issues with this new hybrid monster though. I think it was pretty scary, super smart and psychotic, but I think they could have even taken it a little bit further. I think they should have asked one of the animators of Adventure Time to design it, it would have been a pretty ridiculous looking creature, but even more scary. I also wish they would have made the roar a bit more iconic, like the T-Rex’s roar, it’s so iconic and memorable. I felt like the I-Rex’s roar was a bit bland. Also, I wish they would have used the camouflage effect more, they only showed it once briefly, but I wish they used it one or two times more, it was a pretty cool scene.
The Raptors
The raptors were pretty awesome in this movie too, smart and cunning, and a little unpredictable. I originally thought the raptor training idea was a bit cheesy, or it would ruin the movie, but it really didn’t, they did a good job with it, it was actually pretty cool, and Chris Pratt totally owned it!
You might have noticed also in the trailers there was a line about the dinosaurs communicating, and I thought that might have been cheesy too, but like I mentioned earlier, they didn’t give away enough context in the trailers to understand the scene, it was really cool in the movie. It turns out that the I-Rex is part raptor, and convinces the other raptors to turn against the humans that they were originally helping, creating utter chaos, it was awesome.
Favorite Scenes
One of my favorite scenes in the movie was when Bryce Dallas Howard’s character was driving the van down the road and the raptors started chasing it, while the kids were in the back with the doors open. That was pretty tense, especially when that other raptor jumped through the driver window trying to attack her. They revealed that in the trailer too, which I wish they didn’t so it would have been more of a surprise.
Another awesome scene was when all of the flying dinosaurs got out, after Simon Masrani crashed his helicopter into the aviary dome. I did not expect him to die so quickly in the film! I thought he’d at least make it to the sequel, but nope, done, in a fiery crash.
All the flying dinosaurs got out and started attacking the main boardwalk of the park, diving on people and picking them up.
Obviously one of my favorite scenes is the ending battle, but I’ll save that for later.
Zara
And then there’s the one death scene that had everyone talking, when a Pteranodon picks up Zara, who is watching the kids, and drops her in the big Mosasaurus tank. That’s when you start thinking the worst, but then it gets even worse!
More Pteranodons start attacking her, picking her up and dragging her underwater, but then the huge Mosasaur jumps out of the water and swallows her up, eating a Pteranodon as well.
Fun fact, that’s the first time a female character has been killed in a Jurassic Park movie.
Now, a lot of the criticism of that scene was that it felt unwarranted, or extra cruel, and it was. I wish they had built her up to be more of a villain, or at least more annoying. They didn’t develop her character much, it was obvious she wasn’t very good with kids and didn’t care about them, but I mean come on, at least make her rude to them, insulting them or something so you really dislike her, but no, just indifferent towards her.
It reminds me of The Lost World, when the T-Rexs eat Eddie Carr by ripping him in half like a wish bone, that was pretty gnarly.
The T-Rex!
Let’s just get to the ending, because it was totally awesome! The whole film you’re waiting for the T-Rex, because you only catch a small glimpse of her in the beginning, but you know she’s coming back for something awesome! Just when you think the I-Rex is about to win and kill both the humans and the raptors, Claire sneaks away and frees the T-Rex, cue the ominous music. When you see those eyes appear out of the darkness, you know it’s going down! Now, how she outruns the T-Rex I don’t know, but she makes it back to the fight arena and tosses the red flare at the I-Rex. That’s when you know it’s about to get crazy.
There’s a lot of roaring, fighting, biting, smashing into buildings and rumbling. Just when it looks like the I-Rex is going to finish off the T-Rex, Blue comes in clutch! Blue jumps on the I-Rex, allowing the T-Rex time to get up. The I-Rex is cornered, and all of the sudden, CHOMP, the Mosasaur jumps out of the water and bites down on the I-Rex’s neck, dragging her back into the water. The first time I saw it I jumped out of my seat, it was so awesome! I did not see that coming at all! Some people said they saw it coming because they noticed the I-Rex was on the edge of the Mosasaur tank, but I didn’t notice that at all.
I know this article is super long, but I just have a lot of thoughts about this movie that I need to write down!
One more thing, I wish it was raining, at least during the ending scene. Everything was wet, but I didn’t notice any rain, and rain is a staple of the Jurassic franchise!
So, I thought Jurassic World was awesome and totally worthy of the Jurassic name!
My rating:
The Qualmist 