I went to see Jurassic World today. Pretty good, I gotta say, but nowhere near to touch the first film. I'm actually more leaning towards that "meh" side of pretty good/okay. Compared to the first film, Jurassic World just lacked 'that' something, a certain sense of wonder and awe, perhaps. Not a bad film, but guess I just had a little too high expectations based on those several rather positive reviews I had read.
There wasn't many really memorable characters, except for that raptor-whisperer-dundee guy. And that douchy bad buy marine (good to see he get his hand bitten off and face eaten). Btw, among the first things I thought of the big brother kid was a sincere hope for his dumbass product placement Beats to be the very first thing to be eaten by the dinosaurs. Is it just me, or was anyone else annoyed by that?
I'm not quite sure if it's because of the sheer brilliance John Williams' JP soundtrack, the forgettableness of Michael Giacchino's score for 'World', or a combination of both, but the only things that I can seem to remember of the music after this first time seeing the film are the cues from the first movie. It could have used more of those, actually. I was kind of disappointed to hear such a short snippet of
"Journey to the Island" being used; one of my absolute favorite pieces from the JP score.
While the special effects were pretty good in general, there were a couple of really cringe-worthily plasticky-looking ones in there. And despite the 22 years of advance in CGI, I still think the animatronics + CGI effects of JP look
way better. They're actually, physically there, have weight, and give actors something to really work with, instead the weightless, floaty CGI added in post-production. But anyway: that Muthafuckin' T-Rex!! (mic drop)
Edit: well, I just watched
Cinemassacre's and
Nostalgia Critic's reviews of the film, and Nostalgia Critic pretty much exactly sums up my initial thoughts about it.
A bit off-topic, but talking of things Jurassic Park, it was such a shame that the 20th anniversary re-release of JP was shown in theaters only in 3D. It would have been so freaking awesome to see it on the big screen (I was too young back then to see it in theater), but without the 3D gimmicks BS. I hadn't gone to see one 3D film in 2013, still haven't, nor do I have any pressing need to change that anytime soon.
I need to go see Mad Max: Fury Road next.