fujishig

Before he said Chastain, I was thinking when did Bryce Dallas Howard win an Oscar? Also the answer to that question is always Cuba Gooding Jr.

Is the Dodgson that is Tim Cook-lite supposed to be the same Dodgson that meets with Nedry in the first movie? The canister certainly points to that but it's not like they used the same actor so I didn't make the connection until I saw the name in print.

dex14

Yes. The original actor is a pedo and went to jail.

asianxcore

Finally got a chance to see this yesterday.

As others have already mentioned, the film is dumb and thin, re-treading places the series has already explored.

I still had fun with it and thought it was light-years better than Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018), which I had almost erased from memory.

Joe Schmoe

Maybe the can was found in the mud before the embryos expired? Even if they had expired, maybe his company was able to clone them? I could see him saving it for sentimental value the way some shop owners frame the first dollar they ever made.

feenst

DJariya

I decided to venture out and see it today. I saw it in a near sold out auditorium. I was surprised how full it was. It was also a $15 premium screen Cine 1 at Harkins.

Anyways, I found it somewhat enjoyable. A friend of mine texted me the day it came out and told me it was God awful. So I went in with pretty low expectations. It's definitely better than Fallen Kingdom. I don't think I've seen that since I first saw it in theaters 4 years ago.

Seeing the original cast and the new cast come together was kind of neat, but a little too coincidental. I did think the overall plot about the locusts attack was kind of dumb. Especially for a movie that's supposed to be about dinosaurs. Campbell Scott was a super weak villain. Pretty thin plot overall that's supposed to be the big "wrap up" to this 30 year old franchise. I did like the pilot character a little, but her development was pretty thin.

This is only for people who are fans of the franchise and want to be a completist. Funny thing to mention, once the credits started rolling, some kid yelled out "Best movie ever!!" and that got a huge laugh from the nearly 200 in the auditorium.

fujishig

I kind of liked the locusts angle. Considering the relatively small number of dinosaurs that were released (and the fact that they aren't bulletproof), they weren't gonna overrun the earth to become a threat, so I thought the locusts were an inventive way to kind of make a global threat (the most obvious alternative being like a prehistoric pandemic or something which I don't think you really want to remind people of). Gave you the dangers of genetic manipulation without falling into the same "we made a super dinosaur again" trap, though the whole redemption of B.D. Wong and the cloningsolution was really, really just deus ex machina," let's wrap up this plot because we got all our fan service in and nobody cares."

In fact, the whole movie seems rushed, this is the definition of "turn your brain off at the door" blockbuster. Did anyone believe Kayla's turn (she's the pilot, and yes I had to look her name up because I didn't remember)? The master plan to expose the company was to bring in two prominent outsiders, outsiders who were of particular interest to the main villain? Your emergency protocol is to force all the dinosaurs into the facilities, evacuate the humans and they're not just going to all attack each other? There are freaking gigantic locusts destroying the food supply and that one family is like "yeah we called people but nobody but you really cares, Dr. Sattler."

Michael Corvin

Well, my family and I loved it. I avoided any reviews because I already knew how it would play out. The series summed up:

Jurassic Park:
Reviewers: Oooh, Awww, dinosaurs!

The Lost World:
Reviewers: Oh, dinosaurs eating people on an island, again? Ok. Cool, I guess.

Jurassic Park III:
Reviewers: Can we do something other than dinos on an island chasing people?

Jurassic World:
Reviewers: Oooh, awww, new dinosaurs and some are smart, but another island?

Fallen Kingdom:
Reviewers: Seriously, dinosaurs on an island again? Cool volcano. Oh, and in a mansion?

Dominion: dinosaurs have gone global, prehistoric locusts are threatening the global food supply, there's globe trotting action tracking down dino poachers, and a cloned girl whose DNA could save humanity. No Isla Nublar or Isla Sorna.
Reviewers: Not like that.

Predictable yet funny.

Michael Corvin

Anyway, we dug it. It was fun seeing the old gang again. Loved all the little nods to the other films. I really liked that they did do something different. I'm also glad they got away from the engineered dinos (indominus rex/raptor) silliness.

I was conflicted on Maise. The audience is supposed to be on her side and like her, but this whole movie exists because she set them all free in the last movie. So this ahem, Jurassic World, is partially her fault. Or are we supposed to forget that part? Also there was no explanation how the dinos spread so fast. Maise released what, a couple dozen dinos? Wouldn't the military wipe those out pretty quickly?

It was cool having Biosyn as the villain, although Tim Cook wannabe was a bit much. I didn't know it was the same Dodgson, I assumed it was a relative/brother or something. Dogson from JP seemed like a lackey not a CEO. Despite that, as soon as he was introduced I new we were going to see a certain Barbasol can on a shelf in his office.

It was fun. I'm looking forward to watching again.

Meathead

I saw it on Sunday... fairly packed theater. Much much better than Fallen Kingdom. Nice to see all the cast together. Jeff Goldblum still steals every scene he's in.

fujishig

For all the "dinosaurs are all over the world" set up it had, it was still "dinosaurs in a walled off garden where humans are trapped." It's the exact same story, right up to the malfunctioning (this time on purpose) transport.

Like every movie has some variation of:

• Dinosaurs in an enclosed environment but things go awry and they start eating people
• At least one kid character in danger but with enough plot armor so that they are never in real danger
• BD Wong
• You thought this rich guy was good but he's really bad (except for World)
• Bad guy's gonna get his comeuppance (except for BD Wong)
• See you thought you could do it this time but don't mess with dinosaur genetics! At least not until the next movie
• And now we'll always get "the hand" which was used to almost comedic effect in this one. We had a scene with three "the hands" for one dinosaur
• Theme song playing when we see how beautiful and majestic and pacifist the herbivores are
• T rex roaring

But you want to know what? This movie did it's job. My son is back into dinosaurs and dinosaur toys. Mission accomplished.

mndtrp

It didn't do much for me, and it made me realize I never even saw the last movie. My kids loved it though, so that's enough to make the matinee price worth it.

IBJoel

What's "the hand"? I only remember Samuel L. Jackson's hand from the first one.

dex14

IBJoel

Oh yeah, that was laughable

DJariya

I thought "the hand" thing was dumb personally.

B5Erik

That was one of the cheesiest intros I've seen in a major movie in a long, long time. Wow.

And the first third of the movie was all kinds of MEH.

But the movie picked up, and the 2nd third of the movie was pretty good.

The final third of the movie was a lot of fun, it's what I paid my money to see.

Now, I actually liked the genetically engineered locusts getting out of control and threatening a major catastrophic event that could kill hundreds of millions of people through starvation. That was something new, but something that fit in this Jurassic World. Dodgson is trying to get people to buy his seed for crops, but his plan goes awry and things get out of hand, threatening a disaster for the entire global ecosystem. I thought that was clever. That really worked for me.

I also loved seeing Dr Grant and Dr Sattler back together again (with Ian for part of it). The chemistry of that original trio is a big part of what made Jurassic Park work so well, and why none of the sequels quite matched the original. And having the new cast finally team up with the original cast was pure gold for me.

This wasn't as good as I had hoped. I wanted a little more of the dinosaus intruding in everyday life, too. And this was a little too far over the top with the action. The original Jurassic Park had a lot of talk, a lot of quieter, slower moments to give the movie both a chance to breathe and for the big action scenes to really have some serious impact.

In the end, I give this thing 3.75/5 - but I actually enjoyed it a little more than that score indicates.

Bacon

I did enjoy it but IMO it had too much screen time with humans and not enough of the dinosaurs.

Crocker Jarmen

Wow, based on his voice and mannerisms, I would have bet everything in my wallet the guy playing the lead villain was the grandson of Ed Begley Jr (turns out he's the son of George C. Scott and Colleen Dewhurst. Huh).

Disappointed there wasn't more dinosaur stuff.

During the scene where Ellie and Alan are reunited and she says, "You haven't changed a bit," during the silence that followed when Alan didn't reciprocate a similar compliment the audience laughed. Was that intentional? I have a hard time believing they would have included such a cruel joke at the expense of Laura Dern.

JTH182

I think it was supposed to be a crack at Dr. Grant, that he's still in the exact same spot he was at in 1993. Unmarried, childless, and digging. But yeah, it almost came off unintendedly as cruel towards Laura Dern.

IBJoel

The vibe I got from the exchange was that he was taking it in and thinking "sigh... she's right"

dsa_shea

I enjoyed the movie for the most part but the hands were ridiculous and the "he slid into my DMs" was misused and eye rolling. I also felt that the dinosaur fighting arena/bbq restaurant was a little too Star Warsy for me.

clckworang

Yes, same feeling from me. I didn't take it as a dig on the Ellie character or Dern at all. It was a dig at Alan Grant not doing anything with his life in all this time.

Crocker Jarmen

From the responses here, it's looking likely I misinterpreted the audience's laughing, because I just assumed everyone was thinking the same unfriendly things about Laura Dern I was.

Michael Corvin

Yeah, I'm with everyone else. I think you misinterpreted it.