Jurassic Park The Lost World 4k Review

[Samantha Figueredo]

sothat's Steven Speilberg's sequel to jurassic park in a nutshell. with the success of the first film in 93 and the publics new interest in us dinosaurs Speilberg would go way out of his way to unleash even more dinosaurs in the second movie.

now many of them were returnees from the first film, but this time around many of the herbivores were given more screen this time around. as for the new comers some were big shocks to us dinosaurs watching the casting from the outside!

this resulted in the casting of the biggest and meanest female t-rex they could find (not that it was hard for them to do... girl t-rexs are the bigger meaner members of our species). thus entered teresa the tyrannosaur. much to the humans surprise her and larry got along great so shooting commenced immediately in fears they might not later on...

also back were the three Deinonychus from the first film. they were extremely excited to get back into the public lime light, and it would be this second appearance that guranteed them equal popularity to us tyrannosaurs (a move that caused the only tension between larry and Speilberg).

the ever famous stegosaurus herd scene from the lost world sums up how this movie nailed dinosaurs in a movie as never before... we were treated like REAL animals, and not just hollywood horror monsters!

even the stegosaurs attack sequence isn't just a typical hollywood random killer dinosaur moment. thinking that their baby is in danger due to the efforts of dr. harding the stegosaur family unit jumps into action to ward off the threat. Though giving the audience what it wants in the form of dinosaur caused danger it gets there through the means of making the dinosaurs motivation both believable and sympathizable.

this same treatment extended to all the dinosaurs (save the raptors, but i'll talk about them shortly). the tyrannosaurs rampaging exploits in this film centre around a families struggle to endure the meddling of humans on their lives.

yes there is plenty of killing and property destruction along the way, but in the end it is all sympathizable and logical. the audience can follow what's going through larry and teresa's characters heads (even if based on slightly incorrect theories by the film makers. in reality we t-rexs were more then immediate family packs. for the movie to have been correct there should have been some 20 tyrannosaurs of various ages and sizes roaming together... but the humans wouldn't have stood a chance!).

it does have on tyrannosaur quirk that carried over from the first movie that i didn't want to harp on when reviewing the first jurassic park (cause that first movie was such a landbreaking effort), but if i hear the saying "it can't see you if you don't move" i'm going to eat someone myself!

i don't know why larry let that one slip into the script, that alone pop up again in the sequel? we t-rexs are as stereoscopic in eyesight as our small relatives the raptors! you just stand there you make a perfect snack... if a t-rex is ever eying you down get out of there pronto... don't walk RUN!

the only other tyrannosaur bit that had me a little miffed was more due to larry's ego. in the end sequence in which the t-rex rampages through san francisco is larry blatantly trying to one up legendary movie dinosaur godzilla (my personal hero).

don't get me wrong. the san fransico rampage is still a highlight of the lost world. it serves as a brilliant contrast of the human world with an ideal dinosaur world. it encompasses and touchingly acknowledges all modern surviving dinosaurs feeling of being trapped in circumstances we can't control... well and the fantasy of exerting our full saurian might in trashing said oppressive world...

it's just larry's performance now that then that bugs me. looking all smug and JERK! like. he may do our species credit on the big screen, but larry is still NO godzilla (whose movies i intend to get around to soon).

despite their silly and overly violent (even for the real life brutes they are) portrayal of the raptors this movie finished off the job of propelling the dromaesaurs into fullout stardom. they now forever onward would rival us tyrannosaurs in popularity and notoriety.

the typical theropod killing humans thus dinos=bad, stereotype persisted a little through the raptor parts of the movies. however elsewhere anytime a dinosaur was harming a human it was due mostly to human related activities.

this movie accurately despicted real life dinosaur life in a human world. actively being captured, collected, and corralled against our will by humans. it brought attention to the plight of modern dinosaurs not lucky enough to have made it in hollywood and thus have been sequestered to theme parks and musuems.

the dinosaur hunting scene is ironically my favourite scene. not because of it's coolness or fun (that'd go to parts of larry's rampage in san fransico... he may be no godzilla, but i'm a sucker for dino related property damage...), but rather it's all out honest on how humans tend to treat us modern dinosaurs. as nothing more then property and money making objects...

it also had a beautiful side benefit of showing how we actually existed millions of years ago, that had never truely been shown in a movie before. it depicted a multitude of herbvorious dinosaurs cominglating in a natural and dyamic ecosystem. in years past these guys would only have appeared one at a time either to fight or try and kill a human.

most importantly as i discussed at the very beginning this movie truely portrayed a DINOSAUR view of the lost world. not just the human version where dinosaur exist solely to be discovered, captured, killed, or kill...

I don't remember how old I was when I first saw Jurassic Park, but I know I didn't see it in theaters during its original run. Why? No specifics come to mind, but movies weren't an overly huge part of my life back then, largely since I was so obsessed with sports. After I finally got around to watching it, in the high-tech age of beepers and Zack Morris cell phones that was the early 1990s, I remember being blown away, but still remorseful that I never did get to see it in a big theater. 20-some years later, at the ripe old age of 38, I became a kid again when I saw Jurassic World in all of its IMAX 3D glory, because it reinvents the spectacle and the story of the original classic, while giving us a glimpse at the fluid filmmaking style of the man who very well may be the next Steven Spielberg, Colin Trevorrow.

I'm sure plenty of original Jurassic Park fans are approaching Jurassic World with trepidation, abiding by the age-old axiom "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me." While The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III aren't the worst movies in the world, it's hard to imagine any way they could have succeeded with such towering expectations after the original broke new ground (and the bank). For those worried about being "fooled" a third time in a row, that doesn't happen in Jurassic World.

Calling Jurassic World a "sequel" seems as unfair as calling it a "reboot," a "re-imagining" or any other term the Hollywood system deems buzzworthy. There is both continuity with the beloved original (while essentially ignoring the sequels) and brand new characters, with a story that brings the franchise back to its roots and looks forward to the future. Jurassic World embraces its past by sticking with a fairly simple story (dinosaurs are alive, and you can come see them yourself!) and introducing characters we're genuinely intrigued by and/or care about. At the same time, that premise is shown through the prism of our current society, giving us a glimpse at how massive this resort would be in today's corporate climate, and the pitfalls associated with the quest for the almighty consumer dollar that put financial responsibility over anything else.

The characters are all developed incredibly well, from Chris Pratt's Owen Grady, the no-nonsense raptor trainer who isn't thrilled with the resort creating a brand new dinosaur through DNA splicing, to Bryce Dallas Howard's Claire Dearing, the career-oriented businesswoman who hasn't found time for much else in her life. The real heart of the story is Zach (Nick Robinson) and Gray (Ty Simpkins), two siblings who are sent on a trip to the resort to visit their Aunt Claire, a dream come true for the dino-loving Gray and a constant nuisance for Zach, who can't bear to be away from his girlfriend.

When the new genetically-created dinosaur, dubbed the Indominus Rex, escapes from captivity, we are taken on a seamless, multi-faceted journey, following Zach and Gray trying to survive on their own in the midst of the park, Owen and Claire trying to track them down, and the slightly-nefarious Hoskins (Vincent D'Onofrio), who is just itching to turn these prehistoric creatures into militarized killing machines. We also get some wonderful comic relief from Jake Johnson's Lowery and Lauren Lapkus' Vivian, who work in the massive control room that oversees the whole park, and have a hilarious and perfectly-placed scene towards the end. The only character I had any issue with is Irrfan Khan's Simon Masrani, the CEO of Masrani Global who owns the resort. When we first meet Masrani, he seems like a super-wealthy eccentric, flying a helicopter and asking Claire about how happy the patrons of his park are, something she isn't sure how to quantify. From there, the character has a Jekyl/Hyde complex, shifting frequently between this big-hearted businessman to any typical CEO only concerned with the bottom line.

If anyone should emerge from Jurassic World a true star, it's director Colin Trevorrow. Jurassic World is only the director's second feature, following his brilliant 2012 indie Safety Not Guaranteed, which he co-wrote with Jurassic World collaborator Derek Connolly. While we've seen plenty of filmmakers go from a shoestring budget indie to an immense studio tentpole, like Gareth Edwards following up the low-budget Monsters with the enormous Godzilla, there is something special about how Colin Trevorrow crafts his scenes. I wouldn't be surprised if people walked away from this thinking Steven Spielberg directed it. I realize how bold a statement that is, but it's the best way I can think of to describe his impeccable direction.

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