The Dinos Are Back!

Isla Nublar…..I think.

Tomorrow night I will be checking out Jurassic World at the theater with some friends as part of my Jurassic Birthday Weekend Celebration!  In all honesty, I know very little about this film other than the fact that it apparently takes place after the first Jurassic Park film and does so as if The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III never existed.  That’s a good thing and a bad thing as far as I’m concerned, because I wasn’t a big fan of the second film and felt as if the third one did its part as a big popcorn action flick.

My agitation with the second film is based primarily on the fact that I’ve read both of the books that these films are based on and feel that while the first one got a lot right about the books (although I didn’t particularly care for one film death that didn’t happen in the books), the second film got a lot wrong.  It’s still a decent flick, but I enjoyed the third installment a whole lot more.  Why?  Because it wasn’t bound by the books and played out on the screen as the big dinos-chase-and-eat-people schlock fest that it intended to be all along.

I’m very excited about the new film, primarily due to the fact that it features Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Pratt.  Their reputations alone make me believe that this film will work.  Howard is an excellent actress that I’ve enjoyed watching for quite awhile now.  Pratt is still riding the glory wave of Guardians of the Galaxy and his work on television (although I have never watched any television show where he is featured prominently).  I also enjoy watching Howard and Pratt in interviews about the film.  Both of them seem to be extremely happy with the film and I hope that their happiness carries over in their performances and the performances of the rest of the cast.

Still, I have a couple of reservations about this film.  First of all, I’m not too wild about the fact that the film features genetically modified dinosaurs like the Indominus Rex and a stegaceratops.  I really hope that these “mixed breed” dinosaurs don’t take away from the actual dinosaurs featured in the film that lived so many millions of years ago.  My son is a huge dinosaur fan and I hope that seeing creatures like the Indominus Rex won’t confuse him too much.

My second reservation about this film is the use of the velociraptors as good guys.  Pratt’s character is apparently their alpha male and leads the pack into battle against whatever raging dinos happen to get loose this time.  I hope that they come across as somewhat believable.

I’m not too worried about the CGI in this film, although a few bits that I’ve seen on the web have me hoping that they cleaned up the graphics a tad more before the final release.

Overall, I do believe that Jurassic World is going to be an excellent film.  I also think that it would be nice if the film at least gives a nod to the core cast of the original films (rumor has it that Dr. Ian Malcolm has a cameo but I am not sure if this is true).  I’m going to miss seeing Sam Neill and Laura Dern on the screen with the dinosaurs.  Oh well, I guess I’m getting old.  I’ve been watching the original flicks all week long and I’m ready for the new stuff!

As always, thanks for reading.  I’ll have a full, non-spoiler review this weekend of the film!!!