Yes I enjoyed it too, it was very entertaining, in a light and frothy pop corny type way. But I was hoping for more than that. They've had 14 years since the last one. 14!
** SPOILER ALERT **
I'll actually try and do it without spoilers but just in case...
So things I found disappointing:
* Very little showing of the park being built up into a success, Clare's struggle to make it work, previous successes and failures. This means I have no emotional investment in the park. I want it to fail so I can see the carnage, rather than wanting it to succeed and feeling guilty pleasure when it goes wrong. Also means I don't care about Clare, because while we are told she has devoted her life to the park at the expense of her own life, we don't see or feel it. She should have battled against the creation of something so deliberately violent and been forced to cave in under the onslaught of angry investors.
* No evidence of any human intelligence - not just on the day, but at any time since the original park failed. That IRex should NOT have escaped that easily. There should be AT LEAST double doors, draw bridges, guard towers with effective weapons and well trained guards, moats, bloody great fences etc etc etc. Once the dinosaur is out there should be a swift, skilled, well rehearsed, professionally executed take down plan. And finally, there should be a comprehensive evacuation / safepoint type plan for the visitors, again well drilled. NOT one that just gathers everyone up into one central feeding ground. OF COURSE all these things must fail in order to serve up the fun, BUT they should fail DESPITE careful planning, and the best intentions of intelligent people, NOT because everyone involved is ludicrously stupid.
* The kids were surprisingly well done at first... and then the young one just bursts into tears... about something major and significant that could have been something we could care about... but we have had no hint of previously. As if the writers suddenly realised he didn't have enough back story so lumped something in.
All of the above robbed it of any drama or tension for me - no emotional investment at all. Can't help wondering if there is a longer version with all the gaps above filled in that could be available on Blu Ray?!?
oh and the raptor training is surprisingly well handled at first... but by the end... stretched my suspension of disbelief beyond breaking point.
Stuff I enjoyed...
* Seeing the park up and running. Amazing to see Hammond's crazy dream realised, even if only for a short while!
* Clare's solution to the problem and her (admittedly very predictable) transformation into Lara Croft. I thought Bryce did a great job.
* The mososaur is every bit as awesome as in the trailer.
* Chris Pratt was very good... but he is no Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum, or Harrison Ford :)
* The dino carnage was good. Loved the bit where the assistant gets eaten. Yeah it rips off Star Wars and lots of other films but it does it so well. Partly of course because they still get eaten :)
* Vincent D'Onofrio - as always - enjoyably bonkers with a mad gleam in his eye.
* Irrfan Khan - don't think I have seen him in anything before but he was an excellent modern Richard Hammond - sort of a cross between him and Richard Branson actually!
So in summary, very enjoyable, but almost entirely disposable. Better than JP3, no closer than 2/3 as good as the original or 80% as good as part 2.
|