Godzilla vs Kong Review

Godzilla vs. Kong

Dir: Adam Wingard

Starring: Alexander Skarsgård, Millie Bobby Brown, Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Julian Dennison, Kyle Chandler, Demián Bichir, Kaylee Hottle, and Shun Oguri

 

As I turned the lights down in my living room, dumped the microwave popcorn into a large bowl, positioned myself on my comfy couch, and asked my two kids, "Who you got? Godzilla or Kong?" I was reminded of the monster movie Saturday nights with my family as a kid. These "creature feature" royal rumbles, seen mainly on Arizona's KPHO-TV5's The World Beyond, shaped and molded my love for movies at a young age. I could see the youthful excitement in my kids' attitudes as they clamored for words to explain why one chose Kong and the other chose Godzilla as their heavyweight selection.

 

Godzilla vs. Kong is the fourth film in the MonsterVerse, a world of giant monsters that concludes the trio of films, Godzilla (2014), Kong: Skull Island (2017), and Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019). These films established the mythology and adjoining story arcs that lead to the climactic battle of cinema's two iconic Titans. 

 

Director Adam Wingard, who started in the horror genre with films like Pop Skull (2009), You're Next(2011), and Blair Witch (2016), does everything you should do with a giant monster movie. It places the monsters on full display and lets them rip apart every inch of the silver screen battlefield. Godzilla vs. Kongdoesn't waste time with the human drama or character development; the other films in the series have already done that part. Instead, it delivers on the pure visceral spectacle of watching two giant monsters fight and destroy everything around them. 

 

The film opens with Kong waking up from slumber; Bobby Vinton's Over the Mountain, Across the Sea plays while Kong stretches, scratches, and washes his face in a waterfall. But this scenic locale isn't home for Kong. Instead, it's a giant technologically advanced cage developed to contain the giant ape. On the other side of the globe, an enraged Godzilla has awakened. No one knows why the Kaiju, a former ally to humanity, has destroyed a facility owned by a cybernetics corporation called Apex. But Godzilla is on a rampage, and Kong becomes the only hope for humanity. This takes Kong and his team, including a deaf girl named Jia (Kaylee Hottle), with who Kong has a unique bond, on a mission to the center of the earth for answers. 

 

What makes Godzilla vs. Kong work so well is its simple emphasis on keeping the monsters in focus, front and center, as the accompanying story revolves around the two title characters' actions. In the past films that compose the MonsterVerse, the human elements seemed to take precedent over the monster carnage, leading to unnecessary character drama viewed in front of giant monster fights. Godzilla vs. Kong rightfully never allows the humans too much time to control the situation. Instead, they run underneath the Titans' footsteps while the framing keeps the creatures in a clear, controlled perspective. 

 

Adam Wingard does an exceptional job composing the action throughout the film, allowing for moments pulled from a heavyweight boxing match or the motions written for a WrestleMania main event. It's beautiful both in its frenzied digital demolition, big explosions and crumbling debris fill the frame, and the creation of the two beasts' textured and expressive look, the motion of Godzilla moving through the water or Kong’s easy sway across buildings and trees is delicate and destructive. Kong's eyes alone tell enough story to keep everything moving forward, without any words or descriptions from the humans. 

 

Wingard's best human character move in the film is the relationship between Kong and Jia. Their wordless communication is lovely. Jia's simplicity of words, communicated through sign language, is more than enough material to build an entire story that connects the dots of why these monsters are fighting. 

 

Great actors like Alexander Skarsgård, who plays a scientist with an personal understanding of Hollow Earth Theory, and Rebecca Hall, the closest expert to understanding Kong, join to offer silly science explanations of why everything is happening. However, the story has the most fun when the young people get to lead the adventure. Millie Bobby Brown returns to unravel more of Godzilla's mysteries with the help of a computer-savvy sidekick (Julian Dennison) and a paranoid podcasting conspiracy theorist (Brian Tyree Henry). The banter between this team of unlikely characters works well even when their adventure takes some pointless twists and turn.

 

Godzilla vs. Kong clearly understands the goal it is trying to accomplish, pack as much bone-crunching, city-destroying, tail-whipping, fist-thumping action into every scene as possible. Adam Wingard and the team achieve this goal, crafting the best creature feature in the MonsterVerse. 

 

Monte's Rating

3.75 out of 5.00

 

 

Come Play Review

Come Play

Dir: Jacob Chase

Starring: Azhy Robertson, Gillian Jacobs, John Gallagher Jr., and Winslow Fegley

 

A light flickers, flashes, and then blows out. A young boy, panicked, looks intently around his bedroom, holding the glow of a cell phone screen out to illuminate the darkness in the corners. A low grumbling voice grows into a shrieking scream, footsteps pound with booming tremors, the young boy sits covered with a sheet draped over his head. 

 

This scenario could come from any realm of a horror film but it plays the introduction to writer/director Jacob Chase’s debut feature film “Come Play”. The scene of a terrified child placed in a frightful situation, sometimes known as the “child in peril” device, has populated film in many different forms. Sometimes it’s fun, like in “The Goonies”, playful, like in “The Monster Squad”, and other times downright scary and disturbing, like in “The Babadook” or “It”. “Come Play” falls into the scary category, a film that depends less on its jump scare tactics and more on the unease it conjures by placing a defenseless child within arm’s reach of a monster from another realm. 

 

Oliver (Azhy Robertson) is a lonely boy who feels different from everyone around him, most of the kids at his school mock his silence and some take advantage of his kindness with cruel jokes. Looking for a friend, Oliver seeks refuge within the screen of his tablet or cell phone, watching episodes of “SpongeBob SquarePants” and playing with screen applications to take pictures of himself. One day Oliver discovers a story that mysteriously appears on his device, a creepy tale about a lonely monster named Larry who is looking for a friend. As Oliver engages with the story, Larry becomes more threatening, inching closer to a real-life connection with Oliver.

 

Director Jacob Chase adapts “Come Play” from his 2017 short film “Larry”. While there are moments throughout the feature that feel stretched unnecessarily, a common concern when a short film idea is built into a feature-length film, “Come Play” still displays some interesting family character dynamics and a lead performance from Azhy Robertson that is exceptionally composed. 

 

It’s these moments, with a family struggling on the brink of separation and their son desperately retreating further into his protective shell, that adds the emotional component to make the scary and threatening monster have a gravity of consequences. Specifically, the story between the mother and son is so tenderly composed that when Larry begins to stalk the entire family, the peril for the characters is peaked with tension. It’s ultimately what makes “Come Play” so effective.

 

Larry, the ominous 10-foot tall entity lingering in the dark corners, is mostly a practical effect monster…yes, you read that correctly. In the current days where monsters are computer-generated designs, hearing that the Jim Henson Creature Shop designed this monster, where 4 puppeteers operated the movement, is a complete blessing for movie monsters. While CGI is still used for certain movements and expressions, these moments are hardly scary, Mr. Chase uses the monster in effective frightening ways late in the film, showing the creepy nature of Larry as it stalks Oliver and his mother. 

 

“Come Play” struggles with maintaining its pressing and menacing tone throughout the film but it makes up for these lapses with an effective cast that is provided time to add the emotional components to make the final act scarier than it probably would have been. Jacob Chase proves an understanding of how to set up a scare but, most impressively, the ability to craft characters that mean something to the story. While film will never stop relying on putting children in perilous situations, or placing scary monsters in closets, “Come Play” proves that there is still life and scares to be mined from these movies. 

 

Monte’s Rating

3.50 out of 5.00

Godzilla: King of the Monsters

Godzilla: King of the Monsters

Dir: Michael Dougherty

Starring: Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga, Millie Bobby Brown, Ken Watanabe, Ziyi Zhang, Bradley Whitford, Sally Hawkins, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Thomas Middleditch, and Charles Dance

From 1964 to 1988 KPHO-TV5 in Phoenix, Arizona had a television program called “The World Beyond”, it’s the seminal foundation for my young movie loving mind. Where most young people were influenced by Saturday morning cartoons, mid-day western cinema, or the Sunday night family movie…my love for moving pictures started with “The Twilight Zone”, “The Outer Limits”, and “Godzilla” monster movies. 

Films like 1973’s “Godzilla vs. Megalon”, 1956’s “Rodan”, 1980’s “Gamera-Super Monsters”, and the monster movie that most affected me, 1968’s “Destroy All Monsters” played critical roles in my development as a cinephile, and ultimately as a genre film fan. 

The king of the monsters, Godzilla, has played an extensive role in film history; serving up nearly 40 films ranging from the Toho Studios franchise to the American adaptations of recent years. Director Michael Dougherty, who previously guided two successful horror films “Krampus” and “Trick ‘r Treat”, tries to find balance while bringing the bang and boom to the monster party with “Godzilla: King of the Monsters”.

Monarch, a crypto-zoological agency developed to investigate ancient monsters, has been working towards a peaceful existence between the mighty Godzilla and numerous  newfound monsters around the world. Dr. Emma Russell (Vera Farmiga) has developed a new technology called Orca that can control the monsters; it can calm them, agitate them, or signal them. It doesn’t take long for this technology to get into the wrong hands, unleashing the ancient monsters on the world with only the beast Godzilla and the human Monarch team to come to the rescue. 

Gareth Edwards’ “Godzilla” film from 2014 brought the beloved “titan” back to the big screen, though the film was highly criticized for its lack of monster mayhem. But it was this film that signaled the beginning of yet another franchise universe, one filled with giant kaiju. 

It didn’t take long for a film featuring another famous monster, “Kong: Skull Island”, to continue the franchise, however this film seemed to find the balance between its monster and human counterparts. Having fun while finding the human elements to add substance to the story.

“Godzilla: King of the Monsters” is also aiming for balance, in a sense it wants to deliver on everything fans have been waiting for, which is a battle royale of some of the greatest kaiju to be brought to the silver screen, but also find a sense of humanity in the mortals clamoring beneath the bellies of these gods. Unfortunately, the human element of this film is completely lost. We have a wide selection of some talented actors, Ken Watanabe, Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga, Sally Hawkins, Ziyi Zhang, and Bradley Whitford to name a few, but none of them are every given the development necessary to make them impactful with emotion and motivation. Instead, they are relinquished to roles that really have no more purpose than to introduce the monsters and watch in captivated/shocked awe of the chaos happening. 

The story of how all these monsters are conjured and combat is convoluted, but are people really coming for a story? I would hope so, but the one presented here is barely formed. This is unfortunate because there is a wealth of social commentary to mine for a story about a monster born of nuclear destruction, born of war, born of discourse. 

The kaiju are plentiful however, the three headed dragon King Ghidora, the winged fire beast Rodan, and the unusually beautiful Mothra all make an appearance. Some are allies and some are foes, but all fight in a collision of debris, dust, wind, rain, fire, and electricity. So much of the action between the “titans” is done in the dark with a wealth of elements masking much of the action, it doesn’t help as well that many of these scenes are done with jarring camera moves and constant motion. The few wide screen, stable shots display the impressive scope of these monsters, it’s picturesque and quite stunning when it happens.

“Godzilla: King of the Monsters” is searching for balance between its many spinning plates, it is seldom found. Instead, the film shifts heavily from one battle scene, then into a strained family drama, and back again. Yes, there is monster movie mayhem galore, but is that enough? For some it might be. 

Monte’s Rating

2.00 out of 5.00

The Meg Review

The Meg

Dir: Jon Turteltaub

Starring: Jason Statham, Bingbing Li, Rainn Wilson, Cliff Curtis, Ruby Rose, Page Kennedy, Robert Taylor, and Jessica McNamee

You think shark, you think “Jaws”. Steven Spielberg’s iconic film that was responsible for making audiences scared to go in the water; it’s a masterclass of suspense and ingenuity, a film that somehow ages better as years continue to move forward. “Jaws” is also historic as one of the first summer blockbuster films, spending 14 consecutive weeks at the top of the box office. It changed the way films and filmmaking were done and continues to influence today. 

The summer blockbuster has continued to grow since “Jaws”, with films boasting bigger budgets and bigger spectacle. “The Meg”, directed by Jon Turteltaub and starring Jason Statham, takes the most superficial quality of “Jaws” and exploits it. The great white shark is replaced for IMAX screens with an even bigger monster, a prehistoric water beast known as a Megalodon. 

A team of researchers are working in an underwater facility, they are exploring uncharted depths of the ocean. During their history making dive, the team encounters a gigantic beast that leaves the crew in the voyaging submersible stranded. With time running out and a monster stalking their moves, the research team call rescue diver Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham) to save the day. As Jonas ventures to help the stranded team he comes face to face with the ancient monster.

I enjoy a film that embarrasses its B-movie qualities, especially when it comes to creature features. “Deep Rising”, the 1998 cruise ship caper starring Treat Williams, and “Piranha 3D”, the ridiculous 2010 go-for-the-gore fish film, are two examples of genre films embracing the simplistically silly premises and turning them all the way up. “The Meg” tries to do the same but never fully commits to embracing its outlandish qualities. Yes, the shark is bigger, way bigger, but the carnage and suspense that should go along with a beast of such magnitude is never accomplished. Mr. Turteltaub tries to make things suspenseful but the execution feels so cliched and the payoff fails to have the satisfaction you’d expect from a big shark movie.

Part of why “The Meg” doesn’t work is because of the script. The story succumbs to predictable setups and stiff characters. Even the usually charismatic Jason Statham, who saved B-movies like “The Transporter” and “Crank”, isn’t given much opportunity to make the role his own. And there are other talented actors hampered with paper thin roles in the film; Rainn Wilson plays an annoying billionaire and Cliff Curtis is stuck playing the sidekick role. Any suspense that the film could build when these characters are in peril is lost because of their composition.

But some viewers aren’t here for character development or story structure, some are simply here for the shark. The pure summer movie escapism factor may be the biggest reason for some to seek out “The Meg”. If that’s the case, you’ll probably have a good time watching the computer generated shark chase super-charged submersibles or stalk a crowded beach where hundreds of people are wading in the water. Still, even with that perspective in mind, it seems like there is something missing. The charm that the film should wear proudly on its sleeve is seldom appreciated. Instead the film lingers somewhere near the surface, never pursuing the depths of genre that it feels like it was aiming for.

Monte’s Rating

1.50 out of 5.00

Rampage Review

Rampage

Dir: Brad Peyton

Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Naomie Harris, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Jake Lacy, Joe Mangiello, and Malin Akerman

There was this video arcade at the local mall in my neighborhood; when mom would go to the department store she would give me a few dollars to get quarters for the video games. I would feed quarters into the machines but in particular, when “Arkanoid” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” were taken, a game called “Rampage” caught my creature feature attention. It was a simple multiplayer destruction game where you would pick a gigantic monster, a gorilla named George, a lizard named Lizzie, or a wolf named Ralph, and wreak havoc on a city. Simple and entertaining. 

Simple and entertaining is the whole mission of the new Dwayne Johnson starring action film “Rampage”. Taking primary cues from the video game from the 1980’s, the film adds the biggest action star in the world, some computer generated monsters, and a lazy narrative to piece everything together and composes a film that feels situated for that mind-numbing Sunday afternoon movie time waster.

Davis Okoye (Dwayne Johnson) is a primatologist working with an albino silverback gorilla named George in the San Diego Zoo. Davis has a connection with George, being able to communicate via sign language with the animal. A genetic science experiment on a space station laboratory goes terrible wrong, it explodes sending debris along with genetic mutation materials throughout Earth. Soon three animals, including George, are infected and grow to enormous size all on a destructive path towards Chicago.

Director Brad Peyton does a competent job of making the visuals enticing and monsters clearly identified amongst the mayhem, it’s not as much of a confusing mess as some of these other CGI laden films. Dwayne Johnson is mostly reliable throughout the film, here the actor does his best to make the most of a bad script by letting his charming personality come through in as a many scenes as possible. 

Unfortunately the script is a complete mess. Dialogue is strained with awful one-liners and pointed statements articulated solely for the next plot device. Mr. Johnson plays a primatologist who, when the military comes in for information, reveals that he use to be a special ops soldier in the military. This is solely done for the sake of the character being able to fly a helicopter and pick up weapons for the ensuing fight. At another point the two sibling villains (Malin Akerman and Jake Lacy) need to capture their creations and conveniently reveal that they have the equipment to do this on their building, it’s a line that feels so blatantly forced that it’s awkward when spoken.

“Rampage” will be defended as simplistic entertainment, and for some of the visual moments in the film it feels exactly like that. But it’s hard to completely commit to the film because of the narrative issues. While it sounds like a great idea watching Dwayne Johnson jump around and fight monsters based from a simple video game premise from the 80’s, “Rampage” the movie ultimately feels like a waste of quarters.  

Monte’s Rating

1.50 out of 5.00

The Shape of Water Review

The Shape of Water

Dir: Guillermo Del Toro

Starring: Sally Hawkins, Octavia Spencer, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Doug Jones

There has always been something tortured yet romantic about the characters in Guillermo Del Toro’s films. Whether the plight of a little girl who escapes her war torn existence by discovering a fantasy world in “Pans Labyrinth”, the fascination of an old man who finds a destructive device that will give the owner eternal life in “Cronos”, or the wandering earthbound red demon who is trying to find acceptance in the human world in “Hellboy”, Mr. Del Toro handles fantasy, horror, action, drama, and comedy with characters that are traversing the struggles of their tortured existence but also approaching it with an abundance of love and passion.

These same sentiments could be distinguished towards Mr. Del Toro’s enchantments with filmmaking, mixing his fandom and artistic capabilities with stories that are many times combinations of the best and worst aspects of reality and fantasy. “The Shape of Water” is the director’s crowing achievement, a film that composes all the influences that have shaped and molded the auteur’s work over his entire career. 

In 1960’s Baltimore a research facility has just received a mysterious creature prime for experimentation. Richard Strickland (Michael Shannon) has captured this monster (Doug Jones), an amphibious humanoid with sharp teeth and webbed extremities. Strickland, who carries an electric cattle prod, maintains a torturous hand over the creature while awaiting instruction from his government contacts. Elisa, a nighttime cleaner for the facility who is also mute, stumbles into a violent mess that puts her face to face with the creature. Where the scientists and government officials see a monster, Elisa sees something wholly different.

Guillermo Del Toro gathers his influences from numerous places like classic film, folklore, culture, literature…the list is vast. “The Shape of Water” will resemble the Universal monster movie “The Creature from the Black Lagoon” but only on the surface level characterizations. Here the director lavishes in atmosphere and composes characters in a central story that are longing for an escape, even if only for a moment at a time.

Sally Hawkins and Doug Jones, beneath impressive practical effects, craft an enchanted love story that is built upon expression and movement. Their relationship starts with a chance encounter, one that opens an empathetic door for Elisa to help the creature. This blossoms, wordless, over the sharing of food and the experience of music. Ms. Hawkins and Mr. Jones operate these characters as if in the middle of a complicated dance, the film actually succumbs to this indulgence in a beautiful moment. Ms. Hawkins, with her quiet yet powerful demeanor and striking eyes, provides a performance that is filled with affection. Mr Jones, even underneath extensive makeup, moves with sensitivity. 

The always dependable, and completely intriguing in nearly everything the actor does, Michael Shannon shows up to the play the villain. But, as with most of Mr. Del Toro’s work, the antagonist is painted with as much complexity as the protagonist. Mr. Shannon embodies the realism of the world with the character, the normalcy of the era but also the deviance that exists within it. The gender abuse with the dominance that men have over women at this specific time, both the emotional and physical abuse, are displayed through Strickland’s demeanor in his bright suburban home and within his professional home in the gloomy depths of the facility. It’s a reflective touch that is unfortunately timely in the present day. 

Del Toro composes all the characters with an arc that has a beginning and end, even small characters like the ones played by Octavia Spencer and Richard Jenkins are offered moments to shine. These stories further accommodate and enrich the journey Elisa is going through. It’s a difficult feat to fit these secondary characters so seamlessly into such an already dense character driven story, but Del Toro accomplishes this with ease.

The director has proven throughout many films that he can find beauty in even the darkest of places, so when something so tender and touching is on display, as it is in “The Shape of Water”, the film is filled to the edges with elegance. While in some moments these stylings have the tendency to be a tad overbearing, it’s nonetheless exquisite to watch. The film feels texturally like a mix of a film noir, classic horror, and a musical all at once. The camera moves with the fluidity one would feel while watching water flow and splashes with greens and blues that resemble being underwater. 

“The Shape of Water” is visually stunning and filled with excellent performances. Guillermo Del Toro composes another fairytale, this time with a romantic touch that permeates far beyond  the premise might suggest. It is movie magic at its finest.

Monte’s Rating

4.50 out of 5.00

Kong: Skull Island Review

 

Kong: Skull Island

Dir: Jordan Vogt-Roberts

Starring: Brie Larson, Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, John Goodman, John C. Reilly, Corey Hawkins, Tian Jing, Toby Kebbell, Thomas Mann, Shea Whigham, and Jason Mitchell

Kong is king!! And since 1939, Kong has been one of the iconic movie monsters. Nearly 80 years, which included numerous films, and the giant ape has gone from a stop-motion puppet to a spectacle of computer-generated effects. Kong isn’t the only super charged element in director Jordan Vogt-Roberts new monster movie "Kong: Skull Island", a rather fun and never too serious action adventure film.

Monsters are real. Well, at least that’s what scientist Bill Randa (John Goodman) believes. He has spent his entire life hunting for evidence of monsters and he believes that proof exists on Skull Island, an undocumented island that is kept hidden by a massive storm that surrounds it. Randa is finally given permission to explore the island with the help of a military platoon led by Lt. Col. Preston Packard (Samuel L. Jackson). Knowing that something beyond imagination could exist on the island, Randa employs a tracker named James Conrad (Tom Hiddleston) as well. It doesn’t take long for the team to realize whose toes they stepped on by invading the island. Kong is king.

 You get a sense early on that Mr. Vogt-Roberts is not trying to emulate the past incarnations of the famed ape. A majority of the past films have kept the introduction of Kong a secret, waiting until  the midway point of the film before we finally see the monsters full image and size. With "Kong: Skull Island" we are introduced to Kong in the first few minutes of the film, even the first full battle sequence with a striking image of Kong blocking the sun happens before the 20 minute mark. 

The film takes place in 1973 with the United States stumbling out of the Vietnam War. The sentiments felt by incorporating a military team at the end of their tour in Vietnam, waiting happily to go home, offers a nice compliment to the story and the ultimate battle with Kong. Leading the charge is Lt. Col. Packard, a famed war hero, who is looking for one more chance to prove himself in a war he refuses to believe was a failure. 

Lt. Col. Packard, played with wild eyed and stern toned aggression by Samuel L. Jackson, leads the charge via helicopter into the uncharted island. Again, it doesn't take long for Kong to make an impact. The swarm of helicopters are blindsided by Kong, even with all of their gun power they are no match for massive monster. Losing many of his men during this attack, many of whom we never get a chance to meet, sends Packard into madness and on a journey of vengeance that has him touting man's superiority over animal. It's hard not to feel the influence of other war films during these moments with the soldiers, "Apocalypse Now" and "Platoon" most recognizably hold a strong influence over the creative choices in the narrative. These moments work when they function in the vein of something like "Predator", however this is not always the case as the film also shifts to a serious tone in some awkward places. 

What helps immensely with the clumsy script and at times terrible dialogue is the acting team collected here. They are all exceptionally talented. When you have actors like Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, and John Goodman, you're bound to make terrible dialogue have some kind of power. Mr. Jackson is just fun to watch, from the beginning moments his character is intriguing mostly because of Mr. Jackson's bravado. The most interesting of the group is Brie Larson's photographer Mason Weaver; the moments that she has with Kong are less "beauty that killed the beast" and more beauty that helps the beast. There is also a nice cameo by a familiar actor who always seems to be having the most fun in whatever role he gets to play. Unfortunately, with so much talent in the film, some characters are only given a few moments to really shine.

 "Kong: Skull Island" is fun when it doesn't take itself too serious, the kind of monster action that emulates epic battles you may have had in the sandbox with your toys as young kids. The acting is better than expected and the action is loud, fast, and aggressive. It's already been revealed that this is just the beginning for the monsters, "Kong: Skull Island" is a good start. 

Monte's Rating 

3.50 out of 5.00

Jurassic World Review

Jurassic World

Dir: Colin Trevorrow

Starring: Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Pratt, Nick Robinson, Ty Simpkins, B.D. Wong, Vincent D’Onofrio, Omar Sy, and Irrfan Khan

Cue the music, open the gates, light the torches…the park is open and the dinosaurs are back. It’s been more than twenty years since Steven Spielberg’s “Jurassic Park” roared into theaters in 1993, bringing a blend of practical and computer-generated special effects that changed the landscape of what was possible with visual storytelling. The prehistoric came to life, spawning two sequels and now Colin Trevorrow’s “Jurassic World”. The vision of Jurassic Park from the first film has come to operational life in a corporate driven amusement park bent on bigger and badder dinosaurs. And the results are as expected, “Jurassic World” amps up the dinosaur action with exciting sequences making it feel like a thrill ride while also paying homage to the original film with clever nods and telling humor. However, the action adventure aspect is just half the ride, albeit the half most fans will be coming for. The second half, where narrative and character development exists, is where “Jurassic World” barely meets the height requirement. 

John Hammond (the late Richard Attenborough) envisioned Jurassic Park as an amusement park, though things didn’t end up so well. Fast forward twenty years and Jurassic World has been operational for a few years, shipping in visitors on boats and running a theme park with shows and interactive rides. Zach (Nick Robinson) and Gray (Ty Simpkins) are on their way to visit their Aunt Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard), who is the uptight and organized manager of the park. With corporate sponsors wanting new attractions the executives of the park decide to genetically build new dinosaurs; one specifically meant to be the mightiest attraction is called Indominus Rex. Things go terribly amiss leading Claire and former Navy man Owen (Chris Pratt), who is training velociraptors, on the hunt for the new deadly dinosaur.

“No one is impressed by dinosaurs anymore”. This comment from Bryce Dallas Howard’s character is all too telling. While Stan Winston’s practical creations for “Jurassic Park” still hold strong, movies are creating all forms of goliath computer generated monsters now, making the sights seen in 1993 a commonplace. So it’s not surprising that “Jurassic World” feels more like a monster movie than any of the films before. Indominus Rex is a monster built by man that stalks and hunts, killing anything that gets in the way and progressively moving towards a population of people. The CGI dinosaur designs are impressive, Indominus Rex is intimidating, the velociraptors are still shrewd, and a new water creature steals an early scene by jumping out of the water and eating a great white shark. These are just a few of the many new species on display.

Colin Trevorrow, who last directed the amusing science fiction comedy “Safety Not Guaranteed”, understands what this film is meant to offer, which is a visual feast of dinosaur action. On that account he succeeds with flying colors. However, there is also a narrative and human characters that need attention too. It’s a shame that two great actors like Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Pratt are saddled with weak dialogue in a relationship scenario that is easily expected. Chris Pratt plays the role of trainer fairly straightforward without the comedy that is usually attributed to his characters, for much of the time it works. Bryce Dallas Howard is also good, her character is initially unfeeling and all business however changes once her nephews are placed in danger. The narrative starts promising, structuring the past events into connection with the present while also displaying how the science of past has been innovated to create for the future. There are other elements that, regardless of how awesome they may seem, fall apart once implemented. The side story with velociraptors being trained for military operations feels like an idea doomed from the beginning, though it serves as easy exposition to move the film from one place to another. Still, velociraptors running alongside a motorcycle is pure summer movie excitement. 

“Jurassic World” will be watched and rewatched all summer long, it’s the kind of film that will draw in new audiences and satisfy the prehistoric sensations of fans. While it may not live up to all the lofty expectations, it never disappoints in providing the viewer with dinosaur indulgence. 

Monte’s Rating

3.00 out of 5.00