...well, I need a cigarette.
All joking aside, I have to admit that I am liking the look of the first Jurassic Park film in thirteen years. After the absolute atrocities of Lost World and Jurassic Park III, it's high time for us to have a decent monster/disaster film more in the vein of Steven Spielberg's 1993 classic that still holds up to this day. And now, just past the twentieth anniversary of that groundbreaking marvel of practical effects, CGI, and just damn good film making, we may just be getting one.
According to the Wikipedia page, it's twenty two years after the events of the first film (making me wonder if the films are supposed to run in real time), and a new corporation has rolled onto Isla Nublar from the first film and taken over working on John Hammond's dream of creating a park of genetically engineered dinosaurs, which apparently went off without a hitch and has been running for years. So long, in fact, that people have started to lose interest (an apt metaphor for the franchise in general).
To counteract this, the "Masrani Corporation" has decided to use what they've learned more in the past decade from genetics to create the first genetically modified hybrid. Chris Pratt plays researcher "Owen", who brings up that creating a new dinosaur was probably not a good idea. The trailer details some rather good shots of the park itself, with the use of CGI in some cases that actually helps with the grandiose scale of things. It's supposed to look big and shiny and such, and that comes across well.
Oh, and a scene where a Megalodon leaps out of the water to eat a shark dangling above. Nice nod there, guys.
But, of course, the turn comes when a disaster strikes. In the first film, it was disgruntled worker Dennis Nedry shutting off the power and taking out the computer systems. In the second film, it was Jeff Goldblum and his team coming in and mucking up what would have otherwise been a very open and shut operation by the InGen Corporation to capture dinosaurs. In the third film, it was the screenplay being green lit. In the fourth film, however, it appears that the new hybrid has escaped (scaling over a 40 foot wall in the process) and is causing an understandable amount of ruckus in the park.
We only get quick images of the chaos, including Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard moving through a forest-y area where a claw is found in a windshield, some shots of the lab looking much like the others from the original but in a more JJ Abrams Star Trek-style (no lens flares), some of the park's attendees running for their lives through the main strip of the park from some unseen terror, and a young boy's face being eclipsed by the shadow of what sounds like a raptor, but the pitch is far, far deeper, perhaps the growl of the new hybrid?
Very chilling, atmospheric. It puts me in mind of the old horror trope of "the less you see of something, the scarier it is". I think the filmmakers have at least taken that one mistake of Jurassic Park III. The Spinosaurus, for all its impracticality, was prominently featured and almost never hidden. This hybrid, however, is never clearly seen beyond some claw marks and potentially the shadow. No clear view of it, no real view at all. They're building it up hard and I really hope the pay-off is worth it. At the very least, they will get many butts in seats that are curious to find out just what it is. I know I'll definitely be there.
I may just be caught up in the nostalgia (not helped at all by a slow piano arrangement of the original Jurassic Park theme in the later half of the trailer), but I am absolutely stoked for this movie. It looks good, it has a premise that takes that of the original and goes a step beyond, and that's about all I could ask for in a Jurassic Park sequel. I'm going in with healthy skepticism, but an optimistic skepticism if that makes any sense.
Also, yes, Burt Macklin has a team of velociraptors.
Oh, you thought they were extinct? So did the President's enemies...
Jurassic World is set to be released in theaters from Legendary Pictures, Amblin Entertainment, and Universal Pictures on June 12, 2015.
For the latest from the MadCapMunchkin, follow him on Twitter @MadCapMunchkin.
No comments:
Post a Comment