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Argh, matey, there be spoilers dead ahead. Read at yarrrr own risk.........
I went to the movies for the first time in a LONG TIME this past weekend. I mean like the Avengers, the first one, long time (Kids. All I can say, kids.) My son's birthday coincided with the release of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Jurassic World is what started the dinosaur obsession that lasted years. Years and years and years. While we've since moved on to Pokemon, we still spend a lot of time playing about dinosaurs and talking about them, while just not quite as much as Charmander and gang.
I was afraid he wouldn't enjoy the movie since he's not as into it as he was. This was also his first movie in the theater. We got there at the time the movie started, as I didn't want to have to wait too long through previews and him get impatient. 30 minutes later........ 30 MINUTES? when did previews start lasting 30 minutes??? He's looking at me, "Mom, is the movie ever going to start?" I keep reassuring him it will be around minute 21 I start looking around, pinching myself, wondering if I'm dreaming What if THIS is the new movie coming out, we are people trapped in an infinite movie preview loop, forced to figure our own way out? Not fair! We didn't even stop for popcorn!
Finally the movie gets going and YAY he's happy. The first few scenes we got some decent dinosaur action. Not necessarily by prior movies in the Jurassic series, but I figured they really had to build the story up since we're what, five movies into this franchise? Shortly after the few action scenes on the island, we started a lot of conversation. There were scenes back at the Lockwood compound with the fossils and displays and those types of versions of dinosaurs that we, outside of the movieverse, are familiar with. Not much excitement right?
I felt like the whole movie was like those inanimate fossils. There were a few scenes with the dinosaurs out and running and running and running from volcano, from the bounty hunter guys trying to chase them down for their Dark Noah's Ark thing they had going, and then the dinosaurs were pretty much locked up - the entire movie. So... YEAH. We saw this in 3D, and I had pumped my son up that this was going to make it even cooler. I thought for sure we'd see Blue jumping out from somewhere, or the TRex's tail would come lashing at the audience or...SOMETHING.
There was a nice long action sequence with the Blue and the new and improved creation of Dr. Wu. The IndoRaptor was cool. I really liked this dinosaur. The way that Dr. Wu explained him, I was like this guy, this guy is going to do some damage. With Indominus Rex in Jurassic World, we saw some buildup, we became somewhat acquainted with the dinosaur, how he operated, his cold blooded killing of other dinosaurs, etc. IndoRaptor held high hopes, but alas, we were EXPLAINED what he could be and tossed a couple bones what he could do. Granted, he was just a prototype, they weren't done yet. But that fight scene fell flat for me. The plot line with the granddaughter did, too. We are introduced, over and over to her. There's buildup to the picture of her mother. We get to it, we get to the admission, and then it's over. She releases the other dinosaurs to save them "Because they're like me", but... WHAT? Like I felt like this was kind of a big deal to skim over. Or will this be explored in future movies?
I felt like this was a filler episode-we are gearing up for another movie, setting the stage for the next great one, and this was just a layover movie. The important part? My kid loved it, regardless. Cos there were dinosaurs. For me, that's all that matters, so when it comes out on Blu-Ray and he wants to get it, I'll inevitably watch it so many times I'll have every word memorized (My personal favorite-Don't...Move...A Muscle!") and that will be ok.
Besides, look at this lil guy, isn't he cute?
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