Last night Mrs. Greenbean and the two sprouts joined me in a late showing of Jurassic World.  Here are some of my initial thoughts.

Overall:  Go see it.  The movie is a great summer flick–everything you want for a popcorn and Skittles movie.  The acting is pretty good, although no one shines as outstanding, except maybe Jake Johnson.  He has some great one liners, and he delivers them well.  The CGI is outstanding, and the storyline moves along at a good pace.  It doesn’t bog down.  The violence, to me, is not overtly graphic (no more so than any other Jurassic Park movie) and the language is, for the most part, tame.  I give the film a grade of “B” for over all moviedom, but solid “A” for summertime fun flick and “A+” for dinosaur awesomeness.  If you didn’t like the other three, you will not like this one.  If you liked those, you’ll love this one.

Borrowed Tropes:  So let me know if this sounds familiar to you:  Two young kids lost in a jungle full of carnivorous beast, while the people trying to save them have romantic tension.  How about corporate and militaristic interests try to exploit something dangerous with the result being catastrophic disaster.  Or what about the contingency plan to keep things in check failing.  These plot devices are found in every other Jurassic Park movie–particularly the kids.  The stats are in–seventy-five percent of JP movies feature kids stranded and in distress.

What it Reminded Me Of:  Remember, I liked the movie, but it reminded me of Jaws III.  The whole theme-park, corporate greed, nature expert, and so forth was almost identical.  Of course, the story was much better than Jaws III and, so were the graphics and effects.

It also reminded me, rather egotistically perhaps, of my own Deep Cove stories, particularly The Deep Cove Lineage.  There were several paragraphs of dialogue that could have  been lifted directly from that story.  The key difference is that my story is retro-scifi and it is not about dinosaurs, it is about a monster.  And for what it’s worth, my Dr. Sleeth is eviler than their evil mad scientist guy, and The Colonel is more believable than their military what’s his name.

Emotions:  Each Jurassic Park story has a type of moral lesson to it.  The first movie is about messing with nature, the second one is about exploitation, the third film is a clunky attempt to talk about family and communication within family.  Jurassic World doesn’t have any of these types of moral lessons, instead it carries a giant weight of sadness.  Everything that happens in this movie is just plain sad, and I wonder if this is not a reflection of a sad world that, even when it is trying to have fun, can’t allow itself to do so without sadness and brokenness.

What to Watch For:  When you go watch for A) Dallas Bryce Howard’s footwear B) Chris Pratt playing Michael Douglas from Romancing The Stone C) Serious Red Shirt homage D) The scene that will make you feel old because you remember watching the first Jurassic Park in the theater.

image from forbes.com