Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Understanding Jurassic World


    I don't really like dinosaurs.  My only fond memory of Jurassic Park was that I saw it with a girl I really liked, in our first sort-of-date together.  I saw the second and third Jurassic movies, and rooted for the dinosaurs to eat and kill every human on screen.  I also hated them (the movies that is).
    So, I was in no hurry to see Jurassic World (as evidenced by my talking about it two months after it came out), however my friend Sara did drag me off to see it a few days ago.
    The first thing that struck me was the stupidity of it.  People make so many terrible, bone-headed, don't-have-two-neurons-to-rub-together choices.  The bad science I can take, I use my suspension of disbelief to get over the idea that you can just mix and match different animal DNA to produce whatever type of creature and abilities you desire.  But only having one trained helicopter pilot, or even only one helicopter gunship, on an island full of potentially dangerous large animals that have previously killed people - that's beyond stupid.  They should have their own small army, not the 6 guys we see and Chris Pratt.
    But something hit me, the characters in the movie are supposed to be stupid.  You see, the stupid people are the ones who get eaten.  Oh sure, some random people also get eaten, but you can say that they are stupid for not getting indoors and going to see the dinosaurs in the first place.  It's actually something of a morality play, the bad people (or well-intentioned but stupid) get eaten and the good survive.  Once I saw that I could relax and enjoy the movie a lot more.
    Overall I liked it well enough, I'd give it a "catch the cheap seats" if I was actually bothering to review this properly.  I was amazed that the two kids actually had their own story arc and were okay to watch - usually I hate kids or teens in movies.  If you thought about seeing it but it didn't sound that appealing, maybe my revelation might help you enjoy it.  Or not, it's all good.

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