Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)
DIRECTOR: J.A. Bayona
CAST: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Rafe Spall, Daniella Penada, Justice Smith, Isabella Sermon, Ted Levine, Toby Jones, B.D. Wong, James Cromwell, Geraldine Chaplin, Jeff Goldblum
REVIEW:
Fallen Kingdom, the second installment in the Jurassic Park “reboot” rebranded as Jurassic World (or fifth in the overall franchise) proves it’s still possible to inject a little rejuvenating freshness into a concept—people running around menaced by dinosaurs—that had seemed milked to the last drop. While 2015’s Jurassic World (despite being a big enough box office smash to greenlight sequels) was overly bogged down in nostalgic callbacks and recycled material, Fallen Kingdom goes in some refreshingly different directions, including fulfilling my biggest wish list for a sequel: get off the damn island already. Continue reading
Jurassic World (2015)
DIRECTOR: Colin Trevorrow
CAST: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Ty Simpkins, Nick Robinson, Vincent D’Onofrio, Irrfan Khan, Omar Sy, B.D. Wong
REVIEW:
22 years ago, Steven Spielberg ushered in a special effects landmark with Jurassic Park, featuring dinosaurs that did (and in many scenes, still do) look astoundingly real. Spielberg’s 1997 sequel The Lost World was a step down, and 2001’s Jurassic Park III (directed by Joe Johnston) felt like superfluous filler. Now, 14 years later, with Spielberg producing and relative newcomer Colin Trevorrow behind the camera, a film series many thought to have gone extinct over a decade ago (and sputtering out of gas well before that) has roared back onto the big screen. While Jurassic World doesn’t scale the heights of the original film (and in some ways might even be inferior to The Lost World), it surpasses Jurassic Park III and provides two hours of serviceable monster movie entertainment. Continue reading
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
![Retrospective] Why 'The Lost World: Jurassic Park' Is a Better Sequel Than It Gets Credit For - Bloody Disgusting](https://bloody-disgusting.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/jp-lw-1.jpg)
DIRECTOR: Steven Spielberg
CAST: Jeff Goldblum, Julianne Moore, Vince Vaughn, Richard Schiff, Vanessa Lee Chester, Arliss Howard, Pete Postlethwaite, Peter Stormare, Richard Attenborough
REVIEW:
When Jurassic Park debuted in 1993, it ushered in a special effects landmark, bringing dinosaurs to the screen that looked so astonishingly real that audiences were effectively ooed and ahhed into being easily forgiving of a generic narrative and thinly-drawn characters. Alas, four years later, the “wow” factor has worn off to the point that the special effects don’t quite compensate for the limitations this time. Steven Spielberg and Industrial Light & Magic are back, but while The Lost World has its highlights, it’s missing some of the magic.
Continue readingJurassic Park (1993)
DIRECTOR: Steven Spielberg
CAST: Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Ariana Richards, Joseph Mazzello, Martin Ferrero, Bob Peck, Wayne Knight, Samuel L. Jackson
REVIEW:
Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park, adapted from the book by Michael Crichton, is a tremendous special effects landmark, throwing up dinosaurs onscreen that are so realistic that at times it’s hard to believe they’re special effects creations. In fact, so impressive is the film on a technical level that it’s easy to forgive the serviceable but unspectacular narrative and thinly-drawn characters. At the bottom line, the story is just a vehicle to string dinosaur scenes together, and does an effective job of serving its purpose. Jurassic Park succeeds because it promises dinosaurs, and it delivers dinosaurs beyond anything ever before seen onscreen.
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