petty-crush:

“Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom”

-hey y’all! we got us a real director on our hands! This film is visually alive!

-(Set pieces! Creative camera placement! Unusual editing! Wowee!)

-this film is great: second only to the original “Jurassic Park” for me

+not coincidentally, the horror is the most amped up its been since that entry

-starts off smartly with a creepy, underwater sequence, complete with excellent use of shadows (in this case-of the sea creature)

-whereas the first “world” attempted to chide us with jaded feels about being awed, this film, through sheer directorial, craft, does inspire wonderment

-dinosaurs be causing shenanigans again, aided by human greed

-although the plot is mostly whatever, I will give it credit for having a child worth caring about, a chance to see our two leads bond slowly, and visual footage of Pratt’s character actually training and bonding with the dinosaur (why the fuck wasn’t this in the first film?)

-so many people in the audience seemed more interested in “the lore” of the series that they let it get in the way of a Spanish horror director giving some of the best visual treats in a major blockbuster in a long time

+ I say, focus on what it does well, on enjoying a film for its strengths, not trying to appear smarter than or “figure out” a film

-dinosaurs dealing with a exploding volcano is art, if you have the convictions

-I cannot believe director J.A. Bayona made me feel sad for a brontosaurus as it does its death crawl. Incredible

-the conceptual ambition and screen juggle of all the dinosaurs (notably as they fall to the ocean to avoid lava) is breathtaking

-seriously, some shots were so Argento like, all that was missing was Goblin (or similar prog)

-that is a great thing in my book

-can brilliant directing overcome a so so script +Yes; yes it can

-it’s quite hard for me to pick a favorite scene, but the floating oner shot as Howard and Smith try to escape the pod had my immediate attention

-the use of lighting (peep the indoraptor climbing down into the bedroom) is effective tricks resurrected

-I’m happy to say that genuine humor (context based and frame as playground) has re-entered the series

-the hard head dinosaur bowling over the cartel buyers is “three stooges” / “evil dead” worthy

-the entire audience was howling as the super raptor played with its tail and and opened its eye to the audience(but not the character)

-when the auctioneer ran like a coward, and his hair was afluffed, I wasn’t the only one to get trump imagery/mockery

-this is my preferred discourse, btw, does this person make a good candidate for lunch meat

-what a delightful, nightmare logic driven film

-Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard are used far, far better here

-Howard herself also looks breathtakingly beautiful; the gaffer must have a field day lighting her

-notice how Bayona had his camera directly under the super raptor so that it dominates the frame and scares us

-for that matter notice how the camera is always playfully moving

-it’s the frame as playground, the blocking (not the cutting) as the force behind our eyes. That’s great directing

-classic (visual) misdirection on the fate of the bad guy

-I suspect that all this human clone stuff will mean something in a future entry, but who cares because people are getting killed with painterly quality

-I love how this film does not give a fuck about sheer manipulation of geography to give us a girl scarred in her bed

-this makes me think of how the scary mansion needs to come back more

-the action on the super raptor falling to its death and then Blue jumping to touchdown pose is so fluid I can cry

-after a dismal first course, the second meal more than makes up for it; sheer blast, monster movie goodness, the horror I wanted to see in my dinosaur tales. A real hoot. One I wanna see again