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Jurassic World: Dominion (Colin Trevorrow 2022)


John

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1 hour ago, Datameister said:

The thing about Jurassic Park is that ultimately, any movie is going to follow the same fundamental formula. People think they're safe with dinosaurs, then the dinosaurs start eating them, then some of the people fend off the dinosaurs and survive. There's still a lot of wiggle room in the details, but the most basic concept is always the same. I don't view that as a criticism; they're fun monster movies, and that's not a bad thing. The original is one of my top favorite films.

 

Here's the thing though. While yes, at the base core the overall concepts are the same, Jurassic World makes it clear that they're just redoing the story of the original again.

  • Two siblings visit a Dinosaur Theme Park thanks to a connection with a relative who oversees the operation of the park.
  • The audience is meant to be filled with awe and wonder at the park and the dinosaurs within.
  • Then, due to some has-science-gone-too-far and company shenanigans, Dinosaurs begin to escape and roam free, flipping the awe and wonder on it's head.
  • The vehicle the two kids are in gets destroyed by a big alpha dinosaur and they are forced to wander freely and try to survive.
  • Eventually, everyone reunites for a big final showdown with Raptors where, in the end, the T-Rex ultimately wins the day.

Which movie did I just describe? Sure. They spruce it up with the Hybrid Dino, some trained Raptors, and the park having been reopened for a while, but it's just a lesser version of Jurassic Park. I totally agree with @Disco Stu it just feels insincere, shallow, and forced, like they're checking off boxes. And I find the music clashes a bit, because it feels like it's actually trying more than the movie is.

 

Now, I am fully aware and accept that you can see similar story beats between TFA and ANH. It certainly draws more from the story than I'd like it to. But I can tell that there's a love and a passion for the material when I watch it. The new characters are interesting, vibrant, and memorable and despite pulling from the story beats of ANH, it doesn't feel (to me anyways) like a ripoff. It somehow comes across more as homage to me.

 

The other thing too is that TFA's CGI doesn't feel blatantly obvious that it is CGI and stands well with the other Star Wars films, still using practical effects occasionally. It also feels more alive.

 

Jurassic World's CGI somehow looks worse than what came before and just holds no weight. So it's not necessarily about how much they used it, but how they did it. The scenes in Jurassic Park that are fully CGI creatures feel more real, are more terrifying (or beautiful) and seem more properly integrated into their scenes.

 

I will add though, even though Fallen Kingdom is a less blatant ripoff of Lost World (capturing the now wild dinos and bringing them to the mainland for money-making purposes) it does at least set-up Dominion to be uncharted territory for the franchise. That being said, Fallen Kingdom is utterly ridiculous and nonsensical. More so than any other film in the franchise, so... we'll see what actually ends up happening in Dominion. At least the original cast is back.

 

All this is just my view though. I'm not trying to change anyone's minds necessarily. I did go a bit off the rails here, but I'm mostly just curious what other people see in World that they don't see in TFA, because clearly...I don't see it.

 

It sounds a bit like, many just hold Star Wars in a slightly higher regard than some dinosaur monster movies. Therefore were more disappointed by TFA than they were by World. Which is fair enough. Personally, I've never held either in particularly high regard with the exception of the original Jurassic Park and...TFA. Lol.

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Fair points, @TSMefford. There are more similarities between JP and JW than I was remembering. Maybe part of the difference for me is the fact that JW deals with an open, fully operational theme park? For most people that would probably be a relatively minor, surface-level thing, but my own background and interests give that difference a lot more weight for me.

 

And I do still maintain that there's a greater expectation of formulaic plots with monster movies than with Star Wars. JW came after three films with pretty similar self-contained arcs, whereas TFA came after six films that each had a fairly unique plot that formed part of a larger story.

 

Interesting to compare these. I admit I hadn't really made direct comparisons between TFA and JW before this conversation.

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1 hour ago, Datameister said:

Fair points, @TSMefford. There are more similarities between JP and JW than I was remembering. Maybe part of the difference for me is the fact that JW deals with an open, fully operational theme park? For most people that would probably be a relatively minor, surface-level thing, but my own background and interests give that difference a lot more weight for me.

 

I can see that. I know for a lot of people that was enough. It's a cool idea to see the park open. I just didn't quite warm up to the way it was presented. I don't know, but I didn't feel it the same way I felt Journey to the Island in the original, you know? It felt like something was missing.

 

1 hour ago, Datameister said:

Interesting to compare these. I admit I hadn't really made direct comparisons between TFA and JW before this conversation.

 

Honestly same. I only drew the parallel shortly before I brought it up.

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23 minutes ago, TSMefford said:

 

I can see that. I know for a lot of people that was enough. It's a cool idea to see the park open. I just didn't quite warm up to the way it was presented. I don't know, but I didn't feel it the same way I felt Journey to the Island in the original, you know? It felt like something was missing.

 

 

Honestly same. I only drew the parallel shortly before I brought it up.

 

Oh, I totally agree about the Journey to the Island comparison. That scene in the original never fails to leave me feeling elated, whereas seeing the open park in World is merely, like...nice. Interesting. Cute. A little sad, since you know what has to be coming.

 

I do think the scoring is definitely a factor...I like Giacchino, but there's none of the musical transcendence of the original.

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5 hours ago, Datameister said:

I confess I haven't listened to the albums, so it's of course possible I'd be more impressed with some listening outside of the films.

 

It's well worth it in my opinion. I liked the Jurassic World score right away, but Fallen Kingdom took some time to warm up to for me. I'd recommend.

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11 minutes ago, Richard Penna said:

I seem to be in a minority who enjoys Fallen Kingdom more than the first one. I love the gothic style theme (gloriously heard in World's Worst Bedtime Storyteller and Thus Begins the Indo-Rapture), and also the recording quality is light years better than the first.

Me too! I really liked the first one but this one is just great, probebly the best none Williams Jurassic score. 

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1 hour ago, Richard Penna said:

I seem to be in a minority who enjoys Fallen Kingdom more than the first one. I love the gothic style theme (gloriously heard in World's Worst Bedtime Storyteller and Thus Begins the Indo-Rapture), and also the recording quality is light years better than the first.

 

Agreed. The Indoraptor theme makes up for everything else. The melody itself is great and how it's treated is mostly great, but I wish Giacchino was more imaginative what is going on in a secondary level. Take this cue, for example:

 

 

I like all the instruments chosen, and it sounds GREAT! I even like when the choir doubles the brass with the Indoraptor theme. What I *hate* is right before that, the trumpets keep repeating this quick ta-da-da-da-da pattern over and over and I just wish Giacchino would have given them something more interesting to do! Like, vary the pattern every now and then, make it more random, I don't know... Something.

 

That's the only thing that brings down the piece for me. Everything else I love.

 

World doesn't do anything for me.

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But the Indoraptor figure itself was ridicilous. Should be the most dangerous predator in the world but does not manage to catch a little child at chasing it down a straight aisle. That was the absolute low point for me where the last bit of tension and logic vanished.

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4 hours ago, Muad'Dib said:

 

Agreed. The Indoraptor theme makes up for everything else. The melody itself is great and how it's treated is mostly great, but I wish Giacchino was more imaginative what is going on in a secondary level. Take this cue, for example:

 

 

I like all the instruments chosen, and it sounds GREAT! I even like when the choir doubles the brass with the Indoraptor theme. What I *hate* is right before that, the trumpets keep repeating this quick ta-da-da-da-da pattern over and over and I just wish Giacchino would have given them something more interesting to do! Like, vary the pattern every now and then, make it more random, I don't know... Something.

 

That's the only thing that brings down the piece for me. Everything else I love.

 

World doesn't do anything for me.

Giacchino also has weaker story sensibilities compared to someone like Powell. Several spots where that theme or any theme would have fit nicely, he instead just does meandering underscore.

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As a fan of all things Jurassic, I think overall I prefer Jurassic World as a film over Fallen Kingdom. However, I think Fallen Kingdom's score is light years better than Jurassic World's. I was honestly disappointed in the first score after Giacchino had delivered the highly energetic and exciting Jupiter Ascending not long before it. Apart from some standout tracks and moments, overall it is honestly my least favorite Jurassic score of the franchise. I honestly felt his themes were greatly expanded upon in the Lego Video Game more than in the film! How's that for odd?

 

But Fallen Kingdom's score... wow. I saw the film at an early screening before the soundtrack had even been released at all; hadn't even heard any clips! And I was won over by it right away. It has such an old-fashioned monster movie feel to it, and has so many clear homages to Hermann in the first half. While I wish his Jurassic World theme made more appearances like in the first score, Fallen Kingdom showed that he was clearly having fun with the film. It goes back and forth between high-energy action to dramatic gothic highlights, making it really fun to listen to repeatedly. The OST (in both CD and digital forms) was also well-selected compared to the first score, which had left off many interesting tracks.

 

Oh, and I forget if there is a separate thread, but Season 2 of Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous is on Netflix now. The score, again by Leo Birenberg, continues to references JP and JW themes. :D

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Interesting. I felt the opposite about Fallen Kingdom. It looks me like 3-4 listens to finally warm up to it. Nothing of interest stuck out to me while watching the film.

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15 hours ago, scallenger said:

Oh, and I forget if there is a separate thread, but Season 2 of Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous is on Netflix now. The score, again by Leo Birenberg, continues to references JP and JW themes. :D

 

https://www.jwfan.com/forums/index.php?/topic/29556-jurassic-world-camp-cretaceous

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On 1/21/2021 at 2:32 PM, Jay said:

Basically how I feel too


 

I had the misfortune of seeing all the sequels in the theatre....... 🙁
 

 

 

 

I’ve always felt Fallen Kingdom, film wise, was a more polished version of The Lost World.

 

 

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On 1/21/2021 at 3:08 PM, TSMefford said:

 

But what about Jaws 3-D?

Sitepandawhalecom pandawhale shark GIF - Find on GIFER

I migh say I prefer Jaws 3D to some of the Jurassic Park sequels... great soundtrack and kind of fun when you watch it in 3D on the Blu-ray with all those pop out effects. :)

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On 1/22/2021 at 6:20 AM, Richard Penna said:

I seem to be in a minority who enjoys Fallen Kingdom more than the first one. I love the gothic style theme (gloriously heard in World's Worst Bedtime Storyteller and Thus Begins the Indo-Rapture), and also the recording quality is light years better than the first.

World is a piece of shit but Fallen Kingdom is at least entertaining and funny to watch (the scene where Owen escapes from the lava).

It also has better cinematography than the first (which looked like an Adam Sandler netflix special)

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I was referring mostly to the music, but I agree on the films themselves. I didn't 'hate' World, but not far off that. Kingdom is entertaining and feels like it has a story that makes some vague sense (for popcorn standards).

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I didn't really enjoy either of the Jurassic World movies that much (sure that's a consequence of having enjoyed the original JP so much... and it being my first ever film score), but preferred Fallen Kingdom over the first one, movie and score. I think the first Jurassic World was one of those years where Giacchino wrote a number of high profile scores and it sounded like he was spread a bit thin. Also, it featured a repeating trumpet figure which started to appear in a number of his scores, which I never cared for and the themes got increasingly clunky, which was quite a disappointment after the great melodies for Pixar and Medal of Hono(u)r. I've grown to appreciate them more than I did at the time but they are still quite loud and lack the craft of Williams or Don Davis. Speaking of which, I would still rate Davis' effort as the best non-Williams JP score. His new themes mix pretty effectively with the originals and the way he uses the original themes takes them in new directions that Williams probably would never have done, but blended well with Davis' own compositional thumbprints (but not sounding like an imitation of the Matrix). Indeed, I'd say it set the tone for Solo as to how effectively Williams' material could be taken in new directions, effectively blending the styles of both (OK maybe Alexander Courage did it first on Superman IV...?!) . Definitely hankering for an expansion of JPIII still, fingers remain crossed. Oh and I still maintain that JPIII would have been better told from the point of view of the kid stuck on the island... at least until his parents etc. show up to rescue him/get eaten.

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1 hour ago, Tom Guernsey said:

I think the first Jurassic World was one of those years where Giacchino wrote a number of high profile scores and it sounded like he was spread a bit thin.

 

2015 was one of Gia's best years. Jurassic World was his biggest movie at the box office, but he wrote great scores for Jupiter Ascending, Tomorrowland and Inside Out.

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38 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

 

2015 was one of Gia's best years. Jurassic World was his biggest movie at the box office, but he wrote great scores for Jupiter Ascending, Tomorrowland and Inside Out.

Maybe I shouldn't have narrowed it down to the year, but that time I felt he had a slightly lower hit rate. I would have to concede that Jupiter Ascending and Inside Out are both great. However, I found Tomorrowland somewhat disappointing overall. I've listened to it plentiful times but still can't really remember anything about it,

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Just now, Jay said:

Huh, that's kinda surprising to me, I think it's one of the best scores he ever wrote and I thought it was generally considered to be one of his best scores

I'll give it another listen! Guess I should state that I really do love most of his work, so I'm not coming from a negative Giacchino position (I liked him before he was famous - Medal of Honor and all that ;-) but it was that period when his writing became broader and more heavy handed (parts of his Star Trek scores suffer from this) which I didn't always enjoy as much.

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  • 4 months later...
2 hours ago, Edmilson said:

Here's one good reason to watch F9 in IMAX.

 

‘Jurassic World: Dominion’ Preview To Drop Exclusively On ‘F9’ Imax Screens

 

 

Since I am going to see Black Widow in IMAX, I’ll sneak into a showing of F9 just to check this out, because there is no way I would waste money on a ticket for a film I have no interest or intention of seeing just to see this preview.

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I love the concept behind the teaser. This will show accurate feathered dinosaurs, because it's a flashback to the Cretaceous. Hats off to ILM for their work here.

 

Moros-intrepidus-Jurassic-World-Dominion

 

 

The five-minute preview, shown in 1:90:1 Imax aspect ratio, includes a prologue to the film’s narrative and is set 65 million years ago, during the Cretaceous period, when dinosaurs roamed the entire Earth. Infused with Oscar winner Michael Giacchino’s score, the clip will reveal what Earth looked like long before humans existed and tell the origin story of how dinosaur DNA first came to be carried by a mythic mosquito. Of note, seven new species of dinosaurs, created by Industrial Light & Magic, are making their Jurassic debut.

 

“Ever since I was a kid, I have wanted to see dinosaurs in their natural habitat,” Trevorrow says. “It may have taken a few decades, but with a little help from ILM, Universal and Amblin, it has finally happened. This Preview is just a glimpse of the film we’ve made. It’s an epic celebration of everything Steven Spielberg and Michael Crichton created, and I can’t wait to share it with the world next summer.”

 

JWD_IMAX1Sheet2_RGB_1-scaled.jpg

 

Can't wait to see how the design of their paleontologically accurate T-Rex in the prologue differs from the InGen design of the films.

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1 hour ago, crumbs said:

I love the concept behind the teaser. This will show accurate feathered dinosaurs, because it's a flashback to the Cretaceous. Hats off to ILM for their work here.

 

Moros-intrepidus-Jurassic-World-Dominion

 

 

The five-minute preview, shown in 1:90:1 Imax aspect ratio, includes a prologue to the film’s narrative and is set 65 million years ago, during the Cretaceous period, when dinosaurs roamed the entire Earth. Infused with Oscar winner Michael Giacchino’s score, the clip will reveal what Earth looked like long before humans existed and tell the origin story of how dinosaur DNA first came to be carried by a mythic mosquito. Of note, seven new species of dinosaurs, created by Industrial Light & Magic, are making their Jurassic debut.

 

“Ever since I was a kid, I have wanted to see dinosaurs in their natural habitat,” Trevorrow says. “It may have taken a few decades, but with a little help from ILM, Universal and Amblin, it has finally happened. This Preview is just a glimpse of the film we’ve made. It’s an epic celebration of everything Steven Spielberg and Michael Crichton created, and I can’t wait to share it with the world next summer.”

 

JWD_IMAX1Sheet2_RGB_1-scaled.jpg

My thoughts exactly. You know, in a way, it comes full circle. Just as the world was able to really see living, breathing and moving dinosaurs back in 1993 with Jurassic Park (as accurate as possible at the time, with an exception being the Dilophosaurus), the world will be able to see as accurately as possible how they lived in their natural habitat based on the latest paleontological research.

 

Actually, this prologue makes a mental image I’ve always had every time I listen to Maestro John Williams’ “Theme from Jurassic Park” come true. The opening horn, followed by the flute and harp; I always picture a sunrise revealing a beautiful prehistoric landscape with open plains and conifer trees; the rest of the piece creates a mental image of a landscape teeming with dinosaurs.

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5 hours ago, Edmilson said:

Here's one good reason to watch F9 in IMAX.

 

‘Jurassic World: Dominion’ Preview To Drop Exclusively On ‘F9’ Imax Screens

 

As enticing as this is...I have never seen a Fast & Furious film and I don't intend to start now. Here's hoping it leaks eventually like the Star Trek Into Darkness prologue did.

 

The concept and that frame look very cool though. I really hope this movie turns out to be an actually good entry into the sequel trilogy, because the concept is very intriguing.

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9 hours ago, TSMefford said:

Here's hoping it leaks eventually like the Star Trek Into Darkness prologue did.

 

Wait, did an actual proper release of that get out?  Or just someone recording it from a theater seat with their cell phone?

I still want Giacchino's music for that clean

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