The missus and I made one of our increasingly rare pilgrimages to the cinema for the latest monster munch in the series.
As with anything, timing is everything and I suspect we will not be repeating a Saturday afternoon viewing for a while as the soundtrack was at times near drowned out by successive waves of wrappers being peeled off or rustled to satiate an obviously starving audience.
Cinema going experience aside, Bayona brings a touch of directorial flair to the formula with a couple of call backs to earlier horrors such as King Kong and Nosferatu.
Both leads from the previous film are contrived to return. Pratt's Owen has done a Walden, while Howard's Claire has gone eco-warrior on us in a bid to save the remaining dinosaurs on their increasingly volcanic island. Needless to say, the bad guys hinted at in the first of the rebooted series have other ideas and the story makes an only slightly more successful Lost World style shift to the mainland during the second half to become a haunted house mystery.
I suppose it would be churlish to point out the flakiness of quite a bit of the science eg heroes can apparently outrun and survive direct encounters with pyroclastic clouds. More amusing, are the tip of the hats to the Trump presidency. For example, one character is referred to as a "nasty woman".
Newcomers to the series, Pineda and Smith, neatly subvert expectations with Smith in particular producing some very effective screaming that would put a Doctor Who companion to shame. Pineda gets to poke fun at some of the film's standard tropes.
I'm sure I think this about every Jurassic Park/World movie - but the dinosaurs really do achieve another tick up in the realism stakes.
The 3D is surprisingly muted for a film of its kind and really adds little by way of immersion or thrills. I would not pay extra for it. Similarly, if Goldblum's appearance in the trailers is tempting you in - don't be. He has little more than cameos topping and tailing the film.
Finally, the ending. Well, that was interesting - and sets up a couple of intriguing possibilities to complete the World trilogy.
Verdict: More of the same dino fun with a few mildly inventive touches.
No comments:
Post a Comment