RETRO MOVIE – Tiny dinos are cute in small volumes but evil in a gang – that’s pretty much what I remember from the story. Of course, part of the moral is that animals are not basically bad (unless a lot of little teeth are backstabbing) and should not be separated from their ‘natural’ habitat, baby T-Rex from T-Rex handlers, etc.

 

 

After a bumpy start, the dinosaurs attack slowly, but darkly, but only one species at a time: my press colleague was asking me when the blood would flow. For the first half-hour, we only witness dialogue scenes. The rest was a survival trip: an expert group had to see if the T-rex was a caring parent, taking photos was also important (and a dummy idea!) and last challenge: get off the island, which had more velociraptors (fast robbers) than electromagnetic vectors.

 

The civilian-on-the-field feeling doesn’t come through so much here: although there is one juvenile, she hasn’t screamed that much in this sequel. Here I must point out one shortcoming, the almost zero after-reaction to the deceased. The majority of humans still as ‘macrobiological’ fetish, while others capture the giant amphibians out of a lust for power. Less reckoned with the fact that humans have only one life, but can have several deaths. This was not emphasised in Escape Room 2. However, one emblematic scene, the T-rex baby’s care in the lab trolley, was beautifully photographed and seemed like a fresh (but very irresponsible) idea.

 

 

Playing with dragon fire

 

Who couldn’t remember Sega’s car-cab shooter arcade game? Although a ‘Lutra’ album was released to collect stickers of the nearly 25-year-old film this title – in cinematic terms – has not become a legendary piece. Parts of the film are echoed in the adventures, reinforcing the brand. In particular, I was struck by the complete lack of a sci-fi line in the first part. It had it all: software-crack 2x (in evil man and teenage girl mode)! Embryo smuggling (at least trying), amber DNA investigation, lab and museum fights. Here, the forest, evening forest (all the way around), and street scenes as a precursor to Godzilla, but that was too much from Hollywood. As an excuse, this was first: Jurassic Park 2 – The Lost World was released in 1997, while Godzilla was released after that in ’98.

While everything should be appreciated for its time and age, this story was rushed and overblown. The female characters are irresponsible, contributing significantly to the island’s doom. There is no shortage of car crushes and rope-climbing scenes, but too much game time is wasted trying to break the T-Rex VS car contra cliff edge. When the rope stretched for the 5th time for new and new reasons, I had to drink my remained part of Mirinda. With rope nerves, you can stand this pentathlon, but it was just overdramatic for us. Otherwise, the film keeps trying to cling back to its own dynamic, but from time to time, it tires of it. You can’t feel the exponential curve toward the final scene: so it’s hard to feel when the end will come soon.

To spoil the story in three sentences, it’s enough to read the synopsis (film description), but I can tell you that the two expedition teams even threaten each other with reptiles. The male geologist seen in the previous episode is a significant omission. Still, it is somewhat compensated for by the rock star character of Ian (Jeff Goldblum) and the other male protagonist, Nick (Vince Vaughn). The villainous characters are neither deep nor emblematic. The remote-father of the dino empire is still John (Richad Attenborogh), who would want to make his company more profitable – but still doesn’t realise that he’s planting time bombs and that he’s not the crown chakra of creation, nor evolution. And the naive Sara (Julianne Moore) is simply a medical case: so animal-loving that the toll of these challenges is measured in human beings. Her irresponsibility is annoying.

 

 

Denver wasn’t the last dinosaur

 

I saw Jurassic Park 2 – The Lost World back in 2011, although I couldn’t remember half of it (‘only in retrospect) and mixed it up with Part 3 – but his story made me bored. I wouldn’t call it horror at all, nor a thriller. Blood didn’t flow so much; sometimes it did – true, it was ‘in streams’ discreetly. There are action elements but no real dilemmas or moral issues. It’s more like babysitting logistics (where to put the baby so that Mum goes chill and not thrill). In part 3, for example, the egg business will ‘find its way’ – back to the sender, and there will be some legs to be bitten. More light, more idyll next time, please; let’s have a proper, ‘giraffe-neck’ Brachiosaurus there too!

Steven Spielberg’s action movie is sharp, and the sound mix is atmospheric, but only one of the two legendary melodies was played (more times!)! The latter was intended for Jurrasic World 2, which I haven’t seen yet, but I anticipate the writers were more hard-working (and not laid-back) just because of the first part’s immense success. The camera movements are smooth but could have used a few extra camera angles, prettier women, rain and shine, ‘cape’ after rain – calm, surprise-attack, strike back, post-apocalyptic clean-up.

The question is whether I can find enough ‘dino-bros’ to watch Jurrasic World 3 in cinema, because unfortunately in my circle of friends (too) it’s considered retro – and lame. The seats were comfortable, so we leaned back, as probably writers did for the second time when they figured out the story and characters. Unfortunately, we hadn’t had a climate system during watching – so we could not really feel the night on our skins, but reptiles probably did. These DNA-interconnected films are legends that are doomed to a slow but sure extinction.

Jay P. Sonix