Jurassic World Dominion megathread

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A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

This was kind of two movies mashed together, where they largely cut both character development and the buildup to dinosaur scenes, like someone shot a movie based on a plot synopsis from a ten year old.

# ¿ Jul 31, 2022 11:54

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 14:18

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

Admittedly it's been a while since I watched it, but I'm actually having a hard time imaging an argument in favor of Dominion. Godzilla 98 is a perfectly functional movie, with a sensible story structure and build up, as well as a restrained use of CGI that's used to enhance the story rather than just be clumsily thrown in every like five minutes to advertise another toy or whatever.

# ¿ Aug 8, 2022 18:29

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

man nurse posted:

I mean I think there's very little argument that the first three movies are a definite case of "the sequel isn't as good, the third one is even worse". But I did find them entertaining on some level, 2 in particular.

I'm curious if when the first Jurassic World came out, did people see it as being superior to 2 or 3? Like was the mood "this is a good franchise revival" at any point? Because I have vague memories of that being the case. Sounds like they thoroughly poo poo the bed in terms of any goodwill that movie brought to the franchise with its sequels, though.

Jurassic World feels too mean to me, especially within the context of previous entries to the series. The way the movie drags out killing the au pair/nanny/assistant makes it seem like the director thinks she deserves her fate.

Not sure exactly where I'd put the movie really. Perhaps better than 3 over all, but also inconsistent enough that it dips below it in parts. Though that might just be it having almost getting judged on its own, while 3 can't avoid being compared to the other two in the original trilogy.

In any case, can't wait for Jurassic Resort, coming 2036.

Neo Rasa posted:

Also Dr. Wu made a faceturn between films and I kind of wish they just made him or that dinosaur smuggler pilot woman the main character of the movie instead of the old guard.

Dr. Wu as an anti-hero protagonist in a movie largely confined to the lab/sanctuary could've been interesting. Like, even if he turned face I don't think he'd have many qualms about using his knowledge of the park and the dinosaurs to achieve his goals, even if that meant people getting eaten. I suppose that's not super on-brand for the series though, so maybe he'd have to do a heroic sacrifice and get eaten himself at the end to let someone escape/prevent some dangerous science from leaving the park.

ante posted:

Dominion had a plot

Dominion had one plot too many.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2023 17:53

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

Darko posted:

Pretty much all of the novel scenes that were missing in the first movie are spread throughout the movies at this point. The first 3 almost filled it out on its own (aviary, compys taking out Stormaire instead of Hammond, etc.)

Time to mine his other books for ideas. Have a villain be attacked, with a dinosaur ostensibly biting his dick off, but then we later see that he's perfectly fine because he has a tiny tiny penis.

Sir Kodiak posted:

To me, though, the solution to this is that there should have been half a dozen similarly over-the-top kills. Because you're right it comes off as some sort of judgment to have just this one lady get so thoroughly wrecked by the dinos. But if you have more of them, that's no longer an issue. And in general, the movie could have used more time with park patrons and ordinary employees being terrorized, rather than the indistinguishable mercenaries. That's the wasted opportunity with the whole the-park-is-open conceit.

While I do still think it being drawn out like that for multiple kills would be annoying/kinda not fitting for the franchise, it being drawn out like that for a character whose only crime was being saddled with a job she's not super fond of is definitely the main issue.

If you weren't gonna add a ton of excessive deaths like that, at least just have that one go to Claire and have the assistant step up to the plate and be a real protector after poo poo goes down. As Claire's assistant, she'd be perfectly placed to do basically anything Claire does at a later point anyway.

# ¿ Jan 16, 2023 06:28

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

Violator posted:

Was the nanny's death in JW worse than Richard Schiff in Lost World?

The assistant's is way worse in how its shot/fits within the rest of the movie.

Drakyn posted:

I think the only thing that would've even partially redeemed Chris Pratt's character and his lack of character for me would've been him ever openly acknowledging just how much he'd hosed up at any point by, you know, being deeply complicit in most of the Bad Ideas that caused poo poo to happen, like training deadly and chimpanzee-smart animals like dogs for a morally bankrupt entertainment complex exploiting the world's most powerful biotechnology while also trying to gently caress his boss.

Know what? They should've had a Psycho style fake-out in terms of who the main characters were and have both Pratt and Howard get eaten right when poo poo turns bad.

# ¿ Jan 16, 2023 18:26

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

BiggestBatman posted:

Her death scene is good and more karmic dinosaur justice sequences should be that over-the-top. The movie is just boring and uncreative overall and this is a easy point to latch onto in discussing that.

It's not karmic though, is the thing. As for your second point, I felt it sucked the moment it happened. If I'm latching on to it it's because that scene is worse than the movie is boring. Or at least it is to me. Guess I'm not really sympathetic to presenting the death of someone whose greatest moral failing was being a bit rude and inattentive as karmic justice while her far more morally compromised boss gets to be heroic.

Violator posted:

Yeah, I�ve always felt Schiff�s was more brutal. He�s working his rear end off to save people (who are being sarcastic about his efforts!), has an extended terrifying trying to hide sequence, then gets ripped in half and devoured by a pair of t-rexes.

I haven�t seen JW in a while, but wasn�t the nanny grabbed by a series of increasingly large dinosaurs until she gets swallowed whole by the giant croc dino? That felt like a �oy there�s always a bigger fish!� joke.

She gets dragged into the sky by a pterosaur who in no world would be able to do that, then both are eaten by the mosasaur.

# ¿ Jan 16, 2023 22:02

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 14:18

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

banned from Starbucks posted:

Jesus people still can't get over the assistant lady's death. It's been like 10 years.

It's the most interesting part of the movie.

SidneyIsTheKiller posted:

I'm obviously in the minority here (and I've only seen Jurassic World once, like, seven years ago so that scene's not exactly fresh in my memory) but it strikes me a little backwards (or maybe overly cynical) to be horrified by a horrific scene and presume you had the wrong reaction to it. I know Carol J. Clover "Men Women and Chainsaws" and all that but Jurassic Park in particular is not a series that expects you to cheer when people are violently eaten.

In general I feel like most "schadenfreude" deaths in movies tend to be tamer than most specifically so you won't feel horrified by them. The ones that come immediately to mind for me - Burke in Aliens, Ludlow in The Lost World, Nedry in Jurassic Park - actually all happen off screen, in fact.

I'm using the original Jurassic Park as a baseline, and the closest death in terms of presentation is the lawyer - except he runs away from the children he's supposed to protect and suffers the consequences, while the assistant is just switching to protection mode and gets a drawn out death scene.

As for the off screen deaths part, I'd mention that Muldoon gets one too. "Classy" deaths are not limited to the villainous.

Darko posted:

I always found the Lost World death more brutal because he dies JUST as over the top as the long crazy rescue sequence that precedes it. That whole sequence from start to finish is one of Spielberg's best-ever action constructions and capping it off with the two dinosaurs flipping him and tearing him in half is a perfect cap to it. And Eddie Carr didn't just do "nothing wrong"; he died specifically because he risked himself saving everyone.

I feel like the last bit is precisely why it works. His heroism comes from accepting enormous risk, an enormous risk which is underlined by the brutality of his death. If the assistant's death was the result of her acting heroically it would come off a lot better.

# ¿ Jan 18, 2023 06:55

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