Franchise Snacks

Jurassic Lunch

It's summertime, and I do look forward to escaping the heat and humidity with a couple of hours of mindless fun at the local cineplex. Summer blockbusters are something to look forward to and prepare for, mostly by lobotomizing oneself before entering the theater. But that doesn't mean that they can't be enjoyable if taken at face value. And since we are stuck in a universe that seems overrun with franchises, chances are that you will be watching something related to something before while setting up something after. It's a financial chain reaction and you are in the middle of it.

My choice for brainless entertainment over the July Fourth holiday was 'Jurassic Park: Fallen Kingdom'. I've seen the entire series, possibly all in a movie theater during the first run, and I've enjoyed them all to one degree or another. First, I trust Steven Spielberg as a film maker to provide some quality entertainment. The first 'Jurassic Park' certainly did that, being the first special effects movie to surpass 1933's 'King Kong' with a truly believable location and creatures. It only took sixty years to get there.

It wasn't all CGI, despite the hype; there was a great deal of practical in-camera effects as well. It was an enjoyable movie and did huge box office. My only complaint was that it felt like Spielberg was repeating himself, simply doing a better version of the slow reveal in 'Jaws'. But I enjoyed it just as much as everybody else.

"The Lost World' was much more to my taste, even though it doesn't rank as high in the general public's view. They got to the dinosaur action much faster, and the body count was spectacular. Even better, it was a knowing nod to the 1925 silent film with the same name, the film that brought Willis O'Brien to the attention of Marian C. Cooper, eventually leading to the production of the classic 'King Kong'. And it started with a destroyed theme park and took it to the streets of San Diego, another nod, this time to the book of the same title by Arthur Conan Doyle that started the whole dino craze. In my opinion, the only problem with that movie was that it was too smart for its audience. Hell, it even starred the nerd from the first film.

The third film was a tight little tension builder that has gained in reputation since its original release. Spielberg handed the reins over to Joe Johnson, who kept the scale surprisingly small. The actors, especially Sam Neill and William H. Macy, are very good, the movie a trim ninety two minutes, one of the most fat-free franchise movies ever. But it didn't do good enough to continue, and it would be fourteen years before these particular beasts awoke again.

Just like the dinosaurs in the plot, the franchise was brought back to life with 'Jurassic World'. It was a fine film, showing off the improvements in digital film making while putting together a strong central cast. The problems were standard to any reboot; they had to spend a lot of time getting back to the main story while ticking off the plot points one at a time. Eventually, chaos reins and the audience is happy, although interestingly most of the victims are simply tourists plunking their money down at a theme park. One wonders; do people going to a theme park today want to see the kind of mass carnage shown in the movie, a death wish of gigantic proportions?

In fact, all the subsequent movies have owed more to 'The Lost World' than to the first movie. There are greedy corporations and big game hunters as well as the debris of a dream which our heroes must negotiate to be saved. That brings us to the latest film, 'Jurassic World; Fallen Kingdom', which I found to be an especially effective entertainment. In fact, in my opinion, it might be the best of the bunch.

It starts from the beginning, with an especially interesting opening that seems more like it belongs in a Godzilla movie. We already see that the corporations are still evil and that any notion of harnessing the dinosaurs is doomed to failure. Then we get the standard rescue mission, complete with the hero saying 'no' first, only to show up. There are a couple of new characters, an efficient young woman and a guy who repeatedly screams like a girl, as well as an exploding volcano. Everything is enjoyable and as advertised.

It is at the end of this first half sequence that things change, and for the better. So far we have been in popcorn movie heaven, getting exactly what we paid for. But there is a beautiful scene, played out for a long time, of a dinosaur standing at the end of a pier, the volcano ready to consume it, that comes from nowhere, stopping the movie for a moment of contemplation. After that, everything switches gears and we go to an unexpected place.

Suddenly Jurassic World shrinks to a very small space, not trying for a low rent 'Kong in San Diego', instead doing something truly surprising; becoming a variation of the Old Dark House genre, only this time with dinosaurs. There is a creepy mansion and a young girl along with some terrible family secrets. The house doesn't make any sense, Gothic at the top but going down and down into both futuristic labs and a prison-like holding areas. It doesn't have to make any sense, since it represents the interior landscape of modern man being invaded by both creatures from the distant past as well as a guilty conscious.

It's new, its a great plot twist, and it works despite being somewhat illogical. Most importantly, it gives us what we really needed in this story; someone in distress who is essentially helpless. It also sets up the last two bad guys after introducing the standard white hunter earlier in the picture. And 'Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom' does go very Gothic indeed, but with giant lizards smashing through walls instead of hands sneaking out of hidden spaces.

It matters less to me if they treat the velociraptor like a pet dog as long as we get some great dino on dino fighting near the end. The heroes manage to get in the middle of things, join together with the endangered child, and disrupt the nasty corporate shenanigans. Naturally, that only puts them in more danger, but the movie works through a series of climaxes before setting up the premise for the next installment in another three years.

Reading the on-line reviews, I am once again impressed by all the snarky fan boys taking a shot at this movie by calling it nonsense. If you want totally illogical garbage, take a swing at your precious Star Wars universe, which is Manifest Destiny gone amuck and should be stricken from the face of the earth (for the record, I have enjoyed individual movies, but the prequel trilogy was SO bad that it still leaves a lingering taste in my mouth). I got what I wanted from 'Jurassic Park: Fallen Kingdom' and left feeling that I had received my money's worth. But what was it that I wanted in the first place?

The answer is simple; catharsis. It may sound funny, but the series usually does a good job making you root for the dinosaurs during the destruction sequences. You care about the animals, or at least you are impressed by their efficiency. And the humans, especially the bad guys, are unlikable enough to justify being turned into dino chow.

That's what I go for; the more corporate types that get eaten by the monsters, the happier I am. The best scenes are when a pair of feet are sticking out of a T-Rex's mouthy, hopefully wearing an expensive pair of Italian loafers. If it is tourists or the endless army of thugs getting digested, the thrill is momentary. If it is a organizational man sitting pretty at the top of the pyramid getting munched, I'm in heaven.

Whereas 'Jurassic Park III' doesn't have a single bad guy make it into the digestive track of a dinosaur, 'Fallen Kingdom' manages three, a series record. And all three got a loud cheer from me. The white hunter was to be expected. The guy running the dino auction had villain written all over his face, so he was fresh meat the moment of his arrival on screen. The third guy, the main nasty, was so faceless that I had a hard time even finding an image of him to post. His was the most spectacular and the most satisfying, a Jurassic lunch indeed between quite a few primeval beasts.

In the end it's a sham, since these same corporate types are the ones who put up the money to back the movie, reaping the profits. But for a few glorious brain dead moments in an air conditioned theater, bliss overcame my fevered mind. The natural balance was restored and the modern man was reduced to a simple protein snack. In today's world, you have to take your victories where you find them.