Saw it this morning at 9am. I was a bit surprised the theater was as full as it was. And, a little grossed out that people were eating giant bags of popcorn so early.
I feel like I had the exact opposite reaction of a lot of people with this movie. Almost all of the prerelease stuff sounded great. They finally got the park working. They created a new dinosaur for marketing purposes! Perfect! I thought the whole movie would be in on itself, fun, and entertaining.
Instead, it just ended up being underwhelming. Not awful, and certainly not approaching good. Just... there. Honestly, the first quarter of the movie was so dreadful in its editing, pacing, and writing that I thought it was a commentary on itself (about the attitude toward the new park or something), but the movie just continued to plod along. Kahn's arc doesn't really exist. He's a good guy from start to finish, so his "nobile" death is just another death. Side note, increasing the death count in these movies does not make them more exciting or scary. So what was the scariest/creepiest moment of the film? Probably the CG baby dinosaur arm at the very beginning. For whatever reason, it really unnerved me.
This is a very petty complain about the movie, but the logistics of the park really bothered me. There's no way any safety board would allow people paddling next to dinosaurs, or those user powered hamster balls. As someone who loves Disneyland and has been there many times, and quite recently, stuff like that bothered me more than it makes any logical sense. Seriously, when they get in the hamster ball, the thing is already taking off and the door is closing before he's even all the way inside and buckled. The employee isn't even doing a final seat belt tug to make sure they're fastened!
Back to the film in general, I could go on about just how poorly written it was (especially when credited to four people). The first scene with D'Onofrio goes on for such a long time with the same things being said over and over; I looked at my watch twice during it because he just kept going on and on, hammering the same points over and over again as if the filmmakers thought this was about the part in the movie where someone might get up to go to the bathroom and would have missed the obvious point that the military are evil and weaponizing raptors is bad and stupid! Then, there's the stilted and dated meeting of Pratt and Howard that people have complained about before, so there's no need to retreat how stupid it is. But, my god, during the flying dinosaur attack, when they kissed, did I officially go from being disappointed in the movie to being embarrassed. Embarrassed for watching it, for the people who made it, for every one.
Again, I really liked some of the ideas in the movie. I love the idea that the park is open and works. I love the idea that they're having to create new dinosaurs. I love that they have corporate sponsorship (I wish it was AT&T and not Verizon since AT&T has a history with Disneyland, recently with them sponsoring the opening of the Indiana Jones ride). I love the scene where Wong confronts Khan, somewhat handwaving away the reason why these dinosaurs didn't have feathers and instead appealing to commercial interests. I liked the idea that the new dinosaur was created to specifically be a weapon. I even like the idea of training the raptors since they are intelligent or whatever. But this was just so sloppy and so lazy. And lame. I mean, if you want to say the ending is better than the dino-gymnastics of 2 and the talking with the raptors in 3 (including the abrupt military-rescues-everyone ending), then sure. But, a raptor and a T Rex team up to take down the big baddie, and then don't turn on each other in the end? They might have well had the raptor walk to up Chris Pratt and give him a kiss before riding into the moonlight. And, for the record (which you can use to discredit all of my opinions), I do not dislike the T Rex in LA ending of JP2; I feel the JP2 is bad and has far worse moments in it than that ending people seem to loathe.
Production-wise, some of the CG looked great, while at other times it did not. I loved the design of the park in general (ignoring my quirky logistic/practical concerns). I think Indominous Rex (sp?) looked just ok; something about his coloring bothered me. I thought all of the dinosaur sounds were off. And, as far as music goes, it was just average. I'm lifting a comment I've read on another message board, but Michael Giacchino has a really spotty record outside of his work with Pixar.
One last complaint and then one positive note. I also turned my nose up to the nostalgia in the movie, specifically when the kids venture into the dusty remains of old toys and gadgets from the first movie. It felt really unearned and manipulative. Also, and this is really nitpicky, but there was one or two Hammond references for my taste as well. Again, like much of the movie, it just has to hammer its points over and over again to make sure you don't miss its obviousness.
On the final positive note, there's one moment I really enjoyed and thought was great. For me, the best moment is when Pratt walks alongside the dying brachiosaurus. It was such a nice moment showcasing the enormity of them while creating little bit of tension and sadness. Of course, though, that scene did end up going on too long as well when he's cradling its head, but that 10 seconds of that long walk was great.
I could go on. It's stupid how Khan is supposedly the only person who can fly a helicopter, and then we see other people flying helicopters. The divorce/family drama is handled badly. Out of nowhere and for plot convenience, the children are somehow expert mechanics. BD Wong is now a bad guy for... reasons. D'Onofrio chews up the movie more than the dinosaurs. The children have no substance to them other than the oldest is horny and the younger is... well, I honestly don't know if they were going for nerdy, excited, or something neurologically wrong with him. And so on, and so on.
But, I think this is over 1000 words now so I'll stop before I keep going on and on.
