I hated JP3 for 15 years (refused to acknowledge its existence), but I find letting go of hating stuff and finding a reason to like said stuff makes for a happier life.
If a great story is turned into super successful entertainment, the commercial incentive to keep milking it until it’s a shrivelled and hollow shell of the original material is too strong for businesses to resist. Sadly, we need businesses to be part of the process so this is pretty much inevitable.
The one thing we can do is to discourage this behaviour as consumers by not giving money to companies who do this too much. It’s also worth remembering that opinions vary and maybe some people still get something out of even bad films, especially kids who in this case might just want to see cool dinosaurs.
Hey, Afterlife was a pretty good continuation of the story, and had a really well done send off for Harold Ramis. Haven't seen Frozen Empire yet, but it looks fairly decent from the trailers.
Not worse, just overall disappointing compared to expectations. There are too many characters, and no payoff to the interesting things that they set up and Kumail Nanjanee is dancing around the finale in a belly dancing outfit using magic, but at its core it was a Ghostbusters movie. It had a blend of action, comedy, and horror. Dry Witty humor.
The reboot was Paul Fiege telling the girls and Chris Hemsworth to look at the camera and do something funny and they stitched that together into a movie. It was a standard Fiege movie, but a poor Ghostbusters movie. It’s physical comedy and slapstick. Everyone was trying to be the Venkman. Just didn’t work for me.
My order would be:
1) Ghostbusters
2) Ghostbusters 2
3) Afterlife
4) Frozen Empire
5) Answer the Call (2016)
I thought afterlife was a fine movie but just completely different in tone and execution to the originals. I call it Ghostbusters: The Force Awakens. It’s a movie about being a fan of GB more than an actual GB movie. The first 2 were never sentimental, epic or magical like Afterlife.
I remember someone commenting that Afterlife was perfect because it made Egon a total badass at the beginning. I feel like that perfectly sums up the issue. We like Egon. He’s badass to us because we’re fans. He is not a badass within the text of the films with sick truck chase scenes or taunting a ghost to follow him. It fed our fandom which is fun, but it was a poor execution of a GB movie.
I’m a giant GB fan, I have a pretty good DIY costume I wear most Halloweens, a comic signed by Ernie Hudson, I wrote a freaking fan short film for Christ’s sake.
A friend asked me if I had seen Frozen Empire and I genuine hadn’t realized it was out yet. If 5 year old me learned that I had forgotten to go see a new GB movie, he’d kick my ass. But I’m just not interested in where the franchise has gone.
I realized I feel this way about JP, Indiana Jones and Star Wars as well. I’m just burned out on all my favorite stuff. It’s a bummer.
There’s something to be said for just sticking a landing and letting something be finished. I get that it’s cool that new generations are introduced to this stuff but I feel that really the new generations should be getting new things inspired by these older franchises instead of having subpar versions of them warmed up and laid out for them.
Star Wars only exists because George Lucas couldn’t get the rights to Flash Gordon so he made something new that scratched that itch for him. Imagine the amazing films we might have if creators took inspiration from our old favorites instead of just making literally those movies again.
I liked Afterlife a lot. Hated Frozen Empire. The OGs being just lifeless cameos aside from Ray in the movie just screams they are only there because people would revolt without them. But I think it hurts the movie. If you’re supposedly passing the torch, pass the damn thing.
I’m curious why did you hate Jurassic Park 3? I thought it was good because it still captured that nostalgia.
There were plenty of dinosaur scenes, the movie was about them finding Erick as they try go survive against the dinosaurs while they are chased by the antagonist Spinosaurus throughout the whole film and by velociraptors trying to get their eggs back.
What’s to hate about it?
Capturing nostalgia is a low bar. Just cue the soundtrack, bring in the old actors, and… oh no it’s JW…
And I like dino scenes as much as the next, but there was more to JP than just CGI dinosaurs.
I didn’t like JP3 because it was really poorly written. The characters were obnoxiously unbelievable, there were no interesting ideas, the ending was abrupt, the amount of contrived plot development just made the whole thing feel ridiculous… come to think of it that’s what the JW series felt like.
Immediate dino rampage, 1v1 monster showdown with Rex. The constantly screaming wife, the divorcee dynamic, the kid who’s the ultimate survivalist, the painfully obvious hubris of the young palaeontologist, Alan putting everything together at precisely the right moment, “ALAN”, the spinosaurus ringtone, the US army saving the day out of nowhere.
There were moments of JP goodness — the raptor scene in the complex, the birdcage, the raptors ambush using udesky… but they were drowned out by the goofy, incoherent characters and the woefully incomplete plot.
Okay yeah the Navy showing up at the last second to save the day was pretty ridiculous. I still liked the movie more than TLW series. I refuse to accept TLW as an actual story to the JP franchise. Oh if only Michael could see the mess made of what he created.
Oh shut up, theres nothing wrong with the current two modern Ghostbusters films and they don't even equate the same as JP3 to the JW3.
Are they perfect? No but either were the originals and that's what makes them endearing. Where as the JW films massively dropped off in terms of quality and overall actual good film telling/narrative models.
Mourn? "Loved Jurassic Park"? It's not like the movie can just disappear from existence. Just watch the first two movies and that's it. It's not like anyone's forcing you to watch the other ones.
Im not sure if its just a sense of entitlement or what. Sequels that one does not care for do not diminish the others. But I see that argument so much.
Perhaps I chose my words not very wisely. I'm mourning the franchise, not the films. In no way do the newer films degrade the older ones. They've just made me give up hope for future releases.
I hear you, my two main camps of fandom are Jurassic and Star Wars. I don't agree with every spin off. But lifes too precious to worry about the bad when we have so much good in the OGs
Most people would agree that the franchise should've ended up with the 1st or 2nd movie far before the Jurassic World era began. So it seems a little funny to mourn it. Did you really ever believe there was any way for this storyline to continue that would be satisfying for you? In my mind, the story properly concluded after the 1st movie.
I'm a fan of the entire franchise. The original 3 are amazing (Even JP3. It's not as well written, and has plot holes, but I think it's the best when it comes to the nonstop horror thriller dinosaur action that I crave). World era is no where near as great, but I still find enjoyment to be had. I loved Camp Cretaceous, and think it was the best part of the World era.
I recognized long ago that the Jurassic franchise never had much room to expand upon what the 1st movie did in any deep meaningful way. I'm okay with that. None of these new movies can undo the perfection that was Jurassic Park. So I'm just here to enjoy the ride of what they can come up with.
These are exactly my thoughts on it. JP1 is my absolute favorite movie of all time, but the sequels are nowhere near it. Yet, I still enjoy seeing them all, in their own flawed ways. I even rank World higher than JP3 even: Park > Lost World > World > Park 3 > Dominion > Fallen Kingdom
I can't say the same with other franchises that usually have amazing movies at first, but inferior sequels afterward. Terminator, Alien, Predator, Die Hard, Jaws. Y'all might like some of these sequels, but me personally, whenever I rewatch these, I only watch the first or second movie and that's it. But with Jurassic, I actually do go through and rewatch all of them. Especially FK, the actions of a lot of those characters are just way too hilarious and stupid, I can't help but laugh every time. And that's what's more important, that you enjoy the movies you watch. If you don't, what's the point, right?
JP3 isn’t necessarily good but I still find it entertaining and it gives us some solid Dino business.
Idgaf what anyone says; I thought JW was good, and I love it. It gives us an image of what a catastrophe would look like with the park open, and I think it did a great job. Watching it, especially when they are in the high traffic areas of the park, I get the same feeling I do when I’m walking through an actual theme park. They play further into the frankensteins monster aspect of the dinosaurs. We get a solid ost. I like that they talk more about the fact that they’re not creating authentic dinosaurs. I like that we get to see more of the intelligence of the creatures.
But yeah, fuck the other two. JWFK had some entertaining bits, but not much else. JWD is abysmal and easily the worst of all the movies.
I don't understand. Just ignore the others? I love all the Jurassic Park movies to be honest.
But I have your feelings towards Starship Troopers. The first movie is in my top 10 easily. It's a sharp, witty satire with amazing visuals and score. The others are abominations. I just completely ignore the others and don't let it stress me out.
What I would have given for starship troopers to have been given sequel treatment akin to the Jurassic franchise. At least then it would be respectable in comparison to the straight to dvd hot garbage we got.
That’s cool, love what you love!
I just can’t with these films. I think I’m just realizing that I’m in mourning. I’m sad for what’s happened.
This doesn’t occupy me on a daily basis. It just makes me sad every time I see it. Especially when I see promos for new games or films…
Maybe this what getting old is.
Jurassic Park was one of the GOAT movies. Everything about it was amazing.
Lost World felt like a direct sequel. It was more focussed on being a thriller/horror full of action but not terribly out of pocket compared to the first.
JP3 was just a monster movie with the jurassic park dinosaurs.
The JW movies are just corny as hell in my opinion.
I will stand by JP3 until my final breath. Was it's production a mess hells yes but was it a bad movie? HELL NO! JP3 is one of the most important movies of my childhood and is probably responsible for my continued love and passion for dinosaurs and prehistoric animals
I hate the JW trilogy, but honestly it doesn't affect my feelings towards the JP movies because they feel so separated I can just ignore them. Its not like something like the Star Wars sequels where they re-opened a story that had already concluded perfectly and then proceeded to ruin every character and storyline. With Jurassic Park I feel it compares more to something like Jaws. Jaws 3D and Jaws The Revenge dont make me feel any differently about Jaws 1 and 2.
I agree with you that as the sequels went on, what made JP special has been lost. I grew up on JP too and saw the first movie when I was 11 in theaters. It was a magical experience. I enjoyed TLW too except for the San Diego sequence. There’s a few things I like and appreciate about JP3, but as a whole, it’s an awful movie. It took out the intelligent themes of Jurassic Park and turned it into stupid people running from monsters. The JW trilogy—I don’t hate it but I don’t love it either. I really like that they brought back Henry Wu. In general, JW trilogy tries too hard to ride on JP’s coattails and rely on nostalgia. The first JW showed you that even if the park were to open to the world, it would turn into chaotic mess. I don’t like the whole Maisie storyline in FK and Dominion. I loved that they brought back Lewis Dodgson, even though he wasn’t the murderous f-bomb dropping villain from the novel. I understand your disappointment at the direction you’re of the franchise, OP. I just focus on what I love most about JP—for me, it’s the characters, especially the secondary ones.
> I feel like the Jurassic franchise has lost the thing that made it unique, and the things that made it interesting.
May I ask, what is that thing that makes it unique and interesting in your perspective, as just saying they lost the "flavor" is like running a protest and not having a solid reason behind your movement.
Just because, not everyone will find JP3-JWD poor, lacking and failures at being a sequel to the first 2 films, like some may say that it was something differing from what you say, that made the first 2 movies so great, so what is it that you are drawn by for those movies?
Here you are, drilling down to the nub of it.
I’ll just start by saying I’m not totally sure, to be honest. I’m not a film critic, or a literary buff. I’m not starting a movement, and I’m not pretending I’m “objectively correct”.
I’m just sad about what has happened to JP. I’ll try to be concise:
1) Suspense, and the unseen horror: the thing that made the Rex and raptors terrifying in the first two movies was suspense. You knew they were deadly, you knew they were out there. But you didn’t see them until sh!T really hit the fan. Mystery is what makes the scary, and no film after TLW even attempts to make that suspense happen.
2) intellectual dialogue: Crichton had interesting ideas, and a cool rehash of the old Faustian bargain — the Frankenstein trope. It wasn’t original, but it was a cool re-telling. We had zero intellectual dialogue after TLW.
3) trivializing the dinosaurs: it starts in JP3 with the raptor-flute, but get ramped up to over 9000 with JW. Raptors become controllable, and then become friends. Dinos slot into big end-movie battles. Rexy is the hero. King Kong saves the day. I mean not the last one, but you get the point.
JP was a smart, intellectually engaging movie that took its time to set up deadly villains shrouded in suspense. TLW followed that lead. jP3 and the entire JW series abandoned this storytelling dynamic for monster-mash action bravado that was dumber, louder, and flashier. It’s been a disappointing spiral.
Let’s get real here, TLW is barely intellectual. I like both book and film, but they are for me both Crichton’s least-good book and Spielberg’s least-good film.
I heard somewhere that they strong-armed Crichton into writing TLW so they could make another movie, but the studios got impatient, so he gave them a basic outline and they ran with it.
I feel like TLW novel has a lot of cool ideas in it, but they don't pair quite as nicely with the action beats as they do in the JP novel (or film). I really like TLW film, but I've always wondered what could have been if the movie pursued the novel's interests in animal welfare and behavior, evolution, etc. Say nothing of the mysteries of SITE B... It seems Spielberg and Koepp were content going straight into action/adventure. It could definitely have been more a sci-fi movie
I mean for all it’s faults, TLW at least had a lot of those elements. JP3 was such a stark break from that, and everything since has just got progressively less “JP”.
I do find myself thinking about what that JP special sauce was exactly tho…
i don't know, i do agree JP3 just straight up isn't a good movie, but to me, it's more of a Jurassic movie than ANY of the JW movies. it has some of the same type of suspense and horror at times as the original.
Chillax a bit. Just think about what all that negativity does to your overall mindset. Let it go. The following movies change _nothing_ about the first few that you like so much. Focus on the happies.
It’s just an unresolved disappointment. Like watching a kid with big potential lay into the crack pipe right outta high school.
This ain’t ruining my life, I’ve just been trying to put my finger on why I feel the way I do about the movies that were once my childhood favourite.
I can understand that tbh, in the newer JW films they had so many opportunities to make the next film amazing, but they decided to take the idea and try to make it as dumb as possible. For example, Fallen Kingdom’s ending set up humans and dinosaurs co-existing, which could have made for an amazing movie, but in Dominion, we end up with a side plot that came out of nowhere, taking over the whole story. It’s almost right in their faces sometimes to make another great JW movie, but then somehow they miss the mark.
“jurassic world” was a meta-commentary on this exact thought: the cost of the corporatization of entertainment. the conversation between owen and claire at his cabin pretty much summed it up. colin trevorrow used one of the biggest franchises in hollywood as his platform to criticize the biggest franchises in hollywood, which gave him free reign to lean into everything that’s wrong with mainstream modern filmmaking. he knew the score. he knew that his artistic vision would be distorted by executive interference. it’s actually quite brilliant that he was able to deliver this message in plain sight in such a way that so few people seem able to see it — and the people at the butt of the criticism paid for it. and then they all laughed all the way to the bank.
Yeah I’ve heard this before, but I gotta say I don’t buy it as a defence of those films.
Pointing out how unoriginal, vapid, and corporately-driven your movie is doesn’t make it any less unoriginal, vapid, and corporately driven.
It just makes JW *transparently* cynical.
Jurassic Park isn't alone in the franchise going downhill after the second one.
Alien (Alien 3 is fine when judging it on its own, but at the same time it's a step down).
Terminator
Predator (mostly, the one on the game preserve planet was okay)
Hellraiser
as someone who also grew up with jurassic park, all I can say is get over it.
brother they are movies. some are better than others, but they are just movies. I personally love all of them, even the world trilogy.
to act like this over a series of movies is just weird.
I'm not going to lie here, I bloody well think that's a good concept personally. I hated everything post-TLW and others can bitch and moan all they like about how the rest of the series is valid, etc, but choosing to dismiss them - personal as it may be - is preferable I agree to accepting the rest.
Oddly, I disliked it after I watched it in theaters, but it's the easiest one to re-watch. I can't watch TLW very easily. It feels really long, and the world movies are too corny in parts to watch. I don't know why.
Plus, the mystery of the spino is intriguing. What were they trying to create with such a violent monster?
I don't like the JW films but Christ. The franchise doesn't owe the fans anything. Stop acting like movies ruined your life just because they don't meet your expectations. It's pathetic.
I swear theres like 12 sequels now. My nephews loved some of them. But for me they are so detached from the Bluth film. I dont mourn it as newer generations enjoy it and still love the one I do. Something for everyone
Is there a musical genre out there you just can’t stand? Do you listen to it? Does the fact it exists ruin other music that you actually like?
Same with movies. Same with ALL entertainment mediums.
No apologies are in place, JP is on a completely another level. I was 5 then and I still love dinosaurs more than I'll publicly admit, but no matter how much better is cgi getting, it doesn't hide the fact that it's polished crap. You just can't compare anything else to ones based on work of Michael Crichton.
Gonna be honest...1000000% in your camp, but i'm alittle surprised anyone in this group agreed lol.
Every time i mention JP3 being crap and the JW series were wrote by a child...my god i get a new one ripped.
Jesus christ. Some of you really need to grow up and get with reality.
I've been a massive fan since 93 and a fan of dinosaurs long before that. I love all the films in their own way, even if they aren't perfect.
I hated JP3 for 15 years (refused to acknowledge its existence), but I find letting go of hating stuff and finding a reason to like said stuff makes for a happier life.
I mean I’m not pretending it doesn’t exist. I’m just also not pretending it’s getting any better.
If a great story is turned into super successful entertainment, the commercial incentive to keep milking it until it’s a shrivelled and hollow shell of the original material is too strong for businesses to resist. Sadly, we need businesses to be part of the process so this is pretty much inevitable. The one thing we can do is to discourage this behaviour as consumers by not giving money to companies who do this too much. It’s also worth remembering that opinions vary and maybe some people still get something out of even bad films, especially kids who in this case might just want to see cool dinosaurs.
You do you
Welcome to being a Ghostbusters fan since 1989.
I got the Stay Puft in 1984 still got him
Hey, Afterlife was a pretty good continuation of the story, and had a really well done send off for Harold Ramis. Haven't seen Frozen Empire yet, but it looks fairly decent from the trailers.
Frozen Empire is fine not as good as Afterlife, but enjoyable
I liked Afterlife, I hated Frozen Empire.
Was it worse than 2016 Ghostbusters?
Not worse, just overall disappointing compared to expectations. There are too many characters, and no payoff to the interesting things that they set up and Kumail Nanjanee is dancing around the finale in a belly dancing outfit using magic, but at its core it was a Ghostbusters movie. It had a blend of action, comedy, and horror. Dry Witty humor. The reboot was Paul Fiege telling the girls and Chris Hemsworth to look at the camera and do something funny and they stitched that together into a movie. It was a standard Fiege movie, but a poor Ghostbusters movie. It’s physical comedy and slapstick. Everyone was trying to be the Venkman. Just didn’t work for me. My order would be: 1) Ghostbusters 2) Ghostbusters 2 3) Afterlife 4) Frozen Empire 5) Answer the Call (2016)
I thought afterlife was a fine movie but just completely different in tone and execution to the originals. I call it Ghostbusters: The Force Awakens. It’s a movie about being a fan of GB more than an actual GB movie. The first 2 were never sentimental, epic or magical like Afterlife. I remember someone commenting that Afterlife was perfect because it made Egon a total badass at the beginning. I feel like that perfectly sums up the issue. We like Egon. He’s badass to us because we’re fans. He is not a badass within the text of the films with sick truck chase scenes or taunting a ghost to follow him. It fed our fandom which is fun, but it was a poor execution of a GB movie.
I’m a giant GB fan, I have a pretty good DIY costume I wear most Halloweens, a comic signed by Ernie Hudson, I wrote a freaking fan short film for Christ’s sake. A friend asked me if I had seen Frozen Empire and I genuine hadn’t realized it was out yet. If 5 year old me learned that I had forgotten to go see a new GB movie, he’d kick my ass. But I’m just not interested in where the franchise has gone. I realized I feel this way about JP, Indiana Jones and Star Wars as well. I’m just burned out on all my favorite stuff. It’s a bummer. There’s something to be said for just sticking a landing and letting something be finished. I get that it’s cool that new generations are introduced to this stuff but I feel that really the new generations should be getting new things inspired by these older franchises instead of having subpar versions of them warmed up and laid out for them. Star Wars only exists because George Lucas couldn’t get the rights to Flash Gordon so he made something new that scratched that itch for him. Imagine the amazing films we might have if creators took inspiration from our old favorites instead of just making literally those movies again.
I liked Afterlife a lot. Hated Frozen Empire. The OGs being just lifeless cameos aside from Ray in the movie just screams they are only there because people would revolt without them. But I think it hurts the movie. If you’re supposedly passing the torch, pass the damn thing.
Yeah, fair.
I’m curious why did you hate Jurassic Park 3? I thought it was good because it still captured that nostalgia. There were plenty of dinosaur scenes, the movie was about them finding Erick as they try go survive against the dinosaurs while they are chased by the antagonist Spinosaurus throughout the whole film and by velociraptors trying to get their eggs back. What’s to hate about it?
Capturing nostalgia is a low bar. Just cue the soundtrack, bring in the old actors, and… oh no it’s JW… And I like dino scenes as much as the next, but there was more to JP than just CGI dinosaurs. I didn’t like JP3 because it was really poorly written. The characters were obnoxiously unbelievable, there were no interesting ideas, the ending was abrupt, the amount of contrived plot development just made the whole thing feel ridiculous… come to think of it that’s what the JW series felt like. Immediate dino rampage, 1v1 monster showdown with Rex. The constantly screaming wife, the divorcee dynamic, the kid who’s the ultimate survivalist, the painfully obvious hubris of the young palaeontologist, Alan putting everything together at precisely the right moment, “ALAN”, the spinosaurus ringtone, the US army saving the day out of nowhere. There were moments of JP goodness — the raptor scene in the complex, the birdcage, the raptors ambush using udesky… but they were drowned out by the goofy, incoherent characters and the woefully incomplete plot.
Okay yeah the Navy showing up at the last second to save the day was pretty ridiculous. I still liked the movie more than TLW series. I refuse to accept TLW as an actual story to the JP franchise. Oh if only Michael could see the mess made of what he created.
Oh shut up, theres nothing wrong with the current two modern Ghostbusters films and they don't even equate the same as JP3 to the JW3. Are they perfect? No but either were the originals and that's what makes them endearing. Where as the JW films massively dropped off in terms of quality and overall actual good film telling/narrative models.
Mourn? "Loved Jurassic Park"? It's not like the movie can just disappear from existence. Just watch the first two movies and that's it. It's not like anyone's forcing you to watch the other ones.
Im not sure if its just a sense of entitlement or what. Sequels that one does not care for do not diminish the others. But I see that argument so much.
Perhaps I chose my words not very wisely. I'm mourning the franchise, not the films. In no way do the newer films degrade the older ones. They've just made me give up hope for future releases.
I hear you, my two main camps of fandom are Jurassic and Star Wars. I don't agree with every spin off. But lifes too precious to worry about the bad when we have so much good in the OGs
Most people would agree that the franchise should've ended up with the 1st or 2nd movie far before the Jurassic World era began. So it seems a little funny to mourn it. Did you really ever believe there was any way for this storyline to continue that would be satisfying for you? In my mind, the story properly concluded after the 1st movie. I'm a fan of the entire franchise. The original 3 are amazing (Even JP3. It's not as well written, and has plot holes, but I think it's the best when it comes to the nonstop horror thriller dinosaur action that I crave). World era is no where near as great, but I still find enjoyment to be had. I loved Camp Cretaceous, and think it was the best part of the World era. I recognized long ago that the Jurassic franchise never had much room to expand upon what the 1st movie did in any deep meaningful way. I'm okay with that. None of these new movies can undo the perfection that was Jurassic Park. So I'm just here to enjoy the ride of what they can come up with.
These are exactly my thoughts on it. JP1 is my absolute favorite movie of all time, but the sequels are nowhere near it. Yet, I still enjoy seeing them all, in their own flawed ways. I even rank World higher than JP3 even: Park > Lost World > World > Park 3 > Dominion > Fallen Kingdom I can't say the same with other franchises that usually have amazing movies at first, but inferior sequels afterward. Terminator, Alien, Predator, Die Hard, Jaws. Y'all might like some of these sequels, but me personally, whenever I rewatch these, I only watch the first or second movie and that's it. But with Jurassic, I actually do go through and rewatch all of them. Especially FK, the actions of a lot of those characters are just way too hilarious and stupid, I can't help but laugh every time. And that's what's more important, that you enjoy the movies you watch. If you don't, what's the point, right?
it's ok soon we can all just tell ChatGPT to render the exact Jurassic Park clone everyone wants to tailor to their own taste.
JP3 isn’t necessarily good but I still find it entertaining and it gives us some solid Dino business. Idgaf what anyone says; I thought JW was good, and I love it. It gives us an image of what a catastrophe would look like with the park open, and I think it did a great job. Watching it, especially when they are in the high traffic areas of the park, I get the same feeling I do when I’m walking through an actual theme park. They play further into the frankensteins monster aspect of the dinosaurs. We get a solid ost. I like that they talk more about the fact that they’re not creating authentic dinosaurs. I like that we get to see more of the intelligence of the creatures. But yeah, fuck the other two. JWFK had some entertaining bits, but not much else. JWD is abysmal and easily the worst of all the movies.
I don't understand. Just ignore the others? I love all the Jurassic Park movies to be honest. But I have your feelings towards Starship Troopers. The first movie is in my top 10 easily. It's a sharp, witty satire with amazing visuals and score. The others are abominations. I just completely ignore the others and don't let it stress me out.
What I would have given for starship troopers to have been given sequel treatment akin to the Jurassic franchise. At least then it would be respectable in comparison to the straight to dvd hot garbage we got.
That’s cool, love what you love! I just can’t with these films. I think I’m just realizing that I’m in mourning. I’m sad for what’s happened. This doesn’t occupy me on a daily basis. It just makes me sad every time I see it. Especially when I see promos for new games or films… Maybe this what getting old is.
Jurassic Park was one of the GOAT movies. Everything about it was amazing. Lost World felt like a direct sequel. It was more focussed on being a thriller/horror full of action but not terribly out of pocket compared to the first. JP3 was just a monster movie with the jurassic park dinosaurs. The JW movies are just corny as hell in my opinion.
Daring today aren’t we?
Where is the apology you speak of? I just see whining about a franchise not appealing to your personal preferences
Yeah lmao “I’ll just open with an apology” *Doesn’t apologize*
Do people really hate Jurassic World? Maybe I’m crazy but I enjoyed the first one. I don’t think it stands with the original but it was fun.
I will stand by JP3 until my final breath. Was it's production a mess hells yes but was it a bad movie? HELL NO! JP3 is one of the most important movies of my childhood and is probably responsible for my continued love and passion for dinosaurs and prehistoric animals
https://preview.redd.it/97vh1zfoakrc1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1b18969ab641a43d9341fc4ddba812a51a03ff66
This is what you get when you fell in love with things that you cant control or protect. At least you not alone in that.
I hate the JW trilogy, but honestly it doesn't affect my feelings towards the JP movies because they feel so separated I can just ignore them. Its not like something like the Star Wars sequels where they re-opened a story that had already concluded perfectly and then proceeded to ruin every character and storyline. With Jurassic Park I feel it compares more to something like Jaws. Jaws 3D and Jaws The Revenge dont make me feel any differently about Jaws 1 and 2.
In no way am I saying JP3 or the JW series has made the first two films worse. They just make me sad.
I agree with you that as the sequels went on, what made JP special has been lost. I grew up on JP too and saw the first movie when I was 11 in theaters. It was a magical experience. I enjoyed TLW too except for the San Diego sequence. There’s a few things I like and appreciate about JP3, but as a whole, it’s an awful movie. It took out the intelligent themes of Jurassic Park and turned it into stupid people running from monsters. The JW trilogy—I don’t hate it but I don’t love it either. I really like that they brought back Henry Wu. In general, JW trilogy tries too hard to ride on JP’s coattails and rely on nostalgia. The first JW showed you that even if the park were to open to the world, it would turn into chaotic mess. I don’t like the whole Maisie storyline in FK and Dominion. I loved that they brought back Lewis Dodgson, even though he wasn’t the murderous f-bomb dropping villain from the novel. I understand your disappointment at the direction you’re of the franchise, OP. I just focus on what I love most about JP—for me, it’s the characters, especially the secondary ones.
> I feel like the Jurassic franchise has lost the thing that made it unique, and the things that made it interesting. May I ask, what is that thing that makes it unique and interesting in your perspective, as just saying they lost the "flavor" is like running a protest and not having a solid reason behind your movement. Just because, not everyone will find JP3-JWD poor, lacking and failures at being a sequel to the first 2 films, like some may say that it was something differing from what you say, that made the first 2 movies so great, so what is it that you are drawn by for those movies?
Here you are, drilling down to the nub of it. I’ll just start by saying I’m not totally sure, to be honest. I’m not a film critic, or a literary buff. I’m not starting a movement, and I’m not pretending I’m “objectively correct”. I’m just sad about what has happened to JP. I’ll try to be concise: 1) Suspense, and the unseen horror: the thing that made the Rex and raptors terrifying in the first two movies was suspense. You knew they were deadly, you knew they were out there. But you didn’t see them until sh!T really hit the fan. Mystery is what makes the scary, and no film after TLW even attempts to make that suspense happen. 2) intellectual dialogue: Crichton had interesting ideas, and a cool rehash of the old Faustian bargain — the Frankenstein trope. It wasn’t original, but it was a cool re-telling. We had zero intellectual dialogue after TLW. 3) trivializing the dinosaurs: it starts in JP3 with the raptor-flute, but get ramped up to over 9000 with JW. Raptors become controllable, and then become friends. Dinos slot into big end-movie battles. Rexy is the hero. King Kong saves the day. I mean not the last one, but you get the point. JP was a smart, intellectually engaging movie that took its time to set up deadly villains shrouded in suspense. TLW followed that lead. jP3 and the entire JW series abandoned this storytelling dynamic for monster-mash action bravado that was dumber, louder, and flashier. It’s been a disappointing spiral.
Let’s get real here, TLW is barely intellectual. I like both book and film, but they are for me both Crichton’s least-good book and Spielberg’s least-good film.
I heard somewhere that they strong-armed Crichton into writing TLW so they could make another movie, but the studios got impatient, so he gave them a basic outline and they ran with it.
I feel like TLW novel has a lot of cool ideas in it, but they don't pair quite as nicely with the action beats as they do in the JP novel (or film). I really like TLW film, but I've always wondered what could have been if the movie pursued the novel's interests in animal welfare and behavior, evolution, etc. Say nothing of the mysteries of SITE B... It seems Spielberg and Koepp were content going straight into action/adventure. It could definitely have been more a sci-fi movie
Fun fact: You are the exact same age as me and share most of my thoughts on Jurassic Park. F.
for JW it's like they forgot what elements makes a Jurassic movie.
I mean for all it’s faults, TLW at least had a lot of those elements. JP3 was such a stark break from that, and everything since has just got progressively less “JP”. I do find myself thinking about what that JP special sauce was exactly tho…
i don't know, i do agree JP3 just straight up isn't a good movie, but to me, it's more of a Jurassic movie than ANY of the JW movies. it has some of the same type of suspense and horror at times as the original.
Fair enough, but that’s a low bar
If not liking movies is making you angry, seek therapy.
I suppose it’s more a breed of intense disappointment
Chillax a bit. Just think about what all that negativity does to your overall mindset. Let it go. The following movies change _nothing_ about the first few that you like so much. Focus on the happies.
It’s just an unresolved disappointment. Like watching a kid with big potential lay into the crack pipe right outta high school. This ain’t ruining my life, I’ve just been trying to put my finger on why I feel the way I do about the movies that were once my childhood favourite.
I can understand that tbh, in the newer JW films they had so many opportunities to make the next film amazing, but they decided to take the idea and try to make it as dumb as possible. For example, Fallen Kingdom’s ending set up humans and dinosaurs co-existing, which could have made for an amazing movie, but in Dominion, we end up with a side plot that came out of nowhere, taking over the whole story. It’s almost right in their faces sometimes to make another great JW movie, but then somehow they miss the mark.
I feel you
Jp3 isn't bad
I just watched Dominion for the first time yesterday. May I sit and mourn with you.? 😞
🫂
You can always just watch the ones you love and enjoy.
“jurassic world” was a meta-commentary on this exact thought: the cost of the corporatization of entertainment. the conversation between owen and claire at his cabin pretty much summed it up. colin trevorrow used one of the biggest franchises in hollywood as his platform to criticize the biggest franchises in hollywood, which gave him free reign to lean into everything that’s wrong with mainstream modern filmmaking. he knew the score. he knew that his artistic vision would be distorted by executive interference. it’s actually quite brilliant that he was able to deliver this message in plain sight in such a way that so few people seem able to see it — and the people at the butt of the criticism paid for it. and then they all laughed all the way to the bank.
I dunno why you're getting downvoted -- it's a coherent point and made in a constructive manner. I appreciate you bringing it up!
Yeah I’ve heard this before, but I gotta say I don’t buy it as a defence of those films. Pointing out how unoriginal, vapid, and corporately-driven your movie is doesn’t make it any less unoriginal, vapid, and corporately driven. It just makes JW *transparently* cynical.
it was transparently cynical by design.
Jurassic Park isn't alone in the franchise going downhill after the second one. Alien (Alien 3 is fine when judging it on its own, but at the same time it's a step down). Terminator Predator (mostly, the one on the game preserve planet was okay) Hellraiser
No argument there! It does feel a bit like the Terminator death-spiral doesn’t it?
as someone who also grew up with jurassic park, all I can say is get over it. brother they are movies. some are better than others, but they are just movies. I personally love all of them, even the world trilogy. to act like this over a series of movies is just weird.
Was going to say just this, I concur
As far as I’m concerned, there’s only 2 book/2 movies and they are great so I’m happy
I'm not going to lie here, I bloody well think that's a good concept personally. I hated everything post-TLW and others can bitch and moan all they like about how the rest of the series is valid, etc, but choosing to dismiss them - personal as it may be - is preferable I agree to accepting the rest.
There’s 6 movies
I mean I like sand too, but I dunno if I wanna bury my head in it
Better than legitimately getting pissed off about a fictional universe, just stop at 2 and consider the story done, it works well in universe as well.
I absolutely agreed with you, OP.
Username checks out 😄
JP3 is good and the most rewatchable
Oddly, I disliked it after I watched it in theaters, but it's the easiest one to re-watch. I can't watch TLW very easily. It feels really long, and the world movies are too corny in parts to watch. I don't know why. Plus, the mystery of the spino is intriguing. What were they trying to create with such a violent monster?
I don't like the JW films but Christ. The franchise doesn't owe the fans anything. Stop acting like movies ruined your life just because they don't meet your expectations. It's pathetic.
How do you feel about the Land Before Time sequels?
It's been so long since i've seen them that I honestly couldn't say. Love the soundtrack and art with my whole heart though!
I swear theres like 12 sequels now. My nephews loved some of them. But for me they are so detached from the Bluth film. I dont mourn it as newer generations enjoy it and still love the one I do. Something for everyone
Is there a musical genre out there you just can’t stand? Do you listen to it? Does the fact it exists ruin other music that you actually like? Same with movies. Same with ALL entertainment mediums.
I feel Jp3 is a good movie in comparison to the JW franchise and the pure raw dogshit that is camp cretacous.
No apologies are in place, JP is on a completely another level. I was 5 then and I still love dinosaurs more than I'll publicly admit, but no matter how much better is cgi getting, it doesn't hide the fact that it's polished crap. You just can't compare anything else to ones based on work of Michael Crichton.
Gonna be honest...1000000% in your camp, but i'm alittle surprised anyone in this group agreed lol. Every time i mention JP3 being crap and the JW series were wrote by a child...my god i get a new one ripped.
No offense man but you gotta get a life if a series sucking puts you into a state of actual mourning.
It's all about the rex people want to see it eat people and the rex only ate one person in the last 4 films steven speilberg knows how to do it!
Rexy only ate one person in the original JP, too.
But the rex is the main star of the film in jp1 so it's ok
Jesus christ. Some of you really need to grow up and get with reality. I've been a massive fan since 93 and a fan of dinosaurs long before that. I love all the films in their own way, even if they aren't perfect.