I didn't dislike this nearly as much as some people, but it also didn't feel like a Gareth Edwards film to me and plays like it could've been directed by anyone, aside from Colin Trevorrow, because he is fucking terrible
You'd think making another great dinosaur movie wouldn't be so hard to accomplish. Personally, I don't need a good human story. I see humans every day. Just give us big scary dinosaurs terrorizing people.
they seriously need to ditch the whole "people are over dinosaurs" idea - having that be a big part of the world of these new movies was the worst fucking idea imaginable and whoever came up with that should be taken out back and shot. I do not care how "realistic" it is.
This is the same problem I have with the MonsterVerse films. I watched Godzilla x Kong the other day and the best parts of the film are where it's just Kong interacting with the other apes and then with Godzilla and Mothra. Like, you will never be able to make me care about some dumb humans when we could have kaiju duking it out and having weird ambiguous relationships (side eyes Godzilla/Mothra).
yeah, it's probably accurate to how people would behave in real life, but it makes for shitty movies. Awe and wonder and fear.
100% agree. I was going to mention Godzilla too. I don't care at all about the human story. In Shin Godzilla, Godzilla is only on screen for like 10 minutes of the 2 hour movie.
Yup. The screenplay went through several drafts from David Koepp in 2023 and then, in 2024 (and I’m just going to block quote Wikipedia on this because the links on there are pretty extensive): The project was unveiled in late January 2024, when it was reported that a new Jurassic World film was in development by Universal Pictures.[34] Like the previous Jurassic World films, the new installment would be produced by Marshall and Crowley through The Kennedy/Marshall Company, while Spielberg would executive produce through Amblin Entertainment.[34][35]Development of the project had been underway for some time,[34][36] with several drafts already written by Koepp.[35] The producers had also done some pre-productionwork, including dinosaur designs, meaning that any creative input from the eventual director would be minimal.[35][37] The position was reportedly described as being "more shooter than auteur", as the producers sought to have more creative control than Jurassic World Dominion,[35] which earned mostly negative reviews.[38] David Leitch, who previously served as a second unit director on Jurassic World, was briefly considered to become the director of the film during early February 2024,[39] but negotiations broke down after several days,[40]as the project's progress up to that point left little room for his creative input.[35][41] Edgar Wright also turned down the offer to direct the film in favor to direct his dream project The Running Man (2025) instead.[42] Gareth Edwards was announced as director later that month,[43] having been selected because of the visual style he used in his previous films, which was considered ideal for the Jurassic World series.[24] His experience with computer-generated imagery (CGI) was also a factor in his selection.[8] Furthermore, Spielberg enjoyed Edwards' film Godzilla(2014) and Edwards is a fan of the original Jurassic Park.[38][44] After completing the film The Creator (2023), Edwards planned to take a break from studio filmmaking to focus on his own projects instead.[43][44] He was busy writing a new film when he was offered the Jurassic World project, which he described as "the only movie that would make me drop everything like a stone and dive right in".[43] Feeling depleted after finishing The Creator, he hoped that Koepp's draft would give him reason to turn down the directing job but was instead won over.[8][45] He met with Marshall and subsequently Spielberg to discuss the project and possible changes, and was soon hired as director.[46] Edwards had less than a year and a half to get the film finished, a process that he said would normally take two and a half years. Early on, he suggested delaying the film's release, but this idea was immediately rejected. He credited Koepp's script for the quick turnaround: "Everybody was pointing at that going, 'Go make that; that's what we want.' And so it was just quite a relatively smooth ride".[47]
Shin Godzilla and Godzilla Minus One both make you care about the human story. It’s easily possible to make you care about the humans and the dinosaurs which makes it so much more impressive that they can’t do it with these movies. I have no hope this next one will be any better.
They're kind of the exception that proves the rule. I think Godzilla Minus One is more a story about Japan than it is about Godzilla, and that's why it works so well. But the MonsterVerse films make the creatures the focal point and so the humans become ancillary bordering on unnecessary. They actually could have had an interesting subplot about that one girl, having found the hidden tribe in Hollow Earth, now discovering her heritage and really played into Hall's character's concerns she might stay with the tribe, but they give these plot points all of a minute's worth of attention. I guess I'm saying either commit or don't. If there must be a human story then treat it with more care and less like an afterthought. If that's not possible, then jettison it and go full toy commercial.
Shit, I got so wrapped up in my rant that I forgot I'm in the Jurassic Park thread. I mean, I'm sure some of what I said applies here too, vaguely.
Yeah but those 2 movies and the original Jurassic Park (which has good human characters/stories) being the best isn’t a coincidence. The best monsterverse movie is Kong skull island and while the human characters aren’t the best or most interesting they aren’t treated as an afterthought.
Just finished the T-Rex river scene and I wish people would stop going to theaters to enable this slop Dominion is my number one most hated movie I've ever watched. This one just feels awkward and incompetent Was gonna start watching again but decided I don't even care how this ends
Finally got to this movie with my ten year old and he turns to me as the credits begin to roll and says, “you know what the moral of this story is?” “What?” I asked him. “Don’t litter.” Laughed so hard. He couldn’t believe the Snickers wrapper and just kept going back to it all throughout the movie. “Why would they design a door for a freaky monster like that that can be destroyed by a Snickers wrapper? That seems unsafe.”
I know this won’t happen because they want the wide appeal of a PG13 release, but I wish they wouldn’t pull punches on the kills in these movies. The way they’re described in the books is so visceral and awful, you could make a dope R rated JP haha