It’s been 12 years since we last saw the Tyrannosaurus Rex tearing up the supposedly revamped dinosaur park in Jurassic Park III. While much better than the 50% rating it earned on Rotten Tomatoes, the movie pretty much signaled the end of the franchise. Gone were Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum. There was talk over the last decade to reinvigorate the series, but nothing ever materialized. Then came the move to call this Jurassic World rather than Jurassic Park IV and add all new players to the game. Had this movie been released in 2005 (to continue the pattern of every three years), I think this movie would have stunk. Even with its 2015 release date, it still could have stunk. But it didn’t stink. It wasn’t the original (93% on Rotten Tomatoes and $350 million domestically + another $50 million on re-release in 2013, not to mention the millions it earned overseas and through rentals). However, it was still very, very good. I’ll go as far as to say that if this was the first movie with Jurassic in the name that it would have earned higher than its respectable 71% on Rotten Tomatoes. With over $200 million drawn on opening weekend, it’s likely to smash any of its predecessors at the box office (by contrast, Jurassic Park earned just $50 million in its first weekend). Regardless, I felt that if the movie received a rating of over 65% fresh, it would probably do very well at the ticket office. I didn’t think it would do this good. But I feel like it deserves its positive reviews and its revenue. It was a very entertaining movie and one that I recommend seeing on the big screen.
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Category Archives: Action
The Equalizer (2014)
Man, The Equalizer was going very well through the first half. And then it unraveled. Denzel Washington (Training Day, Flight) was great, but this movie had many holes, most of which couldn’t have been avoided. Based on the television series of the same name. I was unaware that it even existed before the release of the film. This wouldn’t exactly be a show I would be watching when it aired between 1985-1989 (I was too busy watching shows like The Cosby Show, Family Ties, and Alf during that time). And I think I was offered a disservice by knowing nothing about the television show. It was inferred that those watching this movie had seen the television show, which was not the case. More important than the lack of knowledge of its lead character and how he got to be the way that he is would be the movie’s unevenness. How it starts is certainly not how it ends up. It’s an entertaining movie with Denzel taking out bad guys, but then again, so was home Alone with Macaulay Culkin doing the same.
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The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (2014)
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 had a significant knock-on it before it even hit the screen. And that was that the book was split into two movies. I have been having a big problem with this. It’s a three-series book. Make it a three-series movie. That’s what it would have been if the first movie didn’t take off and smash the box office. I understand why the studios want to break the last book into two movies. I would do it too. But as a fan, a moviegoer, and someone who pays lots of money at the movie theaters, I have a problem paying an extra $12 when I don’t feel I have to. I know that I am exactly the reason for this issue. I saw the first two movies in the theater. I contributed to that astronomical gross that each of these first two movies reached. And it’s not The Hunger Games franchise that upsets me. All of the moneymaking franchises have been doing this. Twilight. Harry Potter was seven books but eight movies. The Divergent series is going to split its final movie into two. I think that the film gets watered down in many cases, including Mockingjay Part 1. I understand that some believe that maybe there is too much great material to squeeze into one movie, but, at the same time, there isn’t enough material in this one to make it a killer movie. My solution would be to make the movie for three hours. I would also complain about that, but it would be my preference over two films, each that are not going to be the first two movies in the franchise.
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Divergent (2014)
In the mold of The Hunger Games, Twilight, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, The Maze Runner, and other young adult book franchises comes the surprisingly good Divergent. A surefire box office success because of the successful book series, Divergent did not do quite as well with the critics (41%) as well as the first Hunger Games (84%), Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (80%), or The Fellowship of the Ring (91%), but was comparable with the other two. Interestingly, the Divergent franchise has the best cast of any of these movies, even though it is probably the least known. The franchise is four books, and it looks like we’ll get four movies from them.
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Exodus: Gods and Kings
Exodus: Gods and Men was a movie that I thought would be great, then I thought it would be terrible, and then I thought it would be okay was one that ended up being pretty good. I am a massive fan of Christian Bale (The Dark Knight Rises, Out of the Furnace) and Ridley Scott (Alien, Gladiator). Bale has had numerous hits over the last decade. I’d say I’ve seen 13 out of his previous 15 movies that I’ve been a big fan of. Once as reliable as they come, Scott has had some misses in recent years, most notably The Counselor and Robin Hood. Both of these movies should have been great, and both underwhelmed. Even after my research, I still have almost no idea about what the plot of The Counselor was. And even though neither of these men was associated with the disaster that was Noah, that movie also had a respected actor (Russell Crowe) and director (Darren Aronofsky). It was quickly my least favorite movie of 2014. Fairly or unfairly, Noah tempered my expectations of Exodus: Gods and Men. It did not help that the Bale/Scott venture got panned by the critics (28% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) and was equally shunned by audiences (just $65 million domestically despite a $140 million production cost). And I am not well-versed enough in the story of Moses to know how actual this movie was to the Biblical account. What I do remember is that I enjoyed this movie. It is currently my 12th favorite movie of 2014. I don’t expect it, at this point, to fall any lower than that.
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