Jurassic World Recap

OK, you know how I've become reaaaaaally terrible lately about posting anything in a timely manner? I keep thinking I'll finally catch up, but it's not looking good.

Anyway, here's a post I should have written over two months ago. I'm just the worst.

The Jurassic World Premiere! We did the 7PM show the night before it officially premiered. Like I mentioned in my Jurassic World prep week post, I dressed up in my awesome dinosaur onesie. {Sidenote: please excuse the poor quality of the pictures from inside a dark movie theater.}

It was a wee bit warm in the onesie. It is fleece and it was June in Tucson. Granted, movie theaters are always cold, but it wasn't cold enough. I really thought I was going to overheat by the end of it.

You know what's a weird feeling? Trying to sit for any length of time with a fake tail. The only comfortable way to sit was with it sticking out from between my legs. I may or may not have taken this picture to send to one of my friends who couldn't come with us as an obscene text.

Since this movie was a big deal to me, I wrangled up as many friends to come as possible. There were probably a dozen of us. It was a great time.

In a weird twist I still don't fully understand, I was the only person dressed up for my showing, the first showing. However, sooooo many teenagers dressed up for the second showings of the night. Here's me and Dr. Grant and Ian Malcolm.

There were also two guys in full raptor Halloween costumes. They were getting full applause from the movie theater lobby. I slowly plauded after them until I caught up and we had a little dinosaur circle of excitement. After the movie itself, it was the highlight of my night.

Since it has premiered, I have seen Jurassic World three more times: once with my mother, once in 3D with my friend Kristine, and this past weekend with my friend Bekah.

The first time I saw it, I was a little disappointed. It wasn't as good as I had hoped it would be. However, in seeing it several time since, I really like it now. There is still a lot of backstory I wish they could have covered, but ignoring that, it was a great movie.

Not all of this post is horribly late. I wrote a review of the movie the first weekend I saw it. Here's an excerpt of it:

Some people who have seen Jurassic World have called it sexist. I'm not sure if I agree. I'm not sure I disagree.

Yes, there are only five female speaking roles in the entire movie. They include: Claire, the female protagonists; Vivian, an employee who manages park services from the control room; Zara, Claire's annoyed assistant; Karen, Claire's sister and the kids' mother; and Zach's nameless girlfriend. 

However, the remaining three female characters are played with incredible nuance that make them real, not necessarily 'strong'. Claire is a HBIC. Her job is her life and she takes no prisoners. But, at the same time, she is shown trying. She tries so hard to have authority and control. We're supposed to believe this effort for control is counter intuitive when dealing with such a fluid, flexible system, but I interpreted it differently. She's not exercising control to bend nature to her whim: she uses it to be taken seriously by all her male coworkers looking down their noses at her. She's the odd woman out and she doesn't want any mistakes that they can pick apart. As a woman who works almost solely with male coworkers, this may be one of the first characters I've seen to portray this feeling correct. When things do start to go wrong and crumble, she pushes back against the men who try to take over with mixed results. You can see the fear in her eyes as she loses control to these men who don't have the parks or the animals best interest at heart until she breaks and goes rogue, working to fix the situation without them.

You would think Claire would be my favorite character given how I relate to this redheaded control freak, but you would be wrong. My favorite was Vivian. She is feminine, nerdy, vulnerable, and good at her job all at the same time. She wears sun dresses with leggings. She is one half of the pair that basically runs everything from the control room. She cries when people are killed. She worries about the safety of the visitors. And, in a minor spoiler, (SPOILER BEGIN) she shuts down a man who tries to play 'hero' and kiss the girl. She had a boyfriend, but she just doesn't talk about him at work. That would be unprofessional. (SPOILER END).

In that initial review, I was a little too hard on Claire. I've grown to appreciate her character a lot more. I've watched youtube tutorials on how to get her make up look. I've found her shoes and bought them. They frustratingly didn't fit, but still. The movie has grown on me each time I've seen it. 

I'm so glad that the movie didn't disappoint me and that it did amazingly well, basically guaranteeing several sequels.