Terminal Lance “Jurassic World”

This is the first time that a movie in the Jurassic Park franchise has been released since I’ve been doing Terminal Lance. Because of this, I feel like you guys need to know something about me:

1993’s Jurassic Park is my favorite film of all time.

No, I’m not exaggerating. While my taste in movies has shifted and turned over the years, Jurassic Park is the one movie that I will never be able to leave behind. It is the only movie that I can watch after 22 years and still feel like I’m watching it for the first time. The movie came out when I was 6 or 7 years old, but seeing those dinosaurs on screen in all of their technical glory–from the profoundly real animatronics from Stan Winston, to the groundbreaking computer animated dinosaurs–it quite literally changed my life.

From that day forward, I knew my life was going to be dedicated to creating stories and filmmaking. It’s the reason I pursued a degree in animation and am continuing to pursue a career in art, entertainment and filmmaking.

I love Jurassic Park.

I’ll be the first to admit that I was very skeptical of Jurassic World, which is officially released today. However, after seeing it last night, I am happy to tell you all that (with the exception of the shitty family being super loud right next to me, your kid is stupid as fuck and you’re shitty parents) I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and it delivers exactly what it needs to. It is a worthy follow up to the franchise that was unfortunately snubbed with 2001’s horrendous Jurassic Park 3.

I won’t go too much into the plot, but there’s a surprisingly relevant military presence throughout the film. It’s interesting to see the ways that the Post 9/11 era has shaped movies. Military are no longer treated as the bumbling fools they once were, with veterans taking respected positions in film. Chris Pratt plays Navy veteran Owen, which makes sense, cause if I were gay I totally would who happens to have a penchant for training velociraptors. They never really actually tell you what Owen did in the Navy, but we’re supposed to assume that his veteran status automatically makes him a badass. There’s other veterans in the film as well, such as the helicopter crew and the high-speed InGen operators I can only assume are ex Navy SEALs or MARSOC or something. The movie didn’t say whether these guys had written any tell-all books, so maybe they weren’t.

I think the movie could have gone really bad. I was most worried about the whole velociraptor thing, as it would have been incredibly easy to turn that into a typical shit-fest of unbelievable bullshit, but you actually find yourself loving every second of the velociraptor screen time.

I don’t want to give away the ending, but I simultaneously cheered and shit my pants. It was amazing.

Anyway, without spoiling much, there’s not a lot more I can say about it. However, if you’re a fan of Jurassic Park, I feel really good being able to comfortably recommend the movie. It pays due respect to the original film while keeping things fresh and interesting. It’s not the deepest movie in the world, but as I said, it delivers everywhere it needs to.