My bar was low going into this movie today, and I should have set it lower. There was so much rehashing in this movie, like scenes copykatted right from the other movies, complete with the same emotions and almost the same character. None of the characters we’ve seen or see grow in anyway. if there are new dinosaurs, they’re barely there or noticable, except for frankendino. It’s like they decided to stop making dinosaurs for their dinosaur movies. And the villains and grandpa are basically interchangeable with the other ones. The two new younger characters, are just throw away characters. They have pretty much no reason to exist.
That’s not even the worst part though. In order for this plot and some of things that happen to actually work not only do you need to turn off your brain, you need to believe that every human in the movie turned theirs off too. And the one twist, bah, they probably thought hinted at it, but this isn’t a kids movie, they advertised that twist way too early and made it way too obvious too.
I would like an intermission, but that’s because I am not 20. Teen and twenty something me had no issues with long movies and drinks. My parents complaining about it reminded me that they were old… and here we are.
The last intermission I remember was when I went to see Lawrence of Arabia with my dad at the little indie theater in my college town. We walked over to my favorite sandwich place in the world, The Cheese Shop, and bought a baguette and some cheese and sat and talked for a bit before going back in for Round 2.
It was nice. But I don’t like the idea for normal everyday movies. I watch a ton of movies at home, and can stop them whenever I want. My girlfriend has a twenty-minute rule about movies at home. If it doesn’t grab her in that time, she moves on. So movies are constantly being abandoned. I admit that bailing on How to be a Latin Lover is ultimately for the best, but I still feel weird about it.
Which is why going to the theater is a singular experience. You’re locked in. The lights are off. You’ve bought your seat. You have to consider the experience of those around you. You’ve committed.
Indian movies still have a space for an intermission. As such, the stories are generally designed to have an emotional cliffhanger at the point where it says “Intermission”. In the U.S., watching these movies in the theater feels weird. Because it really does feel like a place to take a break. But right after the music swells, the emotional cliff-hanger happens, the word Intermission comes on the screen at the appropriate dramatic moment, and everything fades to black, … the movie keeps going. I wish they’d give us about a 10 to 15 second break to just sit there and absorb what just happened, as the movie makers intended.
That’s a good point actually. That’s why, generally, the theaters that are notorious for twenty+ minutes of previews have me leaving the house at the start time of the movie. Which usually works out perfectly. I can still hit the restroom and buy a beer (in that order) and come in at the end of the last trailer.
[Note: When I’m being anal about being early to a particular movie, and I’m going with Tom, as every new trailer rolls up he’s all, “Dingus! Why are we here so early!”]
The Arclight only shows three previews. That’s their hard and fast rule. So you cannot game the system with them. But, on the plus side, a two-hour-fifteen movie doesn’t become a two-forty-five.
I’d show up right on time if could get through the concession stands in less than 15 minutes, also, as much as I like assigned seats, my friends and family are completely inconsiderate and they show up super late. I thought assigned seating would fix some of the stress with dealing with people who can’t plan… anything, but it just winds up with me standing there waiting for 6 people to show up so I can hand them a ticket.
Anyway, for the longer movies, I think a intermission would be nice, but it’s never going to happen.
I liked it. It was absurd in the most Indian way. And it’s got Prabhas playing two versions of Bahubali that might get confusing (part two he plays his father for about half the movie, and it’s not exactly clear this is the case, so it can be hard to tell which timeline you’re watching). But I sat through all six hours of part one and two, and considered it enjoyable.
But it is very much a fifteenth century superhero character he plays, so go in with that frame of mind.
Haven’t seen this yet, but from the trailer it looks like they’re still lizard-skin dinos. If nothing else, they could have introduced feather covered dinos, like the scientific community (and Discovery channel specials) have been insisting existed for over twenty years now, and given the movie a visual punch in the arm to offset the (apparently) stale script.
Well without giving too many spoilers away, it’s not just consistency of dino look, there are actual, literal, repeat dinosaurs… You recognize them as the same by their look.
Saw this over the weekend. Calling it terrible would be charitable. They had the entire island and everything a ruined/abandoned dinosaur theme park could offer, and they used exactly one terrible indoor set and one generic outdoor set for a very redundant (already seen multiple times in the previous movies) run/chase scene, and then no more island. The rest of the movie then takes place either inside a truck or inside a mansion. Even the “twist” was broadcast loud and clear early on.
As someone upthread already said, this movie felt like a very clumsy setup for a “now we have to live with dinosaurs” next movie. I don’t know if Chris Pratt and Bryce Howard are contracted for the next movie or not, but if not, I predict the next movie will be a flash forward 10-15 years and the little clone girl will have been trained by Pratt and Howard at their cabin in the woods to hunt and relocate dinos with the help of Blue and other trained dino assistants (like the ram-head dino).
