First time I saw it with the wife, it was the definition of a "Meh" movie.
Felt like something like Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid (but somehow worse constructed), or straight-to-DVD crap with colossal budget.
Some dumb stuff, sterile/inoffensive plot and dialogues, one-dimensional stereotypical characters (can't stand the entire family, spineless father especially). Some noticeable CGI set extensions I'm not a fan of. Not nearly as scary or tense as it should be and I don't really understand at this point, first two movies have shown you can have gore and straight horror-dread and still make tons of money and sell loads of toys. This one in this regard is an obvious improvement over the World saga, but just push a little further ffs.
By far and away the worst OST in entire saga. Completely off, worst aspect of the movie in my opinion, they need to bring back Giacchino back because this one not only doesn't have a single nice piece of music I can recall, it just doesn't have a Jurassic movie DNA. And that kind of connective tissue was vital here because of the new cast, plot, and all these new King Kong/Kong: Skull Island environments not really feeling they belong to the saga.
As for the positives, ScarJo doesn't feel "girlboss" at all. She isn't the usual male parody, a bit of fresh air to see a character like this having characteristics of a vulnerable, emotional, nurturing and even flirty female. Complimented really well by Kincaid. See no real reason for that character to be a female in the first place other than "you know why", but they did a nice job. Opposite story for the family older daughter, I mean nothing exaggerated or anything but I am too fatigued for that kind of character.
Dinosaurs act like animals, finally. And they look good. Mosasaur, T. rex, they look amazing and utter gigantic! All animals are finally animated with competence and taste, Dilophosaurus aside. Raft scene was good, except the fact it's still intact by the end is the most absurd thing in the entire series possibly.
Some really clever shots of dinosaurs, you can tell this is made by a person who has some form of "art" in him.
Movie looks good. Went directly from 35mm Jurassic Park (not the puke-inducing the Home Video version) to this and it was fucking seamless, I know many don't give a shit about shooting on film but I do, gorgeous, organic presentation.
Sound effects, best in the entire Jurassic World saga. They didn't reuse the same SFX all the time like they did in the previous trilogy and I fucking loved this. Kudos!
A very cool couple of death scenes. One in particular, although not gory, is pretty damn brutal and doesn't end immediately, may be a little disturbing even. They needed to be all like this.
I don't care for the Mutadons, except for the fact we see one being shot dead, probably the first time in the entire series we see an animal being killed by a gun and it's pretty bloody as well, as a matter of fact I think they suck and the fact they are able to take off defies gravity, but the D. Rex is cool looking. I don't really get why they have to keep pushing this hybrid nonsense, but it was a cool creature.
So, meh, but still enjoyable because there's just something about these movies.
I had promised by brother we would go see it together, like every other Jurassic movie, so although I wasn't excited about it I went to see it again, this time in 3D, and since we ordered tickets online we also had a nice InGen badge.
This time I liked it much more. To the point, I'm almost ashamed to admit I'd like to see it again.
Hope for an Extended version of some sort in HV because Velociraptor were done dirty, and their new design is awesome and can't be wasted in such shameless fashion by cutting their only scene, teased in the Trailer.