Excuse the Intermission
Alex, Erica and Max take you on a journey through film with this discussion podcast about movies.
Excuse the Intermission
Beyond the Dinosaur DNA: Examining Jurassic World Rebirth
Dinosaurs and box office numbers find a way, even when creativity doesn't. The latest Jurassic installment stomped through theaters with a staggering $318 million global opening, proving once again that this prehistoric franchise remains Hollywood's gold standard for bankable intellectual property.
Scarlett Johansson and Mahershala Ali headline Jurassic World Rebirth, bringing star power to a franchise that's circling the creative drain yet continues to draw massive audiences. We dissect what works in this seventh installment – primarily Gareth Edwards' undeniable talent for spectacular visual set pieces – and what falls flat. From the breathtaking Titanosaurus sequence in tall grass to the genuinely thrilling underwater T-Rex chase (finally realizing a sequence from Crichton's original novel), the film delivers exactly what audiences expect from the franchise: dinosaurs hunting humans in increasingly elaborate scenarios.
But beneath the impressive technical achievement lies familiar franchise fatigue. Characters feel underdeveloped despite the talented cast, emotional beats are undercut by the need to move to the next set piece, and the film's structure often feels algorithmically designed to hit nostalgic beats from previous entries rather than charting bold new territory. As this film kicks off another planned trilogy, we question where the franchise can possibly go from here without completely rehashing familiar territory.
We also discuss Christopher Nolan's mysterious Odyssey trailer that premiered exclusively before Jurassic World screenings and look ahead to next week's Superman release – another major franchise reboot that faces similar challenges in balancing fan expectations with creative revitalization. Can James Gunn deliver something fresh in a crowded superhero landscape, or are we destined for another case of franchise fatigue? Join us as we explore these questions and more on this week's Excuse the Intermission.
how's it?
Speaker 1:I'm alex macaulay and I'm max gosberg and this is excuse the intermission a discussion show surrounding life and how, once again, it finds a way. Jurassic world rebirth was the big, flashy, family-friendly fourth of july release this year and, despite circling the drain creatively, the film has proven yet again that this intellectual property is solid gold. Max and I will chat about the Rebirth movie, go over some other movie news and look forward to next week's episode, which features another classic IP in the reboot spotlight. All that up next on the other side of this break. All right, brother, how you doing today? Hope you had a restful. I hope everyone out there had a restful and safe 4th of July weekend. We missed you up here. How was the first Independence Day in Los Angeles for you?
Speaker 2:It was great. It was pretty low-key. I worked on set during the day and then, after we wrapped, the cast and crew had a cool little barbecue cookout at our director's place, just an apartment complex. But we were down by the pool and got to hang out and get to know people more, which was great. And then, yeah, just came home and Kaylee and I you know we watched some fireworks from our balcony, but not a whole lot. We didn't go out or anything. We just kind of hung out and started watching a TV show called Paradise. Have you checked this show out yet's on hulu, starring sterling k brown and james martson. Okay, um, superman some.
Speaker 1:Some would call him james martson uh cycle.
Speaker 2:Oh, I thought you said james martson yeah, james martson oh okay, no, no, no, that that was, that's Tom Willing, um, but it looks like him, definitely looks like a similar white guy, um, but yeah, uh, so we just, yeah, we, we just kind of got to relax and the whole weekend was was very relaxing.
Speaker 1:So it was nice. How was uh, how was it up there? It was it, you know, nice up here. We had good weather and there's been. It's funny, our buddy tim and I we were talking for a long time there, like in the 2010s. We had a place over by point rustin where we always would go to and we would see fireworks show. There would be what's now branded as the Freedom Fest, with sometimes the Blue Angels participate, other displays of, I guess, patriotism, and that was really fun for a while. But then that just kind of fell apart and I feel like our group, our friend group, we were a little lost there. We didn't know what to do for a couple of years.
Speaker 1:I think maybe one year we went out, maybe to your family's cabin, and that's always a good time. But you know, the fun of the cabin was never necessarily tied to a weekend or a certain event, it was just like any time you went out there was a good time. So we couldn't really make, we couldn't really recall anyth of July memories from out there. But now another friend of ours, blaine, his parents have a great place and that's sort of become the new tradition, so that's been really fun. You were missed out there, of course, but a lot of fun.
Speaker 1:I do want to go back to your night in Los Angeles, because I have wondered this and I don't know if you're in a place to respond yet, um, if you've maybe seen anything or heard anything.
Speaker 1:But I've always wondered, especially in a town like Los Angeles, where so many people are making movies and you're looking for.
Speaker 1:You know we always would joke around here when you were up up here, max, and maybe there would be a big um, a big response as far as, like emergency medical vehicles because of a fire, because of something that maybe um happened out in the community and you go, that's, that's good free production value right there.
Speaker 1:I'm wondering if, like not that you see fireworks in a ton of movies but you definitely see fireworks in a lot of movies and I just can't help but think, like gosh, for just to have like B-roll footage of a drone flying over LA with a bunch of fireworks going off, or something like, do you think people are out there just kind of like guerrilla filmmaking, like shooting stuff, not knowing if they're ever going to need it or not, like, is that something that you have sort of thought about? Like on these bigger, bigger days, now that you're down there and you're around so many different people like big, big casts of crews, of extras that don't even necessarily, I guess, need to know they're in a shot or something. But, like I was thinking about that with with the holiday and how cool it would maybe be to, yeah, fly a drone, drone, um, over downtown la or something like that, and just see what you get.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I I sure hope there are people out there doing that. If I guess, if I had a drone, I I would have. Uh, you know, I would be more inclined to think about something like that. But, uh, but yeah, I, I, I think I'm sure that happens. I'm sure someone was up. You know, there's a couple different hikes you can go to with great viewpoints that just overlook the whole city. I'm sure there are people who are up there and they've got their cameras set up and whatnot. Yeah, that's really interesting. I would love to meet some of those people and see that footage because, man, it really, you know, at one point we went up to the roof of our building and like, no matter which way you turned, you know, there were fireworks in the sky and just like a constant, like rumbling, like towards the water and like downtown, just constant stuff going off. So, yeah, that's a great idea. Uh, maybe maybe next year.
Speaker 1:Uh, I'll be, I'll be ready for that that's very cool, um, okay, well, so while we were out semi-celebrating, I suppose, um, a lot of people were at the movie theaters and they were out there to mostly see. I do want to give a quick shout out to Lilo and Stitch, which once again still did good business over the weekend.
Speaker 1:And is it 90 or no? It's at $975 million worldwide. So we're so close to a billion dollar movie with lilo and stitch, which is just like insane. Um definitely smashed the projections and the tracking of that film and and so did this movie that we're going to talk about today, jurassic world rebirth. Um started its five-day holiday weekend run on july 2nd and then, as numbers reported through yesterday, july 6th, we're looking at $147 million domestically, another $171 internationally, for a worldwide total of $318 million, which beat the tracking, beat the opening.
Speaker 1:These movies always make money, they always open big it's. It's unfair, honestly, to other creative minds out there that want to try and tell a dinosaur story because you're just never going to be able to. You'll always be compared to this and you see why, like there's always an appetite, at least within the jurassic universe, for these stories. Um, you know we can talk about how we have before we're right. We've talked about how something like 65 tried to come and tell a new sort of original dinosaur story and now some of the production choices and the acting um in that movie not up par, but it's not like Jurassic World Rebirth is submitting itself in cinema history, but just the safety within that franchise.
Speaker 1:So speak to that a little bit, I guess, off the top here. Are you surprised at the financial success of Rebirth?
Speaker 2:I'm not. Another note about it too is I believe scarlett johansson has become the highest grossing actor.
Speaker 1:Uh, uh right now, I think she, she eclipsed, she eclipsed the lioness, she, she eclipsed, uh, zoe, yeah, yeah between this and and all the mcu stuff that she's been in um. I believe she is is the top dog there um, which is honestly impressive, and it was always impressive that zoe saldaña held that as well. But then you look at her work in the mcu along with the two avatar films yeah, and, and even pirates too, right, sure, right, yes, from an earlier time.
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, you, you know I'm not. I'm not really surprised because, as you said, it seems like if you put that skeleton T-Rex logo on on the front of your movie, on your poster, it's, it's, it's going to do well, and so I'm not really surprised that that it's had a huge opening, do I think? You know? I think it was very smart to corner this weekend. Uh, first off, just because it's, it's by itself right, there's, there's was really nothing else coming out this weekend? I think it was.
Speaker 2:I think the other, you know, notable release that anyone was talking about was a movie called sorry baby, which uh has done really well on the on the festival film circuit, uh, and is a a a big indie hit. But, uh, yeah, to have the have the holiday weekend and to have the word Jurassic and again that logo, uh, people are, people are going to go out and and again, this is like one of the franchises, much like a mission impossible or, uh, you know, even like a fast and the furious, where, like, people understand that you need to go to the movie theater to to experience this, right, dinosaurs. Dinosaurs lend themselves to a big screen because they are huge. So, yeah, not very surprised I think we're going to see an incredibly dramatic drop-off in its second weekend coming up, simply because there's a movie looming that some say might be the most important movie of the summer and the most important movie to a company, whereas Dress World is part of Universal, which is going to continue to make movies no matter what.
Speaker 2:I also think, and I wonder, I don't know if I'm pretty sure it played in front of every single screening of Jurassic World, but do you think the fact that Christopher Nolan dropped his first trailer for his next movie, odyssey, uh, in front of this movie, and is the only where I don't think it's I I guess I haven't looked, but I don't think it's online yet like you have to go to the theater to see this, uh, this trailer, and I wonder if that played a little bit into it too, to be like, okay, I guess I will go see the seventh jurassic world movie because I'm gonna get a little taste of something for next summer as well as much as I would like to think that we live in a world where movie culture matters that much, it's just not true.
Speaker 1:I think that maybe 10 of people and that might even be generous even even knew that they were going to get that trailer before beforehand. Like, if you're not listening to movie podcasts, if you're not like reading the dailies, if you're not, like, really plugged in, you had no idea that was coming. Yeah, that's probably true.
Speaker 2:That's probably true. So it did play in front of your, your showing. Yes, yeah, do we want to do? We want to touch on that real quick, like what? What you pull away? I mean nolan, and you know he's known for these, these you know, I think it was like a minute, a minute teaser. Not much was told, shown or or whatnot. Um, you don't even see matt damon's face. He's playing odysseus. Um, he's just got some like some great John Bertholdt and some sad Tom Holland, yeah yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1:I don't really know if there is much to say. I mean, I just hope that my hope with this movie for as long as I've engaged with it, which has not been very long, but just sort of like getting my toes wet and figuring out what it might be about, like I hope that Greek mythology if that's the way we're going to go also means like monsters and creatures of that mythology um, oh, I, I believe, I believe he built uh, a, a animatronic, uh, colossus, I think so those, those are things that I will be almost more excited to hear people's response to, not necessarily saying that I want to see that in a trailer, and maybe he won't put that in a trailer, but those are the kind of things that have me really excited for this movie, because for the first time in a long time, a Christopher Nolan movie is not going to have a bunch of guys in well-tailored suits talking in rooms.
Speaker 1:Now, maybe they're going to be chamber halls and maybe they're going to be temples and maybe they're going to be other you know um four. There's going to be four walls and a roof to them and there's still going to be a lot of conversation between men, I'm sure, in this movie, uh, but the fact that he's going to branch out and get a little bit more, uh, fantastical, I think is really exciting.
Speaker 2:Do you think he's going to play with time the way he does?
Speaker 1:That would be interesting. I mean, obviously, by doing a movie rooted in a lot of historical mythos. You, you could. There's a lot to chew on, um, but it would kind of be interesting, I think, to see him try to. You know there's a lot to chew on, but it would kind of be interesting, I think, to see him try to. You know, take your creative chances with just that, with the mythology and with the creativity that's given to you from the historical context that you have to pull from, and not try to throw in your own wrinkle. Do you think he will? I?
Speaker 2:I? I kind of hope not.
Speaker 2:I want this to be a straight down the line sword and sandals like make your troy, make your version of gladiator, make your yeah, sword and sandals I don't, I don't think we need to be jumping around with, you know, black and white and to you know, to show the past or right, anything like that. Um, so yeah, it's gonna be interesting. Uh, you know, once again, everyone who's anyone in hollywood is in this movie. Uh, and, and yeah, I mean mean like I mean we're going to get a Cyclops, we're going to get a Medusa, right, like I mean I don't know exactly what part of the Iliad or the Odyssey that is is in this movie, but I mean it could go a lot of different ways. So pretty exciting to see that. You know, people were hooting and hollering in my theater when the Sinocopy or Senate, senate, canopy or whatever, however you say, that logo came, came up, which I thought was pretty dorky and fun. But but, yeah, yeah, nolan heads rejoice. Another one, another one coming next year.
Speaker 1:So some of them may be the only people who aren't going to be in that film. And for other reasons too. Jurassic World Rebirth is kind of interesting because I'm watching this film and with someone like Mahershala Ali and I think his choices within his career and some of his projects and the production um, or the lack there of production around some of his projects have been a thing of of much conversation. And so to see this movie um, which which does star scarlett johansson, which we haven't really seen outside of the mcu, lead a big action franchise um movie in a long, I feel like, was a big draw for people. And then, of course, mahershala Ali Academy Award winner, a two-time Academy Award winner.
Speaker 1:I'm pretty sure, yeah, I remember what the last film he was in no.
Speaker 1:And it's just been like we want to see Blade, everyone wants to see Blade, and then it's like Blade's not happening and he's working on Jurassic Park, and then it's like Blade's not happening and he's working on Jurassic Park. So now we get to finally see kind of some of this come to fruition. As far as this Gareth Edwards film goes so off the bat, before we get into you know kind of the nuts and bolts of the film, did this feel like? Was this a breath of fresh air from the Bryce Dallas Howard, chris Pratt, three Jurassic Park movies that we got prior to this?
Speaker 2:Did you enjoy Scarlett and Mahershala and the rest of the ensemble in this movie. Compared to what we've gotten, yes, compared to those last two movies Fallen Kingdom and Dominion those movies are extremely silly and goofy and bad. Now I don't think this is a good movie. I think this is just a next level up of bad. Um I, you know, I I think I wrote this in my letterbox review I it made me feel a lot like how I felt coming out of alien Romulus and I feel like these franchises that are in their seventh or eighth or sixth movie, they tend to be like oh, we are going to take a little bit from every movie that's come before.
Speaker 2:We're going to put it together as an algorithm and do a bunch of callbacks and try to make you feel like you are comfortably watching a highlight reel of all the Jurassic movies.
Speaker 1:So, with Scarlett and Mahershala at the center of that.
Speaker 2:I think that is also a problem. When you do that, when you decide to go that structure wise with a movie like this, the characters just don't even really matter. Like I thought, you know Scarlett, I know Scarlett Johansson can lead a movie. You know, we've seen her do it many times. I know she can do action. She's been doing that in the MCU. She's done that in something like that in the mcu. She's done that something like ghost in the shell, um I I know she's a good actor because of lost in translation, or even her where you don't even see scarlet on screen marriage story, marriage story. She's fantastic in um. But you know and and so she's in this movie and like yeah, she gets to put on, you know, a bulletproof vest and a black nondescript hat and and you know I had to sit up in my seat, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I I thought she was fine, but like, also like her character was not, was it was just nothing, like there was no, I feel. I felt like she wasn't even like really making choices other than the choice to be like the most, like non-descript, you know, world famous mercenary um which she was almost playing.
Speaker 2:I felt kind of like she was playing scarlett johansson as a mercenary yeah, and and maher shawley, he, he has this whole throughout the whole movie. They're talking, they're kind of like there's this thing under the surface about his ex-wife and that they supposedly lost a child, but you never get told how they got lost, how that child was lost. You never you know he.
Speaker 1:Did you like that? When we were finding out about some of that stuff, the theme music was playing unbelievable unbelievable uh, I was like what? There's no pterodactyls like flying on the horizon right now. What are?
Speaker 2:we hearing this music and then also, like you've got jonathan bailey playing the nerdy uh, you know paleontologist whose museum is closing down and he's dedicated his life to these animals and he cries when he sees a titanosaurus for the first time, even though, according to the movie, dinosaurs have been around and, yes, they're dying out on the mainland.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's literally one holding up traffic outside of his museum as the movie opens yeah.
Speaker 2:I just, and then Ruper or friend or whatever his last name is. As soon as he comes on on screen you're like, oh, this is paul reiser from aliens. Like this is totally but that guy. And he's the pharmacy.
Speaker 1:He works for a pharmaceutical company yeah, well, I mean, they have that in the original jurassic park too, right? It's the guy with the suit jacket and the shorts, like there are archetypes that everyone. It's the guy with the suit jacket and the shorts, like there are archetypes that everyone kind of has to follow in these movies. And when you get it that first time and maybe that second time it's still fun. But then you're right, it does just feel like you're circling the drain by the time the fifth, sixth, seventh movie comes around, when you just have the same characters over and over again showing up in these movies yeah, I mean it.
Speaker 1:Just it was an extremely stale taste in my mouth you know who I would have loved to have seen in the rupert friend role, who I thought could have done this. Give me orlando bloom in that role. Would have been great. I don't think it would have added a whole, much more, a whole lot more to the movie, just would have been great. I don't think it would have added a whole, much more, a whole lot more to the movie.
Speaker 2:Just would have liked to have seen it, though, but also like we have a relationship with Orlando Bloom, you know, with from Legolas and Troy and pirates, knowing that he can do, he can do action. So he's going to be a little bit more threatening, right, yeah, yeah, or even something. I, when you said that, I merely thought of haven, right, like, yeah, like badass. Orlando bloom, you know that makes it way. When, then when, at the end, when he's got the gun and he's threatening everybody, it's going to be a little bit more.
Speaker 1:there's a little bit more stakes well, I kind of feel like that's what we saw a little bit out of him in gran turismo, which his performance was one of the highlights of that film, right, um, as as sort of like the corporate ugly um of the story which obviously the rupert friend character is supposed to be playing. Um, okay, so, so you have. You definitely have star power in this film. Let's talk about Gareth Edwards as well, the director, an accomplished guy, someone who has stayed basically within one genre of science fiction action his entire career. So it's no surprise that the set pieces in this movie do look really good. Like. I will give this movie a lot of credit for its set pieces because, at the end of the day, I'm not going to watch a Best Picture nominee, a hopeful Best Picture nominee, I'm going to watch people get chased by dinosaurs, and at the times when people are being chased by dinosaurs in this movie, it's a lot of fun being chased by dinosaurs in this movie.
Speaker 2:It's a lot of fun. Yeah, I mean he. He is one of the most, if not the most, talented visual uh effects director in in the business, right, but everything in between is just utter boring, like.
Speaker 1:So we put that on david, I'm gonna put that on david cap.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna put that on david cap and not edwards yeah, and then that's another person that like again, like someone who wrote the original jurassic park movie and actually has had a great year with something like black bag and presence.
Speaker 1:That he, he's had a great career yeah, well, yeah, and a career.
Speaker 2:But again, like we are just, you know, and we're going to get into spoilers, yes, right now. So if you don't want to hear that, go watch the movie and come back and listen. But like the, the, the, the convenience store at the end is exactly the industrial kitchen. Yeah, of course you know the, the pterodactyl stuff feels a lot like the stuff from jurassic park 3, um, the. You know the t-rex. Here on the poster you can see the t-rex chasing the family down the river. Now, I understand that is a sequence that was in the original book, that they wanted to do in the original movie but didn't have the technology for um, because they were just inventing all that stuff and so you put it here, which is fine, but also, like doesn't really mean anything because a, the family is absolutely unnecessary, like the only reason they're there is because we have to put children in peril with these?
Speaker 1:Well, they just have a golden. The entire family has a golden cloak around them the entire time. That's what I hated.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, especially like yeah, the, the, the boyfriend who goes in like peas, you know just to to take a leak at night and like a raptors is ready to pounce, ready to pounce, and then gets, gets eaten by a bigger dinosaur, but then that dinosaur doesn't notice him and just flies away and like you're playing that for like laughs, but then also like are you trying to thrill us? I it's just yeah, um I you know.
Speaker 1:Also back to the rap sequence too. The rap sequence doesn't work either, because apparently we are in the world's most indestructible inflatable wrath unbelievable you're telling me a t-rex's mouth, teeth, can't fucking this yeah that's incredibly stupid, um, but yeah, so back to gareth.
Speaker 2:I listen, yes, when the titanosaurus, when they're in the the long grass, the titanosaurus is is standing there and like it's a big, wide shot. It's beautiful.
Speaker 2:The t-rex is is sleeping in the grass right, that's something we have never seen and kind of like rolls over like a dog, like that was really cool yeah, um, or, and even like I really loved the design of the winged raptors, right, or whatever they were, I you know, and, and that was another thing that really bugs me is that you know they make a point to tell you over and over again that this is a island of mutant dinosaurs that are, you know, misfit toys. Uh, right, and, and like we don't ever even really explore that other than this, this other creature dinosaur that I think it's the d-rex, uh, I just what?
Speaker 1:do I have it I in my notes.
Speaker 2:It's called the mutant source yeah, the mutant source, uh, it shows up at the end, but like, even that, like we never even like go into it would have been interest, more interesting, if they if it was about like we had to go in and like shut this, this laboratory, down because of what they were doing to dinosaurs, they were mutating them and like crossbreeding them and yeah, and it is a working, it's a working laboratory, it's not abandoned or anything. And like we, we had to go infiltrate. You know, you had scarlet and and maher shawley to go in and infiltrate this place and shut it down. Like that, to me that's way more interesting than like we have to, you know, break the law, go to this Island that's been abandoned, and like we're trying to extract dinosaur DNA to save the world from cancer or whatever.
Speaker 2:Yeah, heart disease, yeah, heart disease. So, yeah, I Gareth, I think disease, yeah, heart disease. Uh, so, yeah, I gareth, I think, and it's too bad because I think gareth, you know, when he did godzilla, he, uh, he went so far the other way from what we expected from a godzilla movie right, where like godzilla is rarely on the screen and it's much more of a human story and like godzilla is just kind of like happening in this background, much like that movie monsters he did. I, I feel like this. He was like I'm going to play the most safe I can which is a kind of a retelling of the first jurassic park movie, or or jurassic park 3, if that's what it felt like. To me it felt a lot like jurassic park 3 you know, you know what movie.
Speaker 1:So, within the franchise, yeah, I think the jurassic park 3 is the biggest, like the best, double feature to do with this movie. You know, what this movie felt a lot like to me was Wolfgang Peterson's the Perfect Storm. Yes, yeah, because in the Perfect Storm you have Cherry Jones and her whole family. That are like. Also happening simultaneously is all this stuff that's happening on the Andrea Gale. And the very first time we meet this family on the sailboat I had like an instant flashback to the perfect storm and watching that movie and being like why do we need this family?
Speaker 1:um, yeah, I don't even know and and then I realized like, well, okay, so this is obviously not something that kept just made up. Like there's, I'm sure, and I'm sure there's many more examples of just like two parallel stories happening at once. A, so that, like you just don't get stagnant with with one, with one storyline. B, so that you can add some extra peril to your story. But then the part that really doesn't work here, and where it does work in something like the perfect storm, say, is that, like those are a bunch of adults who were out on that sailboat that ends up capsizing and has to get rescued.
Speaker 1:And it was just like the early 2000s. And so you know, archetypes were different and people were less safe. There were more stakes in movies, even big blockbuster movies that you expected, you know a hundred million dollars worth of people to go out and see. But like it just being a family was, it was an attempt at manipulation and it's like you're just not going to get me, you're not going to get me to think that anybody here's in real danger, as we've stated. Um, so I don't hate the creative decision, I just hate the execution of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, I, you, you can also feel that, like, this movie felt extremely rushed, right, like, and another thing, like, why is it called rebirth? Yeah, that has nothing to do. There's no, nothing about like re, like birthing or rebirth or like reincarnation or you know any, any sort of thing like that. I don't even know why that title is on this movie, uh, or why it's even called jurassic world. It should be just jurassic island, because because, again, like they, they go, you know, to painstakingly, uh limits to tell you that like, uh, all the dinosaurs that were on the mainland from dominion have died off, you know, or are dying off.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they, they have been again, they have just been, uh, isolated to this one area, you know, by all around, yeah, yeah and it's just like okay, well, that just means that it's just gonna continue to be the same movie of like we're going to an island, we're gonna get chased by a dinosaur, and then we're going to escape, and it's just what?
Speaker 1:what's weird to me too, for for this being, you know, may honestly like maybe rebirth is more of a meta text and it's supposed to be in conversation with the actual franchise, and like we are rebirthing the jurassic world franchise, which again also feels weird. Max, and we're talking right before we came on and we were like we did an episode on dominion, dominion was like at the tail end of of lockdown in 2022, and that that movie's so forgettable and feels like it came out seven years ago already. Um, so I I do think that they were trying to wash the taste out of their mouth by by rebirthing this franchise, and perhaps that does have something to do with the title of the film. I'm just, I'm interested in like where they think they can actually go from here that will treat their audiences with any amount of respect You're going to have to get, so a conversation like at the white house level about, you know, euthanizing dinosaurs or something like that.
Speaker 1:I don't know. That's not what people want, so that's not what we're going to get. Well, again, what they want is like people in the jungle running from dinosaurs, so that's again what we're going to have to go back to, but this is supposed to be the first film that's going to kick off another trilogy, but, like you, just brought back to the mainland all the DNA, all the dino DNA that you're ever going to need that little girl brought back a little dinosaur.
Speaker 2:Who's going to die? Who's going to die Right Because of the air First winter, yeah, first bad winter.
Speaker 1:Um, so so you've, you've now established that you have the, the means to cure heart disease.
Speaker 1:So it's not like you can tell us that the next story is going to be we're going back, because it is going to be like now, all's timers, or it's going to be cancer, or it's gonna be like no, you, just, you can't keep doing that.
Speaker 1:That's just so creatively bankrupt, and so I don't know where they go from here. Like this again wasn't I don't think it's the worst film in the franchise, but I feel like they kind of blew their load and every creative idea that they had to to pull from, whether that was, you know, playing the beats, playing the greatest hits of of films past, or grabbing things from the first book that were maybe left out. Because honestly, like I'm just being honest, when that t-rex went under the water, I'm like this is fucking sick, this is so dope, and the t-rex is fully submerged. I'm like, again, a great set piece. So, like there are moments it definitely feels this, this movie is definitely built around it set pieces and that's fine. I don't know where you go from here now because of, because of what they showed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think they've totally written themselves into a corner and um you know. But then again, you know, it's the seventh movie in this, in this fucking franchise. Like when, when do we learn that, like you know what? Maybe after after six, after two trilogies? Yeah Well, I think maybe you know, cause we've seen it now. We've seen it with this, We've seen it with star Wars, we've seen it with, uh, fast and the furious.
Speaker 1:We've seen I was going gonna say fast is interesting because fast aren't really structured in trilogies but they're universal properties and they, those movies, have gotten progressively less effective and and less fun yeah, and and even like to a while still making a ton of money like yeah yeah I, I just think at some point we have to be okay, and indiana jones too is another one that comes to mind.
Speaker 2:At some point you have to be okay with shutting the door and just being like, hey, you know what these movies live over here and and that was a great run, and you know, if you ever want to watch them again, you can go watch them. Yeah, but like, do we need jurassic world 8? Nope, um, that's the answer. So, yeah, it's just, I don't know we'll, we'll see what happens, but yeah I do.
Speaker 1:I do want to give a couple. There were a few other beats that I was kind of happy with that. I do just want to give a shout out and we're once again in spoiler territory here but like I actually was the Titanosaurus, you know moment in the tall grass one in every single tall grass sequence in these movies you are led to believe that something bad is going to happen, that raptors are going to attack. So I did really appreciate that they they kind of like pulled the rug out from under us on that scene and let that moment just be actually really peaceful, and I appreciated how chill that was, because, especially in a, in a movie where you know there's like a, b and C, these are our objectives. We have to get it from a dinosaur on land. We have to get it from a dinosaur on scene. We have to get it from a dinosaur in the air. You're like something's going to go wrong or you're going to have a challenge at each one of those steps the fact that one of them and like more movies just need to do this. When it comes to, like you know, objectives that our main characters have to do like let, comes to, like you know objectives that our main characters have to do, like let it just be easy for once. So I did actually really like that choice where it was like you know what. We're gonna put them out in the tall grass, we know what you're gonna think is gonna have happen. They even drop the line. They do a little checkoffs like these danger. These creatures aren't dangerous, but the predators that hunt them are like they get you thinking something's gonna happen. And then it's just a really nice time with these really cool like Brontosaurus looking dinosaurs that have these amazing tails, that are just like swirling around on the screen.
Speaker 1:So I thought that part was really cool. And you know there's a there's a great, there's a great sequence on uh movie review. I would definitely give um the like shoot your shot award to after um jonathan bailey's character, whose name is dr loomis, like again, I don't know what we're doing there. So after dr loomis kills michael myers and then shoots the flare gun up in the air I thought that it was I was like I know exactly what's going to happen. Now that flare gun is going to drop back down, it's going to illuminate all this smoke that's around him and we're going to get that mutant source to pop its head out, and of course that's what happens and it's exactly what you want to happen and it looked awesome. So I was like there's moments where it plays to the beats that you expect, like as soon as Rupert friend handcuffs himself to the lab case. It's like, well, that that arm that arm is coming off.
Speaker 1:That arm is coming off, and when it does, you're like, oh hell, yeah, there we go Like could a 12 year old write that Absolutely, but it's kind of satisfying.
Speaker 1:I was also really happy that like a T-Rex didn't come in and like, fight the mutant source I have this in my notes, not necessarily as far as the t-rex, but also very little raptors like. There's always a sequence in these movies where the raptors come in and save the day, or the raptors come in and turn heel. Except from that one scene where the boyfriend goes out to take a leak in the middle of the night, we don't see any velociraptors, so I thought that that was. That had to have been a tough, tough call. Uh, you know the mutant raptors, right? I mean the flying ones.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean they show you the the, the claw on the toe right. Yeah, tell you like. Oh, this is a mutated rafter.
Speaker 1:Yeah, these, these are our raptors for this movie. Yeah, um, and and, hence why they give them the convenience store scene. But but yeah, so I. There were some things that I was definitely entertained with um, or entertained by with this film, and so, like I, as max said, these movies are definitely made and and um, designed like, designed to be seen on the big screen. I'm not telling you to go spend your hard-earned money on this film. I think you'll probably have less fun, though, if you do wait until it hits HBO or whatever streaming service it goes to. So I don't know, the decision is yours. I think that there's some redeeming qualities, but I haven't put it in on Letterboxd yet. This will be like a. This will be somewhere between a three and a three and a half for me, and again, that's being very literal and that's so. That's either like a D or a C minus like there's. There's a lot of room for improvement here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think I gave it two stars. I I just it bumps me out and I don't even know why, because, like, even going in, I was like this is gonna be, it's gonna be stupid, it's gonna be stupid. The last two were so bad, um, and especially dominion. I mean, I think I remember having a huge rant on that episode that we did about dominion well, yeah, because that's when they really tried to get the whole gang back together.
Speaker 2:Sam neill, laura dern yeah, uh and yeah, you know, and so like those sequences you pointed out like yes, I loved the titanosaurus stuff, except at the very end when they tried to cheaply do the fucking that scene from original, the original jurassic park where they look out, you know and it's, they're all going down the valley yeah, and they're all going down the valley and it's just like a bunch of.
Speaker 2:I thought that actually looked really bad, like it was just a bunch of weird like polygon dinosaurs walking around yeah, yeah, they shouldn't have pulled back that far, that was yeah, that was good and then, and then the end of that other sequence you were talking about with the, with the d-rex, where maher shawley and this is kind of further down, so you could even call this a separate, a separate part of this movie. But, like again, like the stakes, there's just no stakes at all, because maher shawley, after again telling you throughout the whole movie, or hinting, that he had lost a child and the children are really important to his character like he's always trying to find the children, you know this girl telling him I won't let anything bad happen to you.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, and he takes the flare and he runs off and the D Rex chases him and and lets everyone else get into the boat. And you're like, okay, he, he's going to sacrifice himself. I like that that's cool. Like here are some stakes. No, you know, a main character can die, yeah, and then the fucking flare he shoots a flare up and we have no idea how he gets out of it.
Speaker 2:No, yeah, we don't even see. It goes off screen and I wouldn't even been fine like an off screen death or even even like let's have it go off screen and and maybe the the sequel is like him trying to survive on the island by himself. Sure, yeah, right, maybe he does escape and then scarjo's got to go back scarjo has to come back, or it's just him like just a, just a maher shawali movie, yeah, like predator, where like he's covering himself in mud and he's running around the island.
Speaker 2:Um, okay, you got my attention but instead, you know, he, he shoots a flare and gets picked up by the boat and then, and then again, cheaply, they try to do the ending of jurassic park, but just how they're in a boat and like the, the dolphins and shit, and like, yeah, just horrible, just really cheap, and um, yeah, so, so yeah, I, I don't know this one stung, I you know, I'm glad, I'm glad it's doing well, I'm glad people are going to see it in the theater. But it was, it was extremely, uh, bankrupt experience. Yeah it's.
Speaker 1:I mean it's just, and again, this is not a jurassic world problem, this is an ip problem.
Speaker 1:They're just so, um you know, we're just spotter man, yeah, we're just in such a tough place with them and it's really too bad.
Speaker 1:Because, you know, this is why we try to do things like our lost horror sequels, spotlight episodes.
Speaker 1:Because only, I think, when you have a budget of of this caliber and you have expectations that are so high maybe not critically, but certain, certainly financially speaking do you feel you you feel more inclined to be hypercritical of the creative choices and to be and to feel robbed when, when something isn't really like delivered, when, when a promise isn't delivered, when, when the studios don't hold up their end of the bargain, because when something like paranormal activity, six or seven come along and aren't great, but then like they still work for some people and can keep the franchise going, and then maybe you know, like my favorite and I bring it up all the time, like next of kin, then all of a sudden like still has enough juice to be made and it goes to paramount plus and that movie's awesome and it's so cool and it gives someone like william eubanks a chance to like make a make a film within a franchise but to do a lot of fun, creative stuff.
Speaker 1:Like within franchises you can still take risks and give people the opportunity to share their creative vision without studio pressures, without pressures of ip and expectations, but just not when they are this big. And that's the tough thing about a franchise like jurassic park, slash world, like fast and the furious, like mission impossible, like so much of what we've seen so far this summer. To be honest, um, which which is a nice little segue, we'll wrap up by kind of previewing what we, what we're going to talk about next week, um, which is the release of superman. Now, I think this time last week, going into the weekend, we were well, let's, uh, superman, I believe, and eddie eddington is eddington also this oh, eddington, I believe is the 18th, 18th, okay, the following weekend, yeah, so yes, it is superman week, you're right
Speaker 1:yeah, um, but so going into superman, we now we're basically dealing with the exact same monster here, the exact same thing that we've been talking about with jurassic world, and I don't know. What do we expect out of this? Like you're, you will have the very interesting task and I will make sure to do my homework and return to the christopher reeves films and watch something like man of steel for the first time and maybe even like pull up a smallville super, you might like man of steel yeah, I mean, if it's not three hours long, I'll watch it, like, uh, that's the problem with superhero movies, right?
Speaker 1:um, but no, I mean, do we think again? I, I I'm not gonna think, I'm not gonna doubt this movie's potential financial success, I think it's gonna do very well. But again, like, can this movie show us something that makes us feel again, you know? I mean, like superman is supposed to be such a human story. Um, you're, you're kind of our comic book expert here. Like, what are the themes, what are the like if this is a class syllabus, like what do people need to know and read and learn before going into next week at the theater?
Speaker 2:you think, I mean, it's a classic fish out of water story. Right, like he is an alien, superman, is an alien posing as a human, right, uh, in our world. He also, like you know, he is the big blue boy scout. Right, like he is the moral center of what you know when, when the fight becomes good versus evil, right, like he, he is supposed to be the shining light, the best of us, um, or the best of you know, krypton, right, the best of the universe. Uh, it's going to be really interesting. I think you know james gunn, I have James Gunn, I have a lot of faith in James Gunn because he tends to take something we like like a superhero movie, but really give it its own voice and style and substance.
Speaker 2:And he did that repeatedly with the guardians of the galaxy movies, you know I I think some of those are the most unique and individualistic movies in the mcu. Um, he's done that with something like slither, which is like a total homage to body horror and, and you know, the fly and the thing, um, and like it, but also has its own, very own style and and breath, um, so you know, can you do that with a superman story? I think it's going to be extremely different from what we've been used to with Zack Snyder, which I think is a good thing. I think I hope it's. I hope it's a better, you know, because something that is extremely different from Zack Snyder's is Superman returns, which is the Bryan Singer movie from 2005 or something like that.
Speaker 2:I hope it's a better film than that film and, you know, I think it will be at, even though it will be extremely different from man of Steel and probably more like the Christopher Reeves as far as tone. I think it will, you know, take a left turn from from those movies as well and be much more of a. You know his stuff is always very like witty and violent and so like if we can get a balance of of of violence, you know, good morals and hope like I think it will be successful. We'll see. I don't know. Superman's never been my favorite superhero story. Uh, I I'm happy to hear that we're not getting an origin story so it's it's gonna be.
Speaker 2:you know you, you need to know, you need to know that origin going into this movie, um, but yeah, who knows? I think it will, I think you will feel something because I, I, I think again cheaply, you know, we've got Crypto, the super dog, in this movie, and so if anything bad happens to the dog, I think that's you know, I mean, that's screenwriting 101.
Speaker 1:Manipulation tactic 101.
Speaker 2:Exactly yeah, so we'll see, we'll see, we'll see. It feels a lot more science fictiony than than past superman stuff because there's, you know, there's creatures and aliens and um and things like that. So, or fantastical maybe, maybe fantastical is a better word, but yeah, I don't know. Uh, it's, it's a huge movie for DC WB James Gunn, you know who is running that studio. This is kind of the launching pad of his new version of the DC stories.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:A lot of rides on this. A lot rides, a lot rides on on Superman and and we'll see, david Cornswe sweat has been a guy who's been like popping up in big fan side, you know side roles in in movies like pearl and twisters, so this is kind of his big launching pad.
Speaker 2:Yeah, rachel brosnan has been a huge tv star, uh, with the marvelous miss mazel on amazon prime. I'm excited to see her uh on the big screen. Um, and then also, like our guy, nicholas holt is the heavy right and he I think the last villainous role I saw him do was uh the order, which he was fucking awesome in yeah oh, the order so good, and we get something as maniacal and evil as that, as a white supremacist lex luther yeah, in a in a bright, shiny.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that'd be fucking awesome because I think nicholas holt's a really really great actor. Um, agreed, so, yeah, it's gonna be really, really interesting and I'm excited that the town down here is very excited, I mean, you know, there's I'm sure it's everywhere marketing wise yeah everything everywhere.
Speaker 2:So, um, I can't wait to see it in a packed theater, um, and and yeah, and then we'll get to sit down and talk about it. I'm excited, I and also I. I just can't wait to hear what. As always, what you think right, like I mean superhero, superhero stuff is not, is not your, your bag? So?
Speaker 1:no, yeah, I'm coming in from a very neutral place yeah.
Speaker 2:So yeah, if it's a good, I think we'll know if it's a good movie, yeah, yeah, you know not to put too much pressure on you, no yeah, talk about a big yeah, it's big for james gunn, it's big for me, for all of us.
Speaker 1:Um, all right, well, that'll do it for our conversation on Jurassic World Rebirth and our anticipation behind Superman. Until next time, please follow Excuse the Intermission on Instagram and the two of us on Letterboxd to track what we're watching between shows, and we'll talk to you next time on ETI, where movies still matter.
