Filmism.net Dispatch April 3, 2015
Now, I'm as big a fan of the Jurassic Park series as anyone. At least the first one, that is. Spielberg went a bit Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull with Jurassic Park: The Lost World and the third entry by Joe Johnston completely jumped the megalodon. So I'm as excited as one could possibly be about Jurassic World, but here's the thing.
Remember how cool Terminator 2: Judgement Day was even though none of us realised at the time it was essentially a remake of the first film (an assassin sent back from the future to kill the resistance leader and a protector sent back to save him).
Have a look at the trailers for Jurassic World here and here.
Isn't it the same story as the first movie, a theme park full of dinosaurs that get loose and wreak havoc? Is the only difference this time the fact that the park's actually open, so the dinosaurs have a veritable smorgasbord rather than just Alan Grant, Ellie Sattler, John Hammond, Ian Malcolm and the kids to chow down on?
Is Hollywood just doing what it does, doing the same thing again only bigger and louder? Not that I won't be in line wearing my cardboard velociraptor mask and 'I bring scientists, you bring a rock star' T shirt on the first night, but still...
I also thought I'd introduce you, if you don't know about it, to the newest form of movie publicity, the Reddit AMA. If you're reading this you're probably reasonably web savvy and know what a Reddit AMA is, but the Dummies version is that a person of note monitors a page the famous social media site sets up for them and invites visitors to (as the name suggests) 'ask me anything'.
They've been done by everyone from Barack Obama to male porn star James Deen and celebs like Bryan Cranston, Benedict Cumberbatch, the legendary Betty White and Harrison Ford, who proved himself, as we said in the last Filmism.net Dispatch, to be a curmudgeonly old fucker.
It's a good way for a star or studio to promote their film cheaply and cuts out the middleman of the traditional media by putting the personality right in front of the virtual town square.
Citizen journalism, unfiltered news, mindless rabble? You decide.
I've recently seen a bunch'o'stuff that's surprised me at the movies and on DVD. For instance, I finally caught up with Alexander Payne's critical darling Nebraska, and while it was well made and nice and all...
At the other end of the scale was a zombie horror comedy Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead, hailing from my part of the world in Australia. I expected it to be one-joke and half-baked, but what a surprise I got about such a funny, bloody, scrappy, mental and disarmingly inventive little flick.
Jupiter Ascending proved the Wachowskis haven't forgotten how to go big, but they have forgotten how to write an interesting story with decent characters, Will Smith's first post blockbuster career move Focus ironically lacked focus, and I also talked to Anne Hathaway for a tiny indie movie she did recently called Song One.