As expected

Rating: 7/10 (14 June 2015)

Obviously, and I have to include similar assessments of Age of Ultron, there is no way to recapture the utter magic of seeing a new and astounding thing for the first time, but audience expectations often seem not to take that into consideration for subsequent installments, especially for blockbusters. The CG was effective in allowing us to suspend our disbelief and embrace the notion that the creatures were there. The occasional sequel is better than the original (Mission Impossible 4, for example), but I don't attend a movie anticipating how far short it will fall. Impressions and opinions will, of course, be formulated after the fact, but don't forget that this is fun fare, thus largely illogical. Did it have annoyances? Oh, yeah: most of the characters, but Chris Pratt was terrific. The animals were suitably scary and the action did not lag. I'm not sure, however, how any sequels are going to play out in a movie-believable way, unless the action is shifted to another locale. Also, a major question, for me and many others: what happened to the can of Barbasol Nedry dropped in the original? I completely expected that the next chapter would constitute someone finding it and picking up the reins to recreate the nightmare. Still waiting on that one. I did have some eyebrow-raising moments when the raptors and the T worked together and seemed, anthropomorphically, to acknowledge each other as they went their separate ways. Ditto the raptor moment with Owen, at the end. Also, a time-honored notion among these kinds of movies never fails to befuddle me: the use of uncontrollable, enormous carnivores--or genetically enhanced "super soldiers"--as "weapons". Regardless of their size, an encounter with high-powered explosive devices would negate all else. And, let's face it, an enemy isn't going to see these building-size things coming at them and simply wait around to be hot lunches. While the I-Rex was a "stealth" dinosaur, camouflaged in a jungle, it would not be invisible in the open. The raptors had no such advantage so, again, the idea of such creatures as military assets has always been ridiculous. The principals in these movies proceed on the premise that these no longer extinct creatures were an attraction for theme parks and they were largely ignorant or dismissive of what they were actually unleashing. Aside from the entertainment value, the clear warning: never underestimate nature. "Inventing" a dinosaur for commercial purposes, well, some who were eaten--and some who should have been--got what they deserved. I also wonder, since Hammond said, at the end of TLW, that the animals should be left alone, for the safety of both sides, how his entire caveat was overlooked and others forged ahead, especially on an island which belonged to and was controlled by another government. Oops. Logic. Well, there has to SOME. Still, glad I went and enjoyed.