When CGI movies go bad...

Rating: Null/10 (15 September 2002)

Jurassic Park 2 is a prime example of the over-hyped mass
market, computer-generated nonsense that seems to flood
Hollywood these days. This had it's roots in the mid-nineties with
big-budget 'disaster movies', when we were all *so* exited by the
CGI revolution. I, for one, was not.
I love dinosaurs, and anything to bring them back to life as near
accuratly as we can is welcomed. My biggest gripe is that the
dinosaurs seem to be 'acting', doing what the film crew wants and
rarely acting as animals should. One case in point is when the
humans are being pursued; the advancing monster/s will roar and
growl at random and stomp their feet. If you watch an extant
carnivore, such as a lion, it will make barely a sound even when
stalking on dry leaves. It's vocalisations, if any, will be for one of
several reasons: to let its young hear and follow; to flush its prey
from hiding; or the most plausible in a movie's case: to
startle/confuse it's prey into freezing, giving the hunter time to close
the gap. None of this was evident, and don't get me started on the
Velociraptor's... CGI is good -and getting better, but we still seem to be at the
stage where it is hard to be convinced by extinct or mythical
creatures; their movement , their behaviour etc.
You could also argue against the predictable plot (a combination
of King Kong, Doyle's original novel and Crighton's poor
written-for-films sequel) mediocre acting (again) and by-the-numbers screenplay that reaquaints us with all the modern
stereotypes. Pete Postlethwaite is wasted and Jeff Goldblum has
far too many know-it-all quips. Plenty of dumb people for dinosaur fodder. They scream; they die.
An interesting paradox is developing in these movies: as the
dinosaurs get more 'realistic', the humans get less so.
There is not nearly enough gore. Although there are good
arguements against blood 'n guts to needlessly rachet up
audiences, blood and death would have been frequent in the
prehistoric world. Spielberg is unusually restrained here, this
being the man who directed the nerve-racking Jaws. Jurassic Park is still the mainstay of dinosaur movies, and until
this can be bettered (which I believe it can) we shall have to be
content with its increasingly poor siblings, such as this, which are
not much better than other dull CGI monster fests currently doing
the rounds.