Movie Review: Jurassic Park

There is so much to say about this movie that’s already been said.

It’s a classic, a landmark in movie history. Its advances in computer-generated visual effects literally changed how movies are made. Its musical score is one of John Williams’ absolute best. Its characters, its iconography, its thrilling set pieces, its . . . everything is so memorable, and sometimes even awe-inspiring.

I love this movie for all those reasons and more. It has entertained and inspired me many, many times since my first viewing as a kid. But there’s one thing about it that I never knew for a long time — something that has only increased my already immense appreciation for it.

Throughout its one hundred twenty seven minute runtime, Jurassic Park contains just fifteen minutes of dinosaur footage.

In contrast to other movies, Jurassic Park never seems desperate to hold your attention. It doesn’t throw a constant stream of meaningless eye candy at you, it doesn’t let the characters zip from scene to scene with no room to breathe, and it doesn’t let the dinosaurs overstay their welcome. It knows exactly when to hold back, when to bluff, and when to show its hand.

 

 

Director Steven Spielberg is a master at suspenseful storytelling. Only someone like him can get as much out of those fifteen minutes of dinosaurs as he does. His genius is apparent right from the opening shot.

We see a tangle of moonlit treetops rustling heavily, implying that something big is coming. A first-time viewer will immediately think of a T-Rex, but instead, we see a huge metal box being craned over to a large enclosure. We don’t know exactly what’s inside, but the characters’ expressions convey the tension perfectly. And within a few moments, something goes wrong. We see brief flashes of a reptilian eye, mottled brown skin, and the poor construction worker attacked by an unseen animal as otherworldly roars and screams rend the night.

It’s an intense opener, and in other movies, the action would hardly stop from this point onward, inevitably tiring out the audience. But not here. Now that we’re hooked, Spielberg substantially slows down the ride, taking his sweet time to set things up with deliberation and a promise of excitement to come. He knows that pacing is key. Every scene, every line of dialogue, every character moment serves a purpose.

Right after the opening, we hear the lawyer Gennaro informing the amber miner about John Hammond’s plan to have a team of experts sign off on his park and its safety in order to satisfy his investors. Boom, next scene. We meet Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler digging up fossils, get to know them just enough, and then Hammond flies in to invite them to his “biological preserve” and get their approval.

Boom, next scene. Dennis Nedry is introduced along with his plot to betray InGen and steal the embryos. Boom, next scene. The helicopter with Hammond, Alan, Ellie, and Gennaro is en route to the park along with Ian Malcolm, who briefly introduces his skepticism toward the park and firm belief in chaos theory.

 

 

By this point, it doesn’t matter that we’re still waiting to see the dinosaurs, because the characters and their adventures, even in the quieter moments, are just as interesting. No, they don’t have elaborate backstories or soul-piercing moments of growth. But they do have distinct personalities, all uniquely engaging and likeable. Even the more villainous characters have a certain charm to them. The entire cast has a wonderfully real way of interacting with one another, sometimes so real that they mumble or speed through the occasional line. That can be frustrating sometimes, but for the most part, it rewards repeated viewings and enriches the believability of the story.

As the movie clicks along at a perfect pace, with just enough dinosaurs to make us want more, we hardly notice how expertly the dominoes are being set in place. And finally, the halfway point of the movie arrives before we know it. The T-Rex makes its glorious first appearance, knocking over the first domino with earth-shattering force and sending the characters into chaos — exactly as Malcolm predicted. As the dominoes continue to fall, the thrills continue to pile up and build off each other, while always giving the audience a brief reprieve before the next terrifying moment.

 

 

And then, just like that, the movie ends. To this day, I dread the coming of the big finale, because I know that it means the movie is almost over. But once it’s over, I can’t help but feel both satisfied and eager to see it again.

What an amazing movie. It’s fun, it’s scary, it’s funny, it’s endlessly re-watchable, and it captures the imagination in a way that few movies can. It’s a timeless classic and one of the best adventures ever put on film.

Yes, it has dinosaurs. That’s super cool. But the fifteen minutes of dinosaurs in this movie are just the icing on a delicious cake. Whatever is happening onscreen — an ethical debate over a dinner table, a tour group gazing expectantly at an empty T-Rex paddock, or a heart-pounding game of cat and mouse between two raptors and two kids — Jurassic Park is pure entertainment from start to finish.

If you’ve never seen it, you’re in for an adventure. An adventure sixty-five million years in the making.

 

 

 

“Meesa back!”

Hello there! It’s me, ya boi Matthew. I’ve returned to the blogspace to get back into writing — something I’ve always enjoyed and haven’t made time for lately.

The idea of resurrecting my old blog, which I did for fun back in college, came to me almost out of nowhere today. I have no idea how long I’ll stick with it this time, or how often I’ll post, but I decided it’s best to just get (re)started and figure out the details later.

So here goes!

Although I wanna go for a bit of a different angle this time around, I’m leaving my old posts up. It’s good to be able to look back on your old creative work and see how you’ve grown, despite the occasional cringe. Maybe I’ll add a note on a few of ’em just to give an update on how my thoughts or feelings on a subject have changed, but otherwise, please feel free to peruse my older writing. I’m still pretty proud of a lot of it.

This time, I plan on more of a focus on movie and game reviews, maybe with an occasional life anecdote or reflection, maybe a poem or short story here and there. The central theme driving my writing, though, is finding the goodness and truth and beauty reflected in pop culture, and sometimes even in your own backyard.

Stories of all kinds have inspired me since I was a wee lad, and I’m excited to share my thoughts on them. Regardless of whether you agree or disagree with anything I write, my hope is that you still enjoy, and that fruitful conversation about art of all kinds — from film to animation to the tree outside your window — will always be encouraged and celebrated.

With that in mind, last thought for now. The title of this blog never actually meant anything, I just thought it was funny. But maybe now it can loosely make reference to how the depth of humanity can be found in art. Creativity is a part of what makes us human, and that’s worth sharing.

See you soon!

Story: “There Has Been An Awakening”

It’s been quite a long time since I’ve written here on my blog… but I remembered something today that inspired me to post this.

Today, December 18th, 2017, marks the two-year anniversary of the night I first saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens. As you can read in my review, I loved the movie and still do, so much that I wrote a story about it for my Creative Writing class this semester. So, I thought it would be cool to celebrate this occasion by sharing that story here on my blog.

I hope you enjoy! Also, I’ll be writing my review of The Last Jedi here quite soon, so keep your eyes open if that interests you!

~*~*~*~

“There Has Been an Awakening”

~*~*~*~

November 28th, 2014. The trailer was released. For days, it was all anyone could talk about.

Anyone who wasn’t me, that is.

I had already made a solemn vow to myself that I would avoid it all. Trailers, news articles, YouTube videos, clothing and toys—anything that gave even the slightest hint at what was to come. It all had to go. I was going dark.

Whenever I tried to explain this to people, they stared. Or laughed. Or simply looked exasperated as they said: “Oh, come on! It looks sooooooooo good!”

I was adamant. I explained to them that this meant a lot to me. For many, it was simply a great series of movies. But for me, and countless others, it meant so much more than that.

“I don’t want to know anything,” I told them. “This movie is really important to me. I want to be surprised. I don’t want any part of it to be spoiled . . . nothing. Not even what the new characters look like! I want it all to be completely new and fresh when I finally see it on opening day.”

It didn’t matter to me that people still sometimes thought I was nuts. All that mattered was that, in just over a year’s time, the Force would awaken once again.

~*~*~*~

Star Wars. Two small words. So simple, yet so powerful.

I could still recall the feeling I had at the age of five, when my family gathered in the basement in front of our old tube TV to watch a movie together. My dad inserted the VHS tape of Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope into the VCR. The lights went off, and my siblings and I joined my parents on the sofa’s pull-out mattress. I stared at the screen in anticipation, not knowing what to expect, not knowing that I was about to experience something sublime.

As soon as the movie was over, I had to let my feelings out somehow. All I could think to do was scream “that was so cool!” at the top of my lungs and run around the house making “pew pew!” laser sounds and pretending to swing a lightsaber, also with accompanying sound effects.

That one night of my childhood changed my life. It was more than just a movie; it was the gateway to my own powers of imagination. It was because of Star Wars that I began making up my own stories in my head. It was Star Wars that opened my eyes to the magic of movies and the power of a good story. Later in life, it was Star Wars that made me fall in love with film scores—and, subsequently, what made me fall in love with music and playing the piano.

Countless hours of my childhood were devoted to Star Wars. I pieced together LEGO kits of ships and scenes. I played video games starring LEGO versions of the characters and events. I pored over books detailing the galaxy far, far way, absorbing gobs of information that the majority of moviegoers didn’t care about.

I cared.

It was more than a movie. It was a universe that inspired me time and time again in so many ways, from the big picture of the story down to the smallest details: the parts of a lightsaber, the names of the planets that weren’t even seen in the films, all the different alien species, the cross-sections of the ships—you name it, I wanted to read about it.

Despite all this, my enthusiasm for Star Wars faded into the background as I entered high school. I still loved it, of course, but there had not been a new film for years. George Lucas had finished telling the story he wanted to tell, and I’d long since accepted that I would most likely never see any more Star Wars films than the six I already knew. The story was finished.

Right?

~*~*~*~

In 2012, I was a senior in high school, and my world was rocked by the news that George Lucas had sold his film company, Lucasfilm, to Disney. That included Star Wars. And Disney confirmed that new films were on the way, the first of which being the yet-to-be-titled Episode VII, due out in 2015.

I was ecstatic. The story that had inspired me so much, the story I thought was over, was continuing. As excited as I was, I tried to put it in the back of my mind. 2015 was a long way away, after all. However, I allowed myself to be giddy whenever a nugget of news came out about the movie over the next several months.

“J. J. Abrams has been confirmed as the director of Episode VII.” Awesome!

“John Williams will return to compose the score.” Fantastic!

“Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher will reprise their roles of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Princess Leia.” Woohoo!

“The official title of Episode VII has been revealed: The Force Awakens.” Wow!

I was perfectly happy to enjoy this kind of news. But on November 28th, 2014, just over a year before the release of the new film, it was time to go dark.

~*~*~*~

I stuck to my guns. Three trailers in total were released over time. I didn’t watch a single one.

Oh, I couldn’t avoid everything. Otherwise, I would have had to disconnect from the Internet entirely, and probably never leave the house either. Neither was an option. So, I did come across a few things.

Within a day of the first trailer’s release, my Facebook feed blew up with pictures of the new villain and his untraditional lightsaber design.

Months later, after the second trailer dropped, I caught a glimpse of some promotional art next to the new merchandise while out shopping. It depicted a young man and woman. The man had dark skin, short black hair, and was wearing a tan leather jacket. The woman had fair skin, dark brown hair tied into three buns at the back of her head, and wielded a staff of some kind. I assumed these must be the two new main characters and lamented the fact that I’d seen them. At the same time, I couldn’t help but wonder who they were and what their stories would be.

With just one image, Star Wars was beginning to inspire me all over again.

Two months before the film came out, the official poster was released. I caved to my desires and looked at it. Mesmerized, I stared at it for a while and tried not to wonder too much about how everything on the poster would play into the film. The main characters I’d already seen loomed large, the woman with her staff and the man now holding a familiar blue lightsaber. The masked villain with the untraditional red lightsaber cast a huge presence, while a mixture of familiar and new faces peppered the rest of the poster: a grizzled old smuggler, a princess turned general, a daring pilot, a trio of droids, and more.

Along with the new poster came the final trailer, and some people were expecting me to have given up by this point and watched it. They were wrong.

Some said I was (and still am) obsessive. “I don’t know why you make such a big deal out of this. It’s just a movie. Just watch the trailer, man, it looks awesome!”

But I refused. The time was almost here, and all I wanted to know when I finally walked into the theater was one thing and one thing only:

I am about to see a brand-new Star Wars movie.

The rest would follow.

~*~*~*~

And follow it did. After years of waiting, of hoping . . . it was finally time. It was finally December 18th, 2015, a date I had obsessively been counting down to for months. I shivered along with my younger brother, my three younger sisters, and one of my two older sisters as we braved the biting, chilly wind to enter the theatre. I took in the familiar smell of popcorn and the sight of the purple carpeting as we approached the left hallway in which, I guessed, the line had already begun to form.

We had secured our tickets two months before. But I wanted to get the best seats possible. So, being the nut that I am, I had suggested that we get to the theater an hour and a half early, hoping we would be one of the first in line.

The plan worked. As we turned into the hallway, we saw that there were just four or five people already there. As my siblings and I got in line behind them, I grinned from ear to ear. Shortly afterward, three of my friends arrived and joined us: Abby (fellow nerd), Stephen (my best friend since before high school), and Eli (who had dressed up as director J.J. Abrams for the occasion, his hair spiked up and large thick glasses framing his face).

Everyone was here and accounted for. Now all we had to do was keep doing what we’d been doing for years.

Wait.

I didn’t mind too much for a while. I talked and laughed with everyone who had come with me, but all the while, anticipation grew to bursting point in my chest. As the minutes snailed by, a real crowd formed, and the enthusiasm in the air was tangible. Around 7 o’clock, I hopped up and down a little on the balls of my feet. Showtime was at 7:30. Any minute now and they’d open the auditorium doors.

I gasped as I watched the theater workers do just that.

Now it really, truly was time.

My companions moved with me amid a buzz of excitement. As we walked through the doors into the dim theater, I literally shook with nerves.

“Oh my gosh,” I said. “Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh—”

“Are you excited, Matthew?” Eli asked, grinning.

“It’s happening,” I told him, my eyes wide. “It’s happening. This is real. This is really happening.”

I could hardly say anything else as we all found near-perfect seats around the middle of the auditorium. Not too far back, not too close, and not too far off-center.

The ads were a blur. The first couple of trailers passed without much thought on my part.

And then, I made a decision that almost ruined everything.

I didn’t really have to go at the moment. But I wasn’t taking any chances. I hated having to leave the theater to pee, and there was absolutely no way I was going to leave the theater during this movie. Not wanting to take that risk, I got up and left to use the restroom, thinking I still had plenty of time before the movie actually started. There would be at least another five trailers or so.

As I speed-walked back into the auditorium, though, the lights were dimming down.

I panicked.

As quickly and quietly as I could, I scrambled back to my seat. My companions looked relieved. They had clearly been panicking too, knowing how much I would hate missing even one second of the movie.

And just as I sat back down in my seat, it began. The word “Lucasfilm” slowly faded in and out on the screen in silence, and a hush fell over the crowd around me.

I held my breath as the next few words appeared.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. . . .

I covered my mouth with my hands. I didn’t blink. I didn’t breathe.

And then, the orchestra blasted out of the speakers as the huge yellow words zoomed into the infinite field of stars.

STAR WARS

I smiled. I clapped and cheered along with everyone else. The joy was tangible. My smile only got bigger as more words scrolled slowly up the screen.

EPISODE VII

THE FORCE AWAKENS

Luke Skywalker has vanished. In his absence, the sinister FIRST ORDER has risen from the ashes of the Empire and will not rest until Skywalker, the last Jedi, has been destroyed.

With the support of the REPUBLIC, General Leia Organa leads a brave RESISTANCE. She is desperate to find her brother Luke and gain his help in restoring peace and justice to the galaxy.

Leia has sent her most daring pilot on a secret mission to Jakku, where an old ally has discovered a clue to Luke’s whereabouts. . . .

For the next two-odd hours, I could hardly stop smiling. Just about everything was pitch-perfect.

I loved the two new main characters. Rey was strong, endearing, hopeful and vulnerable; Finn was brave, funny, and wore a big bounding heart on his sleeve.

I loved the new villain, Kylo Ren, a young man struggling with standing in the shadow of Darth Vader—his idol—and who lashed out unexpectedly with fierce venom.

I loved the new daring pilot, Poe Dameron, who was equally at home with wisecracks as he was with swashbuckling acts of heroism.

I loved the droids both familiar and new. I loved seeing Han, Leia, and Luke again. I loved the story, which felt familiar but with plenty of brand-new touches and twists. I loved the filmmaking skills on display: cinematography, lighting, editing, sound design, music.

And a couple of times, I was so awed by something that happened that I wanted with all my heart to leap out of my seat and scream for joy.

In other words, Star Wars was back.

For many people, Star Wars: The Force Awakens was just a movie. A good one, absolutely, but just a movie. For me, it was a rekindling of my childhood, my imaginative spirit, my love of great stories.

When I walked into the theater, I was a twenty-year-old college sophomore. For the entirety of the movie, though, I was once again a starry-eyed five-year-old sitting on a pull-out mattress in the basement watching an old movie on VHS with his family.

The Force had awakened, and it was with me once again.

‘Nother Schedule Change

Hey, all! This is just a quick announcement about a change coming to my blog, effective immediately.

I will no longer be posting every two weeks.

Originally, I posted every week. Then, after it kind of became a chore, I decided to post every two weeks instead. Now, admittedly, it’s become a chore again, plus I’ve got school starting up in less than a week. So I’ve decided that I won’t stick to a strict schedule with my blog. From now on, I’ll do a post when, and only when, I feel inspired enough to do so.

I enjoy writing, but I don’t necessarily enjoy it all the time. Also, I feel that if I only write when I really, truly want to, it’ll result in better-quality posts altogether.

Hope this is cool with y’all! See you next post, whenever it may be!

Thoughts on Zelda: Breath of the Wild at E3 2016

A little while ago, in anticipation for Nintendo’s presentation at E3 this year, I wrote a post detailing what I was hoping for in regards to the new Zelda game, which was going to be the main showcase at said presentation. Now, since E3 has come to pass and I’ve learned a ton about the new game, I thought I’d run through the list I wrote and talk about whether my hopes were met or not.

So let’s jump right into it!

When the live stream of Nintendo’s presentation took place, I wasn’t at home, so I just watched the footage later in the day when it was uploaded to YouTube. The first thing I watched was the official trailer:

And you can probably guess that my reaction was an embarrassing combination of big stupid grins and weird squealing noises. It was so much to take in! Voice acting! The gorgeous aesthetic! The glorious music! Link in a suit of silver armor! The wide, open landscapes just waiting to be explored! The new mechanics like cooking and the Sheikah Slate! And so on and so forth and what have you!

Watching the gameplay footage afterward was possibly even more exciting. I was positively floored by everything I saw, and according to Nintendo, they only showed about one percent of the whole game at E3. ONE PERCENT! I fully expect that this game is going to take me months to finish, and I’m sure I’m going to be fully invested every step of the way.

To elaborate, here are the bullet points of what I was hoping for and details on whether I got it:

“A title. I’m really, really sick of calling it “Zelda Wii U.” I’d like to know the final title, whatever it may be. I enjoy my Wii U and my games for it, but let’s face it: “Wii U” is pretty much the dumbest console name ever.”

Thank goodness! No more “Zelda Wii U!” The newest game in the franchise is officially titled The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. To be honest, my first thought about the title was something like: “. . . Really? That’s it? That’s the title for the new Zelda game? Breath of the Wild? What the heck does that even mean?”

As I examined the trailer more and watched the gameplay footage, though, the title grew on me pretty quickly. The game seems largely centered around the idea of exploring the wilderness of Hyrule. You fight for survival, you hunt and cook, you gather weapons and other useful items for yourself, and you have much more free reign on where you can go and when than in previous Zelda games. That’s incredibly exciting to me, and I think the title fits it perfectly!

“A full trailer. I want to see the characters. I want to get an idea of the story. I want to see many, many more examples of what is going to make this game awesome and what is going to make it stand out in the Zelda series.”

Well, I definitely got a full trailer! I didn’t get exactly what I was hoping for here, though. You don’t really see any characters besides Link, and you just hear the voice of another, unknown character. As for the story, there are only vague hints about what it could be, particularly with that evil purple cloud thing at around the two-minute mark and the multi-legged guardian thingamawhatsits.

On the other hand, I did get many examples of what’s going to make this game awesome and how it’ll stand out! Everything from the hunting and gathering mechanics to little details like using different clothes for different weather environments to exploring the futuristic-looking shrines and giving your Sheikah Slate new abilities — it’s all so compelling even just to watch! Actually playing it, though? Man . . . I can hardly wait to experience that!

“Lots and lots of quality gameplay footage. I want to see this game in action. I don’t want to see TOO much for fear of spoilers, but I want to get a good idea of what it will feel like to play this game.”

Oh, yes. Heck yes. There were several videos — quite lengthy, too — that showcased the game in action, and I gobbled most of them up. To avoid spoilers, I didn’t watch one particular video in which the player journeyed outside the starting area. But my gosh, just watching all that gameplay in the first area of the game fascinated me. I can see myself spending hours and hours just exploring and messing around with the environment in various ways, let alone actually spending time trying to figure out how to progress the story!

“A music sampling. This will hopefully come with the trailer, but I’d like to hear some of the music from the new game! The Zelda series is well-known for its excellent music, and I can’t wait to get an earful of yet another amazing soundtrack.”

Do I really need to elaborate on this one? The music in the trailer is fantastic. No idea if it’ll be like that in the game, since the music in the gameplay footage is pretty quiet and piano-based, but who knows?

“Reassurance. This is basically a summary of all of the above. After hopefully getting to see and hear all of this, I want to be reassured that the wait will, indeed, be worth it.”

The short answer: yes. I’ve been reassured. The wait will be more than worth it.

The long answer:

This game looks freaking incredible. Everything about it is utterly captivating. The visuals are stunning. The gameplay looks fun and fluid, and it appears to be keeping a great balance of familiar and innovative. It sounds great, both the soft piano music and the myriad of nature sounds.

But besides all of that, what makes me the most excited is this. I’ve seen just one percent of the whole game, and I’m already astounded by what I’ve seen. How many more amazing surprises will this game hold? We’ve only seen a small portion of the enormous game map. We haven’t seen any towns. We haven’t even had the tiniest glimpse of a dungeon!

Clearly, Nintendo is putting their time to good use with this game. It may have been frustrating having to deal with two delays, but after what I’ve seen, I’m completely willing to let that frustration slide. 2017 is quite a ways off still, but when Breath of the Wild is finally released, I’m sure we’re going to find that the wait was worth every second.

I’m pumped. This game is going to knock my socks off. I’m sure of it.

I hope you’re as excited as I am! What are you most looking forward to about the game? Let me know in the comments!

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NEXT TIME ON “OH, THE HUMANITY!”: I talk about Harry Potter and how it has inspired me and helped shape me into who I am today. Stay tuned!