Yes, if only this one could have had characters with the depth of Newman, or an archeologist main character that likes dinosaurs, doesn't like kids, but gets stuck with a pair. Or a generic investor that is excited about how much $$$ they could make and is practically wearing a Star Trek red shirt from the moment he's on screen.

Took my son to see it. His first words were Awesome! He was already into dinosaurs and now he's hooked.

I enjoyed it. There was some clapping in our theater at the end. I actually thought the raptor scenes were better than I had anticipated based on the trailers. All the little easter eggs from the original were awesome.

Most of us have acknowledged it's a popcorn movie. Popcorn movies do not develop deep characters. But they do offer suspense, action, humor, and fun, all of which I thought this movie had plenty of. And most seem to agree with me. None of us are looking for this movie to get any awards, but it did offer a fun afternoon for my daughter and I to enjoy.

I also think the question about what you thought of the first JP is entirely fair.

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I don't understand why the term "Jurassic Park movie" is being thrown around like it is. This movie was fine, but not on the same level as the original.

This was a popcorn flick, but the original is a lot more than that.

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I think everyone acknowledges that JP and JW are very different movies. Even discounting JP 2 and 3, this is still just a sequel, so it's not going to break that ground all over again. It advances the original story and fits well in that world, but as a sequel, it's going to do some retread and just up the spectacle a bit.

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I don't understand why the term "Jurassic Park movie" is being thrown around like it is. This movie was fine, but not on the same level as the original.

This was a popcorn flick, but the original is a lot more than that.

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I think everyone acknowledges that JP and JW are very different movies. Even discounting JP 2 and 3, this is still just a sequel, so it's not going to break that ground all over again. It advances the original story and fits well in that world, but as a sequel, it's going to do some retread and just up the spectacle a bit.

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i think the reason this movie has kind of a weird feel around it is because a lot of us were expecting something on par with the original when the details started trickling out.

I feel like people are saying "what did you expect from a JP movie?" the way people said the same thing about Transformers movies, and that's letting this movie off the hook a little bit in my opinion.

The story is very predictable, but I liked the movie. I wouldn't consider seeing it twice, though.

Aren't all movies predictable after you've seen them once?

First movie my whole family has been to in some time. And we loved it. Entertainment.

Plot failures? Issues all around? Yep. But the special effects were awesome. We saw it in IMAX. It was just fun. Not long lasting remember that character forever. But fun.

And yes. The swag copter guy had a huge Sumlin vibe.

Thought it was pretty badass. You got to see dinosaurs kick ass and wreck sh*t and now there's an evil Asian guy who is gonna probably destroy the earth with his mutants.

Inb4 TLDR: summary is JW sucked, here's why I think so.

Admittedly, I have not seen the original in a long time; probably will do so shortly just to validate my feelings on this. I wouldn't say I'm a fanboy, but the first film changed my life in 93, and I did read the books in some formative years.

However, I think the Jurassic Park films jumped the shark and became distinctly "popcorn" films when Trex rampaged through San Diego in the Lost World. At that point, they started to go for simple entertainment, poorly written movies sprinkled with nyuks and special effects. Importantly, that's where the movies completely departed from the novels' source material as well.

The first film had the awe factor that will never be reproduced in a sequel. But because the special effects were combined CGI and conventional effects, they still hold up remarkably well and give the film a 'pass' I the top-much-CGI sniff test. JW, not so much.

The tone of JP was almost of a horror movie the way suspense built up (the water cup scene in Trex's approach); everything seemed plausible and characters were more interesting and you could care for them enough to not want the to die. Plus they actually did things that made sense i.e. Running like hell to shelter instead of standing out in the open (maybe kissing in a limp effort to force a love story subplot) watching dinos with inexplicable irreverence.

Death of characters is just treated with no respect in JW. The pterodactyls swooping down on hoards of people? Soldiers' heart monitors dropping offline left & right?

I could go on (lead lady running in heels the whole movie) with pointing out the idiotic choices in the movie that brought me down.

In summary, they're making tons of money on these movies so there will be no end to this drivel until, just like Bond and Batman, people decide they're tired of the mindless, contrived "popcorn" movie garbage they've seen a hundred times & they'll reboot the series with a more serious effort matching the original movie (and novels') tone & depth. When that happens, I'll go see another Jurassic Park movie. But not until then.

I still think a good film could be made by actually following the book's plot for the Lost World, as Spielberg & co hardly followed anything written in Chricton's excellent sequel.

So that's why I hated JW. Flame away.

one late night estimate i saw (based on some data received) put Saturday at 66.8 million.

pushing the total to 149.6 million and making $200 million opening weekend very likely (another 20% or so drop expected sunday which is normal).

That would put it 2nd all-time between Avengers (207) and Avengers 2 (191).

You know what the worst thing about this movie was?? The unrealistic clicker training Pratt did with the raptors. You only click once idiot! /sarcasm

Thought this was a fun movie for a summer afternoon. If you can't enjoy dino destruction then you are one frigid ice queen.

The biggest thing that bothered me was actually the score. I can't quite describe it but the music was a mix of silly, campy, and forced. They also tried to incorporate snippets form the original JP score but only seemed to include a couple of notes here an there. They never seemed to include an actual full phrase, particularly when the boys found the original welcome center. Trust it to a BQ to ***** about the music.

Also, the trailer for the dog movie Max was shown in my theater. Anyone hoping that Max will be remade in 20 years with a raptor in place of a Belgian Malinois?

$204 million! Just insane. They were predicting $100M just a few weeks ago.

Funny you mention the score because while I appreciate good music in movies, I rarely notice it, but in this movie, I noticed it and thought it was good.

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God I hated that movie. Very disappointing.

Regardless, did anyone else think the helicopter pilot/CEO looks a little like Summy?

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Hilarious, its all I could think about.

Universal is absolutely OWNING the box office this year. Wow.

Wow, I thought it would do ok but this has to be a surprise right?

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Wow, I thought it would do ok but this has to be a surprise right?

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HUGE surprise. Literally NO ONE saw it having the second biggest opening weekend of all time.

I don't know about everyone else, but it was the IMAX 3d that got me to see it, first and foremost (our town only recently got IMAX), and secondly, it was the idea of the genetically modified dinosaur. I would be one of the people that they wouldn't have normally expected to go, since I didn't ever see the 3rd one and I don't watch nearly as many movies as I used to now that I have kids. I wonder how common my sentiment is regarding that.

That's insane! Like I said earlier, I thought it was really cool to see the huge age difference in the theater we were in. There were kids and there were older adults too. I Havent been to a movie that had such huge contrasts of guests. Most kids love dinosaurs. There hasn't been a new Jurassic movie in what 14 years? I think I can see he anticipation of so many wanting to watch it just because it's dinosaurs but to be the 2nd largest opening? Just impressive. Are we sure there will be another one to follow this one, especially seeing how good it has done?

Makes sense. Kids love dinosaurs and we have a new generation of kids that didn't see the other movies on the big screen.

I should also say Pratt was a big reason I saw it. I really like him.

Understand that. Now that I have 2 kids we never go to the movies. As they get older obviously we will. I've never been a fan of 3D stuff, so we just saw it in regular 2d.

Agreed. I'm 28 and if my kids were old enough they would have gone with us to see it

Yep, crazy.

Now add a whole other generation to this and that's Star Wars. How is that gonna do opening weekend?

In all honesty, after seeing these numbers... Star Wars does $250+ opening weekend domestic. $550+ world wide. I'm not even kidding. It's going to be unlike anything we've ever seen.