Jedi Master you are Not

If you didn't know already, trailers have been released for both Star Wars VII and Jurassic World recently. Both reboots in a sense; Jurassic Park originally hit theaters in 1993 and Star Wars: A New Hope hit us way back in golden '77. Both movies were groundbreaking for their time and can arguably both be labeled as classics that are standing the test of time.

Any who, I'm not going into how cool each one looks. Neither one gives up too much info and just basically excites you (exactly what teasers are supposed to do). We now know that Star Wars will have the Millennium Falcon and Jurassic World will have raptors and other dangerous dinosaurs. No surprise on either of those fronts (hopefully). And I'm not going to dissect the trailers either; there's plenty of other bloggers and vloggers out there to see, and truthfully I don't know enough in-depth Jurassic or Star Wars history and lore to thoughtfully produce an end product that the many fans would be satisfied with. I have seen all films many times; yes even Attack of the Clones and Jurassic Park 3. Many times. There's the lead up; now my piece.
What's the deal people? Can't we each talk about why we like each film? Even though the trailers were released at pretty much the same time, Jurassic World comes out almost 6 months before the war of stars. They're not competing, and this ain't politics. Are we not decent enough people that we can say what we're looking forward to in a film and not what we're NOT looking forward to? When did we all become so negative and pessimistic?
I was going through my regular routine this morning; hit snooze a few times, snuggle, itch my balls, wash my hands, put on disheveled clothes, drink a glass of water, wrap up for the weather, and head out to my trusty 1997 Subie. I cycle through 3 different radio stations currently; I just want to listen to music of some kind so I prefer stations with limited talking and/or commercials. This morning I was on The Current, a public radio station with essentially no commercials but they do have somewhat of a morning show. About to switch to Jack FM or Kool 108 and I hear that they're talking about movies. I like movies. So I decided to listen in for a bit as they were chatting about the 2 aforementioned trailers. Being the classics that they are it was no surprise that they were excited about the new Star Wars trailer. Everyone should be; even the shitty Star Wars movies are still fun (even if George Lucas went crazy with the CGI in the last few films (which are chronologically the first 3 films!)). They are excited about the returning cast and wondering what the tid bits of film in the trailer mean and how it will delight and enchant them. Jurassic World, not so much. Don't know if these 2 weren't fans of the franchise to begin with (one of them is a film critic), but needless to say they were not as impressed with the dino trailer. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but when they start going off on how this new film has the exact same premise and story as the first, I got a little miffed. Does the trailer show dinosaurs in a park? Yes. Do people appear to be killed by said dinosaurs? Yes. They have then drawn the conclusion that it is the same story from those few minutes of footage and through some type of osmosis. Like they have some deep connection with the world and possibly the universe; Midi-chlorians perhaps? Sorry, but Jedi Master you are not. In fact the very conclusions they draw about the plot are quite off base; how do I know? Because I am, in fact, a Jedi.

Okay, fine, I'm not. Nor do I have ESPN or other mind powers. It turns the plot has already been revealed on a number of websites quite some time ago; I found it (with much difficulty) on a little known website. Wikipedia. Check it out; turns out they have all kinds of info there. You can view lots of info on Jurassic World for yourself through a portal on the internet by clicking here. Okay, enough with the sarcasm. A regular ol' DJ I can forgive, but a film critic who had planned on talking about these 2 trailers and didn't even bother to gather the most basic of information about the 2 flicks? Perhaps they should rethink their line of work. I truthfully had not thought much about the trailer until I heard these ridiculously off base comments, so for that I thank you. For those that missed the segment this morning, the peoples on the other end of the wire concluded that since the film shows dinosaurs and a park it is therefore the same as the original Jurassic Park which included dinosaurs and a park. It turns out that in Jurassic World the park has been running successfully for quite some time without any mishaps; in the original it hadn't even opened. Strike one. They then make the claim that Chris Pratt is a fun loving non serious actor with the likes of Parks and Rec and Guardians of the Galaxy under his belt (Guardians available on video Dec 9th). True, but are we really pigeon holing a young actor into only comedy roles? Don't get me wrong, I love his character in both roles as Starlord and Andy Dwyer, but are we overseeing his roles in Zero Dark Thirty or Moneyball? Or any future drama roles for that matter? Its not like Jim Carrey or Adam Sandler ever did anything outside of comedy (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Reign Over Me pop to mind). Strike 2. In this instance they don't actually get 3 strikes because they didn't say much else that I listened to. Lets change this sports reference from baseball to softball this one time; ergo you're out. It also makes me wonder that perhaps these blatant connections are on purpose. The general public is generally misinformed, and those that go to action flicks are not always looking for a deeper understanding or a view into the metaphysical. The truth is that other than a park and dinosaurs, there is no connection to the other films. New cast and characters, new company (in the film that is), and a genetically manipulated dinosaur. Apparently regular dinosaurs weren't dangerous and exotic enough. If this is all so easy to see, then what are they actually hiding? We've got some time to find out.
Jurassic World opens June 12, 2015
Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens opens Dec 18th, 2015