thoughts on Jurassic World

The park under construction in 1993's Jurassic Park is up and running!!! However, as park operations manager Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) explains, seeing a stegosaurus has become as ordinary to kids as seeing an elephant at the zoo; at Jurassic World, they have to keep upping the ante.  To that end, they have genetically engineered a dinosaur called Indominus Rex that is incredibly smart and incredibly violent.  As you might guess, this turns out to be a bad idea.  He runs amok as Claire's young nephews, Zach and Gray (Nick Robinson and Ty Simpkins), visit the park.  Raptor trainer Owen (Chris Pratt) helps get things under control.

The first Jurassic Park film was largely about the wonder the characters feel at getting to see dinosaurs up close and personal; they hear explanations about how the creation of dinosaurs was possible before things begin running amok.  In this film, it is already established that dinosaurs have been recreated and exist, so less explanation is necessary, which is good, because less Fake Science, more time seeing a variety of dinosaurs attack humans and fight each other.  The lesson if the movie is basically, "Don't underestimate your power over another living thing.  Just because you created it doesn't mean you can control it."

It's fun.  The dinosaurs look great, and there was one moment startling enough that I jumped in my seat.  I enjoyed it.

thoughts on Girls, Season Three (spoilers)

When we last left the gang at the end of Season Two, Hannah (Lena Dunham) struggled to finish her eBook as she tried to get by without medicating herself for OCD, which wasn't working out very well for her; Adam (Adam Driver) realized something was wrong and ran to her despite the fact that he was dating Natalia (Shiri Appleby); Marnie (Allison Williams) was back with Charlie (Christopher Abbott) and had determined, with Ray's (Alex Karpovsky's) help that she wanted to be a singer; Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet) had dumped Ray; and Jessa (Jemima Kirke) had disappeared.  As we start Season Three, Hannah and Adam are back together and living together; Marnie and Charlie have broken up, Marnie is living with her mother (Rita Wilson) and working at Ray's coffee shop with Hannah; Shoshanna is going through a crazy independent/sleeping around phase; and Jessa is in rehab.

I don't care for these little breaks between seasons.  I think it gives them an easy way to skip over showing or explaining the tough stuff (how did Hannah get her OCD under control?  Why did she and Adam decide to get back together?  Why did Charlie and Marnie split up?  Since when is Jessa a drug addict?) and go right to a more interesting time in the characters' lives.  Don't get me wrong; Season Two was a bleak time for these folks, and I'm glad it's over and most of them are up to new things.  And Marnie and Charlie's break-up, at least, is pretty self-explanatory; they got back together more because neither of them particularly liked being alone, not because they were really in love or wanted to be together, and it didn't work.  I just always find the little time jumps a little disorienting.

Quite a bit happens to Hannah and Marnie in Season Three.  It's becoming clearer and clearer that Jessa is just there to add some crazy spice to their group and Shoshanna is there for comic relief; neither of them are ever given much to do, and Jessa's storylines usually take place mainly apart from the group (her nanny storyline in Season One; her short-lived marriage to Thomas-John (Chris O'Dowd) in Season Two; her time in rehab and subsequent return to coke use in Season Three), leaving me to wonder why she's even on this show.  Meanwhile, Hannah's editor dies, after which she learns that the publishing company no longer plans to publish her eBook but still owns the rights for the next three years, meaning that she can't publish her essays elsewhere; she then gets what seems to me to be a super sweet job writing for the "advertorial" section of GQ but basically decides she's too good for it and gets herself fired; and then gets into the MFA program at the University of Iowa.  Adam gets his first part in a Broadway play, a revival of Major Barbara, which makes Hannah jealous, insecure, and generally pretty awful.  Marnie gets her own apartment, has a little fling with Ray, deals with the fall-out of an embarrassing music video she shot when she was with Charlie, gets a job at a small art gallery, and begins writing music with Desi (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), a musician and actor in Adam's play.

While I continue to enjoy this show and find the characters compelling, Hannah's self-centeredness gets really over the top in this season.  There is a moment when she calls her dad (Peter Scolari) to tell him that she's been offered a book deal, and he delivers the bad news that a lawyer relative has looked into the matter for them, and her original publishing company still owns the rights to her essays.  He also mentions twice during the call that he is at home recovering from a minor procedure.  We never find out what this procedure was, because Hannah jumps right over this news and back to herself.  There is another moment where the gang all goes to hear Marnie and Desi sing, expecting it to be awful; while Marnie has a very nice singing voice, their friend Elijah (Andrew Rannells) fairly accurately characterizes her performance style as, "Papa?  Why don't you love me, Papa?".  However, Desi does a great job getting her to relax and be more natural, and she does great.  Shoshanna turns to Hannah and very seriously asks her how she's going to deal with Adam having a part in a Broadway show and Marnie becoming a pop star.  Like, her other friends are genuinely concerned that she is too self-centered to be happy for her friends' success.  Hannah also gives Adam zero space as he prepares for his first Broadway play and actually tells him that she got into Iowa just moments before he goes onstage for the first time.  When he later asks her why she would do that (he felt it threw his performance off) she is mystified; she thought it was great news.  Sure, it is.  But it affects him and your relationship, so maybe acknowledge that and handle it sensitively instead of just being all, "Hey, I'm moving to Iowa!  See ya!," moments before one of the most important moments of his life.

Meanwhile, I feel like I "get" Marnie more after this season.  In my review of the second season, I stated that the only reason I could think of why she would sleep with Elijah is to spite Hannah.  I think I was mistaken about that.  I think that a big part of Marnie's impending singing career, as well as the people she's chosen to sleep with at times when she's not in a serious relationship (Elijah, Booth Jonathan, Ray) are more about a need for attention and affection than anything else.  She has a somewhat off-putting, uptight personality, so even though she's very pretty, she's not the type who is going to have a ton of success trying to pick up random guys in bars (and I don't think she'd want to do that, anyway).  Therefore, she seeks out this attention and affection from guys she already knows, even though they might be totally wrong for her, and even though sleeping with them might be hurtful to her friends. 

So...why is everyone so dismissive of Ray?  Shoshanna dumped him basically because she felt like he wasn't good enough for her.  Marnie, on one occasion, actually grabs his hand and pulls him down behind a car to avoid running into people they know when they're together.  Are his goals not lofty enough for them?  I like Ray.  He's one of the only people on the show that I can really say I think is a good person.

Aaaand that's all the seasons the public library had available, so it looks like I'm done for awhile.  I'll miss this crew, even though I have problems with them sometimes.

thoughts on Girls, Season Two (spoilers)

When we last left the characters at the end of Season One, Marnie (Allison Williams) had just moved out of Hannah's apartment for reasons that were only vaguely clear; Jessa (Jemima Kirke) had just married Thomas-John (Chris O'Dowd) completely out of nowhere; and Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet) had just lost her virginity to Ray (Alex Karpovsky).  Hannah (Lena Dunham) and Adam (Adam Driver) were finally a real couple, but he offered to move in, and she either didn't get that he meant it or just didn't want him to.  She asked her gay ex-boyfriend Elijah (Andrew Rannells) to move in instead.  This hurt Adam's feelings, and he proceeded to get hit by a truck during their argument about this. 

Season Two picks up roughly three weeks after Season One ends.  The only thing that really changes in those three weeks is that Hannah inexplicably decides she's totally done with Adam and begins dating Sandy (Donald Glover) for like five minutes, so the three-week jump initially seems like a convenient way for them to avoid explaining Hannah's change of heart about Adam.  I eventually came to feel like I understood their dynamic, though. I think she secretly liked that he kept her at a distance throughout most of Season One because she didn't think he would like what he saw if or when he got too close.  We find out late in the season that Hannah suffers from fairly severe OCD, which seems to be heightened in times of intense stress.  She states that she thought she was "done with it" after high school, but the symptoms/behaviors associated with it resurface after she gets her first book deal and is given a tight deadline.  Her parents pick up on what's going on and take her to a psychiatrist, who prescribes medication; though she later tells her dad during a phone conversation that she is taking the medication, it doesn't appear that she is doing so.  The season ends with her videochatting with Adam, him immediately realizing that something is wrong, and coming to her.  Meanwhile, Shoshanna dates, then eventually breaks up with, Ray; Jessa and Thomas-John get divorced, Jessa briefly moves in with Hannah, and then disappears; and Marnie gets "downsized" from her gallery job, takes a "pretty person job" as a hostess at an exclusive club, briefly dates an artist named Booth Jonathan (Jordan Taccone), then gets back together with her ex-boyfriend, Charlie (Christopher Abbott), who has become very successful seemingly overnight through creating an app.

I didn't like it as much as I liked Season One.  It took me awhile to figure out the timing of events, for one thing; six or seven episodes into the season, Ray comments that he and Shoshanna have been dating for four weeks, indicating that each episode takes place over the course of less than a week.  This surprised me, as it seems like *a lot* happens over the course of the season.  Hannah has a number of hook-ups between Sandy and getting back together with Adam, for one thing: a guy who lives in her building that she buys coke from; a hot doctor who happens into the coffee shop where she works; and Jessa's nineteen-year-old stepbrother.  Jessa's marriage must last maybe a month, which makes me feel like it only happened in the first place to give all of the characters a reason to get all dressed up and be at the same fancy event at the end of the first season. 

Beyond the timing issues, the characters are all just generally at a pretty crappy place in their lives.  Hannah has a chance at professional success, but it seems that her OCD will make it difficult for her to achieve it.  Marnie is clearly a very driven, intelligent person...who doesn't really know what she wants to do with her life.  Shoshanna and Jessa just really aren't given enough to do, with their storylines in this season mostly reduced to their ultimately short-lived romantic relationships.

Also, I don't get Hannah and Marnie's friendship at all.  I reiterate my point from Season One that I don't really get why any of these people would be friends, but in addition to not really having anything in common, Hannah and Marnie are just generally not particularly nice to each other.  For example, in an early episode, Marnie has sex with Hannah's ex-boyfriend Elijah.  Why?  It would be one thing if she liked Elijah or even if she was particularly attracted to Elijah, but-- she doesn't and she's not.  She seems to do it purely to spite Hannah.  Again, why are these people friends?  It's one thing that none of them have that much in common, but another that some of them don't even seem to particularly like each other.  My friends and I have a ton of fun together and generally like and trust each other.  It's one thing to have people in your group who you connect less with than others, or to have falling-outs and arguments based on misunderstandings or personality conflicts.  It's a totally different thing to be intentionally spiteful to people that you spend time with by choice.  I just don't get it.

There were still high points.  I continue to like most of the characters individually even if I don't get them as a group.  Hannah's "boyfriend of the week" period was fun, even though I would have bought it more if this was all taking place over the course of a few months rather than one.  I still find it compelling.  Hopefully Season Three will be better.   

thoughts on Aloha

Bradley Cooper stars as Brian Gilcrest, who used to be in the military but is now an independent contractor.  He is traveling to Hawaii to negotiate on behalf of billionaire industrialist Carson Welch (Bill Murray), who has financed and is planning to launch a satellite.  An Air Force officer named Allison Ng (Emma Stone) will be keeping an eye on Brian.  He also will be crossing paths with his ex-girlfriend, Tracy Woodside (Rachel McAdams), who is now married with two kids.

This article came out today explaining why the film flopped at the box office this past weekend, and this leaked e-mail from Sony's Amy Pascal sums it up as well as anything: “People don’t like people in movies who flirt with married people or married people who flirt...The satellite makes no sense...I’m never starting a movie again when the script is ridiculous. And we all know it.”  The thing is, there's a lot that's good here.  Most of the cast is good.  The Hawaiian backdrop has a lot of potential.  Writer/director Cameron Crowe simply needed to give Brian Gilcrest a simpler reason to be in Hawaii interacting with this cast of characters, or perhaps slightly different characters played by the same actors.  Although the satellite storyline ultimately leads to an exciting climax, I found the storyline pretty boring and difficult to follow throughout much of the film. 

The interpersonal storylines also don't carry a lot of tension.  Brian finds Allison annoying at first, but eventually develops feelings for her and comes to view her as a second chance or fresh start.  It's clear from pretty much the beginning that (spoiler alert, but really, it's pretty obvious) Tracy's oldest child is Brian's, but it honestly doesn't seem to matter that much; Brian doesn't seem particularly mad that Tracy never told him he had a daughter, and Tracy's husband, Woody (John Krasinski), seems to have been a fine father to her all this time.  I always find Bradley Cooper a little hard to root for, and as Brian, he just doesn't seem to care enough about any of this.

That said, it's not like I had a horrible time.  The film is moderately pleasant.  It's just that for all that seems to be at stake here, it's less exciting and feels less important than it should.