Summer blockbusters

Summer is drawing to a close meaning the end of another summer blockbuster movie season.  And one of the biggest movies of the summer was Jurassic World, a sequel to Jurassic Park.  Jurassic World was not directed by Steven Spielberg, but it was produced by him.  Thanks to my beloved AFI, I saw 3 Spielberg adjacent movies: Jaws, Jurassic Park, and Jurassic World; and these 3 movies are roughly 20 years apart in release.  While I watched these movies this summer, I could definitely see the evolution of the summer blockbuster.  Jaws was one of the earliest movies that is considered a summer blockbuster.  Due to technology based issues, that movie is heavily character and plot driven with slow building tension.  There are still some typical action heavy scenes but it is definitely more about the substance over style and flash.  Jurassic Park was a very technology heavy summer film with an interesting of computer generated effects and practical effects, specifically all those motorized dinos.  While Jurassic Park is effects heavy, there is still a lot plot and character building involved in the movie (I was legitimately sad when Muldoon died) .  I feel like Jurassic Park is when it starts to turn a relay more on the effects and less so on the story.  Because that was extremely true when thinking about Jurassic World.  I enjoyed my time at the movie because some of the action set-pieces were quite good, there was not enough character development to make me care about anyone in the movie (I had a like bit of interest in a couple of characters but that was more due to the actors not anything about the character).  The effects in Jurassic World are all computer generated and the thrust of the movies is all about spectacle.  Which is totally fine for a summer movie but it doesn't really stick with you or really make repeated viewing interesting.

Also a side note, it was kind of a bummer that female protagonist in Jurassic World was such a bummer.  I found that Ellie in Jurassic Park was really interesting and she had a lot of agency in the film because she was smart, humorous, and brave.  The woman in Jurassic World (it is telling that I can't even remember her name) was kind of uptight and boring for a majority of the movie (until the end when she runs in high heels)