Summer Movie Reviews Pt. 2

Remember how I said I watched all of the movies this summer? I wasn't lying. Welcome to part 2 of my summer movie reviews! Today I'm reviewing Jurassic World, Minions, and Ant Man. :)

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Jurassic World –

Absolutely not my first choice ever, the kids I was watching that fateful day wanted to go see it. Having never seen more than a little of the original Jurassic Park, I was a little bit worried. Scary movies are soooo not my thing. And reptiles? Lord, help me. :) But I took the 10 and 12-year-olds like the good sport I am, because the alternative would have been to sit at their house and do nothing. Seriously, would anybody actually choose nothing over something? So, we went and we got our 3D glasses and our candy and we sat mesmerized for the next 2 hours.

So let's back up a minute…

Chris Pratt is amazing! I have not seen him in any movies recently that I haven't liked. Then, let's just pair him up with director Steven Spielberg; what have you got? A blockbuster, obviously! If you add Jake Johnson, from New Girl, you have a movie that I can't help but like. :)

Set 22 years post-Jurassic Park, brothers Zach and Gray Mitchell are sent to Jurassic World to explore and enjoy as well as get to know their well-meaning aunt and Jurassic World's operations manager, Claire Dearing. Unsurprisingly, Claire is far too busy working on and preparing for the opening of a new exhibit at the park where a new genetically modified (whatever that means) dinosaur will be unveiled and doesn't have time to spend with her nephews, so she sends a babysitter. The boys, as it turns out, are uninterested in having a babysitter and somehow manage to sneak away (read: run away) while she is distracted on her phone. (Thankfully the kids I was watching didn't get any crazy ideas!) Afer sneaking away, while on a ride, they decide, stupidly, to ignore the demands of the park overseers to return to base for safety concerns. (Why the ride doesn't automatically return I have no idea! Clearly this park's overseers have more faith in humanity than Disney's do!) At about this time, Claire, who has taken her co-worker Owen (Chris Pratt) to see the new dinosaur have discovered this dinosaur to be missing. How did he escape from his cage? they wonder. Could he have climbed the 40-foot wall and escaped? Rather than making intelligent decisions about it, Owen and friends decide to enter the cage and see what's up. (Because when you are in Jurassic movies, that's what you do, right?) As they look over what seem to be wall tracks, the dinosaur makes his appearance escaping the cage and giving everyone (dinosaurs and humans alike) a run for their money. Can the staff of Jurassic World capture the dinosaur before he kills hundreds if not thousands of people and dinosaurs? Will children Zach and Grey make it back home to their loving parents?

Grossing $208,807,270 during it's opening weekend at the Box Office, Jurassic World set a record for the biggest June opening ever, the largest ever opening weekend, and had an IMAX opening record of $20.6 million. Viewers of the movie were split evenly between men and women, those over and under age 25 (source). Clearly this was a movie for everyone.

As for me and my skepticism at viewing the dynamic between human and dinosaurs? I loved it! The opening scenes were absolutely beautiful and well-filmed, the characters and plotline were mostly believable, and there was a bit of humor in there too which was nice. The dinosaurs weren't as scary-seeming as I had previously only imagined they would be, and then there was that line about Christ Pratt being a "badass" which, for the record, he totally was. This is one movie I am not only glad that I had the chance to see, but that I very much enjoyed seeing in 3D. Yes, this is definitely a film I recommend seeing. :)

Minions –

I'll admit that I begged Justin to take me to see this on opening weekend. Thank goodness we had far too much to do as this movie would have led to disappointment and heartbreak.

This movie is the prequel to Despicable Me. For as long as the minions can remember they have strived to work for the very best villain imaginable, but keeping their masters alive is harder than you would think. Slowly over time, one by one, the masters die off and these yellow little freaks have to find new ways to spend their time. Rather than become depressed, Kevin, a minion, decides to go off on an adventure doing whatever is necessary to bring happiness to his tribe, which mainly includes finding a villain to serve. Luckily, when he, Stuart, and Bob arrive off the coast of New York City in the 1960s, they manage to find a family to travel down to Florida with as they head to Villaincon were all of the world's best villains are going. Once arriving, Kevin, Bob, and Stuart land a job with the world's best villain and fly off to London in search of Queen Elizabeth's crown, which they must obtain for Scarlet Overkill. Will they be successful? Will they land a new career working for one of the world's best villains? Or will she "huff and puff and blow their world to smithereens"? Only one way to tell… :)

While the commercials for this movie basically giving away the whole story, I was amused enough to see the movie. How would Disney pull off this prequel? Sadly, as it turns out.The minions are cute enough, but cuteness isn't enough to lead a movie. And Scarlet Overkill? Seriously? I'm sorry, but the combination of the script and Sandra Bullock's acting just didn't work for me. Scarlet Overkill seemed less of a villain than the little girls in Despicable Me. And what does her character tell young girls about positions of power? All I took from it is that women can't hold positions of power without having a husband behind them. No thanks, Disney. Try again.

In essence, take your kids to see Minions if you have to. Laugh a little. Just don't expect too much. It's not that good.

Ant Man

When Justin and I originally saw this trailer in theatres, I'm pretty sure I leaned over and said "I'm not going to see that movie when it comes out." Well, guess what? I did. You see I do something called mystery shopping, and it just so happens that the same week I was going to mystery shop the theatre was the week of the Ant Man opening. Go figure, right? But I took it in stride. Marvel makes some pretty amazing movies, and I had high hopes for Ant Man. Even if the movie was about disgusting little insects, I had high hopes that at least the superhero aspect would be fun. How could it not be?

So here's the story:

Man gets out of prison. His ex-wife is now married to a police officer and neither ex-wife nor police officer husband will let ex-prisoner see his daughter until he gets a job and has a stable living condition. Political issues aside (as blatant as they may be), ex-prisoner (from this point forth known as Scott) can't get a job. Unfortunately because he lacks a job, he also lacks a stable life. Even Baskin-Robbins won't keep him on. Enter friend. Luis (AKA friend) gets a lead on a break-and-enter job. All Scott has to do is enter wealthy man Hank Pym's home and steal whatever is in his vault. Thinking of his daughter and how much he wants to see her, he agrees. Perhaps this job will get him the extra financing he needs to afford that stable life he desires. On the day of the heist, Scott discovers there is absolutely nothing in the vault except for a stupid looking costume. He takes it anyway thinking this job was all-for-nothing. Back at the apartment, he tries the costume on, shrinking to the size of an ant, running and escaping the treacherous aspects of a normal life that an ant leads. (Ever feared going down a shower drain?) When he finally manages to get back to a normal size, his first instinct is to return the scary costume – only Hank Pym's daughter is watching and she has other plans. She calls the police on him and sends him back to jail. At this point, Hank Pym meets with Scott as his lawyer and suggests that an opportunity will come along that will help him get out of jail. If Scott accepts this opportunity, he must become the Ant Man. Without knowing what all is involved, Scott escapes jail in the ant suit and slowly learns what all is involved with being a superhero. He has a daughter to see and a future to save, and this ant suit is just the beginning…

The box office numbers for this film weren't too impressive; Justin and I got to see and experience that since we went on Sunday evening of the opening weekend where we were in a theatre of about 12 people. While some of that could be chalked up to a "work night", I still thought the number was really low given how many kids and teens are out on break for summer. The movie itself wasn't bad. Justin took issue with some of the politics and science in the film, but nothing really bothered me too much. I was surprised to see Michael Douglas performing the role of the rich Hank Pym and thought he did very well alongside Paul Rudd as Scott Lang. Overall it was a good movie that had it's ups and downs. I'm not sure it's necessary to pay for 3D experience aside from the very cool miniature effects you get a la Honey I Shrunk the Kids. However, it is nice that this film is rated PG-13, so finally you can take your kids to see an action movie without worrying! And that little girl in the film? Adorable!

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Anyway, that's my take on this summer's hottest new flicks (that I've seen). Have you been to see any of these movies yet? Would you go? Share in the comments and let me know!