Jurassic World: Blockbuster Edition

Jurassic World is the best sequel in the JPark franchise, but there's a pretty big drop off between the first film and any of the others. The biggest problem with the sequels, including Jurassic World, is that neither of them expand on the subtext of the original. While technically the original did devolve into monster movie tropes in the third act, the rest of film brilliantly captures the excitement of seeing dinosaurs for the first time and lets the audience experience how that can blind one to the perils of playing God.

Jurassic World offers no such depth. It leans very heavily into the Monster Movie genre, even going so far as to make the central problem a unique, genetically created Super T-Rex - which subsequently distances the audience from the dinosaur experience altogether. Obfuscating what subtext could be found are multiple sub-plots that have seem to have no relevance outside of themselves.

Faneditor Ironman23 has set out to elevate the marred but successful installment, Jurassic World, to better resemble its flagship predecessor. He has done so by removing the divorce sub-polt of the kid's parents, the military coup sub-plot as well as many of the self-referential/comical asides, primarily in the control room. It totality, the edit does shape the film into something more digestible which, indeed, makes it closer to the original. However, there simply isn't enough philosophical gravitas to make the film more than the monster movie it was set out to be. What little discussion there is about the dangers of creating new and dangerous dinosaurs is undermined by the characters, who often act in complete contradiction to themselves. (I still think the original helicopter scene should be removed only because it introduces the owner of the park to be philanthropist, only to have him turn into the film's cut-throat capitalist when the I-Rex escapes). Moreover, Ironman23 has attempted to color correct the film to better resemble the palette of the '94 blockbuster. This process ended up being a huge distraction, especially in the night-time scenes which dominate the last third of the movie.

This is a solid first installment for the faneditor. While I do think there is a better version of Jurassic World waiting to be fan edited, Ironman23 has gone a long way into demonstrating how it could be done. To this end, this is recommended.

Audio/Video Quality - This is a big file 7gig+ file. The audio sounds full and the video looks clean.

Visual Editing - There is one blink-and-you'll-miss-it flash frame about 15 minutes it. But the biggest problem is the color correction which is distracting in the night time sequences in the last third of the movie. There are no other terribly obvious cuts that seem out of place.

Audio Editing - The only thing that jumped out to me was a musical cue on the shot of the fallen Brontosauruses (sp?). It appears to be hiding the dialog, "She's hunting for sport" which is removed. This could be better addressed. Other than that, I didn't notice anything out of place.

Narrative - Much more streamlined over the original which is a positive. There are still character motivational inconsistencies which, I believe, there is still room to improve upon.

Enjoyment - This is a solid edit with some nice surprises as to how well it works in carving out nearly 30 minutes from the original.