Friday, February 18, 2011

Fantasy Film Friday #1

I was thinking of something I could get people to have a discussion about on this blog.  I think I thought of something fun, but I want to see how it goes.  Every Friday I will propose a question about a movie that may be made.  Or even a movie that should be made.  No it doesn't have to be within the fantasy realm.  I just want to have a discussion about why or why not a movie I propose should be made.  We will dedicate a different post for each side: one for why it should, one for why it shouldn't.  I would really like the why it should to be what would make it successful.  For instance, this weeks movie will be Jurassic Park 4.  There are many reasons why it shouldn't be made, but I am interested know what would need to happen to make it good.  Click the jump to see my thoughts and then comment for yourselves.  Then watch for the con side later!!


There have been rumblings about a fifth instalment to this movie for awhile.  There was a version set to film with director Joe Johnson and to be released in 2009.  That didn't happen.  There have been rumors it is still in the cooker and it may still happen.  What do I think needs to happen for this movie to be successful?

Well to start, you need to bring back the wonder of it all.  The first movie, and even to some extent the second one, had a sense of something big and new.  It used a brand new level of CGI, the idea of cloning was still sort of fresh, there was a sense of adventure.  The third movie tried hard to capture that, but there are only so many shots you can do with people looking awed by the creatures with the sweeping score blaring over the top that one can take.  To top it off, you came up with a dinosaur that wasn't even really for sure a real thing.  What made the first one cool was they tried to make it as accurate as they could.  I say stick to that and the wonder will continue to come.

In addition, we need to get off of that island.  I'm not saying they need to end up in New York or any large city.  I would just like to have a change of setting.  Maybe they try and relaunch them as small pets that can be domesticated?  Maybe they are used as secret military weapons?  These are used plot points, but at least it would get the story off the island.  We all know that the T-Rex loose in the larger metropolitan area was silly and forced.  However if this came after a film that started in the small suburb, I feel it wouldn't have seemed as silly.  Call me crazy, and I'm sure some of you will, but I think a dino let loose in an urban environment could be cool if it was set up properly.

So what do you think?  If this movie was going to be made anyway what would you want to see in it?  I just scraped the surface, now you fill in the rest :)

2 comments:

ms.mellen said...

First things first, Nate, Fantasy Film Friday is the best idea I have heard in a long time. I love it and I love you for thinking of it.

Now, the only way or reason Jurassic Park 5 should be done is if you mesh the dinos with some other iconic film franchise; e.g. "Alien v. Preditor," Batman v. Superman." Off the top of my head I wouldn't mind seeing "Godzilla v. Jurassic Park" or a movie where the beautiful vampires of "Twilight" could find themselves on Jurassic Park Island.

I'm not pitching these as the best movie ideas of all time...I'm actually racking my brain to find a way to get the irritating dogs from "Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2" running from the Velociraptors. I guess what I'm really trying to say is I would love to see a film where dinosaurs chase and eat familiar characters from another popular film...or t.v. show (maybe we've found a way to finally wrap-up "Grey's Anatomy"). Frankly, I'd love to hear other ideas on the topic. Thoughts?

Nate said...

That would be a really interesting movie. It would be very different and also highly entertaining. The only thing is that I feel it would lose the world of Jurassic Park because of it. Unless you took the characters from another show and thrust them intot he world of JP. The main reason I had an issue with Alien vs. Predator wasn't that it sucked, it was the fact they took both of the title creatures and put them out of their element. It didn't feel like a Predator OR an Alien movie. Which is why vs. films are difficult to begin with.

I like it though. I'd see that movie.