*****SPOILERS*****
Visuals:
Small Details
A
few little details caught my attention.
The
shot of Owen rolling through the t-rex’s open mouth in order to escape the van
was epic. The t-rex mouth wasn’t open particularly wide, so for Owen to jump up
to avoid the lower jaw, though not high enough to hit the upper jaw, all whilst
moving forward, was especially impressive.
The
t-rex walks into a lion’s zoo enclosure and they both roar. King of the
terrible lizards and king of the beasts communing.
At the beginning, guy escapes the
jaws of the t-rex, only to get captured by the mosasaur. (The poor guy thought
he was safe. Then uh-oh.)
At
the end, people are surfing and the mosasaur is swimming within that wave.
Brilliant.
There
were other good details, too.
We
see a shop full of dinosaur toys. But then one (a compy) moves. The shadow and
stillness had made it look just like any other toy.
There’s
a noise in the car and we expect it to be Blue. It isn’t. So we settle and
dismiss this area as Blue-less. So when Blue jumps up on the car, it’s
completely unexpected.
Owen
runs out of the dust/soot/ash cloud. Then he’s followed by a growing number of
dinosaurs, and the size of these dinosaurs grows, too. Plus, we see the
soot/ash moving in a convection pattern, matching what heat does in real life.
Everything about this is an excellent shot.
The
t-rex roars in synch with a volcanic explosion. Nice.
When
the system is rebooted to get the extractor fans working, the CCTV flashes back
on, including for the library. The audience sees Owen, Claire and Maisie are
going to be in trouble before the trio realises it themselves.
Visuals:
Indoraptor
The scariness
of the Indoraptor was enhanced with visual details/creative decisions.
Indoraptor has a colour stripe in
the same place of Blue, except it’s yellow. With this single decision, the Indoraptor’s
connection yet differentiation from Blue is established. Also, yellow is
usually associated as a positive colour, so having it on the enemy without
reducing their scariness was well done.
When
the Indoraptor holds each of the eyebrow horns of the triceratops skull with
its hands, it’s an oddly human gesture that amplifies the creature’s scariness.
Human gestures not only increase the perception of fear but of intelligence,
too (which itself adds to the fear factor).
When
the Indoraptor chases Maisie, it gallops on all four (to fit through the
doorframes). It looked epic. Plus, it made it seem even more bestial, hence
adding to its scariness. Earlier, its scariness was enhanced with a bipedal,
human-like gesture. Considering the scariness is enhanced with complete
opposites is sheer genius.
The
Indoraptor doesn’t reach for Maisie with its head but with its hand. Now, the
Indominus-rex, t-rex and velociraptor (the dinosaurs which the Indoraptor is
made of) would reach for things with their mouths, not their hands. Hence the
Indoraptor’s hand reaching is another human-like gesture.
As
benefiting the main dinosaur of this film, many of the clever visuals come from
the Indoraptor.
The
Indoraptor roaring, haloed by the moon, was a phenomenal shot.
There’s
a shot of a rocking horse with its head shadowed on the wall. Then this shadow
stretches into that of the Indoraptor. Nice.
Maisie
looks at her reflection in the glass. Slowly, the image of the Indoraptor’s
head appears, its mouth and teeth lining up perfectly with Maisie’s face.
Incredible detail.
When
Maisie’s reflection lines up with the image of the Indoraptor’s mouth,
lightning flickers emphasise the detail. That’s an interesting twist on
lightning revealing the presence of the t-rex and the mosasaur at the start of
the film.
Maisie
hiding under the covers to hide from the Indoraptor was not smart. However, it
was very childlike, fitting Maisie’s age range.
Visuals:
Other
The
scene with the brachiosaur was particularly well thought-out.
As
the brachiosaur was eating, bits of leaves fell from the brachiosaur’s mouths.
When modern herbivores eat, plant matter always falls out their mouths. So this
was a realistic detail.
We
hear heavy footsteps and see the palm fronds moving. So we expect the t-rex to
emerge. But then a brachiosaur appears. That was utterly unexpected and a
clever red herring. The first Jurassic World film didn’t show brachiosaurs (it
had different sauropods) so just the fact the island had brachiosaurs was in
itself a surprise.
Flashes
of natural light sources is used to great effect.
As
the collected I-rex bone floats up to the surface, lightning flashes and we see
the shadow of the mosasaur above the sub. Plus the lightning flashes reveal the
t-rex on land. This is an excellent detail. It ups the fright and anticipation,
as well as looking phenomenal.
Lava
occasionally drips from the tunnel ceiling when Frank and Claire look down it.
This illuminates the dinosaur for brief moments. Each time, it’s closer to
Claire and Franklin (like a game of moving statues). This is far scarier than
just seeing it walk forward because you never know where it is or when it’ll
reach you.
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