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Thursday, June 18, 2015

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com ARTS

Capitalism trumps caution in ‘Jurassic’ 

Third sequel isn’t 
more than a decent 

action movie

By CONRAD FOREMAN

Daily Arts Writer

Snapping 
necks 
and 
cashing 

checks. “Jurassic World” did a lot of 
both over its opening weekend, featur-
ing dinosaur deaths by 
the dozen and eclips-
ing domestic and inter-
national 
box-office 

records for an opening 
weekend.

The fourth film in 

the “Jurassic” fran-
chise resembles Steven 
Spielberg’s original in 
many ways. The key 
difference 
between 

the two films — that in 
“Jurassic World” the park is actually 
open — creates an intriguing dynamic 
that was only hypothetical in previous 
films. This isn’t a visionary, seeking 
counsel from top paleontologists; this 

is a monstrous new dinosaur made 
with a cocktail of genetics from vari-
ous predators — and it’s loose on an 
island filled with more than 20,000 
guests. 

Among those guests are two broth-

ers, since no “Jurassic” film can be 
without the child-in-peril aspect to the 
story. Gray (Ty Simpkins, “Insidious”) 
is the film’s innocent youth: about 10 
years old and on the edge of his seat for 
every dinosaur. Zach (Nick Robinson, 
“The Kings of Summer”) is his older 
brother, a teenage angst-bot oozing 
repressed sexual energy. Zach treats 
Gray like garbage, which the film 
makes a point of often and unneces-
sarily. Both characters are rather flat, 
which makes it hard to care a great 
deal for either of them.

Isla Nublar, the fictional island 

home to Jurassic World, may not 
be in the U.S., but it is in Central 
America. And Central America is 
America, dammit. And where there’s 
America, there’s someone trying to 
weaponize something. In this case, it’s 
head of security Vic Hoskins (Vincent 
D’Onofrio, “Full Metal Jacket”), who 

wants velociraptors trained for mili-
tary use. It’s a subplot that can’t carry 
out on the scale it deserves, but it offers 
the kind of fresh perspective needed 
in a third sequel, and makes for one 
hell of a lock-and-load sequence.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect 

of the plot is the question of meddling 
with dinosaurs’ genetics to produce 
“cooler” attractions for mass audi-
ences. At odds here are capitalism’s 
demand for continued growth and 
caution in the face of playing God. At 
this level, capitalism always triumphs 
over caution. As Dr. Wu (B.D. Wong, 
“Jurassic Park”) explains, they’ve 
been playing God all along, it’s only 
catching up to them now.

Science brought the dinosaurs back, 

but the main attraction of “Juras-
sic World” is raptor-wrangler Owen 
Grady (Chris Pratt, “Guardians of the 
Galaxy”). Tough but compassionate, 
rugged but refined, Owen is pure good-
guy in a film that never emphasizes 
character depth. Owen shows respect 
for these creatures as living beings, not 
just theme-park attractions or weap-
ons. He’s enlisted to save Zach and 

Gray, nephews of park manager Claire 
(Bryce Dallas Howard, “The Help”), 
as well as track down the hybrid beast, 
Indominus Rex. Oh, and there’s a 
love story between Owen and Claire, 
though that’s not really important.

There are some truly wonderful ele-

ments to “Jurassic World”: the sound 
of a dinosaur’s heavy step played over 
a close-up of a bird’s foot is a genius 
nugget of filmmaking; little kids riding 

baby triceratops sets a new standard 
for cuteness in dinosaur movies. The 
action sequences pack appropriate 
punch, and homages paid to “Jurassic 
Park” are frequent, but done in meth-
ods more reverent than exploitative.

While cheesy lines of dialogue and 

underdeveloped characters prevent 
“Jurassic World” from being more than 
just an action movie, it’s a damn decent 
action movie.

MUSIC VIDEO REVIEW

People love to hate Madonna. I 

know this firsthand, seeing as my 
mother loves to hate Madonna … 
and that was 
probably 
my 

biggest reason 
for loving the 
queen of pop. 

While 
I 

would normal-
ly argue bitch, 
she’s 
Madon-

na any time 
mother dear-
est voiced her 
disdain, 
this 

time, like most times, mom’s right.

We’ve been privy to the long-

anticipated video via Tidal teas-
ers and Instagram, with colorful, 
punchy fan art and videos from 
both Madonna and Nicki Minaj. 
Apparently, that, along with fea-
turing an array of A-listers in 
music videos, is a thing now (see: 
Taylor Swift, “Bad Blood”). But 
when Taylor did it, we didn’t lose 
our focus — we were enthralled 
with both the theatrical tale and 
the true star, Swift. Pause: The 
fact that Madonna even attempt-
ed to imitate this is both confus-
ing and out of character, seeing as 

she used to set the bar that others 
aspired to. Madge’s take on the 
trend poses no storyline, aside 
from debauchery featuring sock 
puppets. In short, she’s forget-
table and she’s outshined by the 
sum of star-studded cameos.

While she’s undeniably savvy 

in her attempts of capitalizing on 
the current zeitgeist — a video 
exclusively for Tidal users fea-
tures not only music moguls (in 
order of importance: Beyoncé, 
Nicki, Kanye, Miley, Diplo, Katy 
Perry and Rita Ora), but also front-
runner fashion designers Jeremy 
Scott and Alexander Wang — the 
weight of her guests’ combined 
energies and cultural significance 

rivals, if not tops, Madonna’s.

Though age is relative in 

most cases, it’s time Madonna 
starts acting accordingly to hers. 
We know her body says she’s a 
30-something crossfit junkie, but 
her career speaks for itself, being 
that of a longstanding innova-
tor in an industry that thrives on 
freshness. She was shiny and new 
at one point, continuing to main-
tain her signature ingenuity for 
decades, and “Bitch, I’m Madon-
na” was the creed that established 
this. But, Madonna, this video 
pushes my love over the border-
line, and I’ve gotta agree with 
mom on this one.

-CAROLINE FILIPS

INTERSCOPE RECORDS

C

Bitch, I’m 
Madonna

Madonna feat. 
Nicki Minaj

Interscope 

Records

B

Jurassic 
World

Universal 
Pictures

Rave 20 & 

Quality 16

MOVIE REVIEW

