Jurassic World Dominion: Hard to believe that the original Steven Spielberg classic film was released in 1993. Thirty years ago when Ellie Sattler and Alan Grant are invited to be expert witnesses for a new amusement park from dreamer John Hammond. Of course the amusement park fails spectacularly due mostly to human foibles, but primarily because of the human arogance that genetic engineering can be controlled. Fast forward to the present and the sixth (yes SIXTH) installment of this franchise is released. I think I was even more surprised to see that Steven Speilberg has put his name to this one as Executive Producer. Why he would want to associate himself with this jumbled mess is beyond me.
So what is possibly new and different to bring you back to this rehashing of the older tale, while combining the characters from the first and then the most recent group. So that means bringing together Ellie Sattler and Alan Grant looking much older with the more recent Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) and Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard). All together they live in a new world where dinsaurs of all shapes and sizes are free, living among humans and animals alike.
All the dialog around kumbaya and everyone “just getting along” doesn’t make a whole lot of sense when you know that dinosaurs would have little problem making the current animals on the planet extinct. How is there possibly enough animals of any variety to feed all the large predators? There is further talk about redemption for the original confident scientist making the dinosaurs, as he tries to deal with humans who have mutated prehistoric locusts for their own gain. Blah, blah, blah. So many incredulous things take place that it all becomes more or the same. Nothing new to see here. So in short, having known that this wasn’t going to have anything new, I still watched for completeness. I didn’t need to. In the end, everything is tied up in a bow with the characters making nice and happily ever after. This would be a hard no.
Love is Blind Season 4: I guess the more newsworthy aspect of this show was that Netflix when trying to stream a LIVE Reunion utterly failed with it starting almost an hour late. Not exactly major network type of reliability or timeliness. The producers had brought together the couples who had made their decisions on whether to be married or not. The show itself finished over the weekend with predictable results. Those who seemed from all the coverage to be well connected, knowing of course that editing can be made to add drama where it doesn’t exist, did what we thought as viewers that they would.
This series has had some success. They have yet to produce a child among their couples. For those of you who enjoy relationship shows, this is mindless candy that one can fast forwadr until the end to see where they end up. It is an interesting concept to have people meet and converse to create a connection worthy of a proposal, and then see once they meet whether the connection can remain strong. For some they can embrace the experiment, while others cannot get over their preconceived ideas of their “type” of person.
Obsession: This is a four-part series on Netflix. In many ways it parallels Diane Keaton’s Looking For Mister Goodbar from 1977. It goes into detail about the destructive power of obsessive love. Is it really love? I think that the jury would reamin out on that. But there was no denying that even the most driven and successful people with a quality home life can fall for the perceived ultimate physcial connection.
Doctor Farrow, played by Richard Armitage, is married with two adult children. He has just completed a very successful siamese twin operation, and is at the top of his profession. He seems well connected with his wife, viewers will recognize from Game of Thrones, with a son and a daughter. Son has a new girlfriend, and she is older than him. Parents have heard her name before but that seems to be all we know. But as things unfold, we see that Dad has met with her before. The depth of that relationship is kept secret. Revealing itself slowly, the viewers get to see the dangerous game that is being played. It seems the woman, named Anna has some family secrets and that men seem to be very attracted to her. This a theme in her life.
By obsession, the definition being “an idea or thought that continually preoccupies or intrudes on a person’s mind” which can paralyze someone and make them incapble of controlling themselves, even when it is clearly unhealthy. I think that it was a good choice to select Charlie Murphy as the actress in this role. She isn’t a drop dead raving beauty, but rather, for me, reminds me of Molly Ringwald, with the short hair and perky personality. So like Love is Blind, there is an obvious physical attraction but there is much more at work. The story shows not only the consequences of the actions, but also the impact on the woman involved. How does she feel? Does she recognize this behaviour and try to better understand it? Or does she give in to it and realize that she has a magic power over men for some reason. What do you do with this power? How does the obsessed man finally address all that he has done? All this gets addressed over the four episodes. I think that the performances were good. Everyone seeks love, but the degree of love that comes their way may be something more than they were expecting.
Mondays With Robbie 