In 1993, Steven Spielberg brought Michael Crichton’s
best-selling sci-fi novel/cautionary tale ‘Jurassic Park’ to the big screen and
of course we all know how it turned out. It ended up becoming one of the most revered
films of its time while also setting major landmarks in the use of CGI for the
film’s dinosaur creatures. It was followed by two sequels that were both
commercially successful, although neither film was as beloved amongst critics
and audiences as much as the first film. Now, 14 years after ‘Jurassic Park III’
was released in 2001, and after a considerably long period of what can only be described
as ‘development hell’, primarily due to script re-writes, director Colin
Trevorrow, fresh off of his 2012 indie hit ‘Safety Not Guaranteed’, returns us
to the world of ‘Jurassic Park’, both figuratively and literally due to the
fact that it takes place on the same island that the first film took place on, with
‘Jurassic World’. And boy is it one hell of an experience. Now let me just make
things clear for a second. At the end of the day, I can’t say that this is an
absolutely ‘perfect’ film, nor can I say that it’s technically ‘as good’ as the
first film. For the record, I’m not holding this against ‘Jurassic World’. It’s
just that, obviously, the first film is such a hard act to follow. But not only
does ‘Jurassic World’ pay loving respect to the original film that it’s
following up on but it also delivers on exactly what we came to see; awesome
dinosaur-related action. And in that regard, the film doesn’t disappoint in the
slightest.
22 years after the original incident on the Costa Rican
island of Isla Nublar regarding John Hammond’s genetically-cloned dinosaur theme
park Jurassic Park, a new fully-functioning dinosaur theme park now named Jurassic
World, run by operations manager Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) and owned
by Simon Masrani (Irrfan Khan) of the Masrani Corporation, has been built, embodying
Hammond’s original vision for Jurassic Park. When general interest in the park
begins to drop due to the apparently decreasing ‘wow factor’ of the dinosaur
exhibits, the park’s scientists create a new genetically modified dinosaur, referred
to as an ‘Indominus Rex’, out of a hybrid of various bits of animal DNA (e.g.
cuttlefish, T-Rex, etc.) as a way to attract more guests to the park. However,
a few weeks before the new exhibit is set to open, the new dinosaur ends up
breaking out of its enclosure and starts rampaging across the island, resulting
in Claire, her two nephews Zach (Nick Robinson) and Gray (Ty Simpkins), who are
visiting the park, and Velociraptor trainer Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) getting
caught right in the middle of the situation as they and the rest of the ‘Jurassic
World’ staff try to stop this new menace before it ends up terrorizing the park
visitors.
I’m just going to put it bluntly; this is not one of those
films that is going to get any major attention come award season for its
writing. After all, this is a sci-fi film about genetically-engineered
dinosaurs that run amok… and that’s basically it. It’s definitely not the ‘smartest’
sci-fi film ever written but then again, neither were the other films for that
matter. Ultimately, these films are just meant to be entertaining popcorn flicks
and ‘Jurassic World’ definitely succeeds in that regard thanks to Trevorrow’s
solid direction. There are numerous awesome dinosaur-related action sequences
throughout this film. I mean for crying out loud this is a film where Chris
Pratt’s character leads a pack of trained velociraptors into combat on a
motorcycle, plus plenty more awesome moments that I won’t spoil here for anyone
who hasn’t seen the film yet. All in all, ‘Jurassic World’ definitely feels
like a true sequel to the original film (‘The Lost World’ and ‘Jurassic Park
III’ were mostly ignored here). Trevorrow subtly pays homage to ‘Jurassic Park’
from time to time while also managing to still make this film feel new and not
just a re-hash of the original film. And the effects are still as solid as they’ve
ever been, even if at this point they’re mostly CGI with only about one major
use of animatronic effects, the latter of which has been a major trademark of
the franchise.
On that note, a common criticism of the series has been that
while the effects have always been superb, the same can’t be said for character
development. And like every other film in the series (yes, even the first film
in some cases), that’s definitely true in regards to some of the characters in the
film, like Vincent D’Onofrio’s character Vic Hoskins, the head of security for
InGen who apparently was meant to be the human antagonist but ends up being one
of those ‘villains’ that doesn’t actually do anything ‘villainous’, which is
rather disappointing given D’Onofrio’s excellent turn recently as the main
antagonist Wilson Fisk in ‘Daredevil’. But despite that, and some other throwaway
characters, the film’s four main leads all do excellent jobs. Chris Pratt,
after the hot year that he had in 2014 thanks to ‘The LEGO Movie’ and ‘Guardians
of the Galaxy’, continues to prove himself to be a Grade-A leading man in the
role of Owen, who let me remind you commands a whole pack of raptors. The role
is generally more serious compared to Pratt’s usual comedic roles but he still
manages to maintain his natural charisma. Bryce Dallas Howard is also a major
standout as well as Claire who at first may seem like nothing more than, to
paraphrase a tweet by Joss Whedon in regards to the film’s first official clip,
a workaholic ‘stiff’ but then turns out to be quite a badass in her own right
by the end. Nick Robinson and Ty Simpkins both do excellent jobs as well as brothers
Zach and Gray and there are actually some really sweet bonding moments between
the two in the latter half of the film amidst all of the chaos going on.
While ‘Jurassic World’ was easily one of the most
anticipated films of 2015 for many people, at the same time I found that many
other people online were questioning about various aspects of the film,
including the whole plot of a genetically-engineered hybrid dinosaur and the
aforementioned trained Velociraptor pack, among other things. So going into
this film, I ignored all of the noise from the internet and by the end of the
film, came out fully satisfied by what I had saw. Simply put, ‘Jurassic World’
is hella fun. No, it may not be the most well-written/smartest sci-fi film ever
made but really what do you expect from a series that is based around dinosaurs
brought back to life by genetics? But even with that in mind, ‘Jurassic World’,
like the original ‘Jurassic Park’, and hell I’ll even argue ‘The Lost World’, succeeds
by just being incredibly entertaining with awesome action sequences involving
dinosaurs, solid visuals, and a solid cast headlined by standout performances
by leads Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Ty Simpkins, and Nick Robinson, even
if most of the other characters are generally underdeveloped and are really
nothing more than just ‘dino chow’. And most importantly, ‘Jurassic World’
feels like a true sequel to ‘Jurassic Park’. It may not be as ‘ground-breaking’
as the original film but it definitely stands as the best of the sequels to
date and one of the most enjoyable summer blockbusters of 2015 so far.
Rating: 4/5
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