Movie Review: Jurassic World

Colin Trevorrow (Safety Not Guaranteed) revisits the dinosaurs of Isla Nublar (and even creates a new one) in Jurassic World.


Right away this movie does something a little different than the other three.  For three movies with the word park in the title, there sure were not many visitors.  Ironically, we change the title to Jurassic World, and the park finally opens.  Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard, The Help) is the operations manager of the park, and her two nephews Zach (Nick Robinson, The Kings of Summer) and Gray (Ty Simpkins, Insidious: Chapter 2) come to visit her and see the park.  She of course is the typical busy aunt who sends the kids off with an assistant.  Meanwhile in another part of the park, Owen (Chris Pratt, Guardians of the Galaxy) is off playing Beastmaster with four raptors.  He's developed a kind of bond with them.  Security guy, Hoskins (Vincent D'Onofrio, The Cell) sees this and decides raptors would make a good military weapon.  It seems the park has been open for some time, because they are already trying to find bigger and better exhibits for the visitors.  So, they concocted their own brand of dinosaur and called it the Indominus Rex.  He inevitably escapes.....because, duh!  The kids meanwhile had run away from the assistant and are out on their own when the rides and attractions get shut down.  Owen rounds up his merry band of raptor warriors and goes with Claire to save the kids.  Hoskins tries to get Dr. Wu (BD Wong, Jurassic Park) and his DNA samples off the island so he can build his army.  There's an awesome dinosaur fight, and Jake Johnson shows up occasionally throughout the movie to be funny, and there's death and destruction and people being eaten, and I'm assuming nobody will still learn a lesson from all of this and there will be another movie.....because dinosaurs!!


This movie had some hurdles to jump.  It was coming off of two not-so-great sequels before it.  I felt like it completely ignored the fact those even existed, but it gave many references and nods to the original masterpiece of Jurassic Park.  It already had the sequels beat just in the story alone.  I like that it changed it up and actually had a park that was up and running.  This brought back some of the fun and wonder of the first film.  There were kids riding baby dinosaurs, a crowd of people watching a giant Mosasaurus jump out of the water and splash them like Shamu, and a cool gyrosphere vehicle that allowed people to get up close to the big guys.  Did it get into familiar territory after that?  Yeah.  How can it not?  The only way to go with these movies is to have dinosaurs escape and eat people.  I felt like this one at least had a few new ideas.  Training raptors seems silly, but made for the interesting turn of having those little fellows fight with the humans.  The Indominus Rex was an unstoppable killing machine, so Howard's idea at the end for stopping him was quite fun.  There was a lot that you had to suspend your disbelief, but really, you're watching a movie about dinosaurs and humans living together....disbelief already suspended.


I will say the characters were pretty clichéd and tired, but the actors did well with what they were given.  Howard did fine as the aloof aunt.  The kids were a little overbearing at first, but it got better as the film went along.  Chris Pratt is awesome.


There are things that either don't make sense, or are just convenient.  Somehow the oldest kid knows how to fix up a jeep that's been stored for the last 22 years.  The new Rex has been spliced with other animals that make it convenient for certain scenes.  The things that didn't work were small enough that they didn't bother me.  What did work, really worked.  The effects were great.  The tension was there in all the right places.  The dinosaur fight at the end was just plain cool.  There were a lot of great little nods to the original movie as well.


Did this movie have problems? Yeah, a few.  Did it deliver on the fun factor though?  Yes.  There was just enough humor put in to keep it from getting too dark (although the Jimmy Fallon bit fell flat for me).  It was paced well with a lot of dinosaur action.  As clichéd as the characters were, they were acted well.  Will any Jurassic movie top Spielberg's masterpiece Jurassic Park?  No way.  But, here we have something that at least captured a little of the same spirit of that great film.  If you're a fan of the first film, then I really think you might find something to like here.


Rating: ********-- (8 out of 10) [matinee]


Memorable Quote:
Barry: These guys.  They never learn.