Jurassic World [M]

After years of safety disasters and other chaotic misadventures Jurassic World has been created out of Hammond’s original Jurassic Park idea and is a flourishing theme park. But, as with all theme parks, the attractions are losing customer interest and a new attraction has been created, soon to be unveiled: a hybrid dinosaur bigger than a T-Rex and smarter than a raptor. Just before the unveiling of this new attraction, the dinosaur escapes from her enclosure and the island is thrown into chaos as she runs rampant, killing all the other dinosaurs for sport. It falls to raptor trainer and ‘whisperer’ Owen to help the park’s coordinator, Clair, and her team stop this terror before it takes the lives of millions of stranded customers. 

Set 22 years after the events of Jurassic Park, this reboot is both satisfying and disappointing (depending on which way you look at it) in that it adheres to the novelty factor and deliverance of the specific thrills of its predecessors. 

Like the originals, there isn’t a lot in terms of plot: cool dinosaur theme park turns to a nightmare when the carnivorous dinosaurs escape. We’ve got characters with ulterior motives including a military operation that aims to use raptors as weapons seeing as the creatures are capable of obeying command of an alpha, which we see in the character of Owen. The fact that there are these two, actually three if you include the weaker plot about family ties, duelling plot lines is actually kind of good because it brings a level (not a strong one, but a level) of complexity to the movie and gives it a little bit of depth than say the second and third Jurassic Park films. 

Having said this though, I would have liked to see the stories of the characters, and indeed the central characters themselves, developed a lot more. As it stands the characters are all still sort of wooden and uninspiring, and it’s really hard to root for any of them. Chris Pratt who stars as Owen has possibly the dream role and yet we don’t get to learn anything about him, aside from the really stupid plot point that he and Claire dated once and it didn’t end well, and this annoyed me because you can’t really love a character just because he’s good at talking to raptors! 

The performances were all good for what they were, but ultimately they weren’t all that and there are just so many clichés at work: the over-enthusiastic young lad, the moody and nonchalant big brother, the hardboiled and slightly cynical action lead, the career-driven bitch with the annoying bob haircut and white blouse who ties it around her waist and shows off her boobs to indicate that she can be rugged, and the fat military man you just want to hit for being alive. Whilst it’s fun to laugh at these predictable tropes, at the same time it’s a bit ‘such clichés, much ugh’. 

On a more positive note, the special effects are still pretty damned awesome though everything is now computer generated, which depletes the fun of the original movies because the animatronics is what made this franchise. But the creatures that we get to see here are pretty epic and a definite standout feature. 

Starring Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Nick Robinson, Vincent D’Onofrio, Ty Simpkins, Irrfan Khan, Jake Johnson, Omar Sy, BD Wong, and Judy Greer, Jurassic World is a solid reboot of a beloved franchise, elevating it just that much in scope and epic-ness without taking away anything from the original favourite. Filled with action, adventure, drama, romance, comedy, and some pretty gaping and ridiculous plot holes (Dr. Henry Wong being one of them), it delivers exactly what you expect from a Jurassic Park movie.