Jurassic World

It has been 22 years since the first Jurassic Park film graced the silver screens and subsequently became a runaway worldwide phenomenon. For the first time since, the film series returns to the original island, Isla Nublar, where a dinosaur themed park has been safely operating for the last ten years.  

The film opens with two brothers, Zach (played by Nick Robinson) and Gray (played by Ty Simpkins) are being dropped off at the airport by their parents. They're heading to Jurassic World to spend time with their Aunt Claire (played by Bryce Dallas Howard), who works there. To their disappointment, upon arriving they are put into the care of her assistant Zara (played by Katie McGrath) as Claire is swamped with work keeping the place running, dealing with the incoming new president of InGen (the company that owns Jurassic World) Simon Misrani (played by Irrfan Khan) and getting ready to unveil a new attraction. The new attraction is a genetic hybrid dinosaur called the Indominus Rex. Misrani is clearly impressed with the outcome, but suggests that Raptor trainer Owen Grady (played by Chris Pratt) check out the new dinosaur's enclosure. 

It quickly turns out that the Indominus Rex is quite intelligent and creates a ruse to make everyone think it climbed out of it's enclosure and when they go in to investigate discover it is still inside with them, hiding in the think tree growth. Of course, one of them panics and opens the big door to the enclosure to get out and before they can get it closed again, the Indominus has broken free and is making a beeline straight for the park. Once Claire realizes this, she grabs Owen and the two have to try to find her nephews before the I-Rex does. Meanwhile, the Park becomes chaos as the I-Rex wrecks havoc. 

While Jurassic World isn't perfect, it certainly is a big step up from Jurassic Park III and maybe even The Lost World. It certainly is impressive to see the Park fully realized to it's most potential, open with thousands of guests. It's not just a Park but a full on destination resort, with hotels and restaurants (including one titled Winston's, a nice tribute to the late Stan Winston, who designed the dinosaurs for the previous installments). It is brought to life nicely, from the corporate sponsored attractions (Verizon Wireless Presents the Indominus Rex! The Samsung Innovation Center!) to people walking around with various chintzy souvenirs you see at every theme park. The park has been open for ten years when the story takes place and they really portray well in depicting a world where seeing a living, breathing dinosaur is kind of old news. We see kids scrolling through their cell phones, uninterested in what is happening and it's such a great reflection of our time. It's a nice flip on the original film where everyone was blown away by the attractions of Jurassic Park. Of course, this passe attitude is directly what leads the scientists of Jurassic Park to create the I-Rex in the first place, create something scary, exciting and new to try and raise attendance. Needless to say, this strategy blows up in their faces and literally destroys the park. 

Direction this time is handled by Colin Trevorrow and I have to admit I'm a bit stunned that this is only his second film after the incredibly charming comedy Safety Not Guaranteed. He does a great job handing the scope and size of this film. I also have to give praise to Michael Giacchino, who took over scoring duties from John Williams. I've been a fan of his ever since I first heard his score for Super 8. He's the perfect successor to Williams and does a great job crafting his own themes for the film, using Williams' iconic music sparingly. 

The biggest complaint I have about the film is that plot wise, the film is a bit overstuffed. We have Claire, the workaholic career woman dealing with her two nephews and running the park. We have the I-Rex plot line. We have Owen and his raptors that he is training. And then we have Vic Hoskins (played by Vincent D'Onofrio), who is observing Owen and his Raptors and is convinced they could be used for Military purposes. This last plot line bugged me for a couple of reasons. 1. Aside from dogs, what other animals are used in Military operations? Especially super predators like Raptors that are barely trainable as it is (seriously, they are still very scary creatures in this one). and 2. It's just so cliche to have someone want to take something dangerously lethal and put it to military use. Didn't the Alien series beat this plot line to death already? They could've dropped it from the film and no one would've even noticed. Replace it with more scenes with Claire, Owen and the Kids. Build up some real character moments. Or hell, give the Park Tech Lowery (played by Jake Johnson) more scenes because he damn near stole every one he was in. Better yet, let's dig in to something barely touched on in the film about the ethics of genetic manipulation. We got one scene between Chief Geneticist Henry Wu (played by BD Wong) and Masrani but I feel like they only scratched the surface of it. I just wanted that scene to go on a little while longer.  

Still, the strengths of this movie outweighed the negatives big time. I enjoyed all the nods to the original Jurassic Park (we get to see the old Visitor's Center! I couldn't help but tear up during that scene and from the sniffles I heard behind me, I wasn't the only one.). By the time we get to the end (which I admit was seriously bad-ass. I won't spoil it, but oh my god I wanted to stand up and cheer and scream), I had tears welling up in my eyes and a big silly grin on my face. Yeah, I'm a fan of this series and I probably suspended my disbelief more than most. But, I went in expecting a big cool monster movie and I got exactly what I expected. Seriously, do not go into this movie expecting it to be Jurassic Park. It isn't and it never was going to be. It's a movie unto itself. It follows on from the other three films and is content to just be a big ol' monster movie and fits into that mold nicely. If you have your expectations in check, you're gonna have a good time.