Review 348: Jurassic World

Jurassic World is defiantly not the mind blowing, wondrous experience the original was, but it by no means is it a thouroughly entertaining, non-stop thrill ride - and brings a long extinct franchise back to life.

Set twenty-two years after the events of Jurassic Park, Isla Nublar is now a fully functioning dinosaur theme park, as originally envisioned by John Hammond, Jurassic World. After 10 years of operation and visitor rates declining, in order to fulfill a corporate mandate, a new attraction is created to re-spark visitor's interest, which backfires horribly.

The plot is admittedly not that original but what I liked about it was that it's made with a lot of self awareness, it knows what it wants to be which nothing more than a fun dinosaur romp. Writer/director Colin Trevorrow knows the audiences especially kids just want tor see awesome dinosaurs fighting. It also starts off the franchise fresh and knew without disregarding the original classic. If you haven't seen The Lost World & III, don't worry you don't need to, this film pretty much ignores the events of both those films.

There is also some thematic elements in the film - which is nice: Colin Trevorrow has stated that the Indominus Rex, the synthetic hybrid dinosaur at the centre of the film's story is a metaphor for consumer and corporate excess. Trevorrow has stated that the dinosaur was meant to embody humanity's worst tendencies. We're surrounded by wonder and yet we want so much more, and we want it bigger, faster, louder, better. And in the world of the movie, the animal is designed based on a series of corporate focus groups. We are constantly churning out sequels, remakes, reboots, spin-offs and prequels in todays movie industry but the fact of the matter is that there are only so many times you can put a fresh spin on the original idea. Look at the Terminator franchise for instance with the release of Genisys.

Trevorrow has also stated that there's something in the film about our greed and our desire for profit. The Indominus Rex, to me, is very much that desire, that need to be satisfied and having seen the film I have to agree with him admirably. Film journalists have also noted the parallels between the workings of the park in Jurassic World and the film and entertainment industry.

The film also explores the concept of raising an animal in a particular way, in which the Indominus Rex was raised in captivity without any siblings, thus making the creature somewhat "not fully fuctional".

Another highlight of this film is there being a strong family atmosphere in the film, for the most part, the film follows these two boys Grey (Ty Simlins) and Zack Mitchell (Nick Robinson) who go to Jurassic World to visit their aunt Clair (Bryce Dallas Howard) who works as the park's operations manager and initially she can't spend time with them due to work commitments and Grey and Zack's mother Karen (Judy Greer) is dissapointed as it was supposed to be a family trip and when  havoc breaks loose Zack, Grey and Clair along with Owen have to stick together to make out of the Park.

Colin Trevorrow's direction is sharp, the cinematography is beautiful and captures the beauty and the tropical nature of Isla Nublar), the scenery is breathtaking, the production design is marvellous (the films depiction of Jurassic World is mind blowing, I'd to go there for a holiday - provided that nothing goes wrong of course). The score by Michael Giacchino is excellent, the action scenes are exciting, the special effects are...  awesome, not just the CGI but the animatronics as well. When the actors touch the dinos it genuinely looks like they are touching an actual dinosaur, the tensions is killing, the production design is all marvellous, an amazing blend of jungles, Dinosaur enclosures, attractions and loads of exciting buildings and controls rooms you can't get into. The costumes are terrific and the creature designs for the dinosaurs are outstanding and put so much detail into them.

The acting is mostly solid, Chris Pratt & Bryce Dallas Howard deliver solid performances 
Pratt once again proves himself as a capable actor in a nice juicy role as Velociraptor trainer, Owen Grady with plenty of arguments where he strongly opposes genetically modifying dinosaurs to increase the appeal for audiences, lots of action and good lines. He assumes this leader position and stands by his beliefs that making a hybrid wasn't the best idea.

Bryce Dallas Howard is also effective playing Jurassic World's operations manager, Claire Dearing. She's intelligent, but work-centric and uptight. However as the film goes on, her image gets more rugged and she gets her hands dirty, which I liked.

Ty Simpkins and Nick Robinson are very likeable as Grey and Zack respectively, I felt the two actors worked really well off each other since they're are very specific characters, Zack is oldest and as a result is annoyed by Grey who is upset by their parents impending divorce. And in getting into trouble in the park, the two have to work together to avoid being eaten which I felt brought out a strong brotherly bond and the two coming closer together which I really liked a feel it's a great message for children.

Vincent D'Onofrio unfortunately makes for a rather generic villain in the role of Victor "Vic" Hoskins, the head of InGen's security operations. While D'Onofrio provides an appropriately menacing onscreen presence, his character doesn't seem to have much of a personality out of him basically wanting to weaponise the dinosaurs and use them for nefarious purposes. But we never really find out what those purposes are or why we should give a damn.
Just weaponising them is too vague and intagangible. 

However whilst Dallas Howard's Claire makes an impact, the rest of the female characters are criminally underdeveloped. Actors Judy Greer and Merlin's Katie McGrath show up in mostly underdeveloped roles.
McGrath is given the thankless task of playing Zara Young Claire's assistant who's given very little chance to shine amongst the cast other than to take care of Zack and Grey due to Claire being busy and her talents just aren't put to good use.

Judy Greer role in the film is also a bit part, as Zack and Grey's mum and she appears only three times throughout the film and cries a lot. But I guess as a bit part she does fine and as a motherly character she does just fine.

Sadly the same goes to Irrfan Kahn playing Simon Masrani, the CEO of the Masrani Corporation and the owner of the titular park, a character with plenty of potential that is ultimatly never fulfilled and
whose talents are wasted as a result.

Jurassic World brings an extinct franchise roaring back to life, 4/5.

The Anonymous Critic.