Jurassic World Review 4/5 Stars

Written by Christian James Haight

While “Jurassic World” did not measure up to the magic of the original “Jurassic Park,” it did make for a fantastic sequel and an excellent return to the “Jurassic” world. Stephen Spielberg, who directed the first two movies, and Joe Johnston, who directed “Jurassic Park III,” did not return to direct “Jurassic World.” Instead, Colin Trevorrow took up the role as director. While he may not have had a lot of fans before the movie, people will remember his name after.

Starting off with two young boys, Gray, played by Ty Simpkins and Zach, played by Nick Robinson, as they prepare to head to Jurassic World for a weeklong excursion. With how expensive the park looks, the tickets must be outrageously priced, but luckily their aunt Claire, played by Bryce Dallas Howard, practically runs the place. Allowing the boys to get V.I.P. passes and a nice hotel room. As the two begin their adventure around the park, Claire is running around the island trying to set up the opening of a new attraction. Due to the decrease in ticket sales, the park feels the need to create a new dinosaur that will be “bigger and have more teeth.” One that will give even the adult visitors nightmares, because their advertising team feels that the fear will actually increase ticket sales. So Dr. Henry Wu, played by B.D. Wong, who was one of the original scientists working to create Jurassic Park in the original trilogy, works in the lab to use the genetics of multiple dinosaurs to produce a very large and very scary dinosaur that comes to be known as Indominus rex.

The owner of the park, Simon Masrani, played by Irrfan Khan, comes to the island to check out the new attraction and tells Claire that before opening it to the public, he would like for her to hire a man by the name of Owen, played by Chris Pratt, to study the Indominus rex. When Owen is brought to the new dinosaur, he shows an expression of fear because it has been locked away in isolation and has shown signs of intelligence that other dinosaurs have not shown. As everyone ignores his warning of danger, the Indominous rex plans an escape and begins wreaking havoc on the entire island.

“Jurassic Park” was an instant classic after its release in 1993. To pay homage to the movie, “Jurassic World” attempts to pay tribute by making multiple references. There are two scenes that make the strongest references, one is where Gray and Zach come across an old building on the island that was used for the original park but was destroyed by time and most likely dinosaurs. The second was an employee who wore a t-shirt with the park’s original logo on it. He goes on to explain how he found it on eBay for a large amount of money and Claire tells him not to wear it again because of how many people died. While the first reference explained was brilliant and made an incredible connection as well as showed the damage done throughout the first movie, the second reference seemed out of place and the dialogue throughout seemed unnatural.

Pratt did an incredible job in the film. As the huge and upcoming star of last summer’s box office, he’s proven that he’s not a one-hit-wonder and fans can be expecting to see him in plenty more films. Although he does an incredible job with the movie, it doesn’t stray away from the fact that every character, including Pratt’s, belonged in a cartoon. It’s okay for characters to have a cartoonish act about them, especially in a disaster movie, but “Jurassic World” is supposed to be more than a disaster movie. The original film created such an incredible world by bringing dinosaurs back to life, and for “Jurassic World” to be the first “Jurassic” movie in 16 years, a lot more should be expected when it comes to the characters. The background stories were incredibly cliché and it was very obvious which characters Trevorrow wanted the audience to like and which ones he didn’t want them to like. What makes a character jump off screen is when they have faults and benefits that can let an audience member choose whether to like them or not.

In today’s world, it can be very often that a director relies too heavily on CGI for a movie. In 1993, Spielberg didn’t have the technology that film makers have today. So for up-close shots of the dinosaurs he used mechanical dinosaurs, which actually makes them look somewhat real, even for today’s standards. In “Jurassic World,” Trevorrow may have used the same kind of mechanical dinosaurs for a few up-close shots, but for the majority it was obvious that CGI was used and ultimately brought down the level of value in the film.

One of the highlights of the movie was explaining just how terrible of an idea this park really is. For example, in “Jurassic Park” the only reason why the entire park collapsed upon itself was because a man named Dennis Nedry disabled most of the park’s security system in order to steal a few dinosaur embryos. In doing so, the dinosaurs were able to escape and create three movies of chasing and killing humans. Fans of the original trilogy have always wondered if the park would have worked if Dennis didn’t disable the security system. Well “Jurassic World” answers that perfectly, because even after ten successful years since the park’s opening, something eventually went terribly wrong.

Even though “Jurassic Park” was more than a disaster movie, its sequels, “The Lost World” and “Jurassic Park III” were nothing more than disaster movies. So basing “Jurassic World” on the same level as the other sequels is where it strikes gold. It’s one of the best disaster movies to engage in, not because audiences will hope for the survival of each character, but because the action sequences that involve multiple dinosaurs are fantastic. It was a good start to what is hopefully a new “Jurassic” trilogy.

• Director: Colin Trevorrow
• Director: Derek Connolly, Colin Trevorrow
• Actors: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Ty Simpkins, Nick Robinson, Irrfan Khan, Vincent D’Onofrio, Jake Johnson, Omar Sy, BD Wong, Judy Greer
• Genre: Action and Adventure
• Run Time: 1 hours 57 minute

Pros: Fantastic disaster movie; great relationship between Chris Pratt and raptors; lots of fun to watch.

Cons: Relied too heavily on CGI; cartoonish characters.