Rating: 3.5/5
Classification: M
Year of release: 2015
Run-time: 2 hours 4 minutes
Director: Colin Trevorrow
Cast: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Ty Simpkins, Judy Greer
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
This review contains SPOILERS
Jurassic World is the fourth movie in the Jurassic franchise and is about a theme park with the title name filled with living breathing dinosaurs on the same Island as Jurassic Park (Isla Nublar) as John Hammond had intended, the park has been open to the public for ten years. When attendance rates are declining and to reignite tourists interest in the park a new genetically modified hybrid Dinosaur known as the Indominus Rex. Naturally it escapes containment and the staff and tourists alike are at risk. While not a perfect movie by any means and a film that does have flaws that could be a deal-breaker for some people, this box office smash was a reasonably warm welcome back for everyone’s favourite dinosaur franchise after a 14 year absence.
The first positive I would like to give Jurassic World is that the original characters Alan Grant, Ellie Sattler and Ian Malcolm, do not appear in this movie. This is not to say that I don’t like these characters and their absence brought me joy, but this was a great idea because they would’ve been shoehorned in the movie. It was simply impossible to come up with a good reason why they would continue to be involved with these dinosaurs. Even the motive of bringing Alan Grant back to Isla Sorna in Jurassic Park III was very lazy because it was just another pay-check like in the first movie. Now on to the new characters, unfortunately they’re not as good as their predecessors, the only new character that worked for me was Owen (Chris Pratt) everyone knows it’s impossible to dislike Chris Pratt.
Like in most of his movies Chris Pratt has a very likeable, charming and funny charisma that is impossible for audiences to dislike. Thankfully Chris Pratt seems to be able to carry over these character traits and he’s able to make this work in at least most of his other films rather than only acting this way when he’s playing Peter Quill/Star-lord. Most of the rest of the human characters I didn’t really care for unfortunately, everyone in the movie gave a decent performance so this isn’t their fault. None of these characters annoyed me in any way but the movie does lack character development and the movie didn’t really give me a reason to care. The kids in the movie Zach (Nick Robinson) and Gray (Ty Simpkins) were both there just to have the kids in distress cliché. The worst aspect of the movie is by far the military wanting to use the Velociraptors as military weapons this sub plot was bafflingly stupid and did not have a place in the movie at all.
Speaking of Velociraptors they can be trained in this movie, this is a concept that you either believe or you don’t, if you don’t I can understand where you’re coming from because I was very sceptical about this at first. However I did like the idea that the movie shows Owen seemingly going out on a limb every time he trains them and this method could and does backfire on him at times. The positive this movie has is that it is interesting to see what Jurassic Park would be like if it were open to the public. The Indominus Rex does make for a threatening new predator to the series, and the fight scene at the end with the Indominus Rex and the T-Rex makes for one of the most memorable moments in the franchise.
Jurassic World isn’t an amazing movie or Shakespearean storytelling, like every sequel to this franchise it does not live up to the high standard set by the first movie, but it is better than Jurassic Park III, Jurassic World never bored me. The film has amazing special effects and plenty of dinosaur action the audiences watch these movies for making Jurassic World a reasonably entertaining return to everyone’s favourite dinosaur franchise.