Director: Colin Treverrow
Genre: Action/ Adventure
Runtime: 124 minutes
Year: 2015
Starring: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Ty Simpkins, Nick Robinson, Vincent D’Onofrio, Irrfan Khan, Jake Johnson, Omar Sy, BD Wong, Judy Greer, Jimmy Fallon
Description: Twenty-two years after the events of Jurassic Park, Isla Nublar now features a fully functioning dinosaur theme park, Jurassic World, as originally envisioned by John Hammond. 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.
Review: It’s pretty hard to come with a new sequel, 22 years after the original masterpiece “Jurassic Park” by Steven Spielberg. The movie didn’t only have a perfect balance between tension, action, humor, with memorable characters and good actors. It also introduced the audience to impressive, realistic looking dinosaurs. The plot and the location of the original sort of reused for “Jurassic World”. It’s an enjoyable film filled with action, humor and great references to the original.
The movie opens with a hatching dino egg and the movie title. Next we meet two young boys, Zach and Gray, who are on their way to the park, where there aunt Claire works as an operations manager.
Director Colin Trevorrow is clearly a fan of the original and uses many subtle and less subtle references. Off course the base of the film is similar to “Jurassic Park: people create dinosaurs, dollar signs in their eyes, and learn a lesson that wild animals can’t be tamed. The theme music from the original is also present, which still gives you goosebumps. And the shots from the helicopter, with green mountains and waterfalls, is also nothing new. There is also a funny dialogue where a Jurassic World employee, Lowery, tells us he is a fan of the park. He even wears a Jurassic Park T-shirt. He thinks the new park is fake, because the original park had real dinosaurs, instead of mutated hybrids. It’s a good thing that the movie doesn’t take itself too seriously on this point, and Jake Johnson is the perfect actor to set that tone.
With that mutated dinosaur he refers to the first genetically modified hybrid. Because dinosaurs are becoming ‘normal’ and not ‘wow’ enough. People want to see scary animals, with more teeth. We meet the Mososaurus, the first sea creature in the series, that is the star of a Sea World like show. But the movie is about the Indominus Rex, a mix of a T-Rex and… the rest is classified. There is also a big role for the velociraptors. In “Jurassic World” the raptors are trained by ex-marine Owen Grady, a role played by Chris Pratt. This whole concept sounds ridiculous, but surprisingly works.
The movie also has humor. The previous Jake Johnson, as Lowery, is the comic relief. But also Chris Pratt’s character is funny. He also has enough chemistry with Bryce Dallas Howard, to keep it all interesting. Pratt doesn’t claim all the attention, but has so much charisma and is one of the biggest stars of the moment. He can easily carry a movie. Dallas Howard’s character starts out a bit stereotypical, but makes a good switch from cold businesswoman to full-on action heroine.
When you go see this movie, you shouldn’t expect to be wowed as much as “Jurassic Park”. It’s simply impossible to get that same feeling you got from the original. But even though “Jurassic World” looks like a ‘been there, done that” movie, it never bothers you. It’s a great dedication to the original, highly enjoyable and entertaining and it has some nice twists. “Jurassic World” is definitely a movie worth watching, if you’re a fan or not.
Rating: 4/ 5
