Welcome to…. (The worthy successor to) Jurassic Park.
Synopsis: 22 Years since John Hammond’s dreamscape vista of birthing a theme park full of dinosaurs went awry Jurassic World is now a world-wide attraction that lives up to Hammonds vision of a fully functioning Isla Nublar populated by dinosaurs. Funnily enough things go awry again, but this time there are 20,000 guests on the island and a lot more dinosaurs.
Jurassic World is a bombastic piece of entertainment and a touching homage the cinematic masterpiece that lives in all our hearts. It negates the subsequent two films which were lacklustre to say the least, and presses on fluidly and confidently from Jurassic Park to deliver some great characters, heart pounding thrills, too true social commentary and huge, roaring, fear-inducing dinosaurs.
It’s been too long in my humble opinion that we as cinemagoers have been treated to some bloody dinosaurs. Dinosaurs make everything better. I would watch The crap out of Twilight if they featured dinosaurs; mainly dinosaurs eating the entire cast. My point being that in my life time (just over the time spanning Park & World) my exposure to spectacular, roaring dinosaurs has been in watching and re-watching Jurassic Park. The sequels underwhelmed like a toothless T-Rex and anything else isn’t worth mentioning. It seems the creative team behind the new outing on Isla Nublar addressed this from the get go and had a hearty try at fixing cinemas dino-holed problem with tenacity, thought and most importantly passion.
The helmer of our new Jurassic outing is Colin Treverrow, his feature film debut was a little sci-fi gem by the name of Safety Not Guaranteed. Treverrow shows no sign of being overwhelmed by expectation or living in Steven Spielberg’s gargantuan shadow. He and a team of screenwriters have wrung out a narrative that feels natural (as natural as a narrative involving dinosaurs being brought back from the dead by a mosquito can) and worthwhile. Whilst yes, amongst the new cinema scape of franchises and movies that stand on the shoulders of many others before it; you could be forgiven for thinking this is merely a cash in on the good will and love so many of us have for the original. You’d be wrong however. Within the story you can see seeds being planted for future spin-offs, which I’ll come onto later; this is a beast that stands on its own two legs largely due to the strong screenplay and three dimensional characters. Treverrow and co. bring the fantasy and the believable, the thrills and softer moments, the ‘ohhs’ and some big ‘ahhs’ in Spielbergian fashion although, through no fault of trying, it doesn’t have that palpable sense of movie magic the original had in spades. That could be due to nostalgia and genuine love of the a Park that gripped a young boys imagination and never let go. I’ll let you decide.
The cast of characters on show is an eclectic and decadent mix of well-rounded, charismatic actors that bring sultry sass (Bryce Dallas Howard) and masculine mass (who else but Chris Pratt) to the screen. Howard’s Claire is all about profit margins and investor happiness but has a sweet arc that shows her truer, feistier character. Chris Pratt brings the Chris Pratt. He’s handsome, soulful and capable badass Ex-Navy Seal turned Veloceraptor Wrangler. The guy epitomises cool and calm with sides of dashing and charm. The aforementioned two share screen time with Howard’s onscreen nephews; Ty Simpkin’s intelligent, wonder-struck Gray and Nick Robinson’s broody, testosterone driven Zach. Gray is awe-struck upon seeing his first dinosaur whilst Zach is the nonchalant, alternative teen who’s head is stuck in his phone when not up his ass. Whilst a more modern take upon the sibling rivalry/love we saw in Jurassic Park with Tim and Lex, they’re never quite so charming or hearty as the original sibling double act. With so many characters that are genuinely interesting onscreen before we even get to our dinosaurs it was inevitable that some falter. It’s a crying shame that Vincent D’Onofrio wasn’t given the character we know he can be. After terrifying us as Kingpin in Marvel’s recent TV run of Daredevil, D’Onofrio’s InGen shady character never lives up to what he could have been and feels just to service the unnecessary role of duplicitous bad guy with villainous plotting. The film has dinosaurs people! All in all though a great ensemble of worthwhile characters played by more than able actors.
Jurassic World – the theme park itself is superbly envisioned and seemingly meticulously realised. Seeing a park that goes beyond the ubiquitous John Hammond and his initial plans is stunning. From the SeaWorld- esque(screw you SeaWorld) water section and the development centers full of hologram dinosaurs and screens with the returning Mr DNA spreading the teachings of bringing dinosaurs back from a 65 million year slumber; it all seems so real and so very tantalising! I’ve been to Universal Studios which blew me away but Jurassic World looks like another kettle of prehistoric fish. It is Jurassic Park for the Internet age and not just because of the eye-popping technology. We are now a society where everything is paid for by a sponsor and videos can be no longer than 7 seconds or that something isn’t worth reading if it’s over a 140 characters. A great social commentary runs through the film with dinosaurs not being enough to wow people or keep investors happy and phone screens being more interesting than (and I’ll say it again and again) DINOSAURS! Therein lies the the reason there’s a new Rex in town. The Indominous Rex is a spliced up T-Rex with camouflage skills to rival metal Gear Solid’s Snake and wait for it… Long arms. Any dino-geek knows the Achilles heel of the T-Rex are its teeny arms so knows the monumental revelation this could hold of the Indominous being able to grab an easy snack. And so begins the running, screaming and converting of humans to dino poop.
World wouldn’t be fit for the Jurassic mantle if it didn’t have some truly frightening and breathtaking set pieces. Park has hindered my ability to look at a cup of water on a wobbly table, World delivers its own phobias which I’ll let you discover but for anyone who has seen the trailer showing Chris Pratt’s Owen straddling a motorbike with a pack of raptors in tow, it gets even better! I found myself, quite literally on the edge of my seat more than once and gasps and deep breaths were audible for all cinemagoers. This has arguably the most pageantry on offer out of the Jurassic films and some inspired tender moments amongst the racing raptors and explosive engines.
Jurassic World is an event of, well…jurassic proportions. It’s had a lengthy marketing campaign and many merchandise tie-ins but like the original it’s all the better for the mammoth undertaking it’s meant to be. It’s sharp, witty, fun… And that’s just Chris Pratt (sorry is my man-crush showing?). If you believed in Hammond’s vision and want to see its progression then this is a must. Whether your busy dusting down fossils or brushing up on your chaos theory this isn’t to be missed. To paraphrase Jurassic Park’s Dr Ian Malcolm ” You were so preoccupied with whether you could you didn’t stop to think whether you should”. This seems to be the ethos of the cynic of modern movie culture with its decadent franchise building and spin offs of spin offs. Take it from a cynic and lover of DINOSAURS and all things geeky. You should.
Growls and roars supplied by Aaron Farrell.
Thanks for reading.
Captain's Blog - Stardate: 2018 