JURASSIC WORLD IS FINALLY OPEN TO THE PUBLIC!

"The lack of humility before nature that's being displayed here, um, staggers me."-Ian Malcolm

 "You stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as you could and before you even knew what you had you, you patented it,  and packaged it and slapped it on a plastic lunchbox and now you're selling it, you want to sell it, well.."-Ian Malcolm



A mere 22 years after the incident at the original Jurassic Park, John Hammond's dream has finally come to fruition...and it's Ian Malcom's worst nightmare come to life. Jurassic World has been open on Isla Nublar (just a few miles away from the original Jurassic Park site) for an unspecified amount of time (Seems like several years at least), and things seem to be going smoothly except for a few things....customer satisfaction levels are just below 90%, and somehow the public has grown tired of seeing living, breathing dinos. The morons in charge decide to spice things up by creating their own genetically modified dinosaur, a terrifying creature they dub the Indominus Rex. Naturally, things don't go so well.

The actors all do fairly good jobs. Chris Pratt completely owns his role as Owen Grady, a velociraptor  trainer who is the only person who seems to understand what the head honchos are doing is a very bad idea. "Their dinosaurs. Wow enough." he quips, and he's completely right. Pratt is not Star-Lord here, and manages to make a convincing and totally bad-ass hero. I also like that the bond he shares with the raptors is a shaky one at best. It goes without saying that Pratt is the best actor and character in the film.

Bryce Dallas Howard is pretty good as Claire, the no nonsense and up-tight businesswoman who is one of the higher-ups at Jurassic World. She goes to Owen for help figuring out the deal with the D-Rex and naturally, sparks eventually fly. She's an entertaining character that I grew to really like by the end of the film.  Irrfran Kahn impresses as Simon Masrani, the CEO of Masrani Global, which is the company that runs Jurassic World with a little help from InGen. I was shocked and pleased at how jovial his character was, he's essentially our surrogate Hammond. It's nice to see Kahn play a nicer guy for a change.

Ty Simpkins and Nick Robinson do exactly what is required of them pretty well (running, screaming, and looking on in awe-struck wonder at times). They play Claire's nephews, who are shipped off to spend a weekend with her at Jurassic World while their parents get divorced. Robinson plays the girl obsessed teen Zach, and Simpkins plays his younger brother Gray, who is TOTALLY into dinos (Yes, he definitely has shades of young Tim from Jurassic Park). Vincent D'Onofrio plays Hoskins, the InGen security expert who has some shady plans involving the D-Rex and Owen's raptors. He is basically the embodiment of InGen, and here that company is portrayed much the way it is in the novel...as pretty evil and bad.  I  have to give a shout out to my boy Jake Johnson, who plays the character of Lowery, one of the workers in the Jurassic World control room. He's a pretty cool guy who is a major Jurassic Park nerd (he even wears a Jurassic Park T-shirt which Claire chastises him on, saying it's in bad taste).  BD Wong also returns once again as the awesome Dr. Henry Wu, who is in charge of creating all the dinos on the island (including the D-Rex).


Jurassic World (the park) is really a beauty to behold, and it's a complete thrill to travel back to Isla Nublar again (it almost feels like going home in a weird way). The park is gorgeous, but is filled to the brim with numerous corporate sponsors (there's even a clever joke about Indominus Rex presented by Verizon Wireless). The numerous corporate entities are all handled a bit tongue-in-cheek (except for the overwhelming and tiring ads for Chevy), and it's done with a wink and nod to the audience. The film is very much commenting on the public's constant demand for bigger, better, scarier, and more more MORE (as the film puts it, more teeth!)! It's also in a weird way a comment on modern day blockbusters and why they are made the way they are made.

Michael Giacchino's score is a beautiful, gorgeous thing that uses some of the original score from Jurassic Park in key scenes, but still manages to emerge as it's own piece of art. Jurassic World is a film that is incredibly respectful and reverent to the original film, and it stays true to the message and tone of Jurassic Park. The film is filled with nods to the original classic, I don't know how much I want to give away, but there was one scene that had me seriously tearing up.

Jurassic World is indeed quite thrilling and fun, but the deaths that occur don't pack the punch that the deaths in the original had (except for one). I was also surprised that the film wasn't quite as chaotic as I had expected (certainly nowhere near as chaotic as Jurassic Park was. In fact, the D-Rex doesn't even really gobble up many park visitors, mainly feasting on any dino she can sink her teeth into and any teams sent in to contain her). That said, I was pleased that Jurassic World was able to effectively recapture some of the magic and wonder that the first film had (They even seem to use one and only one dino animatronic in a deeply affecting scene).

While Jurassic World isn't the masterpiece that I was hoping it would be, it's still a beautiful, gorgeous, and super fun film. It's a complete joy to re-visit Isla Nublar and some of the old sites from the original Jurassic Park (we even get the return of The King herself, the original T-Rex from the first film) and the film does manage to fit in some awe, wonder, and magic. Some parts definitely feel a little neutered and obviously it's nowhere near as great as the original classic, but overall Jurassic World is the only worthy sequel to Jurassic Park we've received thus far, and that alone makes this a definite must-see for any Jurassic Park fan.

3.5 STARS


Also, don't waste your money on the 3-D. And please guys, NO MORE SEQUELS. Quit while you're ahead.