It's 22 years after the events that"Jurassic Park" take place, and the park is finally open and working for 10 years under the new name "Jurassic World". Claire Dearing, the parks' operation manager, has her two nephews visit for the weekend. But she is too busy to spend time with them and gives her assistant the job of looking after them as they are given passes to anywhere in the park. Her main concern is convincing investors to fund the new project they are working on. After 10 years, the public has become bored with just seeing real dinosaurs and so the genetics department has created a new, more impressive one....one that has never existed before now.
After seeing this new creature, the owner of Jurassic World, Simon Masrani tells Claire to consult with the Raptor wrangler in the park, Owen Grady. Owen is skeptical of the care of the new dinosaur and asks what they used to create it. But Claire is tight lipped on the matter. As it turns out, his concerns are well founded as the creature escapes.
Cast
Who will like this:
Young parents, who have become parents about 10 years ago or so, will want to bring their children to experience their own Jurassic Park memories and create new ones for themselves. Jurassic World is the Summer blockbuster movie in every definition of the word. If you need to be entertained in the air-conditioned theater for a few hours, you can buy your ticket at the door.
Phantom Thoughts
Have you seen the other 3 Jurassic Park movies? Yeah? Ok.....then you don't need to see this one.
"But, Phantom..", you say, "aren't you being a bit harsh? This is not a reboot, it takes place AFTER the events of Jurassic Park." No. I'm not. Watching this movie, they took the ENTIRE story from the previous ones. And I do mean everything. Let's go down the list:
- You've got the head of Jurassic World welcoming in her two nephews = Hammond welcoming in his two Grandkids (JP1)
- Owen Grady is the "expert" who is the voice of reason = an amalgamation of Dr. Grant and Ian Malcolm (JP1-3)
- "evil" InGen corporation is motivated by greed and makes things worse instead of better (JP2)
- Although he doesn't create the situation like Wayne Knight did, Vincent D'Onofrio's decisions to prove his theory that the dinosaurs can be used as a military weapon causes even more chaos ( JP1)
* side note: this is also the same running theme of the Alien movies with the Weyland Industries Corporation
- The couple of the kids on the island are getting a divorce = The Kirby's (JP3)
- The kids find themselves being attacked in an island vehicle by the BIG dino = (JP1)
- The Pteranodons are freed from their "birdcage" and attack the visitors = (JP3)
- The T-Rex is lured by a flare by Claire = Same scene with Dr. Grant and Ian Malcolm (JP1)
I literally can go on and on. I mean, they even end up in the original building from the first movie which has been abandoned. So I think the point was to just make a new version of the old movies. They figured that if they put in all the same elements that made the originals so popular, they would get the same results. But it felt forced. The pacing was off. The way the tension built to a crescendo in the first one was missing in this one.
There is a bright side to all this. I have long been an admirer of movies that give nods the original inspiration, if there is one. They are called "Easter Eggs" in popular circles. And because they wanted SO much to connect to the original movies in this one, Jurassic World is filled with them. From "Mr. DNA" to a statue of Hammond himself, there are many obvious (and not so obvious. Did you see Ian Malcom's book: "God Creates Dinosaurs" in the film.....twice?) little gems to find. And the only returning character from the original, B.D. Wong as Dr. Henry Wu, gives a little "Fuck you" to everyone who complained that the dinosaurs in all these movies don't look (or sometimes act) like ACTUAL dinosaurs would. When questioned why he would spice different animals together to make Indominus Rex, he says "because we've always done it that way. To fill the holes in the DNA." Duh. Doesn't anyone remember the South African tree frogs? "Life finds a way".
And here's the biggest SPOILER ALERT. I mean, if you're still reading this, you probably don't much care about spoilers, but I'll alert you anyway. The biggest "reveal" toward the end....the big secret of what did they splice together to make this new creature....comes out. I don't know about you, but I kinda guessed right away the thing had Velociraptor in it. It looked like a Raptor, it hunted like a Raptor and it was smart like a Raptor. Hell, they even had a shot of it's eye peering through the bushes at you like in JP1! If that was their idea of keeping a secret, no one better tell the writers what's really in Area 51.
Also, the way the villain, Indominus Rex, was finally brought down was kinda anti-climatic. Yes, the fight scene with it and T-Rex and the Raptors was good, but I felt a bit jipped that at the climax of the fight, Mosasaur comes out of nowhere and chomps him down.
Finally, I have to mention this. I saw this in the trailers and was sickened by it and after watching the actual movie, it didn't ease my mind much. We see one of the kids asking Chris Pratt who is the "Alpha" of the Velociraptors. To which he replies: "You're looking at him." Riiiiiight. So you're saying that the most vicious, deadly and SMARTEST of all the dinosaurs as depicted in all the Jurassic movies including this one, chose soft, pink, chewy, yummy, no-claws-or-sharp-teeth having Star Lord as their leader? Are you fucking kidding me? That's like me and 3 of my friends listening to a piece of bacon for advice. And although it's not as bad as I had first imagined it (there are still glimpses of the ferociousness we know the Raptors to be) it's still laughable.
But my 14 year old daughter liked it. It broke all kinds of records at the box office. I spent a few hours of a very humid day in an air conditioned theater. Bryce Dallas Howard is nice to look at. So I guess it wasn't a total waste of my time.
Until next time, see you in the center seat.
