Jurassic World Movie Review
"Monster is a relative term. To a canary, a cat is a monster. We're just used to being the cat."
-Dr. Henry Wu
22 years later and the park has finally reopened! Jurassic World has taken the world by storm and I would call you a liar if you told me you had predicted its success. As of today, Jurassic World is sitting on a pretty 1.52 billion dollars and its run in theaters isn't quite over yet. That makes it the 3rd highest grossing movie of all time right now, not adjusted to inflation of course. Nonetheless, an impressive feat although a bit questionable. It's important to note that this film does not try to be better than the original. It's good on its own and pays homage to the original Jurassic Park while maintaining its own identity.
Also don't worry, this movie is much better than the two Jurassic Park sequels, so at least that's something to look forward to! The film is directed by Colin Trevorrow, stars Chris Pratt as Owens and Bryce Dallas Howard as Claire, not to be confused with Jessica Chastain, which I along with many other people initially did, and Vincent D'Onofrio as Hoskins.
Also don't worry, this movie is much better than the two Jurassic Park sequels, so at least that's something to look forward to! The film is directed by Colin Trevorrow, stars Chris Pratt as Owens and Bryce Dallas Howard as Claire, not to be confused with Jessica Chastain, which I along with many other people initially did, and Vincent D'Onofrio as Hoskins.
We jump right into the story, first being introduced to Zach and Gray, two brothers who are about to take a trip to Jurassic World and visit their aunt Claire who is a high level executive at the park. She's clearly very career-oriented and seems distant from her family so they're not all too excited to be visiting her. Zach plays the typical older brother role where he's uninterested in almost everything his little brother wants to do or talk about. They try to build up his character and make you care about him throughout the film, but I never really did. He was one sided and a throw away character, but I didn't hate him, I just didn't really care about him.
Gray wasn't great either, but I was at least able to empathize with him much more. Although a large chunk of the film follows Zach and Gray, the real stars are Owen and Claire and they both get their moments to shine. Claire has the most growth as a character throughout the film and she definitely grew on me as the film progressed.
Owens is an ex-servicemen who now spends his days training with Velociraptors and he seems to be the only one who truly understands these animals. In other hands this character might have fallen short, but Chris Pratt has proven that he can breath life into the roles he takes on and he is such a great entertainer. His relationship with the Velociraptors plays a very vital role later on in the film, but it's so much fun to just enjoy their presence throughout. I mean, dinosaurs are cool, there aren't many other ways to frame it.
The human antagonist is played by Vincent D'Onofrio and even though I love his acting, and most recently thought he was superb as Kingpin in the Daredevil series this past year, I wasn't too impressed with his performance. His character was just a greedy, self-interested jerk who was looking for an opportunity to make himself richer. Not much depth there. Similarly to Jurassic Park, this film focuses on the relationship with humans and nature and how we probably shouldn't be the ones tampering with it.
Under the supervision of Simon Masrani, played by Irrfan Khan, who currently owns the park, Dr. Henry Wu and his team of scientists are tasked with creating a new attraction. They weren't given any specific parameters just instructions to make a dinosaur that was bigger, cooler, scarier. And just as you'd expect to happen when genetically tampering with multiple DNA samples from different predators, a killing machine was born; The Indominus Rex. The Indominus Rex was undoubtedly a bad ass dinosaur, and she was shrouded in mystery just long enough before she was unveiled to make it extra cool.
Where I think the Jurassic World falls short is in the writing department. To put it simply, it just wasn't great writing, one could argue it just passed the "good" mark. I found myself predicting things before they happened even up until the climax. Now while that boosted my ego and made me feel smart at the time, looking back I'd say it takes you out of the experience a little bit. Not enough to ruin it for me though, because I had a blast watching this movie. I thought the visual effects were phenomenal and I could believe I was looking at real dinosaurs. It was incredible. Also the feel of nostalgia definitely had a big part to play in this films success combined with good word of mouth. People hated the two sequels, but once they heard how fun Jurassic World actually was, they flocked to the theaters.
I think the film respectfully pays homage to the original, multiple times, and makes sure the audience notices. Where the film lacks in good story-telling, I think it picks up with solid actors and beautiful CGI. Now good writing can't be replaced which is what holds back Jurassic World from being a fantastic movie in my eyes, but it still managed to be such a fun experience and a movie I would definitely re-watch. I don't need every movie I watch to be an Oscar nominee and this movie was a good old fashioned fun night at the movies. I give Jurassic World a 7 out of 10. If you like dinosaurs, you'll like the movie, but don't go in expecting a masterpiece.
Gray wasn't great either, but I was at least able to empathize with him much more. Although a large chunk of the film follows Zach and Gray, the real stars are Owen and Claire and they both get their moments to shine. Claire has the most growth as a character throughout the film and she definitely grew on me as the film progressed.
Owens is an ex-servicemen who now spends his days training with Velociraptors and he seems to be the only one who truly understands these animals. In other hands this character might have fallen short, but Chris Pratt has proven that he can breath life into the roles he takes on and he is such a great entertainer. His relationship with the Velociraptors plays a very vital role later on in the film, but it's so much fun to just enjoy their presence throughout. I mean, dinosaurs are cool, there aren't many other ways to frame it.
The human antagonist is played by Vincent D'Onofrio and even though I love his acting, and most recently thought he was superb as Kingpin in the Daredevil series this past year, I wasn't too impressed with his performance. His character was just a greedy, self-interested jerk who was looking for an opportunity to make himself richer. Not much depth there. Similarly to Jurassic Park, this film focuses on the relationship with humans and nature and how we probably shouldn't be the ones tampering with it.
Under the supervision of Simon Masrani, played by Irrfan Khan, who currently owns the park, Dr. Henry Wu and his team of scientists are tasked with creating a new attraction. They weren't given any specific parameters just instructions to make a dinosaur that was bigger, cooler, scarier. And just as you'd expect to happen when genetically tampering with multiple DNA samples from different predators, a killing machine was born; The Indominus Rex. The Indominus Rex was undoubtedly a bad ass dinosaur, and she was shrouded in mystery just long enough before she was unveiled to make it extra cool.
Where I think the Jurassic World falls short is in the writing department. To put it simply, it just wasn't great writing, one could argue it just passed the "good" mark. I found myself predicting things before they happened even up until the climax. Now while that boosted my ego and made me feel smart at the time, looking back I'd say it takes you out of the experience a little bit. Not enough to ruin it for me though, because I had a blast watching this movie. I thought the visual effects were phenomenal and I could believe I was looking at real dinosaurs. It was incredible. Also the feel of nostalgia definitely had a big part to play in this films success combined with good word of mouth. People hated the two sequels, but once they heard how fun Jurassic World actually was, they flocked to the theaters.
I think the film respectfully pays homage to the original, multiple times, and makes sure the audience notices. Where the film lacks in good story-telling, I think it picks up with solid actors and beautiful CGI. Now good writing can't be replaced which is what holds back Jurassic World from being a fantastic movie in my eyes, but it still managed to be such a fun experience and a movie I would definitely re-watch. I don't need every movie I watch to be an Oscar nominee and this movie was a good old fashioned fun night at the movies. I give Jurassic World a 7 out of 10. If you like dinosaurs, you'll like the movie, but don't go in expecting a masterpiece.
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