Jurassic World (2015)
The anticipation shouldn't be hard to grasp: I remember seeing the original Jurassic Park on VHS when I was give or take 8 years old. I fell in love with it immediately and even more so when last summer I saw it on the big screen for the first time at my local arthouse.
So, where did the skepticism come from? Well, as I saw more and more material come from Jurassic World, I kept thinking (and hearing from others) that it looked more and more like a mindless CG crapfest similar to the Transformers franchise...or Jurassic Park III.
Thankfully, the 14 years we've waited for a fourth Jurassic Park film were well worth the wait. Not only is Jurassic World visually entertaining and thrilling, it also captures a lot of the magic of the original film.
The majority of this magic comes from the story. The "too long; didn't read" version is the movie's tagline: "The park is open." Now, this could have gone a myriad of ways, many of which would have lost the sense of wonder we had for these amazing dinosaurs in the first place. Thankfully, for the first 45 minutes of Jurassic World, we are treated to the visual splendor and wonder of the dinosaurs. Afterwards, they become those terrible beasts that they are best known for being. The story of Jurassic World also doesn't skimp on characters. Owen and Claire, played by Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, respectively, are both well-developed and engaging characters that we as the audience want to root for. However, there are some subplots that felt a little bloated and/or unessential at times, particularly one involving Vincent D'Onofrio's character Hoskins. Some might say that all the sequences with the kids drag the film down; however, I genuinely thought that they improved the other aspects of the story and allowed for an ocassional change of pace. The raptor training sequences were handled very well, and I very much enjoyed seeing that.
The acting of Jurassic World is what makes the plot really work. Chris Pratt's performance as Owen, a raptor trainer, makes him the premiere action star he was already becoming. There are many moments in this film where he just nailed everything his character was about. I know that there's a lot of rumors floating about centered around his casting as Indiana Jones in a potential reboot of the franchise. After this film, I give him the green light. He could easily do it. Bryce Dallas Howard also performs well, giving Claire a little extra dimension as the park's operating manager. The two child actors also shine far greater than expected, both overcoming the traditional flaws present in younger actors. I also really enjoyed B.D. Wong reprising his role from the original film; his presence created a continuity that otherwise would have been absent minus a handful of references to John Hammond and one other sequence (which I won't spoil here). Most of the flaws here are because of the characters. One example is Vincent D'Onofrio's Hoskins. D'Onofrio is an excellent actor, but his character restricted his ability to flow freely because he was hampered with lots of one-liners and lacked dimension. Not that he wasn't a nice addition, but his role might have suited someone else better.
Michael Giacchino's score is also excellent. It felt like a classic film score from John Williams while also not being exclusively rooted in its instrumentation. Speaking of John Williams, I really appreciated the presence of his original themes from Jurassic Park, as they provided even more continuity between the original film and Jurassic World.
Now, onto the visuals. Colin Trevorrow's direction is really solid for a blockbuster action film, as he knows how to and how to not display action on screen. The entire film remains coherent and, while he's no Steven Spielberg, he definitely can direct well. The use of traditional film stock in Jurassic World is also very much appreciated and brings a slightly aged look to the film. The dinosaurs, however, are what we've all come to see. Aside from a few very specific instances, all the dinos are CGI. This was something I had to look up and research after the film. That's how good this CGI is. According to various sources, Jurassic World's CG dinosaurs were portrayed using motion capture. This gave them a fluidity of motion and a lifelikeness that to date I have only seen with animatronics. However, when the animatronics came on, I knew what I had been missing. Not that the CGI is bad; on the contrary, it is some of the best I have ever seen. It's just that when you get to this one scene with Chris Pratt and a sauropod on the plains...it's just gold, and the animatronic dinosaur makes it so.
One last point I'd like to make before wrapping up is that I see Jurassic World as an internal commentary about Hollywood. The scientists in the film are told to make bigger, scarier dinosaurs with more teeth to raise profits, not unlike how Hollywood directors are told to make bigger movies with more crazy stunts and CG effects. This might be giving us a glimpse into why Jurassic World was stuck in development hell for so long. I really appreciated this aspect of the film, as it lended itself even more to movie fans.
Overall, Jurassic World is the Jurassic Park sequel we've been waiting for for 22 years. It outshines both The Lost World and JP 3 simply because it doesn't try to be bigger and better than the original; rather, it aims to capture that same spirit with a fresher angle. Not only does it do so, but it does so above and beyond what I could ever have imagined. This could have turned a beloved franchise into the next Transformers: instead, it beautifully recreated the original magic and gave this awe-inspiring franchise something to build on for the future.
My recommendation: Buy it.
Grade: 82
Summary: Jurassic World is exactly the sort of film that we've been waiting for for 14 years: a well-directed, well-acted popcorn thriller that captures much of the original magic of its franchise without copying it to excess.
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