JURASSIC WORLD - REVIEW


At first, Jurassic "anything" sure didn't sound like the best idea seeing how unpopular both sequels to Steven Spielberg's genial 90's blockbuster Jurassic Park were. Then the idea of a Jurassic World popped up and, suddenly, we all perked up about the project a little.

The trailers had a lukewarm flavour to them, though, so who knew if this reboot/sequel was going to be any good.

Especially sans Goldblum!

Having the doors of the Park actually open and allowing guests to go on (mostly unsupervised) prehistoric rides certainly offered a lot of opportunities for mindless dino-destruction and an unparalleled body count for the franchise. In that sense, Jurassic World delivers exactly what we needed: pure Summer blockbuster chaos complete with people getting chewed-up by fab-looking CGI dinosaurs, tons of suspense and that iconic John Williams score (arranged by Michael Giacchino) punctuating the show throughout. The plot sees two kids whose parents are going through a divorce be sent away to Jurassic World where their aunt Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) was supposed to look after them. When a new "attraction", a dangerous new breed of dinosaur, escapes, panic soon settles in for the people in charge and the film becomes a race against time to stop the beast before it reaches the centre of the park.

Chris Pratt is Owen, an ex-marine who works as a trainer for the raptors. He is soon landed at the forefront of Jurassic World's catastrophic new development and, eventually, he is convinced by a shady Vincent D'Onofrio to use the velociraptors to hunt down the loose monster. Unlike Jurassic Park, which is entertaining from start to finish, Jurassic World takes some time to get going: the first 15 minutes are slow and heavily expositional. Luckily, once the action kicks in, it never lets go and the rest of the film is pretty relentless. While the novelty of seeing CGI dinosaurs was lost after Spielberg's original, the visual effects in this one are slick and look great. The occasional use of animatronics also adding a welcome retro feel to certain scenes.

This is by no means a perfect movie with characters not quite as memorable as Park's and a script with plot holes and cheesy lines which could have easily been fixed but, as a whole, it works. This is a fun, colourful Summer blockbuster which both embraces and criticises the fact it's a reboot of a beloved classic. Packed with exciting, at times genuinely violent, action sequences, Jurassic World may be kinda silly at times but, like Jurassic Park, its horror B-movie core is handled in a playful way.

Definitely check out this sequel if you're looking for a good time at the cinema. This is an old-fashioned big-budget popcorn movie which won't make you smarter but which will get the job done.

Fun.

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