Jurassic World is not a reboot so it is slightly shocking that despite existing in the same world as Jurassic Park, Jurassic Park: The Lost World and Jurassic Park III, Jurassic World, the dinosaur amusement park, is filled with paying customers eager to be eaten! Oh well.
Jurassic World is about two things. First, Jurassic World is about corporate greed and scientific hubris exploiting nature and destroying the environment. Second and most importantly, like all disaster movies, including its predecessors, it is about reuniting and ideally creating a family. More babies!
Cons against Jurassic World: well-trained military men are dying left, right and center, but the 2 kids are better at evading a terrifying hybrid dinosaur. OK. These kids walk a tricky tightrope: stupid enough to be in danger, but clever enough not to succumb to it. I’m glad someone told the hybrid who were the stars and who needed to be chased because otherwise it would have killed all the people in one pen lined up like cattle. If you run Jurassic World, wouldn’t you know the details of what happened before so NOT think that it is a good idea to have a particular type of dinosaur chase the hybrid since the end of Jurassic Park shows that they got defeated by a dinosaur considerably smaller than the hybrid though naturally impressive. Jurassic World lagged in the middle. Jurassic World copies many scenes from the original and other famous movies so even though it is thrilling, the action scenes can be vaguely familiar, particularly the denouement.
Pros for Jurassic World: dinosaurs! If you were ever a child, you were into dinosaurs at some point. I was sad because of the unexpected rampant killing for fun of other dinosaurs for sport and not for consumption. I loved the brief, destructive dinosaur solidarity (obvious) and the more enduring, constructive dinosaur solidarity (not so obvious). There was a missed opportunity to really explore the conflict between dinosaurs feeling a kinship to their human creators/caretakers and the obvious conflict with humanity as a source of food, danger and enslavement. If you side with your captors, even if they’re cool and vaguely respect you, shouldn’t you be ripped to shreds? We could have gotten Dawn of the Planet of the Dinosaurs and some nifty metaphors for oppression a la Sea World, but Jurassic World didn’t do it. Instead we got a dinosaur serial killer. Maybe the hybrid should have been more sympathetic so that idea could have been fleshed out, but I’m glad that the hybrid wasn’t because then we would enter Matthew Broderick’s Godzilla danger territory. I guess that I’ll sign a waiver.
The cast was really excellent. Looks like Chris Pratt and Judy Greer can pay off their mortgages since they are favorites of two franchises: Marvel summer blockbusters and Jurassic world. Irrfan Khan is sexy, and he knows it. I am glad that Jurassic World recognizes Khan’s greatness. Great move to cast Jake Johnson of The New Girl for comedic relief. B.D. Wong and Vincent D’Onofrio get to leave the small screen world of Law & Order and chew the scenery. Katie McGrath needs to talk to her agent. She is luminous, but did not get one single close-up and had a really awful death. No one knows you, Katie, and they should. I am indifferent to Bryce Dallas Howard. She generally does good work, but her character is kind of ridiculous, and I have yet to be blown away by her.
Jurassic World is summer blockbuster fun that is a bit sadder than expected. Jurassic World is a must see for lovers of the franchise, but like all sequels, even though there is more spectacle, there will be less brilliance.