It's been 20 years since the events of the first Jurassic Park film, where a tropical storm unleashed the horrors of nature on park staff and a tour group. Since that time, InGen, the corporation responsible for cloning the dinosaurs and building the park on Isla Nublar has doubled down on its efforts, and successfully opened a part, Jurassic World, that is a smash hit on the same island. In the face of flat attendance, the corporation seeks to renew healthy growth, and is investing in new dinosaurs to boost attendance. Up-and-coming director Colin Trevorrow follows up Safety Not Guaranteed (which I loved) with his big-budget debut, so color me intrigued intrigued. (He must love working with Parks and Recreation stars, for what it's worth)
The Good: this film does a pretty solid job of capturing a lot of what made the first Jurassic Park film so good. The mix of wonder and terror is kind of what's at the heart of a great summer blockbuster when it comes down to it. The flick takes the interesting approach of treating the dinosaurs like its actual stars, and that makes things a lot of fun. When the T-Rex finally shows up, it's pretty damn awesome. Chris "Star Lord" Pratt, who went from this to ripped action hero in the span of 3 years, is continuing his quest to conquer us all, and brings his roguish charm to this one as well. Bryce Dallas Howard, who I usually hate (NEPOTISM), is decent enough here as a career-obsessed corporate drone. The action sequences are well done and you'll leave the theater feeling like you just had a rip-roaring good time, which is exactly what the movie wants you to feel.
The Bad: I have a few main complaints that ultimately take this flick from the upper tier of recent blockbusters (Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy) to the more mediocre tier. First, and this is a true shame, one of the best parts about the original Jurassic Park is that the main characters were intellectuals, they were scientists who were at once knowledgeable and legitimately interested in dinosaurs. Dr. Satler and Dr. Grant were informing the audience about dinosaurs, and even if a lot of what they were saying was nonsense, it was still a gun-ho attempt by the movie to be more than a monster flick. There's none of that here. No one in the movie is interested or informed about dinosaurs beyond a generic interest in animals, and everyone is just sort of a generic stock action character of the type that you'd find in a Transformers movie. Considering that the original Jurassic Park had Satler, Grant AND Ian Malcolm, that's just disappointing. These dumbed-down characters make dumbed down decisions that create the central conflict in this movie. Where in Jurassic Park a hurricane and a rogue employee bring down the park, here it's just people being dumb. Also, the central plot is DUMB. That's not new for an action/horror movie, but I feel like some adult supervision would have been nice. The very idea that after the horrors that dinosaurs have brought over multiple movies now that ANYONE would think that genetically modified hybrid killing machines would be a good idea is just preposterous. You know how zoos are always trying to create bigger, badder tigers in the lab? Oh yeah, that's never happened. (The military using raptors to kill people? C'mon, man) So not only are the characters dumb and not interested in dinosaurs, we also have two children who are shoehorned in to apparently call back to the first film AND appeal to the kid demographic. That would be well and good if the characters were anything other than generic sitcom characters OR if the performances were worthwhile, but the actors are flat and the writing is "meh" so the kids are just a waste of time. I just feel like this movie was written by dumb(ish) people for dumb(ish) people and that's absolutely not true of the first Jurassic Park so it's ultimately disappointing on the intelligence front. I was also kind of weirded out by the thought-process that goes into a fundamentally anti-corporate message being delivered by a film that's chock full of product placement from front to back.
So, ultimately, this film is big, loud, dumb fun. The dinosaurs in the Jurassic Park series are beloved by this point, so you could do much worse than seeing raptors and t-rex's rampage on the big screen. Pratt is one of the most likable action stars we've had in years, and the movie delivers tons of dinosaur mayhem for your consumption. Ultimately, though, it's dumb and silly in a disappointing way, so I can't give it a glowing review.
6.5/10. Eminently watchable and fun, just don't think too hard about it, or try to figure out why NO one involved seems to give a damn that they're surrounded by miracles.
