Movie Review: Jurassic World

Jurassic World

"Oh, yeah. Oooh, ahhh, that's how it always starts. Then later there's running and screaming." Dr. Ian Malcolm, The Lost World:Jurassic Park

Warning: Spoilers below for a twenty two-year old film that nearly a sixth of the planet saw in its initial theatre run. And if you haven't seen Jurassic Park, well, I just feel sad for you, my friend. Sad.

But first, let's talk about Jurassic Park. 

I saw Jurassic Park in the summer of 1993, maybe even opening weekend. I remember walking out of the theatre that night feeling like I had not only been on a two-hour roller coaster ride, but also like I had just seen something monumental, important even. I also remember not being able to explain the plot afterwards over adult beverages. It's the only time I have ever left a film unable to remember any of the story. I was so engrossed in "how did this get made?" I forgot to ask "what is going on here?" I was caught up in the running and the screaming and the spectacle and homages to Aliens and completely ignored what Newman from Seinfeld was up to. I was listening to Jeff Goldblum explain chaos theory but forgot to wonder why it was in this movie. So, of course, I had to see it again. And that time I became aware of the story's issues. Like, why is Jeff Goldblum yammering on and on and on about chaos theory when the whole plot hinges on the actions of Newman from Seinfeld? 

But even with the story issues and the plot holes (how does the T-Rex get into the lobby of the visitor's centre without anyone noticing and hide until the raptors are about to tear the heroes of the story into little pieces?) Jurassic Park is among my absolute favourite theatre experiences of, well, ever. It is everything great about Steven Spielberg's shock-and-awe-and-popcorn movies. It can sit on the mantle just below Jaws and Raiders of the Lost Ark. If you don't think Jurassic Park a great big amusement park full of fun and horror and scares I will judge. I will judge harshly.

After Jurassic Park the sequels became a game of trying to top the last one. What will audiences love more than one T. Rex? The answer in The Lost World: Jurassic Park was two T. Rexes. And what will audiences love more than 2 T. Rexes? The answer in Jurassic Park 3 was an even bigger and angrier and meaner apex predator. The central problem with both of those sequels is that bigger doesn't mean better. While the second film did give us the best line in the whole series, that quote up top, with the obsession of bigger the sequels lost their focus on what made Jurassic Park work so well. The combination of great characters, great actors, great special effects and great spectacle mixed with horror, humour, suspense and thrills is the recipe for Jurassic Park. Or at least part of it. Another part of it was a director at the top of his game playing with new and wonderful toys. 

Which brings us, finally, to Jurassic World. 

Jurassic World is the name of the resort on Isla Nublar, a fully functioning dinosaur theme park with crowds of tourists and petting zoos and monorails and gyrosphere rides and an overworked park manager played by Spiderman's other girlfriend Bryce Dallas Howard and a former Navy guy and snarky Velociraptor expert played by guardian of the galaxy Chris Pratt and an evil head of security played by Daredevil's nemesis Vincent D'Onofrio and two kids, one of whom was the kid in Iron Man 3. After ten years of operation, and a complete awareness of the events that happened twenty two years earlier, the park management create a new dinosaur from bits of other dinosaurs which goes about as well as expected. Bryce Dallas Howard's overworked park manager makes the decision to try to correct the badness without evacuating the park, which also goes about as well as expected. Other characters make decisions that go about as well as expected also. I guess what I'm saying here is Jurassic World is a bit predictable. It is part of the Jurassic Park franchise, after all. But that's not to say it is without surprises and shocks and jumps and wonder. 

While some of the set-ups are predictable, as well as some of the dominos that fall, and where they fall, the way that some of the characters handle and deal with these ever escalating piles of challenges and problems and death and horror is quite surprising. The decisions that are made rarely feel forced, you're never really aware of the writers' pushing the pieces around the board just to get character A to move doodad X so thingamajig 3 can fall into place. Aloha, I'm looking at you.

Jurassic World is also one of the most self-aware blockbusters I've ever seen. Characters make fun of the name of the new critter, comment on the rationale of decisions, compare current situations to things that happened in the first movie. Jake Johnson's snarky tech guy wears a Jurassic Park t-shirt that he bought off of Ebay. The parade of product placement is so over the top it becomes a parody of product placement in mainstream films. Characters even comment on the product placement. There is a lot of humour in Jurassic World, but it never overwhelms the thrills. 

Where Jurassic World stumbles is nearly every time it stops for a Dramatic Moment. The acting is fine, but the kids' family dilemmas feel out of place. They're no Lex and Tim. It's just the film's momentum kinda drags whenever they start talking about their feelings. The romance between the leads feels forced, which also slows the pace of the movie at times. 

But, really, we're going to see Jurassic World for the dinosaurs and the dinosaurs eating people and the dinosaurs chasing people. And that is where Jurassic World wins. The action ramps up until you're sure it can't ramp up anymore, but then the movie turns the amp up to eleven and the audience's collective minds are melting and I'm bouncing in my seat like an over-sugared eleven-year old, mixed metaphors and all. 

Beyond all the shocks and surprises and wins this movie has the biggest might be that it was directed by Colin Trevorrow, whose only other film is Safety Not Guaranteed. The guy behind the micro-budgeted Safety Not Guaranteed is not the obvious choice to put behind the driver's seat of movie about people running away from killer dinosaurs with a budget equal to some countries' gross domestic product. It's a charming, funny film about a reporter and two interns trying to find out what's up with a guy who has placed a classified ad looking for a companion for time travel starring Aubrey Plaza, Jake Johnson, and Mark Duplass. It's on Netflix, find it and check it out. I can't recommend it enough. But, yeah. The complete opposite of a Giant Blockbuster Franchise Film. It's just a really funny character study. 

So, sister-in-law, who only reads the last paragraph or so of these things, Jurassic World is worth both your time and your money. It is easily the second best film in the franchise. The sense of wonder and danger and awe that Jurassic Park instilled may not be there, but that can only happen once. Come for the dinosaurs eating people and and the dinosaurs chasing people. Stay for the Velociraptor whisperer. 

And if anyone can explain how that T. Rex got into the visitor's centre and hid in the first film, feel free to explain it to me. Thanks.