“ Yeah, but, John, If the Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don’t eat the tourists” Those words were spoken twenty two years ago, as “Jurassic Park” was being inspected to open as a theme park that featured dinosaurs as the main attractions. The park didn’t open, well because the attractions did eat the tourists, something that never turns out well. And like any good or especially bad sequel, we never learn from our past mistakes and “Jurassic Park” is now “Jurassic World”, a fully functional amusement park. Dinosaurs you can find in books are not that interesting however, at the park, lead by Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) they have come up with meaner and scarier dinosaurs to get attendance up. So Dr. Henry Wu (BD Wong) cooks up a new attraction, the one the park needs to get the attention it wants.
While Clair and Dr. Wu are making new dinosaurs, Owen (Chris Pratt) is busy training them. Owen has gotten the Raptors to follow his commands, much like a lion tamer, or in this case a Raptor-Whisperer; something a man named Hoskins (Vincent D” Onofrio) has an interest in as well. While all of this is going on, Clair’s nephews Gray (Ty Simpkins) and Zack (Nick Robinson) are visiting the park. Well what was predicted twenty-two years ago happens once again, this time with twenty thousand visitors, I mean with that many people and a park full of man-eating dinosaurs, what could go wrong?
With this being the forth film in the “Jurassic” series, you might wonder what new story they can tell. Well I am glad you asked, how about a story that pretty much makes the last two films non existent. With to many writers to name, the story has some questionable parts to it, like the use of dinosaurs in the battlefield, because it seems the military can turn anything into a weapon. The movie also is pretty easy to determine where the story is going, as nothing feels like a surprise, and it feels more like those “of course they did moments”. The story aside, the other major shortcoming is the CGI, which often looks incomplete, and flawed. Director Colin Trevorrow (Safety Not Guaranteed) does a good enough job, but he doesn’t have the Spielberg touch, a touch that adds humanity to a story filled with creatures that aren’t real. With “Jurassic Park” you were amazed with what you saw on the screen as you watched in wonder dinosaurs roaming the earth again. With “Jurassic World” over twenty years of better technology and you leave feeling like you have seen something that looks like everything else. Add what feels like cardboard characters, except Simpkins, who shows that while he may be young, he is going to be a star. “The Lost World” and Jurassic Park 3” were already let downs from the greatness that was the original film, so the thought of being able to forget they existed wasn’t hard. What was hard was to wait fourteen years for the next installment and leave disappointed once again. “Jurassic World” actually might be the second best film in this franchise, and that says more about the last two, than this current one. Somewhere where along the way “Jurassic” lost its magic and while this is not a good film; it is also not a terrible one. So try and enjoy your return trip to the park, but when it is all over you might wish the extinction of this franchise.
Brian Taylor