Jurassic World Review: Everything you want it to be, expecting it to be, hoping it to be. Nostalgic, exciting, thrilling, gripping and bloody terrifying.
Jurassic World Review
Director: Colin Trevorrow
Cast: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Vincent D’Onofrio, BD Wong, Sy Omar
Certificate: 12A
Run Time: 124 minutes
Synopsis: Visitors at the Jurassic World theme park run for their lives when the genetically engineered Indominus Rex and other dinosaurs go on a rampage.
Epic is one word to describe Jurassic World. Outstanding, is another. 22 years we’ve waited for a proper sequel to Steven Spielberg‘s classic 1993 original, and now we’ve got it, courtesy of Colin Trevorrow. Oh boy, have we got it…
The action kicks off on Isla Nublar, an island off the coast of Costa Rica, at a theme park that not only is up, running and fully functional, but welcomes 20,000 people to its attractions every day. It looks like John Hammond’s dream has finally come true as this isn’t a park for loaded multi-millionaires, but one for the people, all made possible by the eighth richest man in the world, Simon Masrani (Irrfan Khan). Amongst the attractions at this new park are the villain/hero of the first movie, the massive T-Rex, the other villains from the earlier movies, the velociraptors, and a brand new attraction, the Indominus Rex, a hybrid dinosaur created from a host of different DNA. She’s also a very clever girl. The story revolves around said beast, who manages to escape from her, frankly massive, compound and run havoc amongst the other dinos, park workers and tens of thousands of guests. Tasked with getting it all under control is uptight career girl and park operations manager Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard), and former navy man/ Sam Neil for a new generation, Owen, played by the excellent Chris Pratt (Guardians of the Galaxy), a park ranger that has seemingly managed to become the ‘alpha male’ amongst the four vicious velociraptors that he’s responsible for. There’s also Zach and Gray, the two new kids of the franchise, visiting Jurassic World for the first time, both of whom are the nephews of Howard’s character, and naturally, are put through their paces as they get stuck in the wilderness as it all kicks off.
It’s all quite familiar stuff as you can probably tell from my brief summary of the plot, which is all I’m willing to go into in this Jurassic World review, as the film has a lot of layers to it which must be experienced without the viewer knowing too much before going into it. There are subtle nods to the first film towards the end of the second reel, and even some to those key players from the 1993 classic that are sadly no longer with us; notably Stan Winston who brought so much to the table with his creature shop animatronics, and the late, great Richard Attenborough.
The trailers really did not do the film any justice upon their release last year. Gone are the dubious, hammy performances and cheesy dialogue, the dodgy CGI, and even certain scenes’ context, particularly around Owen’s relationship with the raptors. Ever present is the unrelenting threat, constant foreboding and fantastic action sequences which will leave you breathless. Chris Pratt is perfect in the role of Owen and this film, his first post-Guardians, should see his stock shoot right up and secure him that A-list status that he deserves. The same can be said of Bryce Dallas Howard who ventures into her first leading-lady role after some great turns in The Village and the Oscar-winning The Help. There’s also some great support from the ever-reliable Vincent D’Onofrio and Omar Sy as Owen’s wing-man Barry, and the returning BD Wong who reprises his role of Dr. Henry Wu from the first movie.
Then there’s Trevorrow. It’s hard to believe that this is only his second feature. Following all of the negativity, the awful feedback following those initial trailers, and the sure-to-be huge pressure of delivering a worthy sequel, you have to think that Colin Trevorrow is sitting on a beach on an island somewhere, kicking back with his feet up feeling rather pleased with himself. As he should be. This is a phenomenal piece of filmmaking. After gracefully taking a step away from the possibility of directing further sequels, I can’t wait to see what this talented director tackles next.
Put simply, Jurassic World is everything you want it to be, expecting it to be, hoping it to be. Nostalgic, exciting, thrilling, gripping and bloody terrifying in places, all brought to the screen in really rather impressive IMAX 3D. This is the best tentpole release of the summer so far with the only negative being the question of where things could be taken next, but don’t worry about that, just enjoy this for now. We’ve waited long enough for it.
Jurassic World review, Paul Heath, June 2015.
Jurassic World is released in cinemas from 11th June, 2015.
