‘Jurassic World’ Review: Popcorn Action Flick That Holds Up to the Original

Check out our ‘Jurassic World’ review where Chris Pratt and company give a modern update to a well conditioned thrill ride that still works today…

By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer

It’s hard to believe that ‘Jurassic Park’ opened 22 years ago, but it’s actually been that long. So for many viewers going to see ‘Jurassic World’ this weekend, it may very well be the first time they’ve seen anything from this series of movies. While the original film is still hailed as a classic, the two subsequent sequels didn’t hold up quite as well (although the third movie is extremely underrated, in my opinion).

This latest jaunt into the world of modern day theme parks bumping up against stone age monsters is a well suited update for 2015 and the movie holds up well against the predecessor from 1993 that re-introduced every kid’s love affair with dinosaurs.

The new movie is a whole lot more CGI instead of any kind of animatronics, but the action scenes don’t skip a beat and ‘Jurassic World’ even manages to introduce a few new ideas to the fold as well. Of course the characters in the updated version are standard popcorn flick fare — the dashing hero, the work-all-day, save-play-for-later boss, the money hungry maniac, and of course a whole lot of teeth-bearing, flesh ripping monsters ready to swoop across the movie screen and take that $10 out of your pocket because it’s definitely worth the money you paid to get in.

PLOT

So the updated ‘Jurassic World’ shows a fully functional theme park complete with petting zoo and ride-a-dinosaur options for kids as well as the viewing areas where you can watch an underwater shark eater called the Mosasaurus rise up from the depths and snatch its dinner while dousing the audience at the same time or perhaps head over to the Tyrannosaurus Rex pin where goats are still running for their lives.

The story kicks off with two brothers being sent to the park to spend a few days with their aunt Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard), who is the woman in charge, while their parents are quietly back at home finalizing a divorce. The two kids — one a broody teenager, the other an enthusiastic dino-lover — are stuck with an assistant for the day because aunt-with-no-kids has a lot to get to today and babysitting ain’t one of them!

The biggest thing on Claire’s mind right now is opening the new attraction to help boost sales because costs are rising and ticket sales aren’t increasing at the rate she would like. So along with the scientists from the original ‘Jurassic Park’, they’ve decided to up the ante a little bit by splicing DNA together to create a new, bigger, more ferocious meat eater called Indominus Rex.

Claire believes this will be just the attraction needed to bring in a whole new horde of fans. Meanwhile across the island our somewhat scruffy yet still adorably funny hero named Owen (played by Chris Pratt) has found a way to create a bond with a pack of velociraptors that he’s been training since birth. While he sees this as a great show of dinosaur intelligence, an evil arms dealer (played by Vincent D’Onofrio) sees the stealth predators as the perfect military weapon that could seek out and destroy any number of enemies even fi they are buried in caves.

And finally as it’s been shown throughout every trailer from the movie that’s aired on television, the big bad monster Indominus Rex escapes captivity and before you know it the whole park is bedlam as Owen, Claire, and their sexual tension traipse around the park searching for the kids after the dinosaurs take back over the island.

It’s all pretty standard fare for a ‘Jurassic’ sequel, but this movie was never going to win an Oscar for the scripts and by no means does this take away from the overall fun you’ll have at this movie.

ACTING

First off let’s just get the obvious out the way — Chris Pratt is going to be a huge fucking star for the next decade. He’s gone from funny guy side show to action star leading man and chances are he’ll stay that way until the next Kurt Russell/Harrison Ford/Keanu Reeves type comes along. Pratt is very good at what he does, his timing and comedic impulses are always on point and he’s figured out how to take silly to serious in a split second.

Bryce Dallas Howard also does well in this movie and here’s hoping she gets more big roles like this one to fill in the future. She’s always been a top notch talent and when she gets the chance to shine, she does a very good job. Vincent D’Onofrio also plays a great bad guy asshole although after seeing him give an Emmy worthy performance as Wilson Fisk in Marvel’s ‘Daredevil’ it’s hard to watch him play villainous any other way.

DIRECTING AND WRITING

There’s not much to report here except to say they didn’t mess it up. The dialogue is well executed for a film like this and the directing, especially in the action scenes follows long with the ‘Jurassic’ formula from the past few movies.

They managed to introduce a few new dinosaurs with this film and because the theme park is packed to the brim with patrons, these prehistoric hunters have a lot more to go after than just each other and a couple of scientists roaming around the park.

WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE MOVIE

Maybe it’s just the teenager in me that remembers the first ‘Jurassic Park’ movie, but this film didn’t feature nearly as many ‘jumpy’ moments as the original. There was something haunting about the raptors chasing our heroes around the park and hunting them down one by one while body parts turned up all over the place.

This movie does a good job of adding plenty of action beats and once the main dinosaur escapes it’s a non-stop thrill ride with very few beats to breathe, but just not enough quiet dread like what we had with the original. Overall though again, minor complaints for a fun movie.

The only other complaint I would have would be the lack of appearances from the original film.  There’s one person you should recognize from the first ‘Jurassic Park’ and there are several Easter eggs and tributes throughout the movie, but it would have been nice to see Jeff Goldblum or Sam Neill popping up even if just for a cameo.

FINAL VERDICT

Listen if you’re going to ‘Jurassic World’ you should already know what you’re getting into and this film is going to bring you back to the original if you were old enough to sit in the theater for that one and if this just happens to be your first experience with these films, it’s just as thrilling and fun as you’d expect it to be.

It’s an action-adventure movie that could serve as a date night romp or something you could take your dino-loving kids to see as well. The movie isn’t going to win any awards, but they did a good job with bringing ‘Jurassic World’ to live so the filmmakers will likely just have to console themselves with the boatloads of cash this movie should rake in at the box office

‘Jurassic World’ gets 4 out of 5 on the Skolnick Scale