Jurassic World (2015) Review
Leading up to the release of Jurassic World: Dominion I’m reviewing all of the previous 5 movies in the franchise. We are in week number 4 so we are talking about Jurassic World. Let’s get started!
The Good:
For me I think this is just a fun 21st century blockbuster set in the Jurassic Park franchise. They got a solid director, a fun cast, and had 21st century visual effects. And you put all of it together and you get this incredibly entertaining movie that is never boring. And it’s a good mix of the style of movies of the original trilogy mixed with the 21st century blockbuster template and the two just work together really well.
It’s a movie that, like I said it’s never boring. It moves at a nice brisk pace from scene to scene but in a way where you can still understand everything that is going on. I mean we get to the park within the first 10 minutes of the movie, establish the characters, we meet Chris Pratt and the adventure starts within 40 minutes. And then after the adventure actually starts you get plenty of dinosaur mayhem and dinosaur action to keep you entertained all through-out the movie.
Another thing here is it does have a good bit of tension all through-out the movie. And that’s something that I kind of forgot about before I rewatched this movie. The big stand out examples of this are the finale, the new dinosaur escapes and you have Chris Pratt in the cage with the dinosaur, and then with the gyrosphere and the kids stuck in it. All of those do provide some nice moments that are fairly tense.
And with this movie you do have a fun set of actors filling out the cast for the movie. This is when Chris Pratt was in his prime, it was his follow up movie to Guardians of the Galaxy. And that was the movie that made him the A-lister so he was just riding that wave of hype and positivity and he’s great in these types of movies. He plays Owen a bit more serious then I remember, but you do get plenty of his charm and jokes all through-out the movie. Vincent D’Onofrio is great as Hoskins, the main antagonist for the movie. But everybody does deliver a solid job in this movie.
Finally, the movie does a good job of playing homage to the original movie. And it’s through the score that was updated so well by Michael Giaachino that just captures the magic and sense of wonder that the original movie did. Or even certain scenes in this movie feel very much like a scene that would have happened back in that original movie. And you can feel Steven Spielberg and the original movie’s presents all through-out the movie.
The Bad:
And of the movies in this franchise, is probably the movie where the conflict and adventure taking place happens for the stupidest reasons. Over 20 years after the original movie, they decide to open up another park. They then create a new dinosaur which is smarter than they think which leads to the dinosaur escaping. And then the reason why you have Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard out on the adventure is because her older nephew doesn’t follow the rules. And so of these movies, I think the basic set up and concept for this movie is the weakest and feels the laziest. Upon rewatch, that was certainly something that stood out to me.
Also, I’ve never found Zach and Gray to be particularly good characters. And I don’t think that Nick Robinson and Ty Simpkins do a partially good job. They aren’t bad by any means, but they are primarily just plot devices in the movie. They don’t get a character arc or anything like that. And they don’t do a good jog of emoting the right emotions as they should.
Finally, I don’t think the usage of InGen was handled all that well. I understand why they are there, and why they are doing what they are doing. But they feel underdeveloped and not used to the fullest potential. Vincent D’Onofrio does a great job as the leader of this team, but their usage isn’t the best.
Final Thoughts: Of the first 5 movies in this franchise, I think this is easily the best of the sequels. It’s a great mix of 21st century blockbuster but mixes it with a bit of the style for the original trilogy. Chris Pratt is great in the lead and is just great in these types of movies. There are some script issues with the concept and with how characters are written and characterized. But in general, a good sequel.
The Score: 8.4/10 (B)
Comments