In 1993, four little words, an iconic John Williams score and some mind-blowing visuals changed cinema forever, as the late Richard Attenborough welcomed us to Jurassic Park. Now, 22 years later, original director Steven Spielberg hands the reigns of the “dinos on the loose” franchise over to Colin Trevorrow for “Jurassic World”, which covers similar ground as “Jurassic Park”, with just enough additional bite.
The Jurassic World theme park is larger and wilder than the ill-fated Park, and marketing head Claire (played by Bryce Dallas Howard) is supervising a new “attraction” in the form of the biggest and baddest dino yet – a genetically modified hybrid. The exact makeup of this creature is top secret, but it’s safe to state that this one’s a bit temperamental.
Chris Pratt (who shined last summer as Star-Lord in “Guardians of the Galaxy”) is more stiff here in a one-note role as Owen. He’s a Velociraptor trainer who’s brought-in to inspect the new hybrid’s containment facility when…things begin to go horribly wrong. And in a matter of minutes – and this shouldn’t come as a surprise since this is a “Jurassic Park” movie – all of the employees and 20,000+ visitors are in danger – as this dino mash-up escapes into the park.
Fortunately, “Jurassic World” doesn’t spend a lot of time on set-up, instead diving into full panic mode within the first half hour. The best scenes of chaos involve the flying dinosaurs attacking park patrons. A few shots serve as a nice homage to Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds”, with that same look and feel of pure terror. It’s here, and in a few other places, when “Jurassic World” generates some legitimate suspense. Yes, the dinos do scream and stomp and kill and eat people, but the script doesn’t provide any of those “jump-out-of-your-seat” surprises that this genre – right or wrong – is known for.
Trevorrow relies more on solid action than thrills, with the excitement level never reaching that of the original. The Indominus Rex is revealed very early on in, somewhat unusual for these modern “monster” movies (and a dramatic change from what Spielberg did with his title character in “Jaws” 40 years ago). This eliminates any audience anticipation. But Trevorrow does deserve credit for the amped-up special effects, some nice references to the original, giving the film an overall old-fashioned vibe (by focusing on two young brothers), using a funny Jimmy Fallon cameo, and adding enough flare to get one of the biggest film franchises of this era back on track.
On The Official LCJ Report Card, “Jurassic World” gets a B-.
Running Time: 124 min.