Universal Pictures
As the giant wooden gates creaked open and the familiar strains of John Williams’ Jurassic Park theme song came on, it was as if I’d been transported back in time. Not only did I have the giddy feeling like I was entering the park for the first time all over again (and my inner nerd was rejoicing at the prospect of re-seeing dinosaurs alive and on the big screen!), but the thought also struck me that sitting through Jurassic World was a lot like reliving the magic of your fondest childhood Christmas morning.
There’s a certain heady feeling you get, as you take in all the enthralling sights and sounds. On one level, it feels wonderful – like being a kid and revisiting a familiar place full of promise, imagination and exciting dangers lurking just around every corner. And yet just like those elusive memories, you can’t quite fully connect. You’re left grasping a bit at nostalgic straws, as it somehow comes up a little short of the greatness you once remembered – and surely you didn’t imagine all of that greatness, did you?
The Jurassic Park franchise has experienced about as many ups and downs as the rides in a real theme park would’ve over the past 20+ years. The original film was, of course, a bona fide summer blockbuster in 1993. Few films have had as much buzz and built-up anticipation since. Do you remember the first time you saw the trailer? It was like nothing I could’ve ever imagined in my wildest fantasies (but then again, I was 11 when the original came out). Sure, it’s got some plot holes and maybe even the entire idea of cloning the dinosaur DNA and recreating them is a bit far-fetched. But it was fun. Mankind has long had a fascination with dinosaurs. Naturally, we wanted to believe that an enterprising person would someday make it possible to build an island theme park attraction of living dinosaurs. Who among us wouldn’t want to visit said island?
The other Jurassic Park films are not quite as fondly remembered. It’s not that we don’t want to remember them or that we adamantly insist they don’t exist. 1997’s sequel The Lost World: Jurassic Park was decent but didn’t have the staying power of the first. I remember the plot vaguely – the dinosaurs are being bred on a second island before they’re deemed ready for the main park. It resurrected one of my favorite characters, Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), who is called in once more by park creator John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) to inspect the dinosaurs and endorse the island as a safe preserve where the animals can roam about freely as nature intended. However, there’s a power struggle because a team of hunters wants to poach the dinosaurs and take them to another theme park that’ll open to the public in San Diego. 2001’s Jurassic Park III was also a mixed bag. Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) was brought back to the island to act as a “dinosaur/island tour guide” to help a rich couple (William H. Macy and Tea Leoni) look for their missing son. The problem for both of those sequels is nothing really stands out to me. Everything I needed to see was already done in the first film.
Universal Pictures
You might therefore think I wasn’t in favor of seeing the latest installment, Jurassic World. However, that’s far from the case. It’s been over a decade since we’ve visited Isla Nublar, and I was looking forward to seeing new characters and new dinosaurs, as I think this franchise needed a facelift. Chris Pratt was a natural choice and a perfect fit in my opinion – the man is a superstar! Is there seriously anything he can’t do? This time around, the plot centers on the fact that an actual fully functioning park was finally built and opened to the public (although original owner John Hammond is no longer alive to oversee its progress). The park has been open over 20 years and attendance has begun to decline because people are starting to get (yawn) bored with dinosaurs. Therefore, the park’s new owner Simon Masrani (Irrfan Khan) and his backing Masrani Corporation give the lab department the green light to create new dinosaurs that will rekindle visitors’ and investors’ imaginations. He specifically asks for a dinosaur that’s bigger and fiercer than the Tyrannosaurus Rex and unlike anything else ever seen before. What could possibly go wrong there?
One thing Jurassic World proves in spades is that while the dinosaurs keep evolving, mankind sadly does not. We’re apparently still stuck in the mindset that we’re capable of recreating life without serious thoughts to the repercussions of introducing extinct animals into an ecosystem that’s no longer meant to support such creatures. And to make matters worse, we’ve also decided it’d be really cool of us to combine the genetics of different breeds of dinosaurs and other amphibious and aquatic species that weren’t meant to be combined until we’ve created this behemoth dinosaur called Indominus Rex that kills just for the sheer sport of it and is virtually unstoppable because (a) it’s bigger, meaner and uglier than a T-rex, (b) it’s smarter than the “clever” Velociraptors and (c) it even has the camouflage characteristics of a cuttlefish.
Universal Pictures
Mankind has also sadly reduced the dinosaurs to nothing short of trained dolphins in a zoo show. We see a massive Mosasaurus (or a Mosasaur) jump out of the water to devour a great white shark while the crowd eagerly looks on and many sit in a “splash zone.” The vicious Velociraptors have now been imprinted and trained to follow commands by Chris Pratt’s character Owen Grady, who acts as their ex-Navy man alpha. It’s equally pathetic and interesting to see the Velociraptors practically reduced to nothing more than a pack of wild dogs following a human master – I’m still analyzing how I felt about that. Because we need a power struggle subplot to coincide with the dinosaurs ultimately escaping and creating havoc, the military is interested in the trained Velociraptors because they’d be the ultimate killing machines. Vincent D’Onofrio makes a good nemesis for Pratt – he plays Hoskins, the head security honcho in charge of “researching” the feasibility of using the dinosaurs in military combat.
Bryce Dallas Howard serves as the park owner’s right-hand woman Claire Dearing, who’s in charge of just about every aspect of the visitor experience and the park, and yet she’s incapable of controlling even her rambunctious visiting nephews/fun additions Zach (Nick Robinson) and Gray (Ty Simpkins). Many are crying the film is sexist because of Howard’s character, and perhaps rightly so. Why does the woman have to be so shrill, so dependent upon a man to rescue her and why is she seen wearing the most impractical outfit ever just to look pretty? Why is a woman’s worth deemed only by how successfully she can rear and handle children and not by how far up the corporate ladder she has obviously climbed? The only character returning from the other films is Dr. Henry Wu (B.D. Wong), who seems a bit jaded to still be working in Jurassic Park’s lab, but he’s a welcome sight for sore eyes. I don’t care what anybody else says – Chris Pratt is a true badass and he pulls off his part convincingly. He is the dizzyingly perfect combination of machismo and sensitivity – a Marlon Brando and James Dean in one delightfully sarcastic but laid-back package. The one person who truly shines to me aside from Pratt is New Girl’s Jake Johnson, who plays Lowery, a nerdy guy who works in the park’s control room and provides the much-needed comic relief from time to time.
Universal Pictures
Let me say it’s nothing short of amazing to see a fully functioning park complete with a sophisticated-looking monorail system. Jurassic World is the sequel to the original film I always wanted to see happen, and the visual appeal of the dinosaurs and the island does not disappoint, especially in 3D! The action also does not disappoint. There are plenty of suspense-filled moments to keep you on your toes. But it’s really the nostalgic prowess that makes it impossible for me to hate this film, despite the fact that I somehow wanted more. There are many nods to the original park, including the usage of the familiar neon-painted 1990s Jeeps in one scene. The park is open once more, and the fans will be feeding upon it almost as frenziedly as the film’s dinosaurs that leave behind a serious path of carnage in their wake.
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