The Weekend Review: Jurassic World

In which I review a selection of last weekend's entertainment.

It may have taken 22 years and $150 million dollars, but we finally have a good sequel to 1993's Jurassic Park.  More than good, actually.  Thanks to Universal finally realizing what made the first movie so great to begin with, this may very well be the best Jurassic Park we've ever seen.

Years after the abject failure of the first park, Hammond's successor has succeeded in creating an actual, functioning Dinosaur Zoo.  The new park - named Jurassic World - has learned from the mistakes of its previous iteration.  Walls are built higher, surveillance is constant and Wayne Knight isn't allowed anywhere near the control room.

The problem is, however, that it's been so successful for so long that the public's interest has started to wane, causing the higher-ups to panic and look for ways to up the "wow factor."  Their solution?  Genetic hybrids that combine the DNA from multiple dinosaurs.

The new dinosaur - fittingly named the Indominus Rex - is larger than a T-Rex, smarter than a Raptor, has thermal and visual camouflage and can sense heat signatures like a snake.  You can't run from it.  You can't hide from it.  And now it's loose on an island with the population of a small city.

The best part about Jurassic World - other than Chris Pratt leading a pack of Raptors into battle like he's some kind of pre-historic Star Lord - is the fact that it understands that it's an unnecessary sequel to a franchise from three decades ago.  More than just acknowledging that fact, it owns it: creating a meta-textual link to the first movie in a way that the "too serious for their own good" sequels never could have accomplished.

When Claire explains the Indominus' origins as their attempt to up the park's wow factor, Owen succinctly points out that "They're dinosaurs.  Wow enough."  When he points out how ridiculous the name Indominus Rex is, Claire asks him if he'd ever heard a kid try to say the dinos' actual names.  After all, Huehuecanauhtlus is a mouthful for just about anybody.

What's more is that we got all of this without having to sit through Jeff Goldblum's manic stuttering.  I know that the man - and in particular, his character - has his fans, but I always thought that he was a poor choice for Ian Malcolm in the first movie and found his insistent inclusion in its sequel despite dying in the first novel just short of insufferable.

Thanks to the upped stakes of a working park and more than two decades' advancement in CGI, the action scenes have never looked better.  The introduction to the Park - through the eyes of an pint-sized dinophile - is nothing short of the realization of Hammond's dream from the first movie.  The scenes spent varyingly hunting and running from the Indominus in the park are exceptional and the final, midnight confrontation between the Indominus, a pack of Raptors a T-Rex and an underwater behemoth whose name I can't even begin to pronounce is nothing short of spectacular.  It's Jaws with scales and every last second of it is fantastic to watch.

For as brilliant as the dino-side of the movie is, its human characters do noticeably pale when compared to the first's eclectic cast of characters.  Chris Pratt is basically just regurgitating his Guardians of the Galaxy performance, which loses a bit of its luster out of context and the second time around.  Although he and Claire are supposed to be the driving adult force of the film, the two lack convincing enough chemistry to justify their romantic entanglement.

The brothers themselves lack a complete arc and are there only to give Owen and Claire a reason to venture into danger that they would otherwise be running from (or helping alleviate behind the scenes).  For as much as I rag on Golblum's Ian Malcom, he at least had a noticeable personality and you cared about ever (potential) death in the film (okay, maybe not the lawyer).

Still, that's a drop in the water when compared to what the film gets right.  It's a powerfully entertaining, beautifully realized film that gave the franchise the shot in the arm that it needed in order to stay relevant in the 21st century.  While I have my doubts about where Universal can take the franchise from here, they have my attention, and I have absolutely no problem shelling out $10 a ticket to find out.

So what did you think about Jurassic World?  Was it as good as Jurassic Park?  Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

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