Steven Spielberg’s dinosaur extravaganza returns to the big
screen in Jurassic World: Ian Malcom’s
prescient tirade about re-incarnating the most extraordinary creatures ever to
have roamed the Earth only to ‘slap them on a plastic lunchbox and sell them’ has
been fully realised. Jurassic World has spent the last decade as a
fully-functional pre-historic theme park, but dwindling customer satisfaction
leads overseer Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) to engage in genetic hybridisation,
creating the terrifying Indominus Rex. Whilst raptor-handler Owen Brady (Chris
Pratt) attempts to explain why this is probably not a good idea, the
newly-minted Indominus breaks free, and once again we’re back to Malcom’s ‘running
and screaming!’
With a new director and an entirely new cast in play, it’s
remarkable how familiar Jurassic World
feels to Spielberg’s original: obviously, it’s the same old formula (corporate
big-wigs create larger-than-life attractions, attractions break loose and
attack people), but the new characters also seem to slot right into the gaps
left by the original cast. For example, John Hammond is replaced by Irrfan Khan
as eccentric park-owner Masrani, Alan Grant has been switched out for Pratt’s
respectful raptor expert, plus Tim and Lex now appear in the form of Ty
Simpkins and Nick Robinson as two fresh-faced children taking a vacation from
their somewhat broken family.
This is not to say that the performances are only
placeholder, as the cast in general is remarkable fun to be around and rises to
the challenge admirably (even if their development is somewhat predictably
linear). Howard and Pratt get a lot of laughs from their boardroom stiff versus
muscle-bound man’s man shtick, whilst Vincent D’Onofrio is in fine,
ever-smirking form as an In-Gen supervisor with his own suspicious motives.
But let’s face it, what you really want to know is: are the
dinosaurs any good? The short answer is a hastily nodded, wide-eyed ‘yes’, but
to explain properly we have to consider that the first Jurassic Park was at the cutting-edge of the CGI revolution way
back in 1993, whilst this film comes at a time when almost any
decently-budgeted movie can have its computer-generated cake and eat it. In Jurassic World’s case, the CGI dinos are
certainly exciting, but their integration with their human opponents is the
more impressive feat, and director Colin Trevorrow and his team have even opted
for the occasional use of old-fashioned animatronics to help seal the
believability (and provide a loving call-back to the original)
What is also invigorating about the monsters in Trevorrow’s
film is that they are really, genuinely frightening; the moments in which the Indominus steps out of the shadows and
into the fear-fuelled limelight are particularly striking. Amongst it’s
somewhat tamer 12a bed-fellows, Jurassic
World opts for the bloodier approach to monster violence, which not only
allows it to feel in-sync with its predecessors, but also reminds us why the
certificate was invented in the first place: to provide a bridge between
kid-friendly action flicks and more violent adult fare.
This is everything you want in a popcorn-munching summer
blockbuster: big effects, a good sense of humour, enjoyable characters and
thrills to spare. Children who’ll flock to see this won’t care about flimsy
dialogue or linear character progression, they’ll be far too busy gaping in awe
at the vastness of the landscape or hiding behind their hands from the
blood-curdling roar of titanic monsters: and that is exactly what a Jurassic Park
film is for.
★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
