Minor Spoilers Ahead
PLOT: Jurassic World is in need of a bigger, meaner attraction to keep its theme park visitors entertained. When their scientists create a genetically modified dinosaur that escapes, the tourists and staff alike find themselves in a life or death struggle for survival.
REVIEW: There are two ways you can ride Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland. You can see it through the eyes of your 8-year-old nephew, where a splashdown in the middle of a cannon battle between a pirate ship and a fortress, with explosions bursting all around you, is real, and larger than life.
Or you can look closely, notice the air cannon underwater timed with an LED light and a speaker producing the sounds to create the illusion of a cannon explosion.
Experiencing Jurassic World is not dissimilar.
So the super cool Gyrosphere ride lets you drive your vehicle anywhere you want on an open field with no track? Isn’t park management at all concerned that a brontosaurus may accidentally step on one or that a guest may drive into an off-limits area?
And after all the lessons supposedly learned from previous disasters, you’re telling me there aren’t any emergency tourist bunkers with provisions that can be sealed off in the event a velociraptor escapes?
An island housing thousands of tourists doesn’t have one cruise ship in port at all times?
How exactly did Owen (Chris Pratt) go from Navy officer to dinosaur trainer?
And is it even scientifically possible for Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) to run from a T-Rex in heels?
You can pick apart the film for all of its flaws in logic just as easily as you can look up while riding Radiator Springs Racers at Disney California Adventure and see the show lighting hanging from the rafters.
But what would the fun in that be?
Because when you suspend disbelief and see Jurassic World through the eyes of your 8-year-old nephew, this movie is a really fun ride.
That Gyrosphere attraction? If I’m Universal, I’m expanding Islands of Adventure in Orlando immediately and creating a new theme park thrill ride based on this experience.
Director Colin Trevorrow has realized the dream we’ve had since the original came out in 1993 of seeing what would happen if dinosaurs were unleashed inside a real working theme park.
I loved that we were introduced to the park just as any tourist would, through the eyes of Gray and Zach, two brothers sent to the island by their parents to unite with their Aunt Claire, who runs the show. From the plane to the cruise ship to checking into the hotel on the island, then going on the rides and attractions with the brothers, this feels every bit as real as going on a vacation to Disney World. Here, though, we finally get to see the “pirates eating the tourists.”
The film is chock full of playful references to Steven Spielberg’s original, with easter eggs abound, and yet is filled with plenty of fresh material as well.
The dinosaur special effects have improved leaps and bounds beyond even what we saw in Jurassic Park III in 2001. It’s hard to believe it’s been 14 years since that last film, and yet it’s well worth the wait to see the technology advances that bring these creatures to life in an even more convincing fashion.
Amidst all the spectacle, those blinking darting eyes on the velociraptors when they are caged stand out for me. These ones have names. They have their own intelligence, really, their own sense of morality. They are much more intelligent than their captors give them credit for. They truly are alive here.
Owen and Claire’s dynamic is similar to Jack and Joan from Romancing the Stone, and it’s a lot of fun. There really isn’t that much depth to their characters, nor any of them, for that matter. But rather than distracting us with useless subplot designed to provide unecessary character motivation, Trevorrow knows we’re here for the dinosaurs more than we are for Claire’s redemption as an aunt to her nephews. So he gives us just enough to buy it, then lets us get on with it.
It helps that Chris Pratt is a bona fide movie star. His likability on screen is off the charts, and he keeps the energy going and has us engaged up until the very end.
Some watching this film may complain that all this is, yet again, is another re-hash of the “dinosaurs escape” plotline we’ve seen now for four movies. This is certainly just that. But there’s a little more beneath the surface here if you really look for it.
There’s something haunting about discovering that we are on the same island as the original park. The new Jurassic World is literally built right on top of it just like the neighborhood of Cuesta Verde on top of an Indian burial ground, with similar consequences, and is a chilling reminder of the short sightedness of society. How quickly we tend to forget.
There’s a really interesting commentary about capturing the attention of a de-sensitized generation with a short attention span.
The themes can be found within the park itself, not necessarily the characters.
The film explores these concepts, but never forgets that at the end of the day, this is simply a piece of entertainment, a popcorn flick, a summer movie. As it should be.
The big question: Where does Jurassic Park go from here?
This much is certain: Judging from the box office returns, the biggest opening weekend ever, and what may turn out to be the highest grossing movie of all time, we will undoubtedly be going on another ride through the park. We may as well face it. When the next one comes out, we’ll be getting right back in line.
GRADE: B+.