Was Jurassic World Worth the Admission Fee?

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I think at this point it is pointless to say that I have quite a fondness of the original Jurassic Park. As a child I grew up playing with dinosaurs and seeing them on screen was an immense feeling. Ironically, I first saw The Lost World before I ever got around to watching the original until a few years later, but somehow the entire concept of a dinosaur theme park just clicked with me. Now almost 20 years after the first film’s release we are receiving a quasi reboot and continuation of the original franchise. It was finally released after much anticipation the film has been released so here is my review on the film.

Synopsis
Jurassic World follows the fulfilled dream, which John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) was hoping to achieve, a fully realized dinosaur theme park. With sales going down and the company facing some financial issues, they decide to introduce a new dinosaur to up the “Wow” factor by creating a hybrid dinosaur, titled Indominus Rex, who is smarter than earlier anticipated. Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) and Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) are thrown into what could be the downfall of Hammond’s dream once more.

Patchwork Story
While I will state that the story is kept rather simple in contrast to some heavy and fascinating themes that are looked at, more on that in the later section, but at times there are small instances of story elements that feel patched on or lead to nothing. The film has stirred up some controversy due to who exactly should receive the writing credits for the film.[1] While viewing it didn’t truly bother me, as I was just enjoying the film for its visuals and exploring the finished park, but I confess that with the focus being mainly on the new cross-breed Indominus Rex we don’t truly get to explore much of the park. There are some nice little moments here and there, but they are more of a quick guide in the beginning of the film to show us important areas to keep in mind for later on. Some characters also behave strangely at certain moments for those before-mentioned storylines that go nowhere, in particular Karen Mitchell (Judy Greer).

Cross-Breed Terror
To put it simply, I have not been this tense during a film in quite some time. Not even a horror movie from the last few years could keep me on my toes as much as the new dinosaur created for this film has. I am not going to spoil anything, but I quite frankly believe that the Indominus Rex to be even more terrifying than the Tyrannosaurus Rex was in the first film. The design truly grew on me even though I at first thought that it was nothing more than a T-Rex with longer arms, it proved to be quite a compelling monster with a variety of tricks up its sleeves. Only truly missed opportunity is that they aren’t used very often and only serve a purpose for specific scenes. It is an interesting concept of a Frankenstein’s monster in the form of a dinosaur, but one cannot deny the story strongly depends on slowly finding out what this monster is capable of, which does lead to some interesting twists, but sadly is the result of some characters stubbornly acting as if it isn’t important information.

Quite an Ensemble
I am fascinated that while the main focus is on Grady and Dearing, who are fantastic throughout the film, we still have quite a large cast in this film consisting of Dearing’s nephews Zach (Nick Robinson) and Gray (Ty Simpkins), who serve as the surrogate children characters from the first film, but I confess felt more like they were simply there along for the ride. There are many bizarre choices done with Zach, who is kind of an odd depiction what someone in their 70s thinks teenagers are like. One of my personal additions was Barry (Omar Sy), who was great on screen, but sadly never truly gets to do much in the end, and Lowery Cruthers (Jake Johnson), whose character was a nice touch to bring some levity to the film and had some great moments. Simon Masrani (Irrfan Khan) and Vic Hoskins (Vincent D’Onofrio) were fun to watch, but still portrayed rather cliché characters in their respect. The only recurring character was Dr. Henry Wu (B.D. Wong), who got just as much screentime as he did in the original, but for some reason has received an ego boost. If I consider the dinosaurs part of the cast, they had some fantastic moments, especially a Velociraptor named Blue, the Mosasaurus and what I think is the original T-Rex from Jurassic Park.

In the end, can the film compare to the original? To a certain degree it tries to do its own thing, which is an element it is quite effective at, but when it tries to recreate elements it sadly is more of a miss from a story perspective. Still, it is a great thrill ride with some amazing visuals and some fantastic action. It certainly has proven that Chris Pratt is a fully fledged movie star at this point and can’t wait to see more of him and Bryce Dallas Howard in the future. Wonder if there are more dinosaurs heading our way after this film!


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Warning, starting from this point on we are getting into heavy spoiler territory! If you have not yet seen the film, then only continue at your own accord. Just want to give you a fair warning so I don’t spoil it for anyone who is planning to see the film by this weekend.

Easter Egg Hunt
Let me start off by stating that even if some scenes were very cliché I was completely enthralled in the film, as I always dreamed of finally seeing the park in action. There are many clever easter eggs scattered throughout the film, and while some are a bit obvious, there are some I loved seeing return. My personal favorite was something I actually mentioned in an article earlier, as I wanted them to revisit the original Jurassic Park building and what do you know? The kids actually end up there and while not much is shown, it was certainly a nice touch. They also fixed the opening gate, which is even made out of the original only with the updated logo.

Movie Children
The kids were a bit annoying, as one was constantly staring at girls even though he had a girlfriend at home, which actually made him look like a jerk. His younger brother kept telling the audience what type of dinosaurs there were and when this, what I presume is to be a eight to nine year old kids starts crying over his parents supposed divorce, it felt corny and out of left field. Also kids entering a restricted area with an open gate just for fun? That was a bit odd for them to not think with dinosaurs and all that there is a good reason it was restricted, even if it ended up just being the Indominus Rex that was chasing them.

Secrets for the Sake of Secrets
The themes were great, especially with a dinosaur that doesn’t even know exactly what it is, but why couldn’t the scientists just tell them? I know it wouldn’t have made the reveals as amazing, but I just can’t comprehend why this information needed to be top secret. Was it because of Hoskins plans to weaponize it? Even if that were the case it isn’t like they knew it took over the cuttlefish abilities, so it would have made a bit more sense. This was probably only to give the Raptors turning on their previous Alpha, which while a great: “Oh boy!” moment did feel a bit fast as why they would simply switch Alphas so fast. I think some people will find it odd seeing this fantastic scene of them chasing only to end up in quite a backstabbing.

That Finale Though!
Still, I had a lot of fun throughout the film and man that finale was just amazing. The T-Rex was hidden in the background until the end where he came in and beat the crap out of a Spinosaurus skeleton, which was a nice wink to fans who hated that outcome in the Jurassic Park III, but to top it off we get a tag team battle with a Velociraptor. No matter what small nitpicks I could have had, this made the film for me and I could barely breath I was so amazed. To top it all of, yes that is possible, he gets taken down by a Mosasaurus fatality, which was just brutal and while I kind of saw it coming, I never imagined how it would look like. A friend did point out he thought it was strange how close to the water they were and why the Mosasaurus never just jumped out earlier to grab some passerbys, but we theorized it was only because you see the I-Rex dip his feet in the water, which attracted the aquatic dino. Yet like a wrestler finishing move, it came and it was an amazing sight to behold!

If you have seen the film leave your thoughts below on the film and tell me what you thought of it. Looking forward to discuss the film!

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