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+ Best 3D Movie of the Year
+ Best Action-Adventure of the Year
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| One of the many incredibly cool posters for Colin Trevorrow's Jurassic World |
It's here! - It's finally here!
I am one of the many fans of the Jurassic Park universe and franchise who has been waiting eagerly for years for the 4th movie, which has been a very long time in the making, going through a decade of countless unmade versions also known as 'development hell'. It follows Steven Spielberg's (Schindler's List (1993)) masterpiece, the original Jurassic Park (1993), and sequels The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) and Jurassic Park III (2001). 14 years of waiting for the next chapter in your favorite mega-movie franchise is simply too long. Luckily, Jurassic World is a kick-ass return!
More than 20 years since the events in John Hammond's original, ill-fated dino theme park, Isla Nublar's Jurassic Park has been running stably for many years. But to continue to attract huge crowds with deep pockets, the company behind it has designed a new, ferocious dinosaur. And guess what ... - It breaks loose!
Spielberg, the master director of the original, formidable film and the less than good first sequel, still only acts as executive producer on Jurassic World, which is co-written and directed by surprise career-catapulting Colin Trevorrow (Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)), who has only directed 3 small films before this.
Trevorrow succeeds tremendously here, although it is nearly impossible to say how much credit rightly befalls him. Jurassic World looks like a billion dollars, (cinematography by John Schwartzman (Saving Mr. Banks (2013))); it sounds incredible, - any Jurassic Park fan knows how important the soundscapes are to these movies, - and its mix of CGI and practical effects is top shelf. Michael Giacchino (Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)) has composed the effective, elegant score, using John Williams' legendary theme and generally doing a great job of making a very Williams-like score that still has something different here and there.
The story kind of erases the two middle films, (which few will seriously object to), and it is definitely designed with an especially keen eye on the original, which is a good choice. It uses some very known devices, but it does so playfully. A wonderful thing about it is that you can take from the movie so many different things: Implicit critique of corporate management, consumerism, military logic, environmental damages by humans etc. etc. etc. - or just marvels, thrills and laughs. The film is, as it should be, a ride, perhaps even more so than a conventional film.
It is a summer cineplex blockbuster dream, but also a very well-crafted, carefully and intelligently written film. The screenplay is attributed to both Trevorrow, Derek Connolly (Safety Not Guaranteed), Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver (Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), both), who have been waging a credit battle against each other before the film's release.
The only part of Jurassic World that I didn't feel was completely right was its very end, the last, climactic few minutes, SPOILER in which the T-Rex is let out to fight the monstrous Indominus Rex, along with raptors, until, finally, the huge sea monster concludes the battle (and the movie) by dragging the anti-social beast into the sea. This may sound cool, and I know that many think it is a great, exciting end to the film, but I personally thought it was a little too much, and also that the T-Rex/raptor-fighting culmination was a bit too similar to the end of Jurassic Park. I would have liked the new ending to be more its own. Instead, it felt a little convoluted and perhaps a little as an ending that the writers have had a hard time pulling together. And also a little too similar to the end of the great, recent Godzilla (2014): SPOILER There Godzilla, delightfully, turned out to be our savior; this year in Jurassic World, T-Rex does practically the same...
But let it be said straight away that this is a small detractor to a near-perfect film of a very rare breed. - Everything leading up to this climax is spectacular. Jurassic World ups the savagery, deaths and blood significantly, which is to be expected, and the PG-13 rating's limit has certainly stretched since its inception for Spielberg's masterpiece Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) over 30 years ago. - Some will undoubtedly feel that the film is too savage for its audience, (SPOILER particularly the amusingly included character of the evil, British nanny's demise, devoured by both flying and water dinos, could be argued in poor taste and probably is), but this critic goes with the kid inside him and shrieks out in loud Wooow's throughout it all.
The cast is superior, a very exciting gathering in themselves, and the film gives many characters room to stand out:
Chris Pratt (Wanted (2008)) and Bryce Dallas Howard (Manderlay (2005)) are a great screen match: He as an Indiana Jones/Steve Irwin-type he-man, and she as an emotionally disconnected symbol of some of our problems today. They are both strong here, charming and sweet. And as to the gender criticism of the film that some have raised, (calling it 'male-chauvinist' and the like), - I just don't buy into that one bit.
BD Wong (Jurassic Park) is the only actor here who has been in any of the previous films, and he is great as Dr. Wu, - someone I predict we'll see in the (hopefully) not too distant next film in the franchise.
Crucially, the two kids of Jurassic World work: Adorable and good actor Ty Simpkins (Insidious (2010)) and Nick Robinson (The Kings of Summer (2013)) do a great job, even if they are not as completely natural as the siblings of the original film. Together, they act in my favorite scene in the film, SPOILER the glass bubble attack scene, the film's arguably most spectacular and a clear reworking of the intense T-Rex car attack scene of the first film. Judy Greer (Tomorrowland: A World Beyond (2015)) is also very good as the boys' mother.
Omar Sy (Untouchable/Intouchables (2011)) is good as Pratt's right hand man; Irrfan Khan (The Lunchbox/Dabba (2013)) makes a fine, new, somewhat clueless Hammond-like billionaire owner; Jake Johnson (Safety Not Guaranteed) gets a humorous part as an office charmer; and finally Vincent D'Onofrio (The Judge (2014)) is great as a sort of evil John Wayne-ish military honcho.
Jurassic World is pretty much the film anyone who has ever loved seeing a film in the cinema should allow themselves to go see. It is easily the best huge event movie since Avatar (2009). What's best about it, to me, is that it makes me feel like an 11 year-old again for a couple of really awesome hours. In 3D, IMAX or 2D doesn't matter too much. - Just don't miss it!
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Cost: Estimated 150-190 mil. $
Box office: 17.8 mil. $ - and counting
= Too early to say
[The figure listed above is only from the film's opening day and previews in China. Jurassic World is actually a US-Chinese co-production. Trevorrow, btw, has already shared that he for some reason will not be directing any possible sequel to the film. It opens in America tomorrow, June 12th. And if it doesn't break a billion $ gross worldwide within the next month, I'd say there's something wrong with the world!]
What do you think of Jurassic World?
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