While we had our reservations about the prospect of Jurassic World in the run-up to its release, it’s turned out to be a beast of a new addition to the series. All of our pre-release concerns about the film turned out to be true, but it manages to overcome them with a sheer delight in entertaining you from the very beginning to the big budget, epic dinosaur battle end. It strikes a good balance between blockbuster magic, comic timing, monster movie brilliance and fast paced action to rekindle the film franchise inspired by Michael Crichton’s brilliant 1990 novel.
Released on the big screen on the 11th June 2015 in the UK, followed in the States on the 12th, Jurassic World is a must see at the cinema with larger than life being its guiding philosophy in general. It’s like Jurassic Park meets Godzilla and Predator all rolled into one and it makes for great 3D viewing with claws, flailing tails and pouncing raptors jumping out of the screen at you with a lot of impact – so much so, in fact, that one of the Tuppence support team managed to lurch violently when a raptor appeared out of nowhere, making her spill her drink all over herself, meaning she watched the rest of the film soaked through to the undies.
The story picks things up pretty well twenty years after the first movie with a theme park in full flow and well contained dinosaurs on display to thousands of paying visitors to the Jurassic World Luxury Resort. However, with the ever-hungry challenges of the business world, the science team behind the resurrected animals have been forced to splice in a little excitement to boost visitor numbers, creating the vicious Indominus Rex. When it manages to trick its way out of its pen it causes havoc on the island, leaving the park’s operations manager Claire Dearing with a monumental containment exercise to accomplish with the help of straight talking Velociraptor trainer Owen in the hunt.
It makes for a good return to the overarching storyline for the Jurassic Park series, giving it a new direction with a park in operation with thousands of paying guests to safeguard. There are plenty of references to the original film that add in a lot of nostalgia for everyone that remembers seeing it for the first time in 1992 and being blown away by it. There’s a lot of talk at the moment about this being just the start of things with sequels planned in the coming years and if Jurassic World is anything to go by there’s a lot to look forward to.
Claire is played to perfection by Bryce Dallas Howard (The Help), striking a really good balance between hard edged manager, daring heroine and beautiful modern day reincarnation of Ann Darrow from King Kong. She has good chemistry with Chris Pratt (Guardians Of The Galaxy), who plays the rough park trainer Owen with great presence and intensity, helping to deliver the best action scenes in the film.
Vincent D’Onofrio (Broken Horses, Daredevil) puts in a good appearance as bullish head of security Vic and Irrfan Khan (The Amazing Spider-Man) adds the John Hammond-like lofty ideas and eccentric sensibilities as the owner of Jurassic World Simon Masrani. Jake Johnson (Let’s Be Cops) is pretty funny as geeky park operator Lowrey, Judy Greer (Ant-Man) brings teary eyed hysteria as Claire’s sister, B.D. Wong (Focus) reprises his role as the scientist genius behind Jurassic Park and Jurassic World with a sly glint in his eye and Omar Sy (X-Men: Days Of Future Past) makes good backup for Owen as fellow raptor trainer, Barry.
The film looks impressive, especially in 3D, but the CGI isn’t entirely without its strings. Some of the visuals are genuinely stunning, but others lack the bite and solidity to be believable as the real life reincarnation of dinosaurs. The Indominus Rex, in particular, isn’t always as sharp as it could be, and feels smaller than the T-Rex from the original JP, despite the fact that it’s meant to be bigger and stronger. However, the worst example of this for us is in the delivery of the Mosasaurus, which looks every bit a CGI creation, despite the obvious efforts that have gone into its creation.
That aside, director Colin Trevorrow has done a good job of re-establishing the series as the alpha predator of big budget blockbuster movies. Jurassic World is pure enjoyment all the way though and while it’s got a good helping of tongue-in-cheek cheese, it’s also filled with a healthy amount of tension, nostalgic references to both the origins of the series and monster movies in general, and manages to draw you into the sheer roller-coaster ride of the adventure.
Jurassic World review: 3.7/5
