Jurassic World

Humans, we never learn do we? Thankfully not, otherwise nothing would happen in this third sequel to the dinosaur blockbuster Jurassic Park. But will the cinema audience experience dino fatigue?

Set 22 years after the events of Jurassic Park, we see that a new dinosaur theme park, Jurassic World has been up and running for ten years. But audiences are bored of the regular cloned dinosaurs (really after only ten years?) so as to entice new visitors – and make more money – the Park owners decide to create a new dinosaur The Indominus Rex. Unfortunately the Indominus Rex doesn’t like being locked up and soon escapes leaving Velociraptor trainer Owen (Chris Pratt) and park manager Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) to stop the Rex eating the tourists – including Claire’s nephews Zach (Nick Robinson) and Grey (Ty Simpkins).

Jurassic Park is one of the first films I remember seeing at the cinema and I still enjoy seeing it repeated on tv to this day. Jurassic World may not be as good as Jurassic Park but it is a fun movie and better than the previous two sequels.

Having Chris Pratt as the lead male was a good call, as he is witty and likeable as Owen, the sole voice of reason in the movie, daring to suggest to the other characters that maybe making your own vicious dinosaur isn’t such a good idea. While Howard doesn’t have as good a character playing Claire, the ice queen/career woman who neglects her visiting nephews, she does get better as the film goes on. She isn’t as good as Laura Dern’s Ellie Sattler from the original movie, but she’s infinitely less annoying than The Lost World‘s Julianne Moore’s Sarah Harding. The rest of the cast play their parts suitably well – pesky kids, boo-hiss villains, walking dinosaur fodder etc.

The main stars of course are the dinosaurs, still looking good, and appropriately scary. The film is still able to keep the tension even though we know the dinosaurs are going to get loose and go crazy. Those parts are inevitably the best parts of the film as we see the dinosaurs attack. I was worried the Velociraptors were going to be lame having seen trailers with Owen seemingly taming the rapters. Luckily this is not the case. While Owen can control them to an extent the rapters are still vicious killers given the chance. Clever Girls.

Jurassic World also successfully manages to keep the movie fun and have some amusing moments, including an awkward big kiss moment between two supporting characters. A lot of the good one liners go to Owen although control room employee Lowery (New Girls’ Jake Johnson) also provides some laughs.

Still disapointed there was no Jeff Goldblum cameo though. Maybe for the next sequel?

Rating 3.5/5 – 22 years on and dinosaurs still rule the cinema