Jurassic World (2015)

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nJurassic World (2015)

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nDirector: Colin Trevorrow

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nCast: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Ty Simpkins, NicknRobinson, Irrfan Khan

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nThe concept of an amusement park filled with dinosaurs is an attractive one because, let’s be honest, who wouldn’t kill to see living breathing dinosaurs? In the Jurassic Park franchise genetic manipulation and biological tinkering have made it possible for us to see ancient creatures that were once extinct, same as if you werenvisiting a zoo. Unfortunately, as the last three films have taught us, giantnmeat eating dinosaurs are not that easy to keep in captivity. This is thenfourth film in the beloved Jurassic Park franchise, and it’s only now, afternfour films and three failed test runs, that the park finally opens its doors tonthe public. Only now it’s called Jurassic World. Why would anyone want to visitna park where many people have died at the hands of genetically mutated dinosaursnis beyond me, but I guess the idea behind Jurassic World is that people have gottennover the events that occurred in Jurassic Park (1993), The Lost World (1997)nand Jurassic Park III (2001). I guess the curiosity of seeing real live dinosaursnis just too much, people just don’t care, they’re going anyway. Chalk it up tonconfidence in human superiority. Our conquest over the natural world, we’re thenkings of the planet and all that. I guess its similar to how people still go onnroller coasters rides, even though people have died riding them. Just googlenthe words “roller coaster tragedy” and you’ll see what I mean.  The premise for Jurassic World is that thenpark has been up and running for some time now, and that seeing a T-Rex or anVelociraptor is now commonplace. What can park owners do to keep the massesnentertained?  And how long before thenshit hits the fan?

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nJurassic Park are a series of films with strong foundationsnon Michael Crichton’s book about genetic manipulation being conductednin secret islands, unbeknownst to the rest of the world. I remember readingnJurassic Park eons ago, it had an essay that talked all about how these geneticnexperiments are actually conducted with sheep, we just don’t know it. This gaventhe whole novel and subsequent film a scary legitimacy; a plausibility that mightnnot have been there otherwise. Suddenly the story had foundations in the realnworld. Mix that idea with an amusement park gone berserk and you have a winner.nGenetic engineering has always been a scary sort of concept; it makes humansnseem like gods, playing with life, this is the reason why it’s always been ancontroversial matter in the real world. To this day, Crichton continuesnexploring this theme in his post Jurassic Park work, like for example, his 2006nnovel entitled ‘Next’, a novel in which he continues to explore genetic research and corporate greed.  Jurassic World explores these ideas via these scientistsnthat splice DNA from different dinosaurs to create entirely new species of dinosaurs.nThis is how we come about the main baddie in this film, the new dino creatednsolely for Jurassic World, the ‘Indominous Rex’, a mix between a Velociraptor and anbunch of other dinosaurs. 

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nThe concept of an amusement park in chaos is nothing new to Crichton,nwho explored this premise in the film Westworld (1973), a film Crichton himselfndirected about an amusement park that reproduced the old west, down to havingncowboys walking down the streets, cantinas you could visit and horses you couldnride. Tourists could come in and live in the old west for a couple of days. Thingsnget crazy when robot cowboys malfunction and start shooting the tourists. Asnyou can see, Crichton has been toying around with these ideas since the 70’s.nIn fact, Hollywood has used this concept before in films like Jaws 3-D (1983),nwere a vengeful shark runs amok inside of a Sea World, eating the people on thenwater rides. So to the seasoned movie buff, this concept is nothing new. Whatndoes Jurassic World have to offer that we haven’t seen before? A whole lot asnit turns out because we’d never seen this concept played out with dinosaurs!nThese films strive on that one moment when it’s all about the chaos and thenthousands of park goers running for their lives! There’s an awesome momentnwhere Pterodactyls break loose and start snatching up tourists! Chaos indeed!

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nOf course comparisons to Jurassic Park (1993) areninevitable, so let’s get them out of the way. True there are nods to thenoriginal film, which fans will immediately spot. We revisit places from the firstnfilm, we see certain recognizable props and vehicles from Spielberg’s original.nSome scenes in Jurassic World pay homage to Spielberg’s film, but that’s just directornColin Trevorrow respectfully acknowledging Spielberg’s genius. Thankfully thenfilms offers us original elements as well, it’s not all one big homage likensome reviewers are making it out to seem. In terms of the way it was made,nwell, Spielberg’s Jurassic Park is special in the sense that it mixednpractical, physical effects with digital ones. Back in ’93, when Jurassic Parknwas made, it was the first film that showed the world how far digital effectsncould go when done right. I remember the first time I saw Jurassic Park inntheaters! I was blown away, and yes, why not, I’ll admit it, when the T-Rex firstnroared, I got goose bumps. It looked so real. A lot of it had to do with thenuse of amazing puppets built for the film. If you go back and see Jurassic Parkn(1993) you’ll see, most of the time, the T-Rex is not computer animated, mostnof the time; it was all done through giant, life size puppets. Fast forward 22nyears into the future and filmmaking has drastically changed, today computernanimation has completely taken over movie making and so, we don’t see many puppetsnon this film. Most of the time, the dinosaurs are entirely computer generated.nThat’s just the way cinema is nowadays, so I guess we just have to accept itnand enjoy those few moments when an adventurous filmmaker decides to makenthings the old fashioned way. Yet, when computer effects are done right theyncan blow us away and Jurassic World has good computer animation, so in thatnarea, you won’t feel let down. We get top notch computer animation here.   We alsonget to see dinosaurs we haven’t seen before, like the giant whale dino.  

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nThe film moves at a great pace, it slowly introduces us intonthe whole world. We get to see how the park works, who runs it. It takes itsntime to set things up properly, which is something I liked. You feel like you’renwatching a real movie as opposed to a movie that’s in a hurry to get to the “goodnstuff” without setting up things properly first. In my opinion it’s a very wellnstructured film. In fact, if you ask me, I say that that this film is betternthan The Lost World (1997) in the sense that The Lost World, though entertaining, felt like it was annunnecessary sequel which ran on one simple premise alone, putting the dinosaursnwithin the context of the city landscape. The third one was also pointless tonme. In contrast Jurassic World feels like a natural continuation of thenoriginal story line which had everything to do with opening the park to thenpublic, which finally happens here. I loved the way they portrayed the fullynfunctional park, you’ll wish that it existed! Another plus is of course ChrisnPratt as Owen, playing the role of what can only be described as a ‘RaptornWhisperer’. Chris Pratt looks like Indiana Jones on this one, it wouldn’t surprisenme if he actually ends up wearing the Fedora hat at some point in his career,nespecially now that he is working with Spielberg. So that’s it ladies andngents. What we got here is a film that doesn’t surpass the original but isnbetter than all previous sequels. All in all, a fun time at the movies.

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nRating: 4 out of 5  

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