There's a moment in
Jurassic World when a giant
aquatic dinosaur leaps from the water and engulfs a shark hanging
over its pool, much to the delight of the theme park's spectators.
The symbolism is obvious – this film will eat Jaws
for breakfast, quite literally. References to Steven Spielberg's
canon (the director served as Executive Producer) run throughout
Jurassic World and, in
terms of spectacle, it certainly beats Jaws
and is on par with the Spielberg's Jurassic Park.
Just as the original film did, Jurassic World will
amaze and enthral audiences and is a pleasing, if underdeveloped,
blockbuster.
Set
22 years after the events of the original film, Jurassic
World takes the audience back to
Isla Nublar which is now home to a theme park which would have
surpassed even John Hammond's wildest dreams for a dinosaur paradise.
No-one, it seems, has learnt the lessons of history. The visitor
experiences and amenities are slick affairs and a consumerist culture
saturates the attractions. But for all the wondrous dinosaurs roaming
the island, visitor numbers are declining: the public are no longer
amazed by extinct animals, even if they are 60 foot high. With
corporate pressures bearing down on them, the park's owners decide to
genetically engineer a big new dinosaur to attract the crowds, one
with a louder roar, bigger claws and more teeth. Things, however,
take a rather nasty turn when the star exhibit manages to escape from
its 'high-security' enclosure.
Events
in Jurassic World are
as predictable as the tide and from the moment we are introduced to
the Indominus Rex and her many teeth, the film's plot runs its course
as you would expect. But the thing is, this doesn't matter. Indeed,
it adds to the audience's enjoyment of the film and the building
sense of the inevitable – people are going to get eaten.
As
blockbuster fare goes, Jurassic World is
about as big – and as loud – as it gets and there is something
very pleasing about seeing on-screen monsters which are ostensibly
fictional but are, in reality, based in fact. Of course, the idea of
their revival from extinction is pure Hollywood, but the fact that
such beasts once roamed the planet makes the action and subsequent
death-by-eating all the more exhilarating. Some have said that the
film's pacing slows in the middle but I think that it maintains a
healthy pace throughout, shifting from one dinosaur escape to
another, culminating in hundreds of pterodactyls descending onto the
terrified crowds below.
There
are several plot strands which run throughout the film, focusing on
the park's director of operations, Claire (played by Bryce Dallas
Howard) and her two nephews who come to visit the park. Throw in a
love interest in the form of Chris Pratt's character, Owen, who is
trying to train the velociraptors and a few rather shady individuals
intent on developing dinosaurs as weapons, and you have a cast who
commit fully to their parts but, in terms of characterisation, are
rather underdeveloped.
This
is the most significant problem with the film. The 1993 film (just as
much of Spielberg’s work) managed to balance terrific spectacle
with careful characterisation so that the audience could empathise
with the characters as they were being chased by a hungry raptor. In
Jurassic World,
however, the special effects seem to take precedence over a coherent
plot and engaging protagonists. That said, the film's script does
have plenty of comic moments between the characters (in particular
between Dallas Howard and Pratt) but this is, again, overshadowed by
plot holes and plot developments which are seemingly forgotten about
or never concluded to a satisfactory level.
I
don't wish, however, to let this detract from a film which, overall,
is really enjoyable and visually breathtaking. The special effects
(now predominantly CGI but animatronics were also used) are
impressive, especially in the film's dinosaur-on-dinosaur denouement
and the raptor encounters. I genuinely found myself smiling in wonder
at some of the set-pieces, feeling as I did when I first watched
Jurassic Park aged
ten. Swooping establishing shots of helicopters gliding over the
island accompanied by John Williams' familiar theme music will
satisfy every Jurassic fan.
Nods and references to the first film are handled nicely and the film
manages to maintain the sense of threat and fear which makes the
thought of escaped dinosaurs such good screen material.
Jurassic World
provides all the scares, thrills
and teeth that you could want. It has a self-awareness, whether in
terms of referencing its preceding films, or in the consumerist
theme-park culture which has emerged in recent years, which is
refreshing and it excels in its arresting action sequences. It's a
shame the the characterisation lets the film down somewhat but I have
to say that I still really, really enjoyed it. Now, where has that
T-Rex got to...?!
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