When the BBQ is covered in cobwebs and the river is much too cold to swim in, nothing else gives you that summer feeling quite like a big summer blockbuster. With 6 other friends I went to the beautiful Plaza Cinema, we got real ticket stubs, the air smelt like popcorn, and I was beyond giddy with excitement - Jurassic World was about to remind me why I’m terrible at football and beaches make me cringe, because for me the magic of summer is in the cinema.
Jurassic World is open, and operations manager Claire juggles vicious attractions and the potentially more vicious shareholders. As her two nephews take a self-guided tour, animal-trainer Owen Grady battles to prevent sinister forces abusing his research. Then a genetically modified monster gets loose and the dino-dung really hits the fan.
Bryce Dallas Howard is superb in the beginning of the film as Claire, operations manager at the park who itemises and organises every aspect of her life and career. Her arc is predictable, however, and I can only hope in the sequel that she is given more to do - I’d love to see more of the spark she shows when given the chance. The two young leads are impressive; Ty Simpkins was entertaining in Iron Man 3 and similarly manages to toe the difficult line between sweet and irritating again here. Nick Robinson (who is excellent in Kings of Summer, check my review here: Kings of Summer. A Review.) is unfortunately short-served on character development, he gives a solid performance as a sullen teenager, but is capable of much more. More often than not, the disgruntled older sibling is a female role, so while this is a male-heavy cast it was nice to see the reversal. Chris Pratt will have won over more fans who missed his excellent coming out party in Guardians of the Galaxy, shining in his comedy sequences and suitably daring in action (though it would have been nice to see him given a little more emotional material to work with). Ultimately the cast are all support acts for the main attractions, and so it is to their credit that they all leave a lasting impression unlike the central couple in the recent Godzilla. Films like Jurassic World sell tickets often because audiences think they want to see 2 hours of cgi monsters, however this is not really the case and for a monster movie to work there has to be a human cast that the audience care about. Jurassic World’s cast were certainly entertaining, with high quality even in some of the smaller supporting roles, creating a world in which dino-destruction actually matters.
Colin Trevorrow was best known for the popular time-travel indie Safety Not Guaranteed, then he inherited a behemoth of a film nearly ten years in production with a legion of fans and a mountain of expectation. Trevorrow has made the jump to blockbuster entertainment admirably, the film never feels out of his control. In contrast to the original, the setup is handled at a brisk pace, however Trevorrow still finds time for small moments of character that keep the audience invested - such as the billionaire CEO who insists on flying his own helicopter. Jurassic World could have relied simply on the branding and soundtrack, however it comes with a handful of its own tricks; the GM Indominus Rex is a horrifying thing, the park itself is well realised and peppered with satire, while the glass safari-spheres are fun on screen and provide some clever shots - one of which sold the film for me. Cinema has yet to produce cgi that will age anything like as well as the animatronics in Spielberg’s original, however the computer generated horrors in Jurassic World are plenty life-like enough to have you watching through your fingers. Jurassic World is a good looking film, which holds up when things begin to get truly frantic on-screen.
The original Jurassic Park is an amazing movie; it takes its time setting up, and was groundbreaking in its execution of cinematic action-horror. Jurassic World was never going to do that, and nor should it have been expected to - the cinematic landscape has moved on. Jurassic World deliberately comments on modern consumption of entertainment, we demand bigger and faster, however if Jurassic World’s makers had sought only to take the concept of the original and add a few bigger monsters it would have been a soulless husk of a film. Instead the filmmakers have made a modern film, one which comments on entertainment culture, militarisation, family ties, and more. It is the burden of the 21st century blockbuster filmmaker that the audience is as razor sharp and unforgiving as a hungry velociraptor; we want a film that is smart and iconic like the original, we want to be wowed by special effects, we want characters to cheer and jeer and care for. Colin Trevorrow’s solution was to use the aesthetic and brand awareness of the original, and put a modern spin on the classic theme of the dangers of playing God. It is not a perfect solution, some will argue he has leant to heavily on referencing the original, some will argue he does not imitate his predecessor closely enough - evolution it seems is not an exact science. Jurassic World is a smarter film than many of its rivals, modern filmmaking technology makes it well worth seeing on a big screen, but most importantly it feels like a Jurassic movie should - equal parts wonder, humour, and terror adding up to a lot of fun.
I left the Plaza Cinema grinning from ear-to-ear, barely managing to contain my T-Rex impression. Jurassic World is already stomping through the box office, and deservedly so - because it did everything a really good summer film should; it was entertaining, it was made with quality, and best of all it has created a real summer memory which I will not soon forget.
WHO: Chris Pratt, quickly solidifying his place as a genuine action star.
WHAT: Raptors in the dark.
WHY: To smile, and laugh, to cheer, and to hide behind you hands.
WHEN: If the music in the trailer sends a tingle down your spine, it’s time to go to the cinema!
(Art from: http://sicktriceratops.com/post/108087377661/jurassic-world-fan-art-by-powersimon)
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