Movie Review: "Jurassic World"

Jurassic World (2015)

PG-13

3 Stars out of 5

Director                                Colin Trevorrow
Writers                                 Colin Trevorrow, Derek Connolly, (and Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver)
Cinematography                 John Schwartzman
Visual Effects                       Phil Tippet (ILM), Tim Alexander
Music                                    Michael Giacchino

Chris Pratt                           Owen Grady
Bryce Dallas Howard         Claire Dearing
Irrfan Khan                          Simon Masrani
Vincent D’Onofrio              Vic Hoskins
Ty Simkins                           Gray Mitchell
Nick Robinson                     Zach Mitchell
B.D. Wong                           Dr. Henry Wu

 

Once upon a time in America, a time when circuses roamed the land, one could make a good argument that there was a public demand, if not a clamor for more exotic, bigger, and louder entertainment. How many tigers could one man control with a whip and a chair, or what wild new, death defying stunt would Harry Houdini pull? But today in late 2015 is this still the norm? Sure the David Copperfields and David Blaines of the world continue to play one up-manship with their stunts, and one could certainly make a good argument that Hollywood continues this trend with one comic-book inspired/ city wrecking movie after another. I wonder how bored the public might have become with the concept. If there were an amusement park like the one portrayed in “Jurassic World”, would the public really be so bored with mere dinosaurs such as T Rex and Apatosaurus that attendance would drop off; drop off to the point that the park’s scientists would be compelled to gene splice together something bigger and more ferocious, in order to pull in the public?

This question occurs to me as I think back to “Jurassic World” and its theme of corporate rapaciousness coupled with public demand for thrills; thrill that must be made bigger with the passage of time. I do applaud the effort by the writers to blend in some contemporary themes from modern life, but this theme of public boredom rings hollow to me. There is no argument in my mind as to whether greed and the profit incentive drives and will continue to drive much of human behavior, most certainly corporate behavior.  But this theme and the various two-dimensional characters in "Jurassic World" are symptomatic of my biggest complaint with the movie, and that is the writing. As odd as it might seem for a movie about dinosaurs, the writing just does not seem believable. Nevertheless, kudos to writers Trevorrow and Connolly for writing a story that tries to meld such an idea into a movie whose only real purpose is to answer the question: what would happen if T Rex got into a fight with a dinosaur spliced together with the DNA from T Rex, velociraptors, tree frogs, chameleons and who knows what all else. However to return to my complaint about the writing for one last moment, this latter concept of fighting reptilian carnivores conflicts with another theme shown in the movie, the treatment of animals in confinement. It seems counterintuitive to me to create a film that rests on a pedestal of massive dinosaurs fighting in order to make the movie exciting and appealing to the modern audience, while at the same time including the theme of animal mistreatment in zoos, etc. This seems like a cinematic version of “having your cake and eating it, too”. Ah well, it’s a movie about dinosaurs, why bother worrying about writing, acting, or logic; let’s get to what’s really real in this movie: special effects.

In this re-boot of Steven Spielberg’s 1993 “Jurassic Park”, director Colin Trevorrow has tried to bring back the story line from the first movie in this series. There are various nods to the original story in terms of props and evil-doers (e.g. Dr. Henry Wu played by B.D. Wong as the chief scientist is in both movies), and even in some small nods such as the restaurant on the park’s main street named after the lead special effects make-up director in the first three Jurassic movies, Stan Winston. (Winston died in 2008 and the restaurant’s name is a nice acknowledgement of his contributions.) However, Trevorrow’s chief accomplishment in his directing is the manner in which he suggests the violence the dinosaurs are capable of doing without graphically displaying it. There is a scene where T Rex approaches a bound sheep but concludes with only a spray of blood – this scene is also amusing from the point of the older of the two boys featured in this movie, Zach (Nick Robinson) as he ignores the T Rex in order to focus on his iPhone. Another scene of note is one in which a monstrously large (if that description has any meaning in this movie) dinosaur jumps from the water to swallow whole a Great White Shark. Trevorrow’s best accomplishment though in staging the various violent dinosaur encounters is his ability to make use of suggestion via flashing velociraptors in front of the screen with various actor extras (aka dinosaur chow) in the background. By doing many of the human/dinosaur interactions in this manner, Trevorrow is able to create both tension and fear and to do so without excessive amounts of gore; which would probably have drained away the anxiety, anyway. One thing this movie most definitely is, is exciting.

The human component of the movie focuses on Navy veteran Owen (Chris Pratt) as the trainer of a group of four velociraptors and Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) as the park’s Ops manager. Owen knows everything (how to train and treat dinosaurs, when they’ve been mistreated, when they go bad, etc.), while Claire knows nothing (how to care for her two nephews, apparently even how to manage her personal life, or choosing to run in high heels from T Rex after she intentionally went to lure the monster). This odd fifties style of male/female behavior patterns is yet one more theme in this movie but unlike the others defies comprehension. Is there some point to dumbing down the woman, while exalting the man? Other members of the cast not intended to become some dinosaur’s meal is the park’s corporate CEO, Simon Masrani (Irrfan Khan), and Claire’s two nephews, Zach and his younger brother, Gray (Ty Simkins). The acting by Pratt and Howard is fine, but in my opinion, young Simkins actually had the only chance to play a character that was realistic throughout the movie, and his acting really helped make this character believable. Vincent D’Onofrio made his appearance as the stock bad guy, Vic Hoskins; a representative of the gene splicing firm working with the park. It struck me that the Hoskins and Dr. Wu characters were in the movie primarily to set up a sequel, and from what I have read just such a sequel is planned for 2018. For the third highest grossing picture in the US and the world history, this comes as little surprise. And it certainly underlines the hypocrisy I allude to above with respect to rapacious corporations – how is Universal’s production of the Jurassic Park movies any less avaricious than the fictional park’s parent corporation referred to in this movie?

“Jurassic Park” was a fun summer blockbuster. If you want to see dinosaurs fighting, or would like to see superb CGI and animatronic versions of said dinosaurs, this is quite definitely your movie. If you are looking for something more, well you know full well any movie about dinosaurs is not likely to feature strong writing and acting, and “Jurassic World” will not fail you in any such expectations. You know it’s a popcorn movie and nothing more; a well-made and well-directed one, I admit. So, get yourself a bag of popcorn and enjoy this movie for what it is.