Review: Jurassic World

by Trevor Kirkendall
★½

What made 1993’s “Jurassic Park” such a spectacle was the fact that no one had ever seen anything quite like it. “Jurassic Park” is largely credited with popularizing the move to computers for visual effects work. Nowadays, the practice of using CGI in films has become so widespread that it’s in just about every single Hollywood film whether you realize it or not. It’s not like it’s cheap or easy either. But it’s so commonplace these days that audiences have come to expect something bigger and better every time they see something. “Jurassic World” feels the need to up the ante, and boy is it dreadful.

“Jurassic World” is so bogged down with backstory on so many different characters that it becomes flat out boring. We have Zach and Gray (Nick Robinson and Ty Simpkins) who are headed to Jurassic World to spend a week with their aunt Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard), a workaholic operations manager at the park. We have the geneticists, lead by Dr. Henry Wu (B.D. Wong, the only holdover from the original), who have cooked up a new dinosaur from scratch. Claire, along with the park’s owner Masrani (Irrfan Khan) believe that kids are bored with regular dinosaurs and need something bigger and scarier to keep people coming back for more. Masrani is worried this new dinosaur, the Indominous Rex, isn’t too happy in the isolated paddock they’ve built for her. He asks Claire to consult with an animal trainer they have on the island named Owen (Chris Pratt) to analyze the paddock.

Owen trains Raptors and has gotten them to trust and respect him. His supervisor Hoskins (Vincent D’Onofrio) is in awe of this ability and wants to explore how far Owen can go with Raptors. But that’ll have to wait since Owen has to deal with the Indominous Rex paddock. But when he gets there, things go all wrong. And it’s not because he and Claire used to have a little fling going.

That’s all in the first act before the inciting incident even comes along. Did you pay for a human drama piece about romance, or a study of putting work before family? Or did you pay to see awesome looking dinosaurs run rampage through a theme park? 

I’m pretty certain a lot of these characters could have been cut down or combined. I’m also certain the romance side of the story could have been thrown out and no one would have missed it. Not once after watching “Jurassic Park” did anyone ever say, “I hope Dr. Grant and Dr. Sadler got together!” The characters in “Jurassic World” are overabundant in numbers, completely misused, and change their personalities for whatever the scene asks of them. This is Screenwriting 101 stuff being thrown out the window. Hell, this is basic story telling skills being tossed out!

Spielberg knew just how to keep a tight reign on his story. He knew you paid to see dinosaurs, so he got them on screen quick but still held out the anticipation for as long as possible. How breathtaking was it when you first saw the brachiosaurus on screen?

But everyone knows what dinosaurs look like on the big screen. So “Jurassic World” is at a disadvantage already. The filmmakers try to compensate by making up a dinosaur out of thin air and add pieces to it as they go along to make it seem like it’s indestructible and invincible. Why approach it like this? Because they can. Remember that memorable quote from the original by Jeff Goldblum? “You were so preoccupied that you could do it, you never stopped to think about if you should do it.” Same applies here. As a matter of fact, that quote could apply to about nine out of 10 studio pictures these days, but that’s a topic for another day.

Director Colin Trevorrow has one other film to his credit and that’s the indie film “Safety Not Guaranteed,” which is actually a very enjoyable film; one I would recommend everyone watch instead of watching “Jurassic World.” Trevorrow’s inexperience with big budget features is painfully obvious from the first scene in the film. There’s a lot of humor sprinkled throughout the film, which he does know how to handle. It’s well placed and well timed even if it’s uncomfortably corny, most of which delivered by his “Safety Not Guaranteed” star Jake Johnson.

Outside of that, Trevorrow has no grasp on the film. There’s no awe and childlike wonderment that accompanied the original. Instead, the first dinosaurs on screen just sort of appear; no fanfare and no awe. All the film's best shot are direct copies of shots Spielberg and cinematography Dean Cundey already crafted in the original. Even the brilliant composer Michael Giacchino is reduced to playing John Williams's famous musical themes at all the big moments. And even though Indominous Rex is the star of the film, she never really fills the screen quite the same way Spielberg’s T-Rex did. There’s no inspiration whatsoever. They're so drunk on nostalgia they forgot to make something new and original. It’s a completely flat film from beginning to the third act when we do get some dino vs. dino moments, which ends up actually being fun. Too little too late though.

Is “Jurassic World” a bad movie? Yes, it is sadly. As bad as the other two sequels? No, thanks a few fun moments in the latter half. Still, everyone on the creative and studio side is to blame for its shortcomings. Studio pictures are overrun with too many people concerned with playing to all major demographics across the planet. While “Jurassic Park” may have been targeted to teenage boys, “Jurassic World” will ideally (in the mind’s of executives) grab everybody since they’ve thrown in something everyone can hopefully empathize with. I’m sorry, but if a dinosaur bursts through the trees and starts chasing you, I’m pretty certain running is something everyone can empathize with. The first act of so many movies these days are filled with talk and talk and talk and talk to the point that summer movies are almost unwatchable. What happened to old screenwriting adage “show don’t tell?” I guess Trevorrow skipped that day of class. He and about 90% of all other Hollywood directors need to retake that part of the class again. Either that, or they could screen “Jurassic Park” again so they can remember exactly what a summer movie is supposed to look like.