Jurassic World
It's hard to resolve the conflict between the part of me that rolls my eyes sarcastically at summer blockbusters, against the part that wanted to see the latest in the Jurassic series. Looks like the 9 year old won out this time. What do I need to say? You already know what happened. After all of the disaster, death and chaos that came from previous dino reboots…will somebody actually do it again? Is there somebody out there with enough scientific knowledge to re-create dinosaurs but who is also stupid enough to think that THEY can make a big enough fence? Stupid enough to think that the dinosaurs won’t escape and wish to feed upon thousands of also dumb-ass tourists who are naive enough to go there after the previous movies? Above all, are they stupid enough to make a bigger, badder version of T Rex through some sort of evil genetic engineering? As you have probably guessed from the trailers, the answer is to all of these questions is a resounding YES; there are dumb enough scientists to do this and dumb enough tourists to pay thousands to go to the Disneyworld of reptiles.
Not only that, but in one of those classic Spielberg conceits (families with complex issues), there’s also a mom with a troubled marriage who sends her kids to the island to be squired around by an estranged family member Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) who works as an exec in the park, and is way to busy working to really spend any “quality time” with her nephews. Meantime, in another plot line, there’s an evil defense contractor Hoskins (a very rotund Vincent D’Onofrio) who wants to develop an assault squad of,,,guess what,,,trained dinosaurs, to clean out hot spots in the Middle East. Save American lives, he says, send velociraptors into Fallujah and they will just eat all the radicals and there will be no American body bags or weeping widows. And just WHO will be the likable character in this movie? Have you not guessed? None other than Owen, played by everybody’s favorite goofy, courageous, likable actor, Chris Pratt. Owen has trained some raptors (a little bit anyway) a he's a desirable property for the weapons guy.
You have probably guessed that the dinos get out, people are on the dinner menu, there’s lots or running, screaming and crashing (one of the staples of summer movies), some of the main characters will make it, some won’t. There will be a small (very small) amount of romantic spark between two of the characters (guess who…one is NOT D’Onofrio). There will also be some sort of reassuring ending, possibly with a hint of a sequel, lots of butts in theater seats and big $$$$ figures coming up on the box office. Nothing in the movie is a surprise. I don’t have to worry about spoilers because everybody already knows what happens.
Did I like it? The movie was directed by Colin Trevorrow, who was last seen in the very likable, small film Safety Not Guaranteed. He obviously watched a lot of Stephen Spielberg movies before taking on JW, Spielberg is one of the producers, and Trevarrow does a decent job carrying on the tradition. The movie moves quickly, not wasting much time on plot or character development, and goes right into what we all came to see, which is dino rampages. As for acting? Does it really matter? As long as they can run and scream, they are good enough and this cast does that well.
I find Chris Pratt interesting. He’s sort of an old school Hollywood actor, not unlike John Wayne in the respect that he’s always the same character in all of his roles. Like it was with The Duke at the Alamo, Dodge City and the Chisum Trail, so it is with Chris Pratt in Parks and Rec, Zero Dark Thirty and now Jurassic World. When it was all over I did enjoy it, sort of. The FX are good, sounds are loud, there’s lots of dino carnage and when it’s over, it’s over and everything is OK for another day. I didn’t expect any more or less and I got what I thought it would be, so I walked out happy enough.
