Jurassic World review

Director: Colin Trevorrow
Running time: 2 hours and 5 minutes
Cast: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Irrfan Khan, Vincent D'Onofrio, Ty Simpkins, Jake Johnson.


I loved the first Jurassic Park, I still remember the craze around it. The sticker albums, the toys, the McDonald's tie in cups. It was big and loud, but It was a rare blockbuster movie which was more than the sum of its parts. The technology used was revolutionary, the characters were all interesting, and it had some genuine scares.

Neither of the sequels did much for me, although I don't dislike them as ferociously as some other 'Jurassic' fans do. I kind of like The Lost World, the first half is decent, and if you turn off half your brain, take it for what it is, Jurassic Park 3 is passable entertainment.

So going into Jurassic World, I had very little expectations, sure the trailers were good, and they brought back a bit of nostalgia. But I thought they gave far too much away, and the movie looked like it was just going to be a dumb, cgi 'Dinosaur on the loose' movie, (which it more or less turned out to be).

You'll know more about my final views if you read on, but the movie is decent and not much more, it's everything that you expected it to be.

Premise:

Twenty-two years after the events of Jurassic Park, Isla Nublar now features a fully functioning dinosaur theme park, Jurassic World, as originally envisioned by John Hammond. After 10 years of operation and visitor rates declining, in order to fulfill a corporate mandate, a new attraction is created to re-spark visitors' interest, which backfires horribly (IMDB SOURCE).

So what's good?

The first 30-45 minutes of the movie is a little slow, it allows the movie to build up, and the audience to marvel at the Island of Isla Nublar. It's nice to see the park finally open, as a living, breathing environment. We see the many attractions through the eyes of the two teenagers, the gyrosphere scene is very cool, as well as the first scene in which we see the Mosasaurus. The control room scenes give a great sense of urgency to the story, and make Jurassic World a believable place that is alive.

The action, while predictable and little generic, is on the whole, a lot of fun. The finale is particularly special, as the I-Rex comes to her demise. Speaking of the I-Rex, I actually really liked the design, as well as its role as the movie's antagonist. Although its present is very contrived, I found the hybrid dinosaur menacing, and at times terrifying.

None of the characters have much dimension to them, all are reasonably one note, but I liked Jake Johnson's character, who brings some comic relief to the movie. And I also rather liked Bryce Dallas Howard as the corporate drone.

What's not good?

As I previously stated, the characters are forgettable, and all rather incidental to the story. Which is the opposite to any memorable movie, let alone Jurassic Park, where each of the characters were interesting, and had a purposeful motivation and story arc to the narrative of the movie. You'd be hard pressed to name more than one or two characters after seeing Jurassic World.

Some of The dinosaur cgi is noticeably bad, bad in the sense that it doesn't look or blend well with the actors on screen, a perfect example is the scene (featured prominently in the trailers) in which Chris Pratt's character is standing his ground in front of the three raptors.

While we finally see the park open in all its glory, it still feels like a passing background, the locations are there briefly and then gone. Aside from the control room, there are no moments in which the audience really get a feel for the environments. None of it is memorable like the visitor centre or the raptor cage in Jurassic Park.

The action is fun but nothing spectacular, nothing that really left me on the edge of my seat.

Verdict:

Jurassic World is a decent movie and nothing much more. To its credit it doesn't try to be, it's better than what you might have feared, but nowhere near as good as it could have been. Those who really love it seem to do so because it brings back memories of the first one, which has some truth in it, it does feel like a proper sequel to the first, and I'd rank it as a slightly better movie than The Lost World, and far superior to the third movie.



 6/10

My top 10 movies of all time

I love movies, and without sounding at all pretentious, I consider the experience of going to a cinema to be one of my favourite things to actually do. I love the idea of escaping from reality, of looking into another world of storytelling. For me, good cinema is a reminder that you're not in a theatre.

I have never really thought about what my favourite movies of all time were, until my brother asked me while we were watching Jurassic Park. So after a bit of thinking I came up with my list. Aside from the first two on the list, the rest are interchangeable, depending on how I feel. Some would most likely appear on most other peoples lists, some are technically great movies, others are just ones that I like personally. But each of them have one thing in common, I can always watch them no matter what mood I'm in.

So in a very short summary, here's my list.



1.Blade Runner:

Serious science fiction very rarely works for me, often coming across as self indulgent and pretentious, full of ideas but no emotion. But Blade Runner is different, it asks serious questions about humanity, in particular its relationship with artificial intelligence. The visual photography, outstanding for their time, still hold up well to this day.

There is also the masterful soundtrack by Vangelis, which elevates the film even further. Listening to 'Love Theme' instantly transcends your thoughts to somewhere else.

And to this day, I still haven't seen anything as powerful as the opening shot to this film, and 'The Tears in the Rain' speech at the end of the movie. Simply sublime, and soulful.

Art on screen.

2.
Rear Window

If ever there is a movie to showcase Hitchcock's genius film-making , it is Rear Window. Which is strange because outside of film nerds, Rear Window is often forgotten amongst Hitchcock's other movies such as 'Psycho' and 'Birds'.

Full of suspense and mystery, watching Rear Window is like turning the pages of a book you just can't put down. No movie has captured an assemble of interplaying characters within the same plot quite like this.

3.
RoboCop

An old childhood favourite of mine, and one that will forever hold up.

Not only is the action hard hitting and raw, underneath all of it is an action movie with substance, and a real social message about the extremities of neo-liberal economics.

'Dead or alive you're coming with me'.

4.
The Sixth Sense

Everyone knows it for that twist, and boy was it a great twist. It was also genuinely scary, and it was a ghost story which was character driven as much as it was story driven. Which is very rare in a movie.

The logic and the story can be questioned on repeat viewings, but I think it's a testament to the film not a detriment.

5.
Christmas Vacation

The greatest Christmas film of all time, and possibly the greatest comedy of all time. Even if you only watched this film once every year, it will forever be hilarious. There's an endless list of classic scenes.
It's a rare Christmas movie which is good, and a rare comedy which is better than its predecessors.

That moment where Clark Griswald gets pissed at the lights not coming on is worth seeing just by itself.

6.
Rocky

If the movie industry wasn't entirely about economics, the first Rocky film should have been the only one in the series ever made. Before it was then turned into a parody of itself, and then to some degree redeeming itself in the end.

Rocky's great because it's the ultimate underdog story, the outsider who went against the odds and won. It really is inspirational.

But beneath it all, is a story of love and family, of belonging somewhere and not letting go, no matter what.

I could watch this film everyday for the rest of my life and still enjoy it.

Adrian why you wanna fight?

Rocky Because I can't sing or dance.

7.
Alien

Arguably the greatest monster novie in history. And it is in my opinion the only truly great entry in the series.

While tame by today's standards, the chest bursting scene still holds up, and gives the audience a taste of the malignant idea of something 'other' growing inside of you, and then ultimately killing you. It's still atmospherically scary with a good band of fleshed out characters. As well as a strong female lead, which is rare now and much rarer back then.

The H R Geiger's xenomorph is mesmerising in itself, elevating the movie in a direction which it wouldn't if it was anything different. The set designs are gritty, seductive and intriguing all at the same time.

8.
Lost In Translation

On the surface, this movie is rather hollow, and arguably, on face value, a little pretentious in some places. But I like it because not only are the two main characters relatable, but they're also rather likeable. It's story about the coming together of two people who're in some form of life crisis, in a place that is strange to them. Their loneliness essentially brings them together.

The casting is perfect, Bill Murray and an unknown Scarlett Johansson play the leads perfectly, the city of Tokyo acts as a character all by itself, rather than just being a background piece.

It also has a indefinitely listenable soundtrack, which compliments the neurotic tone of the film.

Charlotte: Let’s never come here again because it will never be as much fun.

9.
Toy Story 2

Along with Monsters Inc this is my favourite Pixar movie. For me it's just a tad better than the first Toy Story. In part, because the characters are already established, and the supporting characters from the first movie play a bigger part, and new ones are introduced.

But I think it's the best in the series because it's the most fun, and the most emotional. While the first was about the character's accepting who they are. Toy Story 2 is about friendship and belonging, without being preachy and overly sentimental.

The scenes in Al's Toy Barn are the Toy Story series at their finest.

10.
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

My favourite in the LOTR trilogy.

Watching the Battle of Helm's deep in the cinema is still greatest cinematic experience I have ever had, the build up and the tension was unbelievable. Watching moments like that are what shared movie experiences are made for.
Unrivalled to this day.

Honourable mentions:

Speed- Non stop action, along with 'Die Hard', it's my favourite pure action movie of all time
The Cable Guy- Jim Carrey in his darkest role, shamefully forgotten and very underrated in my opinion
Jurassic Park- a rare blockbuster that it is more than the sum of its parts.
Ghostbusters 1&2- While the first is the better film, the second is more fun. Would definitely be in my top 15 list.
Snow White and the Sven Dwarfs- In my top 3 Disney movies, nothing has scared me as much as the first time I saw it as a child.
Seven- The perfect horror/mystery combination. On anther day, this would be in my top ten. So utterly brilliant, the story drags you in all the way. The lighting is sublime, I wish I had seen this in a cinema theatre
The Godfather: Part 2- I love this movie, but I haven't seen it in a number of years