Film Review: Jurassic World (2015).

Hey, everyone. So I finally got to see Jurassic World last night and I am here to review it for you today. I hope you enjoy reading it, let's get into it!

The Background

You must be living under a rock if you don't know what the Jurassic franchise is all about but if you don't, I'll tell you what this one is about. Jurassic World is a direct sequel to the first film Jurassic Park and it ignores The Lost World and Jurassic Park 3 completely which is a smart move really. 

Located on the original island, Jurassic World had been active for a number of years, following in the footsteps of John Hammond before becoming 'boring' for tourists who were tired of seeing uninteresting dinosaurs. To boost attendance again, a team of scientists design an array of genetically engineered dinosaurs including an enhanced hybrid called the Indominus Rex who inevitably escapes, causing chaos. Its escape sets off a chain reaction, resulting in other dinosaurs running amok and it is up to former military man and animal expert Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) to use his skills to save two young children and the rest of the park from the slaughter.

My Thoughts

Jurassic World was great and as action-packed as I expected. The first moment of hearing the iconic soundtrack of the original Jurassic film gave me goosebumps and made me feel incredible nostalgic. It was more suspenseful and scarier than I expected, especially with the scenes of the towering Indominus Rex, prowling and stalking. What also surprised me was the fact Jurassic World was increasingly self-aware and thoughtful throughout the film but of course the film had its flaws.

But first, there were a few blasts from the past running throughout the film with quite a few recognisable dinosaurs as well as the new ones. Also, (a possible, minor spoiler), there is a part in the film where the two children (Nick Robinson and Ty Simpkins) stumble across into the visitor's centre from the original film which has long become run-down and out of use. However, they come across some iconic items like Timmy's night vision goggles and the old Jurassic Tour Jeeps. The constant throwbacks to the 1993 film are beacons throughout film even getting one of the characters, Lowery (Jake Johnson), to wear a Jurassic Park t-shirt which he got from e-Bay. All of these meta moments just shows how much Jurassic World feeds off on our love for dinosaurs but also on our love for the film Jurassic Park. This constant nostalgia as well as the new, introduced themes/dinosaurs/people blended well together and was great to watch. 

The only properly fleshed out characters were the dinosaurs, I felt. The once terrifying Velociraptors became heroes of the story as they are trained by Chris Pratt's character to follow his orders and go against all rules of nature. Chris Pratt was actually pretty good as Owen, obviously. To be honest, that man could play a tramp and I'd still find him incredibly attractive! He's not necessarily the lead actor but he definitely steals every scene he's in either with action packed moments, one liners or his raptor training. Unfortunately, I felt like Bryce Dallas Howard struggled with her uptight, wooden character Claire who is constantly worried about profits, park attendance and investors. The initial hour or so of her made me feel frustrated and not at all connected to the character but at the very end, she truly became an empowered, incredible woman who literally saves the day.. IN HEELS. 

However, I do have a problem with Jurassic World as it often abandoned characters and subplots for more dinosaurs. For example, at one point the two kids' parents (who weren't there, they are Bryce Dallas Howard's character's nephews who were visiting her) were apparently getting divorced but this subplot is randomly dropped and never spoken of again even at the end of the film so it felt a little pointless because it was clearly only used to give these kids some kind of emotional arc. 

The messages about the dinosaurs being genuine animals in the film were great and could definitely apply to real life as to how we treat animals. Especially the part with the huge dinosaur in the water which eats a great, white shark in the trailer: it has a SeaWorld-esque feel to it and how this incredible animal is reduced to being a public attraction and only thought of in financial terms.  

Another few things that I loved about Jurassic World was that there was tons of racial representation rather than the usual white, male characters. Yes, Chris Pratt was technically still the white, male 'lead' BUT there were subtle differences that I really enjoyed. Claire was a woman of power, rather than a victim and she wasn't as sexualized as much as she could have been. Plus, the only 'villain' wasn't actually a dinosaur, it was a corporate, white man planning to take the dinosaurs off the island which really reinforced the message that the dinosaurs are animals and are trapped in captivity rather than seeing them as the terrifying monsters we had gotten used to from the first film.

Here's the trailer:

Have you seen it yet? What did you think of it?

Thankyou for reading.

Laura.