Jurassic World (2015)

The good news is that it's definitely the best Jurassic Park sequel. It's also, unfortunately, a recycled version of the original. How can you surpass the original Jurassic Park though? You can only hope to copy it well enough.

Jurassic World felt like more of a logical sequel to the vision of the original. There's a lot of direct references to the original, some very clever, in fact. It's basically fast forward 20 years, and despite their previous disasters, they went ahead and built a dinosaur resort on the original island anyway. I loved the design of the new park, too. Let's be honest, if they somehow did create a real Jurassic Park, I'd be saving every penny for my vacation there.

The effects were pretty good as you'd expect. A few times it had that too much CG look, especially on some of the night scenes. I was happy to see some of the new additions, but I was kind of hoping the look would be updated to account for the more current research and theories. This is kind of explained away with a few lines of dialog though, so that didn't bother me too much.

I enjoyed the cast. I was worried that Chris Pratt might have been miscast (I thought the role need a more serious, action type), but I thought he was okay in the role and I thought he had good chemistry with Bryce Dallas Howard. It's more of an issue with the character(s) being really poorly written. It's not just the main characters either, like there's the older brother character that mopes around, not caring at all that he's on an island full of dinosaurs, ran by her aunt, at that. I couldn't buy that as realistic at all.

I think the biggest problem for me was that I wasn't invested in anything that was going on. I never was scared for any of the characters or concerned for their well being. You see enough of these types of movies and know that none of main characters are going to bite it, so that eliminates a lot of the tension. A few things bugged me here and there, like Bryce Dallas Howard running from a T-Rex in heels. Those must of been some super sturdy shoes in the first place considering they never broke despite all the running and falling around. There's a character death that's both unnecessarily brutal and unearned under normal movie rules. When I hear that Colin Trevorrow wanted to rewrite the script, you can really tell. It's very sloppy, and it's either due to scenes being cut out of the film or the script simply not developing things enough. Finally, there's a part at the end that really bugged me, but I can't really say why without spoiling it. Let's just say there's a huge safety concern considering the proximity of something that seems massively overlooked.

I have to say I was a little disappointed, but my expectations were super high. It's entertaining enough though, and I'd say it's still worth seeing in the theater.

3 (out of 5) Death Stars