Seeing Jurassic World on the big screen is like taking a roller-coaster ride. In the beginning, it takes time to get ready for the action to rise up. Then in the middle, the excitement really arrives. By the end, we're totally amazed with leftover emotions of exhilaration and rapture. That what the long-awaited fourth installment of the Jurassic Park series delivers with a dose of a surefire thrill.
Taking place twenty-two years after the events of the first film, the dinosaur park that couldn't open has finally did with attractions ranging from a dino petting zoo to an aquarium. Heading the park's operations is Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard, daughter of director Ron). In a way to increase attendance in the park, Claire plans to open a new exhibit featuring a hybrid dinosaur created by scientists of the late John Hammond's company, InGen. Claire brings in a dino expert and former flame, Owen Grady (Chris Pratt), to check the genetic-modified animal for safety reasons.
But soon, all hell breaks loose when the hybrid dino breaks out of his cage and makes a rampage through the park killing many in sight and making a mess of the facilities. The rex even tries to mess with Claire's visiting nephews, Zach and Gray (Nick Robinson and Ty Simpkins). So, it's up to Owen and Claire to put a stop to this madness before it gets much worse.
Taking over the director's seat from Steven Spielberg (one of the film's executive producers) is indie director Colin Trevorrow. Trevorrow isn't no Spielberg, but he adds a lot of new juice into the franchise. The script (which was credited as a four-person job) works well with the usual summer blockbuster mix of action, romance and a sense of humor. The dinosaur effects are simply astonishing. Plus, Michael Giacchino's score wisely incorporates John Williams' themes from the original and uses them with fine panache.
As expected, the film is faithful to the 1993 picture from which it sprung. It recreates two of the film scenes when Owen and Claire pets an ailing dinosaur and in the dino-fight-to-the-finish climax, the two of them get trapped by two raptors (joined by a third this time). The filmmakers even recreated the now abandoned Jurassic Park Visitors Center, complete with old park Jeep Wranglers. The film also makes jabs at product placement such as Verizon Wireless sponsoring the latest dino exhibit, the "Samsung Innovation Center" and a Starbucks cafe located in the front of the park (not to mention Comcast-NBCUniversal employee Jimmy Fallon doing a instructions video for one of the attractions).
Coming off his success in Guardians of the Galaxy, Pratt scores well with leading-man charisma as Owen. Let's hope his stock goes up after this. As Claire, Howard is wonderful, even after trying to go Sigourney Weaver-like on the predators. Together, Pratt and Howard scores with a touch of great chemistry that it's not hard to think if they'll both survive this ordeal. They're both supported by a fine supporting cast with Vincent D'Onofrio (of Law & Order:CI fame) as a power-mad security boss, Irrfan Khan as the new head of InGen and New Girl's Jake Johnson as the park's computer control guy (reminiscent of both Wayne Knight's Nedry and Samuel L.Jackson's Arnold from the first film).
When you mix the elements altogether, you might end up with one great thing. With that, Jurassic World roars as a great summer movie. Somewhere in heaven, both Michael Crichton and Richard Attenborough must be proud.
Rating:***1/2
Parent Advisory: Jurassic World is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of science-fiction violence and peril. Good enough for ages 15 and over but some scenes may be too intense and violent for children under age 14 at best, so I advise that it's best to go supervised by a parent, sibling or an older chaperone.
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