Bigger and Badder is the motto in this new installment of the blockbuster franchise. Hollywood juggernaut Steven Spielberg gave his blessing to Colin Trevorrow, whose only other directing credit is the pleasing indie film Safety Not Guaranteed, to helm the picture. Along with Trevorrow are co-screenwriter Derek Connolly and supporting actor Jake Johnson from the indie who provides, along with a cameo by Jimmy Fallon, the only humor throughout the otherwise dull, yet action-fueled film.
Jurassic World takes place 22 years exactly after the events from the original 1993 hit Jurassic Park (forgoing the latter two sequels into the storyline, for obvious reasons). With the help of yet another starry-eyed, middle aged man, Simon Masrani (Iffrahn Khan) who like the original owner, John Hammond, is more concerned with upping the ‘wow’ factor and putting smiles on the faces of attendees without being even slightly aware of some of its inexorable consequences, a new dino is born (err…genetically created) – the Indominus Rex. (who forms the basis of the conflict as she runs amuck and causes a killing spree across the island)
The Indominus Rex as well yeh.
The story starts off with two typical adolescent brothers, Gray and Zach (Ty Simpkins and Nick Robinson respectively) who go to spend a trip at Jurassic World with their shrill aunt, and operations manager, Claire Dearing, and more or less throughout the film are stuck in their archetypal forms; Gray, the younger sibling, eager to learn and a dinofact genius and Zach the too-cool-for-school kid spending the majority of his screen time staring off at random girls.
In comes Hollywood’s most popular leading man and hero of the galaxy, Chris Pratt who plays ex-Naval lieutenant Owen Grady, who used to train dolphins for a military program. Along with a solid supporting role by Omar Sy, the two train velociraptors as a part of the park’s newer program.
Chris Pratt as Owen Grady.
A couple months before the film came out, director Joss Whedon had commented on a clip that had been released promoting the film involving Howard’s and Pratt’s character’s relationship saying, “I’m too busy wishing this clip wasn’t 70’s era sexist. She’s a stiff, he’s a life-force – really? Still?”And although he apologized for his seemingly insensitive remarks, Howard’s character, as well as others are every bit as bad as Whedon earlier described. No matter how many dinos appear, or how often the lead, human antagonist Hoskins (Vincent D’Onofrio), the head of security operations for InGen, gets in his way, Pratt remains cool, calm, and collected, oh and did I mention, he’s always right.
Howard’s uptight, career-driven character makes the turnaround from telling her sister, Karen, that she doesn’t want kids and clanking around in her high heels and pantsuit to learning how to appreciate a maternal role only after becoming the damsel in distress and needing the help of Pratt’s character to save her two nephews who foolishly go “off-road” on the island even after a warning video tells them to return because the ride is closed. Not to mention that once she finally does lose the pantsuit, on more than one occasion, there are slomo sequences of her running up and down in a two-strap, fitted shirt as she’s chased by dinos. The fact that Howard and Pratt show little to no romantic chemistry doesn’t help the situation either.
Bryce Dallas Howard as Claire Dearing.
Furthermore, when Howard’s character first comes to Grady for help, he just so happens to be fixing up his motorcycle. I mean really? C’mon. Speaking of that scene, the amount of product placement in this film is insane. On countless occasions park-goers can be spotted with Starbucks cups, and even the occasional Jamba Juice if you look close enough. Not to mention, Pratt’s close-up drinking a bottle of Coca Cola and the countless tracking shots of Mercedes vehicles and Triumph motorcycles. Despite the bombarding nature of these products, some humor comes out of it, particularly through the meta reference when Jake Johnson’s character, Lowery, is critiqued by Dearing for wearing a Jurassic Park t-shirt which he states he “got on EBay”.
Jake Johnson as Lowery.
After watching a film I always want to be able to take something out of it, whether it’s an idea or a quotable one-liner, yet I can’t think of one thing that I got, nothing positive anyway. Movies should leave an audience contemplating the ideas it poses several days after watching it. And while Trevorrow’s performance will not affect the record-breaking numbers the film will pull in at the box office due in large part to the cherished franchise’s backing of millions of people worldwide, this new installment certainly does make for a hugely inventive storyline nor does it stack up to the groundbreaking original. I had originally hoped that Spielberg wouldn’t follow suit with Michael Bay who opened the door for a Transformers Universe, but according to recent tabloids it seems that the ‘Jurassic’ franchise has already signed on for another film.