Jurassic World could use more bite, Peter Howell writes,
Jurassic World takes us back to the park, but can’t deliver wow factor of original
Jurassic World
K (out of 4) Starring Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Vincent D’Onofrio, BD Wong, Irrfan Khan, Omar Sy, Nick Robinson and Ty Simpkins. Directed by Colin Trevorrow. At GTA theatres. 124 minutes. PG
Jurassic World has so many clever thoughts rattling inside its big scaly head, it’s almost too bad it happily settles for being dumb, summer entertainment.
Chris Pratt plays a smart raptor wrangler, Bryce Dallas Howard an unwise park manager and Vincent D’Onofrio a scheming warmonger, in what feels like the real blockbuster sequel to Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park, rather than the two muddled follow-ups from 1997 and 2001.
Jurassic World vigorously addresses the issues of messing with nature and commoditizing wonder that were raised by Spielberg’s 1993 adaptation of Michael Crichton’s bestselling novel. But it’s a film more of thrills than thoughts, and noth- ing can top the unforgettable “wow” of the first viewing of groundbreaking digital dinosaurs in the original trip to the park.
The new movie is set 22 years after the deadly antics of Jurassic Park, and in the same fictional Isla Nublar reserve near Costa Rica. The new billionaire owner (Irrfan Khan) of the late John Hammond’s dinosaur DNA hatchery and theme park is now packing in more than 20,000 people per day who are willing to spend top dollar — including $7 (U.S.) for a bottle of Coca-Cola — to watch prehistoric beasties act like modern trained animals.
How quickly people forget catastrophe when there’s money to be made. But profits have dipped slightly, because gumchewing gawkers are growing jaded of the Jurassic.
“Nobody’s impressed by a dinosaur anymore,” says officious park manager Claire (Dallas Howard), who incongruously struts around the jungle in fashionable duds and high heels.
The solution? Design a scarier dino, a task eagerly taken up by the park’s conscience-free top geneticist Henry Wu (BD Wong), the film’s sole holdover from the Hammond era. Sparing no expense (although we’re told it added up to $26 million), he’s hatched up a paler but more lethal version of the T. rex, a hybrid called “Indominus rex” that has never previously stalked the Earth.
Who knows what havoc this thing might cause, were it to escape from its enclosure designed by “the best structural engineers in the world”?
Insert sardonic laughter here, along with the ominous score by Michael Giacchino, which samples John Williams’ memorable original theme.
The popcorn-chewing adventure takes full visual advantage of 22 years of CGI advancements, although it doesn’t go in for modern gore or horror. Director Colin Trevorrow pays all due tribute to Spielberg — and that includes Jaws, as well Jurassic Park — but it’s like watching a student’s respectful imitation, rather than a teacher’s masterful archetype.
New to blockbusters, Trevorrow is better with characters than action scenes, as anyone who saw his charming sci-fi indie Safety Not Guaranteed might attest. Yet even here he strays from his comfort zone, by failing to take full advantage of Pratt’s flair for comic heroism.
Pratt’s ex-Navy character Owen is more of a straight-ahead swashbuckler type, a nature lover who has learned to communicate with raptors.
His work draws attention from Vincent D’Onofrio’s park security chief Hoskins, who dreams of militarizing the raptors. He muses about sending these brilliantly lethal hunters to fight in Afghanistan.
Seems odd a guy as smart as Owen would be unaware that the Indominus rex project is happening right under his nose. Jurassic World is full of such constructs, the likely cause being that Trevorrow co-wrote the bulging screenplay with three other writers, just one scribe less than the total of five who penned all three previous Jurassic Park movies.
Jurassic World nevertheless hits all the expected beats of heroism, action and dinosaur dining. The tourists are delicious and there are so many more to snack on this time!
Owen might be underwritten and humor-deficient, but who are you gonna call when two reckless teens (Nick Robinson and Ty Simpkins), get lost in Jurassic World, just as their neglectful Aunt Claire is losing all control of the place?
It’s also cool how aspects of Jurassic Park tie into this one, including an unlikely redemption scenario that unfolds grandly. (Among the film’s many amusing grace notes, fans of TV’s Orange Is the New Black will smile at an exchange between computer specialists played by Lauren Lapkus and Jake Johnson.)
If it all somehow feels like dino déjà vu, then you might sympathize with Claire, never at a loss for words, who accurately sums up what Jurassic World really needs: “More teeth.”