Jurassic World
“Jurassic Park” remains one of the great landmarks, and entertainments, of modern blockbusters. The hook of bringing dinosaurs back to life in the modern age was a juicy one, and the way Steven Spielberg and the effects wizards at Industrial Light & Magic brought them to life on-screen is nothing short of amazing to watch to this day. As a movie franchise, however, it has seemed less than durable. The Spielberg-directed “Lost World: Jurassic Park” and Joe Johnston-helmed “Jurassic Park III” have some fine set pieces, but the stories were little more than flimsy excuses to get characters from the original film, who would never go back to Isla Nublar on their own, back on to the island, and let the dinosaurs run amok. Spielberg had tried for years to get a fourth film off the ground, but the right story never quite happened.
Here we are, though, and 14 years after the third film, and 22 years after the original, Spielberg (working as executive producer), like the dinosaurs from the first film, found a way, and we have “Jurassic World.” No, it’s not based off a famous draft for a fourth film by John Sayles and William Monahan that really would have taken the dinos to a global stage, but if you’ve seen the clips of Chris Pratt’s Owen working with velociraptors, you get the feeling something has survived from that draft. But director Colin Trevorrow (who made one of the best films of 2012, “Safety Not Guaranteed”) and his writers (himself, Derek Connolly, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver) have still made an entertaining “What if?” entry in the series, and thankfully, one that pretends the second and third films don’t exist. I wonder whether Spielberg was kicking himself throughout the process, wishing he and the late Michael Crichton had come up with this premise years ago, because if they had, this series would be a completely different beast, and all the better for it.
“Jurassic World” takes place 22 years after the events of the first film, and John Hammond’s dream has been realized. When the film opens, we see a pair of kids (Gray (Ty Simpkins) and Zach (Nick Robinson)) sent off for a week’s vacation by their parents (Judy Greer and Andy Buckley) to Jurassic World, which is run by their aunt Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard). (The parents are going through a divorce, as well, which is thrown out and little explored, making it a needless plot point. The fact that Claire is their aunt is almost equally needless– couldn’t they just be going on their first vacation –but I get why it was done this way for emotional investment in the characters.) Gray is a science junkie, and can’t wait to explore the resort, while Zach is your typical sullen teenager, and embarrassed by his brother at every turn. Claire is too busy to deal with them, though, and not just because of the average responsibilities of running the park; she has a new attraction to get off the ground in the form of the Indominus Rex, which is the first hybrid dinosaur the scientists of Jurassic World, led by Dr. Henry Wu (B.D. Wong, reprising his role in the first film, and loving it), have created. Why would you design a hybrid dinosaur? To up the “wow” factor, although I’m with Owen when he says, “They’re dinosaurs. Wow enough.” Don’t worry, though, it’s not long before Indominus Rex is reeking havoc on the island, and the lives of thousands of visitors to Jurassic World are in danger.
Though the franchise has seemed to take on the model of other movie monster mashes in terms of what is prioritized in each installment (I’m looking at you, “King Kong” and “Godzilla”), the “Jurassic” franchise has worked best in terms of narrative when it looks hard at the ethical dilemmas of science, and man’s interaction with nature. Ok, “hard” is a bit too strong a word for this series’s look at moral quandaries, but watching “Lost World” again, I forgot how the film set up a contrast between the corporate greed of In-Gen, and how it wanted to plunder Hammond’s work for profit (and employed hunters who cared only for the sport of the kill), and the scientists who were there to study the way the dinosaurs flourished and were not unlike present-day animal life in their habits. In “Jurassic World,” In-Gen is still around (and headed by Irrfan Khan’s Simon Masrani, though better personified by Hoskins, played by Vincent D’Onofrio), and their greed and arrogance (the “bigger is better” ethos) is what brings us the Indominus Rex, although they see some benefit to the work Owen, a former military man, is doing with the raptors, as well. His is a bond built out of mutual respect, but Hoskins only sees a lethal force that could change the face of military conflict forever. Masrani quickly sees the error of his ways when the Indominus starts killing, while Hoskins sees an opportunity to try out his experiment with Owen’s raptors. Great science, and great scientific debate, these films are not, but it’s more than enough in “Jurassic World” to propel the film to the #2 slot in the franchise after the iconic original, although the storytelling Trevorrow displays here is also a plus in this film’s column. Rather than just manufacturing an excuse to go back to the island, and letting the rampage begin, “Jurassic World” goes back to the original for inspiration, showing the gradual unfolding of a situation that starts well, but gets progressively worse. It’s all about the anticipation of something bad happening, not just showing bad stuff happening. This is what made the first “Jurassic Park” into a classic alongside Spielberg’s “Jaws”– by comparison, the second and third films are more akin to the Spielberg-less “Jaws” sequels, though not nearly so dreadful. I wouldn’t put “Jurassic World” in the same category of the Spielberg classics, but it’s a lot closer than most films like it come.
Though I think some animatronics have been used to bring the dinosaurs to life in this film, we’re a long way from the creatures created by the late Stan Winston’s studio, and CG is the dominant form of visual effects on display. There are plusses, and minuses, that come with that responsibility, and largely, the plusses (namely, flexibility of movement) win out. Trevorrow gives us visually impressive canvas that reminds us of what John Hammond envisioned with his original Jurassic Park, and modernizes it in an appealing way. I would genuinely want to visit Jurassic World, even if I’d be running the risk of being eaten if one little thing went wrong. That’s probably a bit of an overstatement, but “Jurassic World” is an entertaining return to the tone and spirit of the original film– plenty of excitement (when things start to go wrong, the set pieces get better and better), plenty of enjoyable character moments (especially with Pratt), and a wonderful soundtrack backing it all up by Michael Giacchino, who pays homage to John Williams’s iconic scores while also making the musical landscape entirely his own (much like he did with “Super 8”). Hopefully, a new page has been turned with this series, and Spielberg has more entertaining ideas up his sleeve to keep dinosaurs roaming freely among men for years to come.
