Jurassic World

Jurassic World, the second full length movie from writer/director Colin Trevorrow is a bland excuse for a summer movie. If this movie were not called Jurassic World or produced by Steven Spielberg, I doubt anyone would see it. Because of the weak execution of this $150 million budgeted film I can only bring myself to give it one bucket of Killer Korn.












Only in the mythical, magical, fairytale land known as Hollywood can a man go from doing one full length feature film entitled Safety Not Guaranteed, a film that only grossed $4 million dollars, to being handed a check for $150 million dollars and be put in charge of the next leg of the Jurassic Park franchise. I didn't see Safety and after watching Jurassic World, I have no desire to. Jurassic World was a predictable, tepid film with muddled dialogue and ridiculous stretches of the imagination. Now don't get me wrong, on the shits and giggles scale this movie rates decently despite the plot holes, but I need more than mere shits and giggles to think a movie is good, especially a movie I have to pay to see. This movie wasn't worth the money in my opinion.

Starring the talentless Chris Pratt as the dinosaur whisperer/wrangler Owen who works at Jurassic World, all he does throughout the movie is squint and recite trite dialogue. Bryce Dallas Howard shows up in her first film since 2012 as Claire, the ice queen in charge of the park who seemed to forget that dinosaurs were somewhat intelligent creatures. Vincent D'Onofrio plays the idiot Hoskins, the man in charge of Jurassic World's private security and has grand plans for the Raptors. Ty Simpkins and Nick Robinson play the obligatory kids Gray and Zach respectfully, Irrfan Khan plays billionaire Simon Misrani, the man who owns the park, and BD Wong reprising his role from the original film as Dr. Henry Wu. Wu creates a dinosaur that can outsmart humans, communicate with other dinosaurs, and kills for sport. Claire and company wanted to up the wow factor for fans of the park and that was done with the Indominus Rex. A hybrid dinosaur that is part Raptor and Tyrannosaurus and has the ability to hide from the human eye AND thermal detection (exactly, not a good idea).

I was not impressed at all by Jurassic World, nor was I surprised by anything either. The best part of the film was the end and even that forced you to suspend your intelligence (not that watching man made dinosaurs fight in a theme park hasn't already made you do that). I expected more and I expected better (Spielberg's name was attached after all) but I was sorely disappointed when the credits rolled. The score by Michael Giacchino was uninspiring to put it mildly. He's done far better scores in his day and this one will definitely not win him another Oscar. Oscar nominated cinematographer John Schwartzman did a good job of capturing the live action against a green screen backdrop so no complaints there but overall the movie Jurassic World isn't worth the price of admission. I suggest you skip it and skip if hard. I'll see you at the theater.