Review: Jurassic World

Story:

Two brothers visit Jurassic World for the first time. Their Aunt Claire runs the park and they haven’t seen her for quite a while. This also happens to be the time when the new hybrid dinosaur gets so smart it hatches a plan to escape. So now there’s 20,000 people on the island with the brothers lost in the park and the hybrid dinosaur hunting for sport.

Review:

I spent the first part of the movie waiting for that moment that would be similar to seeing the dinosaurs for the first time in Jurassic Park and it never came.
This movie’s biggest problem is there’s no sense of wonder with the dinosaurs but that does make it fit what the movie is about. Which is getting bored with things and wanting bigger better faster.
It’s fitting since it’s a movie where a boy is more interested in his phone than in the dinosaurs. This movie feels like a criticism of sequels having to be bigger and have higher stakes than the last. Because if that’s what makes a sequel good then Jurassic World succeeded.
This time it’s 20,000 people instead of a handful and the hybrid is bigger than a T-Rex and smarter. But it’s not a good movie. It’s an okay movie. So by failing to be as good as the first it proves it’s point that bigger is not always better.
The dinosaurs are the only redeeming factor of this movie because the characters certainly aren’t interesting. I think they knew they didn’t have to try to get people to go see this. All they had to do was create an okay movie and people would see it. In huge numbers apparently because it’s broken the box office.
I like the hybrid dinosaur but it’s presented as irredeemably evil because it hunts for sport not to eat. This is so we don’t feel bad when they decide it’s got to die.
But if hunting for sport is the deciding factor for if something is evil then there’s a whole load of humans who need to die. But what else can you expect from a Jurassic Park movie. The first one was great but on top of all the questionable science it had a greedy lawyer who got eaten on a toilet.
I think all of the movies demonised people in suits. Apart form the third one. There they get rescued by a guy in a suit on a beach with a megaphone. My point is that morality is very black and white in the Jurassic Park universe.
In this movie you know who’s going to die but it’s still fun seeing how bad he’s going to get before that happens and how exactly it will happen. Hopefully in the most ironic way possible but I’m not that picky. As long as he dies by dinosaur I’m good.
I think the science is better this time round. Actually let me rephrase that. I think the questions around the implications of the science are better this time round. The first one didn’t seem to understand what scientists do. Which is to use other scientists research and build on it to create progress.
I don’t have a problem with cloning animals as long as they aren’t suffering. They’re not people, they don’t have identities so they’re not going to have an identity crisis when they realise they’ve been cloned.
The only question raised in Jurassic Park that had any merit was when Doctor Saddler questions putting dinosaurs into an ecosystem that’s been without them for millions of years.
Where as Jurassic World deals with what happens when you mix two species. That’s two sets of instincts hardwired into the hybrid’s brain. What would happen? I don’t think they delved into that enough. I think it would be fascinating to explore the instincts of the dinosaurs that got mixed and how it creates conflict. But I guess the hybrid is mentally unstable if that’s what they’re implying with the whole killing for sport thing. It’s hard to tell what’s caused this behaviour because it’s also been raised in isolation and so doesn’t have any manners any way.
The main character is a career woman and she doesn’t want children and the movie treats that as bad. It’s a lot of sexist crap that’s very annoying.
Chris Pratt pretty much plays Star Lord again but without the dance off. Watching Guardians of the galaxy I felt let down by having the hero be the same hero you see everywhere. But I don’t feel as let down this time because I wasn’t expecting a movie that would break the expectations of the genre.
After all this is a dinosaur movie it’s going to be stuck in the past. There’s going to be criticism of the strong career woman who doesn’t want kids and needs a man to make her life complete. This isn’t too bad it’s in the background. It all gets overshadowed by the dinosaurs thankfully. They’re both likable enough that you’re not rooting for them to die.
We also get a bit of a reverse on the trope of the man saves the woman and she kisses him because she realises she loves him. Basically the woman acting as a prize for the man’s heroism. It’s only a very small moment though in a movie that otherwise keeps the gender roles strict.
Of the two brothers the little brother is the one who likes the dinosaurs and the older brother is such an ungrateful little sod at getting to see dinosaurs that I’ve completely sided with the littler one. I refuse to learn their names. I don’t know what the kids in the first one are called and I don’t care here either. They were just there to get uptight career woman into the park so we can all laugh at the stupid woman running around chasing dinosaurs in heels.
I don’t know why I’m being quite so sarcastic about this movie because despite it’s problems I enjoyed it. It was never going to top the first one but it beats the other sequels by a lot.
This movie is for you if you like dinosaurs and want to see obviously immoral people get eaten. You don’t need to see the previous movies ( you should have seen Jurassic Park ) but there are little easter eggs that it’s enjoyable to spot and one returning character that I enjoyed watching. There’s also set up for a sequel but I’m not sure where exactly they’re going to go with it.

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