Our collective short attention spans, thanks to Baby Einstein and those Internet cat videos, are to blame for the fresh disaster unfolding at Isla Nublar where, 22 years after Jurassic Park, genetically modified prehistoric beasts are being created because “let’s be honest — no one’s impressed by a dinosaur anymore.”
Today’s instant-gratification demand may also account for the relative lack of exposition and character development and the ceaseless action found in Jurassic World: who has time to watch ripples form in a glass of water (an iconic scene from the original) when you can cut right to the chase, and then to another chase, and then another.
Steven Spielberg’s 1993’s earth-stomping and groundbreaking original blended CG and animatronics for an experience like no other. There are nods to that film scattered throughout the film — an original Jeep YJ, night-vision goggles — which ignores the two sequels and sells itself as a direct descendant to the first film.
Picking up the mantle from John Hammond is Simon Masrani (Irrfan Khan), who has turned Jurassic Park into a mammoth luxury theme park that attracts some 20,000 visitors a day to ride baby triceratopses and watch dinos devour sacrificial goats. Whenever attendance lags scientists working behind-the-scenes (including BD Wong, back from the original) introduce a new species and the numbers spike. But it’s an expensive business; thus the need for a Starbucks and a Brookstone on the main drag, and the temptation to court corporate sponsors to tag their brand onto creation’s most astounding beasts.
Strong on the stats but a stranger to emotion is operations manager Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard), who sends her assistant to greet her nephews when they arrive for Christmas vacation. Dino-nut Gray (Ty Simpkins) and his older brother/professional teen moper Zach (Nick Robinson), unimpressed by Aunt Claire’s lack of enthusiasm, naturally ditch the assistant as soon as they can and roam the park freely.
Unfortunately, also roaming the park freely is the Indominus rex, a new and highly underestimated mutant strain of dinosaur that outsmarts his handlers and escapes from the enclosure just when Claire was having Navy man Owen (Chris Pratt) examine the structure for potential weaknesses.
It’s all about the dinosaurs, of course, but without a strong leading man all that roaring would fall on deaf ears. Pratt’s likeability from Guardians of the Galaxy carries over to World, where he’s tasked with wrangling velociraptors, thawing one-date-wonder Claire and saving 22,000 people at the theme park.
There’s always one dingbat who wants to weaponize the nearest robot, dinosaur or tree, and idealistic Owen finds himself in a moral fight against Hoskins (Vincent d’Onofrio), who wants the beasts weaponized. “Extinct animals have no rights,” our villain explains.
The supporting cast is strong enough, if cookie cutter. But let’s agree that we don’t want to linger for too long on the boys’ parents’ impending divorce when there’s something pretty cool scratching to get out of paddock nine. There are fewer surprises, in terms of plot, than the original but there are two or three great jump-in-your-seat scares.
What director Colin Trevorrow (Safety Not Guaranteed) and his team do get right, they get really right. There’s humour from the very first frame but it never drowns out the intensity. Cinematography (John Schwartzman) is impressive and the visual effects — from park design to the myriad creatures — have improved greatly from the initial teaser trailers and are now superlative.
Not to mention a last-act new character that results in a truly epic dino-on-dino smackdown.
The death toll is up but the gore is kept to a minimum in order to bring in a wider audience. Now the film has appeal for new fans as well as those of us old enough to have seen the original 1993 film, and those of us really old enough to remember the View Master (the Jurassic Park and Lost World editions were big sellers for Fisher Price) that Gray uses at the start of the film.
The result is not a perfect film, but a perfect summer blockbuster. Because you didn’t ask for a masterpiece, “you asked for more teeth.” And in that regard Jurassic World most definitely delivers.
Jurassic World screens at Park, Scotiabank and Dunbar.
