Jurassic World

Director: Colin Trevorrow

Stars: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Ty Simpkins

Released: 11th June 2015 (UK)

What do you get when you put the actors who play two of TV’s dumbest characters in a feature film?

Jurassic World is the latest instalment of the 1990’s Jurassic Park Series and brings us the fictional world in which dinosaurs have been revived through the magic of science in order for humans to wave at them in a zoo. That’s the just of it which opens up the opportunity to rant about how humans are rather disgusting. But I won’t. Instead I will give you a brief synopsis which you would have been able to figure out by just watching the preview.

In the case of Jurassic World a new dinosaur specie has been genetically engineered in order to attract more visitors to the park, because the fact that a real life T-Rex is right in front of them just isn’t enough. But the thing about nature is that it always knows what is going on and it will always retaliate stronger and bigger than any person ever thought possible. Even if it is synthesized by scientists in a lab. The result of their test-tube dinosaur was what I image the Boogie Man might be. Something that knows your every move and predicts your thoughts before you had them. Something that pulls on your ankle in the middle of the night. Something that hunts for sport. Something that escaped from its confinement so it can scare the heebie-jeebies out of you and that is just what happened.

Just to make sure you’re on par: There’s something like an island nature reserve where all the dinosaurs live. A new dinosaur was created and it is literally worse than your worst nightmare and I literally mean literally. Then it escaped. Running amok while civilians are trapped on the island.

The film has the potential to become one of the biggest films released this season, but it lacked something. It lacked “Chemical X” as Professor Utonium of The Power Puff Girlswould have said. The sound mixing was astonishing and comparable to that of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug while computer generated imaging (CGI) blew me away. Not only the crystal clear CGI picture on the IMAX screen, but also the actors’ interaction with the CG animals. Not for a second can the audience doubt that the fiction is an absolute reality. The score tended to impress, but lost emotion just as it had you in its grip. The cinematography was nothing to write home about but luckily the script had a few predictable one liners to distract the average audience. Discontinuity distracted me from the plot and the lab’s set dressing forced me to shake my head in disappointment.

Andy (Chris Pratt) from Parks and Rec got cast in the lead while Nick (Jake Johnson) fromThe New Girl played the dinosaur obsessed tech guy. These two guys are a hoot in said roles, but do they have the ability to break out of their breakout roles? Are they good enough? Or are they too good? In my opinion, a casting agent holds the power to make or break a film and I might suggest that if it wasn’t for Pratt, the film would have depended on its title and producer’s name in order to succeed.

I’m not saying the film is a masterpiece, neither am I saying that you should expect to be impressed, but take it for what it is. A summer movie. A movie whose sole aim is to entertain and to be the talk of the town. And I must say that it will be. It had a nostalgic element to it. It made me feel like a kid again. This isn’t the average Mall Cop that aims to attract the few still impressed by films like that. This is a classic girl-meets- boy-who’s- a dinosaur-handler film. Go see it. Preferably in IMAX 3D and take your kids, parents or friends. Because irrespective of your age, we all get somewhat excited when dinosaurs are on the loose!