It’s been a long time coming. Jurassic World has been picked and shoved by numerous writers over the past decade, endlessly revising and editing under the supervision of Steven Spielberg. Spielberg insisted on a sequel that recaptured the spectacle of the original. With many writers pushing and shoving the film in different directions, I couldn’t imagine where else it could possibly go. The previous films were computer generated garbage with redundant story lines. Jurassic World’s story line, to say the least, is redundant. It’s got moments we’ve heard and seen before, and a conflict that’s all too familiar. Yet what makes Jurassic World far better than its predecessors is the way in which is carries out its motives. The characters, though underdeveloped, are funny and interesting enough to keep us engaged. The script, tiresome as it is, takes its time unveiling its cliches and doesn’t aim to be any more sophisticated than it appears; greedy humans plus angry dinosaurs equals cool movie experience (and let’s be honest, it’s not like the first Jurassic Park didn’t have its fair share of cliches). But what packs the biggest punch is the action which exudes such confidence we ‘re able to disregard the blunders of the past two films and just hop on for the ride. This is a crowd-pleaser film at its best.
John Hammond’s vision of a Sea World-esque theme park featuring dinosaurs has finally been perfected. Thousands of tourists from around the world flock to the island of Isla Nublar to see the once extinct animals. They’re big, ferocious and cool. Hell, they’re freaking dinosaurs. Children ride baby Triceratops’s and Stegosauruses’s like sheep at a petting zoo. Thrilling rides and animal exhibits sell out as bored park employees pull strings. Paleontologists and dinosaur-enthusiasts study the creatures for future knowledge. Beneath all the wonder, bigoted scientists and American military brutes conspire to use the animals as weapons of war, while greedy capitalists strive to milk consumers to death by creating an intelligent hybrid dinosaur. And it all goes a muck. That is what is happening here.
Navigating this story is Zach and Gray Mitchell, two distanced brothers thrown into the park for a weekend while their parents settle divorce papers. The brothers are suffering the separation independently. Gray, the sensitive younger brother, loses himself in the wonders of dino-facts and picture books, while Zach submits his intelligence and attention to his cell phone. On their way to the park, Zach scoffs and sighs at the large exhibits swarming around him. Am I supposed to believe that a teen would find live dinosaurs boring? I know teens are stereotyped as being moody and absent-minded, but really? This writing decision makes for one damned dumb character, but one that’s nevertheless fun to follow.
Zach’s obsession with his cell phone echoes his aunt’s obsession with statistics. Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard), the park’s operating manager, is a cold and bigoted capitalist who spends her days studying attendance and sales. Like Zach, all she sees are numbers and not that which is living and breathing. And at the point of her introduction what most viewers are probably thinking is “wow, what an idiot,” considering past events, how could this park be run by such an idiot? Well it is, in the same way the first film granted emergency lock down controls to a fat blundering idiot.
Claire isn’t the only bigot in the film. There’s a whole assortment of new idiot characters that wear death masks upon arrival, including security head Vic Hoskins (Vincent D’Onofrio) and park CEO Simon Masrani (Irrfan Khan). They are, like all great capitalist and military stereotypes, looking for something bigger and better. Dr. Henry Wu (B.D. Wong) returns as the film’s leading science expert and secondary villain. Whoever thought that a random background character in Jurassic Park would work his way up to antagonist three films later? Chris Pratt, riding off Starlord popularity, stars as Owen Grady, the lead. Grady echoes that Indiana Jones archetype created by Sam Neill in Jurassic Park, but with a bigger sense of humor. He is a simple character providing the film’s blunt moral conscience, but Pratt nevertheless makes the character entertaining.
The film’s themes involve humility, nature and ignorance. Simple themes, yes, but ones we never feel are preached directly to us, only to the characters. Colin Trevorrow, the film’s director, stated that the symbolism behind the Indominus rex was “Meant to embody [humanity’s] worst tendencies. We’re surrounded by wonder and yet we want more, and we want it bigger, faster, louder, better.” This makes sense when you look at the CG dinosaurs. Spielberg always wanted the films to be awe-striking and wondrous much in the same way this film doesn’t wish to be anything but that. It’s a film that acknowledges the highs and lows of the original but doesn’t just recreate them, it adds new twists and turns. Look at the ending for Christ’s sake. I won’t spoil it, but something happens that people will go ape shit over.
The reprisal of John Williams’s score is smart, especially considering the completion of the park. The pan-over reveal shot when the Mitchells first arrive is a great moment that would’ve failed without the music. John Schwartzman’s decision to use film stock as opposed to a digital print also adds nostalgic magic to the film.
And there’s lots lots more I could praise and condemn about the film regarding the script and the craft and all that sort of thing, but it’s honestly not worth the words. This film is like a roller-coaster. You get on, have a blast and get off. It doesn’t warrant any more analysis than that.
The one thing I will question, however, is the film’s theme in conjunction to its release. The film speaks tirelessly of appreciating what we have and being humble and loving all the wondrous things around us. One critic even compared the creation of the Indominus rex to the way the entertainment industry creates mindless works for profit. This film had a very clean cut theme and goal and yet they’re already talking about sequels. It’s as if Universal Pictures just now perfected Hammond’s beloved theme park. Now they want to make the Indominus rex. Jurassic World made me appreciate contemporary science fiction action films, but now I have to ask myself, once again, what more can they do besides milk it to death?