DAVID ADAMS enjoys the rampaging dinosaurs in Jurassic World but says it’s time for the franchise to evolve…
Jurassic World (M)
In a word: Familiar
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RETURN OF THE RAPTORS: Owen, played by Chris Pratt, assumes his role as the ‘alpha’ of the pack. “While Jurassic World is a non-stop action adventure which upholds the usual high standard of CGI we’ve come to expect of this dinosaur series, it didn’t make most of what 3D technology offers. Nor does it manage to capture the sense of wonder which the first film in the franchise captured so well – but then it is hard to put that genie back in the bottle as the two films which followed the original Jurassic Park showed.” |
Scary dinosaurs rampaging through a state-of-the-art theme park? Check. Disobedient kids who end up in the centre of the action? Check. Greedy corporate representatives eager to squeeze out the last buck, even at the risk of life and limb? Check. Tough guys who reckon they can outsmart dinosaurs? Check.
After 10 years absence, the Jurassic Park franchise is back and while the dinosaurs are bigger and better than ever, the plot remains the same.
New management has taken over Isla Nublar, the island on which the original Jurassic Park was created and for 10 years they’ve been running a successful theme park.
But things start to go wrong as demands for something new means scientists at the park once again start dabbling with genetics – this time to create bigger, stronger, nastier, hybrid ‘dinosaurs’ (more correctly known as monsters).
This time its Zach Mitchell (Nick Robinson) and his brother Gray (Ty Simpkins), the nephews of the park’s work-obsessed head honcho Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard), who end up caught in the middle of things after one of the park’s newest hybrids escapes its pen.
Headliner Chris Pratt plays Owen, a former navy man now charged with training the park’s raptors (a franchise favorite) and the man to whom the park turns to put the big escaped beast back in the pen. Things go from bad to worse when the hybrid monster frees the raptors and the park’s owner, Simon Masrani (Irrfan Khan) is killed. Faced with this new threat, the mercenary Hoskins (played by Vincent Onofrio), eager to unleash his men’s weapons on the dinosaurs, seizes his moment to make his mark with the expected consequences.
While Jurassic World is a non-stop action adventure which upholds the usual high standard of CGI we’ve come to expect of this dinosaur series, it didn’t make most of what 3D technology offers. Nor does it manage to capture the sense of wonder which the first film in the franchise captured so well – but then it is hard to put that genie back in the bottle as the two films which followed the original Jurassic Park showed. We miss you Mr Hammond (played by the late Richard Attenborough).
But it’s the predictability of the plot which is probably the film’s biggest shortcoming. While Jurassic World will introduce the franchise to a new, younger audience, one can’t imagine a further rerun of the same plot will cut the mustard next time. It’s time for the series to evolve.
