To say that the world has been waiting a long time for a fourth Jurassic Park film is perhaps simultaneously true and untrue. It's definitely been a while since the last instalment was released (just shy of 14 years to be specific), but there has also been mixed sentiment on whether another sequel was warranted, with many citing the decline in quality of the two existing sequels as a sign that the franchise should perhaps be laid to rest. Personally however, I love me some Jurassic Park and always held out hope that the long-gestating 'Jurassic Park 4' would finally materialize. This weekend, after almost a decade and a half in development hell, it finally did in the form of Jurassic World, set 22 years after the events of the original film and taking place in a fully-operational theme park (all the kinks from the previous films having been presumably worked out so that nothing can possibly go wrong...ahem!) and whilst it certainly wasn't a disappointment, it definitely wasn't perfect either.
We witness the park through a host of characters each with different perspectives based on (amongst other things) security clearance. And this is one of the key areas where the film falls down, there just aren't really any compelling characters. We have the two kids, Gray and Zach, arriving at the park expecting to spend a weekend with their aunt (and park operations manager, natch!) Claire.
Zach is your typical annoying kid character, but dialled up to extreme levels. The kind of kid who knows everything about everything, and whose dialogue is limited to rolling off obscure facts at inappropriate moments (seriously, there's a killer dinosaur after us, I really don't need to know the exact make, model and colour of this vehicle!), telling other characters not to break the rules or swear (when you're about to be eaten alive, swearing is kind've forgivable!), and crying about how much he wants to go home. You can tell they're going for precocious and endearing, but he just comes off as irritating. Older brother Zach doesn't fare much better, ticking all the boxes in the stereotypical 'bored teenager' column, spending almost the entire first half of the film ignoring his brother and staring at girls and/or texting. He is redeemed somewhat in a character arc that could be seen from space, eventually stepping up and being the big brother, protecting Gray and comforting him on one of the approximately 57 occasions in which he cries, but it doesn't make him all that more interesting to be honest. Tim and Lex Murphy, these kids are not!
Workaholic Claire doesn't offer much in regards to originality either, however Bryce Dallas Howard does do a decent job with the material and it is amusing seeing the character devolve from uptight, highly-wound control freak, to dishevelled, pissed off, semi-badass as her park falls apart around her. It's all in the hair! And I won't even comment on the 'running in heels' debate. If that's the one thing you have trouble accepting in this film, then you're already a winner.
Archetypal characters are fine, expected even within a summer blockbuster. The problem here however, is that none of them are particularly likeable. The only character who is remotely endearing is Chris Pratt's ex-navy officer-turned-dinosaur trainer Owen Grady, and this owes more to the fact that it's Chris Pratt than it does to any nuance in the writing. Pratt always infuses his characters with a level of likeability, due in large to the abundance of that quality in the actor himself, however there were times when even Grady started to grate a little, with many of his lines inducing spontaneous eye-rolling.
Grady was not alone in causing this affliction however. Much of the script is littered with clunky dialogue, providing necessary yet heavy-handed exposition and back-story, coming across as natural as if you were to regularly greet your parents by stating your name, date of birth and national security number.
The rest of the cast is filled out with the expected morally-questionable executives and scientists, none of whom we are allowed to really connect with and most of whom are simply fleshy cannon-fodder, waiting to be chomped in half to allow our primary characters to escape unscathed time and time again. Which again, is fine if we are allowed to develop an emotional connection to said primary characters, but sadly the film is lacking in this area. The eventual emergence of brotherly love between the two boys comes across as cloying and trite, and the less said about the shoehorned love story the better. And I'm not talking about the love story between Chris Pratt and a Velociraptor!
Whilst a film such as this naturally requires that the viewer brings with them a healthy dose of suspension of disbelief, there were a number of moments which did temporarily pull me out of the film and detract from the action somewhat. For example, I find it hard to surmise that a multi-billion dollar theme park, with deadly living attractions and supposedly state-of-the-art security systems, would have an attraction that allowed guests to roam freely in an enclosure (albeit in a fancy transparent gyrosphere doodad), and wouldn't include a function that automatically recalled said doodad to the start of the ride in an emergency. Simply asking guests to return is rather trusting, if not completely negligible.
Still this isn't wholly surprising, considering that virtually no-one in the film reacts in a normal human way to the events happening around them. The most realistic human reaction is perhaps the man who picks up his two drinks before running from a rampaging Pterosaur that crashes through the roof of the bar he's sitting in.
I think my biggest problem with the film, was that it didn't entirely deliver on the premise it sold to us. The promotional material for the film all centred around the fact that this was a fully-operational park, open to the public and therefore full of tasty morsels for hungry dinosaurs to snack on. And whilst we did see plenty of the park itself and the various attractions were pretty damn cool, what I really wanted to see was the film deliver on the promise of dinosaurs running loose in a fully-populated park. As it transpired, most of the action took place behind the scenes of the park, and despite a brief scene of some tourists being hassled by some Pterosaurs towards the end of the second act, there was never a sense that any of the park attendees were really in any danger. I wanted to see chaos as Velociraptors ran amok amongst chubby, sunburnt tourists holding oversized branded novelty drinks. Or small children quake in fear as a T-Rex crashed through the roof of the petting zoo, before devouring them and their balloon animals. Ok, so the second one is maybe too much to ask for, but I really felt that an opportunity was missed here. By restricting most of the action to areas off-limits to the public, and having the two brothers break the rules (much to Gray's dismay!) and go off the beaten track, the film wasn't all that different in execution to the original. At the very least, it would have benefitted from an everyman character enjoying a day at the park, to see how the action played out from the perspective of those not 'in the know' regarding the shit hitting the fan elsewhere in the park.
Which brings me to the dinosaur in the room. The main attraction, so to speak. The shiny new genetically-engineered hybrid dinosaur species Indominus Rex, who serves as the big bad carnivore of the film. To those of you asking 'Aren't all carnivorous dinosaurs kind've bad?', I'll simply say the words 'Blue the Velociraptor' and leave it at that. Again, much hoohah was made over this new dinosaur which was bigger, badder and smarter than the T-Rex and overall it delivered. The build-up to the big girl's reveal was well handled and suitably tense, and the visual of the creature itself was undoubtedly impressive. I will admit that I imagined it would be bigger, and that it wasn't until I saw the Indominus and T-Rex side-by-side that I realised just how much bigger it actually was in comparison. Still, a big dinosaur is a big dinosaur. I'm no size-queen!
Whilst the big bad dino was suitably imposing however, the draw for me in these films has never been the big ones (I repeat, no size-queens here!), but the smaller cunning ones, in particular the Velociraptors. I have always found the raptors to be the most effectively scary dinosaurs, from their speed to their intelligence, to that just plain crazy look in their eyes, and the kitchen sequence in the original film is perhaps one of the tensest scenes in cinematic history in my opinion. That's why I had mixed feelings about what they did to the raptors in this film. Whilst the idea of trained raptors is indeed an intriguing one, and does admittedly seem like the natural progression a theme park like this would take, I can't help but feel that it somewhat defanged one of cinema's most vicious monsters. Sure they got their share of moments to be all deadly and snappy, but more time was spent trying to get us to empathise with the beasts than fear them, which for me just doesn't sit right. As far as I'm concerned Velociraptors equals 'run for your life and pray to god you don't trip up!' No amount of head-mounted cameras or the dulcet tones of Chris Pratt's voice can keep a raptor from being what it is, and that's a cold-blooded, merciless, creepy-ass killing machine!
Despite how it probably sounds, I actually really enjoyed the film. More than enjoyed it, I fucking loved it! It's a Jurassic Park film! It had everything a summer blockbuster should have. It just felt like something indefinable yet crucial was missing. It just didn't have that Jurassic Park quality about it. Look, I get that the original film is a high bench-mark against which to measure any blockbuster, much less a direct sequel, I just feel that it had a specific spark about it that was missing in this instalment. That sense of wonder and magic that permeated the DNA of the original film just wasn't present here. Think of the way you felt when Drs. Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler emerge from that Jeep and see the Brachiosaurus for the first time. That feeling of awe and amazement that something which should be impossible has been made possible. Jurassic World just didn't have that.
I can't help but feel that at least on some level this was perhaps an intentional consideration. After all, the whole plot of the film hinges on the fact that in this world, people are no longer wowed by real, live dinosaurs, they're old news, and as a result park attendance is way down. This is what leads to the creation of the genetic hybrid Indominus Rex, in an effort to attract more guests and garner interest in the park again. In this way, the film almost acts as a metaphor for the state of the film industry itself, whilst ironically participating in the very act it skewers. Studios wanting bigger and flashier productions, often resulting in an abundance of CGI and visual spectacle, but without any real depth.
Jurassic World isn't entirely devoid of depth however, it does have its touching moments, most of them admittedly relying on nostalgia for the original, or buoyed by Michael Giacchino's incorporation of John Williams' iconic score into the mix. I did appreciate the nods to the events and players of the original, none of which felt ham-fisted. It was no doubt tempting to include a veritable farm-worth of Easter eggs, however director Colin Trevorrow struck the right balance between honouring the original without being slavish to it. I will admit to a lump in my throat upon the discovery of the original visitor's centre, complete with banner and bones.
As with most blockbusters nowadays, I tried as much as possible to avoid all trailers and adverts for the film before release, in hopes of preserving the 'wow' moments and knowing as little of the plot as possible. For Jurassic World this proved almost impossible (due in part to the fact that the trailer seemed to be constantly broadcast on every channel and webpage, but also due to my fever-pitch levels of excitement causing me to cave and watch the trailer within an hour of its release), but the initial teaser trailer didn't exactly spoil too much. Somehow I already had an inkling the film would include people being chased by dinosaurs. Call me crazy! There were definitely a few of the aforementioned 'wow' moments featured in the trailer however (such as the behemoth Mososaurus devouring that poor shark), and whilst they still packed a punch in the film itself, I kind've feel like they would have been more powerful had they not had so much exposure prior to the film's release. It's not as if people need enticed to see a Jurassic Park film. It's Jurassic Freakin' Park!
Which is really my final thought. This film isn't by any means a perfect blockbuster (if such a thing even exists in as subjective a medium as film), but it's a damn good one. And more than that, it's a damn good Jurassic Park film! Let's be honest, the worst Jurassic Park film would still be better than the best that a lot of franchises churn out lately. The original film is one which means a lot to me, one of those classics from my childhood that really makes me remember why I love film in the first place, full of pure escapism and adventure. Any sequel was going to have a hard time living up to the hype, but Jurassic World does an admirable job of trying. And I don't mean that derogatorily. Despite the grilling I gave the stereotypical characters, the clunky dialogue and the lapses in judgement throughout, these elements are not in themselves a bad thing. It's these ingredients which make a good summer popcorn film. Sure you might get dizzy from rolling your eyes on a regular basis throughout, but it's all part of the fun of the ride. Watching people make stupid decisions and get themselves into a lot of trouble. Trouble with very big teeth. And in that department, Jurassic World more than delivers.
Whilst the ending does leave it open for further instalments (and let's be honest, with an opening weekend like that, there's no way there won't be more), I'm not sure there should be. This film can almost be seen as the inevitable outcome of what the original suggested. We saw Hammond's vision finally realised and then ultimately destroyed, with dinosaurs essentially retaking the park and that striking final image of the original T-Rex looking out over the ruins of the park and surveying its realm which it has now reclaimed.
As Dr. Ian Malcolm spoke about all those years ago: 'God created dinosaurs. God destroyed dinosaurs. God created Man. Man destroyed God. Man created dinosaurs. Dinosaurs eat Man...Woman inherits the Earth.' Now unless the next film takes place in a not-so-distant future, where men have all died out and women roam a ravaged earth fighting against dinosaurs (and hey, anything's possible, it's Hollywood after all!), I feel like the films have kind've completed that cycle put forth in Malcolm's words (minus the woman part), at least in the framing device of the theme park. Sure there are various directions they could take the franchise (the hints at using dinosaurs for military applications etc), but the initial conceit of dinosaurs as entertainment has pretty much come full circle now.
Unless they do Jurassic Circus...dinosaur rights campaigners would make great dinosaur chow. Sweet irony! And maybe Chris Pratt could take his dino-tamer act to the next level complete with whip (just to fuel the fires of the 'Pratt as Indiana Jones' crowds). Plus, I'd still have a chance of seeing my 'children with balloon animals' scene become a reality. Fingers crossed!
In any case, full disclosure, regardless of which direction they go, there is nothing that will stop me seeing it and no doubt loving it, such is my undying loyalty to the franchise. Just don't kill off Ellie!!
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