Jurassic World - Jurr-Ass-Is-Grass

4 out of 5 Popcorn Kernels

TBT (Throw-Back-Thursday), just got a little more serious with TBP (Throw-Back-Prehistoric), where dinosaurs of the past, have become trends of the day. Jurassic World isn't as good as the first two installments: Jurrasic Park, and Jurasic Park-Lost Worlds (and maybe that is because of a new generation no longer thrilled with the marvels of CGI brought to us 22 years ago by the original), but it does give you what you expect: action, adventure, suspense, a toss-away storyline, and kids who refuse to do what they are told, and wind up as a possible Lunchable for Velociraptors.

For Jurassic World, I had to put on a different lens. Sometimes a critic has to see through the eyes of the audience. Personally, there are better made movies out there than this one, and not to say this is a bad movie, I am just saying it doesn't get marks for originality. Spielberg set the bar high with the first one, and his treatment of characters and suspense was unmatched. But this one tries a little too hard to capture something the same feelings, but with less of the essential elements of the original.

This installment stars Chris Pratt as Owen (Parks & Recreation, Guardians of the Galaxy),  trying to be the sexy American sweet heart of cinema these days. His job is a sort of Dino-Whisperer to the Velociraptors of a theme park filled with a wide assortment of prehistoric creatures, called Jurassic World. It is a place safari treks, merchandising, water shows, and acres of green lush pastures where animals roam and live, both calm and dangerous (the petting station is a delight to see).

But behind this array of visitors and gift shops, like a corporation that is looking at the bottom dollar; Jurassic World has had low attendance for a time, and the people want the-next-best-thing. It is up to Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard), and her job as Operations Manager to see this through, and figure out what to do to attract more visitors. Besides having this on her plate, she is visited by her two nephews Gray and Zach Young (Ty Simpkins, Nick Robinson), who she assigns her assistant to watch over during their stay at the park. Her idea for increasing attendance is to create a whole new creature, from the DNA of many creatures - seems she didn't learn anything from the first two movies, and to leave Mother Nature alone.

If there is anything to be learned from these movies that constantly want to cage and capture wild, intelligent creatures, is that...these creatures don't want to be captured - from King Kong to Rise of the Planet of the Apes. The only thing here is that this new species: The Indominus Rex (I-Rex), not only wants out, but also wants lunch, namely the smorgasbord of delicious visitors that happen to be visiting the island of Ilsa Nublar, where the park sits.

And so it begins...

We come back to Owen, one of the good guys, who understands these creatures, and the corporation which includes Vic (Vincent D'Onofrio), who is head of security, who wants to preserve the destructive, unpredictable creatures as future weapons of war (collateral damage be damned), and the geneticist Henry (B.D. Wong), who is aware of how the I-Rex was created, could be aware of its nature and how to tame it, but is keeping it all a secret (for ego's sake I assume). Claire unfortunately is caught between her duty to the park, its people, and the staff that seem to be getting gobbled up every few seconds she can't make up her mind.

And let's not forget the children. Who decide to have a day of it during the safari to venture off on their own, where cell phone reception just happens to be spotty, so they have no idea what is going on, until of course it happens in all it's Spielberg essence of suspense; with shadows, and clicking noises, and hidden things moving around in the foliage.

This is of course when all the action begins, and I have to admit that it jumped off rather quickly, with little exposition in getting to know the characters very much. This may be what the audience has paid for, but I still miss the quirkiness of the characters of the first two films, as in Jeff Goldbloom, and the innocence of Sam Neill, and the kids then seemed to be a little more responsible than the ones presented here. But this movie isn't about them, now is it? It is about the action, and the special effects, which are very good - CGI done right, with a little auto-matron action going on as well - and our hero's come across with great chemistry.

I have to give a special shout out to Omar Sy who plays Barry (Intouchables, X-Men: Days of Future Past). He didn't become an early victim, and plays a role along with the other hero's that is important, and feels like he is part of their team. He is a very good actor, and I hope to see more of him. He is imported from France (I will have another article about our Black imports in cinema), and has a place among the group as a true team player. 

Jurassic World is a world we have seen before, and while the direction of Trevorrow isn't like his predecessor, it is fluid and the story moves along with enough information given about a menagerie of characters, without it getting bogged down in speeches and actor-overload. I am not sure if there will be another one, because like they say in the movie, the audience wants bigger and better...and right now, this is starting to feel a little extinct.