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Jurassic World is the sequel that no one really saw coming. The last Jurassic Park movie was many years ago, but now is the time when a lot of people who watched the original Jurassic Park film as well as its other sequels have grown up and nostalgia is a big seller right now. So, how does Jurassic World hold up?
The story follows a pair of brothers as they are flown over to the titular Jurassic World park, a big tourist attraction and theme park a bit like a real-life wildlife sanctuary with the dinosaurs on display to the public under varying layers of protection either for the crowds or the sake of the dinosaurs. They have been invited there by their aunt who is high up in the management chain for the park, but is too wrapped up in her work to spend time with the boys; instead placing them in the care of her assistant and giving them special level of access to rides and attractions. The attraction is set on the same island as the original Jurassic Park and from dialogue it seems that some of the same scientists are working on creation of the dinosaurs in the park, still augmented with DNA strands from other animals to allow them to live again.
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In the efforts to ramp up attendance to Jurassic World again new species have to be created and introduced as attractions every few years, and this time they have 'created' a species of dinosaur - the Indominus Rex. Made with the DNA of several dinosaur species, it was made to be more thrilling and dangerous then any dinosaur before as well as more intelligent. Guess what happens to kick off the movie conflict?
As far as the series goes, this one is a little different. The original Jurassic Park had maybe only a few people running around from the dinosaurs, while this one has had the attraction open for years already and so in a way the stakes are much higher. There's hundreds, maybe thousands of people in this park and the way that the staff attempt to deal with the escalation of events as they happen is interesting. They have to deal with the situation without losing too much face, because there is a lot invested into the park as an attraction and that's realistic, although you might be like me thinking that the better option would have been to get people off the island quicker and save face publicly by showing that public safety was a high concern. But maybe that's just me.
The four main actors in this story are all good, although Chris Pratt in his role steals the movie for me. His character has such an in-depth relationship with the four raptors in the movie, having reared and trained them from hatching and acts as their pack's alpha while still acknowledging that although they are made to be a tourist attraction they are living things. In fact, his character comes off as the wisest one in the entire movie, warning about what will happen when something as fierce as the I. Rex manages to get loose having been constrained alone for all of its unnatural life. Strangely, the raptors too are high on my list of things I liked about this movie, as they have a lot of personality for CGI animated creatures while still being somewhat believably dinosaur. Got to think that maybe Blue was tainted a bit by whatever they used to make the I. Rex more intelligent, as she seems a little more aware than the other three.
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However, while the movie was certainly enjoyable a watch I felt there was a little something missing that would have given it the wow factor for me. I thought about it and I came to the conclusion that what was missing for me was that the danger the park was in never seemed entirely real after the first few big incidents in the movie. We see people attacked all through it up until the last parts of the film set in Jurassic World but the dangerous atmosphere seemed to peak and settle and any deaths weren't given enough time for them to be as meaningful to me. It was a long while since I last watched Jurassic Park, but I remember that part of the draw from the first movie was that it seemed anyone of our characters could die in any way at any time. Jurassic World just didn't seem to have that same factor in it, although that could be entirely down to the difference in my own age since the first viewing of each film.
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Jurassic World is a very good movie, certainly an awful lot better than you'd expect given the reputation of many-years-after sequels to beloved films that we have nostalgia for. The roles are played well and are believable, there are a few small twists that will take you by surprise, and I would certainly watch it again with the family. It just lets down a little bit in the 'constant high-stakes danger' department for me.
7.5/10