Jurassic World is a Pale Imitation of Jurassic Park

Rating: 5/10 (14 June 2015)

Mild spoilers
It has been 22 years since Jurassic Park was released back in 1993, and 14 years since it's last poorly received sequel, Jurassic Park 3 hit theaters in 2001. Since then another Jurassic sequel had been in, and out of development for years. Supposedly issues with the script were what was taking the project so long to get off the ground, so one would think with the release of Jurassic World, now in 2015, the issues were fixed...think again.
This new Jurassic World movie can really only be enjoyed as a dumb, mindless, monster action flick, which is far from what Jurassic Park, and even it's sequel The Lost World were. In both Spielberg directed Jurassic films, the dinosaurs, even while running around chasing people, always felt like animals. The use of animatronics in close up shots really helped the audience buy into that what they were seeing, were living, breathing, dinosaurs. What sets this film, and Jurassic Park apart, is that nothing feels genuine in this, everything is bigger, and more lavish just for the sake of it, but none of it feels realistic, something the first film while fictional, tried to make the audience buy into. Jurassic World on the surface looks grand, but there isn't any real depth, to really get invested with whats shown on screen.
Jurassic World is essentially a reboot/sequel of Jurassic Park for a new generation of film goers, who deserve far more than this film has to offer them. The park is now a fully functional Sea World/Disney esque tourist attraction. The premise, while convoluted by multiple subplots, is really quite simple. In fact Bryce Dallas Howard's character says it, "Bigger, louder, more teeth". So basically a decline in public attendance, leads to the creation of a new genetically modified hybrid creature, to help bring attendance up. As one would expect this isn't a good idea, as the hybrid (Indominus Rex) escapes, and mayhem ensues.
Jurassic World may be predictable, with far fetched concepts, like a Frankenstein like dinosaur, and semi trainable (militarized) Raptors, but the worst thing about Jurassic World are the characters, both in performance, and characterization. Pretty much every character in Jurassic world is bland, and uninteresting, some even cartoony. Even Chris Pratt, who seems to be all the rage these days, doesn't really shine with his Owen character, he is at least somewhat likable, unlike everyone else. Bryce Dallas Howard isn't a bad actress, but her performance in this film is awkwardly terrible, and thats mostly down to the script. In fact this film has many actors who are known to be good in other films, but seem awful because of the hammy, clichéd dialogue.
The only actors who's performances I bought into were Jake Johnson as a control room technician, who was funny without trying to be, even with the poor script. The other was B.D. Wong's character Dr. Henry Wu, the only returning character from Jurassic Park. Wu shares a scene with Marsani, (played by Irrfan Khan) where Wu tell's Marsani that the dinosaurs have never been natural, and exclaims that nothing in Jurassic World is natural, or has ever been natural, after Wu is criticized for creating the Indominus Rex. Wu also mentions how opportunities could've been taken to create more pure (feathered) dinosaurs, but say's that not what corporate wanted. This scene was probably my favorite in the entire film, as it actually had something to say about the genetics part of these dinosaurs, and the problem with mixing different species together. Sadly the film never delves into it's own ideas, and doesn't have much to say about them. While I enjoyed Jake Johnson, and B.D. Wong's characters they serve as minor characters, and have little impact in the film itself. Instead the film focuses much of it's time on two kid siblings, who are not all that interesting, and frankly not needed in the film. Perhaps that is what's most frustrating about Jurassic World, it focuses much of it's time on unneeded characters/subplots, and doesn't really explore the new ideas presented. Owen (Pratt), and his raptors represent how humans, and wild (dangerous) animals can cooperate, but in Jurassic World there's little indication as to why this bond exists. Instead of exploring it, we get Pratt saying the bond is "based on mutual trust", while that may be true, it doesn't feel all that interesting, which is a constant issue in this film. The new ideas presented are simply that "ideas", which are sidelined for dinosaur (monster) action especially near the end.
Jurassic World is ultimately not brought down by the dinosaurs, but by director Colin Trevorrow, and the screenwriters. This film has next to no tension, or any real build up from scene to scene, and the underdeveloped characters are probably the film's greatest undoing. Trevorrow/writers also put way too many references from the original film into Jurassic World, for nostalgia purposes, which makes you just want to watch the far better Jurassic Park film. A film can be predictable, yet fun, but having decent characters to get behind, and follow on the film's journey is essential, and Jurassic World simply didn't have any worthwhile ones. The film also relies far too heavily on CGI, and many dinosaur shots are quite unremarkable, considering what was achieved two decades ago. Admittedly the CGI looks great in some shots, namely the Indominus Rex and a handful of others, but there are several (closeup) shots that would've looked better with animatronic dinosaurs. Jurassic World will make a considerable amount of money, but how much a money a film makes doesn't always represent quality. Basically the film is just underwhelming in virtually every way, considering the time it had to be something potentially great, but it's not the first sequel in this franchise to do so, it just does it with the least amount of finesse, and craft.