6/10

Rating: 6/10 (11 June 2015)

Despite not being the biggest Jurassic Park fan I was still looking forward to this film. I wanted to have a ride, the buzz was positive and I really wanted to see how the park opened looked like. My expectations were't sky high, I really just wanted to have that thrilling ride that the first one offered. The movie doesn't manage to meet that standard, but still has enough going on for it not to be defined a faliure.
The premise of having the park open definitely delivers some great moments, of which truthfully I would have liked to see more. The ride it takes you through has its stumbles, but overall I was never out of it and it had enough good, and just a couple of amazing, set pieces to keep the pace going. I cannot deny that despite the many times I got phased out by what happened on screen, there were as many times were I got genuinely excited and thrilled. I have to give a shout out to the sound design and mixing of the film because it is definitely the part that is resonating the most with me whilst writing this review. Much more than CGI, which I will get into later, it added a real layer to the film and astonishingly helped getting me engaged. It is great to hear the original theme back and I just might think it wasn't used enough. To sum up the positives in the best way possible: the parts that worked, really worked.
The rest was all just: "Well OK, I am sure I will forget this the second I exit the film". The premise of the film isn't neither original or interesting nor grounded enough for it ever to be truly relevant. It's just another dinosaur and that would be OK if it wasn't inserted in this plot that a couple too many and convenient times strayed away from credibility. Moreover the themes it is trying to explore are frustratingly and repeatedly put aside. The CGI is just forgettable unfortunately. There are maybe a couple of shiny moments, but other than being somewhat underwhelming it really is just too poorly used for it to provoke any sense of wonder or amazement in 2015, I am really sorry, CGI has to be used as a gift not as a gadget and it is what this film did. And on the final negative note, you are given a group of way too generic characters, they seemed to have been pre-fabricated in the factory of generic blockbusters. With the exception of Bryce Dallas Howard, who really gives her character a beat and a presence on screen making her likable, all of the characters I really couldn't care that much and it made for repeatedly poor stakes.
I unfortunately can't say I really had that much fun. I was never bored and really enjoyed quite a few moments, but truthfully I was far from having any sense of wonder or amazement and I think the positive reaction the film is having is due more to the fact that we all desperately want "Jurassic Park" to be good again more than the actual quality of the film.