Spielberg's vision brought full circle

Rating: 9/10 (22 June 2015)

As someone like many, who holds Steven Spielberg's 1993 masterpiece quite dearly to my heart, you can definitely say I walked into this new installment/hopeful franchise restarter with equal excitement and nervousness. There's always a need to be cautious when a series returns to the big screen for the first time in over 10 years, but at the same time I love dinosaurs so the fact that I'd get to see them again roaring on the big screen was the real excitement. So does this revisit to this franchise live up to the hype? For the most part, I think honestly yes.
I'll get this out of the way: Jurassic World is flawed. Like flawed as hell, there's absolutely no denying that. There are numerous sub- plots that could've easily thrown out of the movie and leave more room for the awesome dinosaurs, character development is mostly thrown out the window, when the humor misses oh it really misses with some flat dialogue to say the least, and there are plenty of story and script issues I had throughout. But, the most important thing I can tell you is that, I had a blast and smile on my face throughout which is what I wanted from this movie more than anything really.
With every script issue this movie suffers from, Collin Trevorrow makes up for it behind the camera. "Jurassic World" is shot beautifully with some really impressive cinematography work from John Schwartzman, and while the CGI will not go down as groundbreaking for the blockbuster genre like the 1993 film, there are some remarkable effects here. But, mostly particularly to me this movie definitely manages to capture the tone, feel and spirit of a Jurassic Park film. Yes, it doesn't come anywhere close to capturing that sense of wonder or creativity that made the first film the special treat that it is, but Trevorrow does manage to capture some of the special essence I had when beholding that special classic, while also crafting some impressive world building. There's lots of callbacks made and nostalgia felt throughout, but Trevorrow never uses this as a pointless plot point to move the story along. Most importantly though, Trevorrow definitely proves himself to be capable of handling the action scale. The dinosaur sequences are of course the primary reason why you'd go to one of these movies, and the film delivers them in exhilarating, exciting, and pulse pounding ways. There's enough solid tension throughout, and the finale 20 minutes might honestly be my favorite climax of the year. Some seriously awesome stuff that I will not give away (who actually hasn't seen this movie yet? I felt like I was the last one to).
Alright, let's talk about this pretty big cast. They're all pretty solid, especially given the weak character work they're given. Chris Pratt has been a rising star as of late, and for good reasons, because he proves here he wasn't a one trick pony with Guardians. He brings such a likability, charisma, and coolness to the character of Owen Grady that makes him such an engaging lead to watch. There's not really much depth given to this character, but Pratt knows how to be charming and bad-ass so he helps makes us become attach to him as a lead. Now, I've seen some complain about Jessica Chastain.... err I mean Bryce Dallas Howard here and I don't know why. Her character did annoy me a little at first with her uptight bitch persona (which we all know Bryce has proved to play those type of women so well), and again not much depth here, but she plays the character as well as anyone could (who else would run in those high heels like that?), and I did grow an attachment to her as a character. Maybe, it's because I thought she looked so stunning in this movie, but eh whatever. Her and Pratt, I thought made a believable team, but the romance angle could've been completely thrown out. Jake Johnson is actually quite amusing as the cliché tech guy, I really enjoyed his character, I just really wish there was a lot more of him. It was nice to see BD Wong again, and though their characters occasionally got on my nerves, with the whole emo teenager, I had no issues with Ty Simpkins and Nick Robinson performances themselves. To my surprise and sadness, one of weak link of the cast was Vincent D'Oonofrio as the main human antagonist. This is really no problem with D'Onofrio, he plays the role as well as anyone could, he knows how to play an asshole well, but this was not just a well written villain at all. Right when he appears on screen, you know exactly where this character is going, and his whole motivations of wanting to weaponize these dinosaurs for military purpose made literally no sense. It's a shame, with such a underrated talent like D'Onofrio coming off such a incredible villain performance in Daredevil, they really could've made this a not so clear cut antagonist with reasonable motivations, but no his character is simply a pointless prick to just be a prick.
All, in all, I'd be a fool if I told you "Jurassic World" was perfect masterpiece to behold. It's definitely not, there's tons of issues I can write about that I've already have, but I'd also be a fool if I told you I didn't find myself having a pretty damn great time throughout its brisk running time. For everything it does wrong, it does something else so right. It's big, loud, dumb, but still insanely fun summer blockbuster that Trevorrow manages to treat with plenty of charm and heart that definitely kind of help make me feel like a kid again.