A Potpourri of Vestiges Review: An adventurous journey to the Spielbergian world of chaos and carnage

Rating: 8/10 (12 June 2015)

Jurassic World is a 2015 American sci-fi adventure film directed by Colin Trevorrow. The movie's screenplay is co-written by Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, Derek Connolly, and Trevorrow himself. Jurassic World stars Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Irrfan Khan, Vincent D'Onofrio, B. D. Wong, Ty Simpkins, and Nick Robinson in major roles. The fourth installment in the Jurassic Park film series, Jurassic World is a direct sequel to the Steven Spielberg directed Hollywood blockbuster Jurassic Park(1993). The film is set twenty-two years after the disturbing turn of events at Isla Nublar--an island off the coast of Costa Rica--which had forced John Hammond (played by the great English thespian and filmmaker Richard Attenborough), the founder and CEO of bioengineering company InGen, to abandon the theme park he had so painstakingly populated with ingeniously cloned dinosaurs. It's been ten years since Hammond's vision of a dinosaur theme park finally became a reality. The new park is named as Jurassic World and is owned by the Indian business magnate and dinosaur enthusiast Simon Masrani (Irrfan Khan) who has not only nurtured Hammond's dream but has also taken it to a whole new level.
Chris Pratt as Owen Grady and Bryce Dallas Howard as Claire Dearing Masrani's team of bioengineers, led by none other than the genius scientist Dr. Henry Wu (B.D. Wong reprises his role), have made tremendous progress in their research and are now able to genetically splice the dinosaur DNA at will with that of various other species, giving rise to a hybrid breed of dinosaurs. Masrani sees it as good business as these new varieties of dinosaurs tremendously add to the attraction of the park and keep the visitor rates from declining. So far, so good, but, for how long can one continue to bend the rules of nature? Sooner or later, we must all pay the price for our greed! It's an eventuality that Masrani and men must be well prepared for. For, according to Murphy's law, "anything that can go wrong, will go wrong". Things finally go out of control when Dr. Wu and team come up with a T. Rex hybrid in a bid to fulfill a corporate mandate. Voila! We are transported back to the Spielbergian world of chaos and carnage as the theme park slowly takes the form of a ticking time bomb, ready to go kablooey at any given moment. In a race against time, Owen Grady (Chris Pratt), a Velociraptor expert and trainer, and Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard), the operations manager of Jurassic World must set aside their past differences and join hands to stop the impending doom that awaits them all.
Indian actor Irrfan Khan as Jurassic World owner Simon Masrani Jurassic World is everything it is supposed to be and more. Needless to say, there is action, adventure, fun and frolic, and loads of creepy dinosaur mayhem. As one would expect, Jurassic World employs cutting edge CGI and VFX and the excellent 3D effects make it an experience of a kind. There's no denying that these technical factors make it quite unique in comparison to its predecessors. While the movie fails to match the cinematic brilliance of Spielberg's epic dinosaur extravaganza, Jurassic World nonetheless manages to fulfill its promise of being a perfect Hollywood summer blockbuster. Late American film critic Roger Ebert wrote in his review of Jurassic Park: "The movie delivers all too well on its promise to show us dinosaurs. But consider what could have been. There is a scene very early in the film where Neill and Dern, who have studied dinosaurs all of their lives, see living ones for the first time. The creatures they see are tall, majestic leaf-eaters, grazing placidly in the treetops. There is a sense of grandeur to them. And that is the sense lacking in the rest of the film, which quickly turns into a standard monster movie, with screaming victims fleeing from roaring dinosaurs." Ebert was perhaps more interested in the possibility of a constructive interaction between the humans and the dinosaurs. It's good to see Jurassic World finally take a few steps in that directionâ"as evident from the scenes wherein Chris Pratt's character tries to train the Velociraptors.
Owen Grady trains the Raptors in Jurassic World Overall, Jurassic World can best be described as a visual feast for action-adventure enthusiasts. But, the movie does offer some nice and punchy one- liners. Perhaps, the best ones get delivered by Simon Masrani, the most impactful being: "The key to a happy life is to accept that one is never in control." Then there is one delivered by Dr. Henry Wu: "Monster is a relative word; to a canary, a cat is a monster... so far we humans were used to being cats." Jurassic World in addition to being a high octane summer extravaganza also serves to be a relevant critique on growing consumerism and corporate excess and mocks the human desire for profit. While the theme part is a manifestation of the human desire, the T. Rex hybrid certainly represents its worst side. The acting performances in the movie range from average to good. While Irrfan Khan makes his presence felt in the limited screen time he gets, Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard add a spark to the movie with their solid performances. The rest of the cast does a decent job of supporting them. Jurassic World is a highly entertaining piece of cinema that takes us on an adventurous journey to the long forgotten Spielbergian avenues of madness and confusion, thereby allowing us to relive our childhood memories. Highly recommended!
(This review was first published at A Potpourri of Vestiges)