An Entertaining, But Unnecessary Nostalgia Trip

Rating: 5/10 (11 January 2019)

Jurassic World is the fourth installment (you can say second considering it actively ignores the previous two sequels) in the Jurassic Park franchise which is one of my favorite franchises. I like all the installments for various reasons, film or literary, no matter how bad some can get. The first film is one of my favorite movies period. The Lost World, while inferior to the first film definitely, is still a worthy sequel and I feel is a very underrated film. I'm also a fan of the books by Michael Crichton of which the first two movies are based on. Jurassic Park 3, while certainly not a good movie like its predecessors, I can enjoy as an entertaining monster movie.
I wasn't expecting too much going into this film. I knew it wouldn't be as good as the first film or even the second one. I was only expecting it to be an entertaining monster movie like the third film and that's exactly what got.
The story is very simple. Twenty years after when the first film took place the park is officially opened (had been for years) and tourists are flocking to it by the truck loads. However, people had become desensitized and bored by regular dinosaurs so the owners and scientists in their infinite wisdom decided to create a genetically modified hybrid to up the wow factor. However, the hybrid escapes and starts wreaking havoc around the park and freeing other dinosaurs from their containers and everything goes awry.
The film does have a few things going for it. It is quite entertaining as a straight forward monster movie and it did give me feelings of nostalgia. I like it mainly for the same reasons I like Jurassic Park 3 in that it's a fun monster movie.
I also like that it tries to do something different with actually having the park up and running along with the incorporation of the dinosaur hybrid which is a cool monster with a nice design. Easily my favorite thing about this film is the Indominus Rex. It's a cool design, and it was enjoyable watching it work. The park itself also looks very nice and it was cool to actually see the park actually functioning.
Chris Pratt also does a good job as the lead and I liked his character. I was worried from the trailers of him being a raptor whisperer. However, I think they handle it fairly well. It further establishes that these dinosaurs are not monsters (besides the new hybrid) but animals as the first two films made clear. I also like that they establish he's not in full control and the relationship has to be constantly tested. He's like a lion tamer.
However, that's where the praise ends. Firstly, the CGI is horrible. It's been over twenty years since the first film yet the effects are easily the worst out of all the films. JP 3 had better effects than this. The effects for these films should be getting better not worse. The dinosaurs all look so incredibly fake it's not even funny. All the other films used animatronics along with the CG but this it's obviously 100% CG. If they did use animatronics then they definitely used CG over them.
Also, the cast is subpar. Chris Pratt's character is good but he's the only one in my opinion. All the other character I was not invested in at all. Granted there was no character I adamantly disliked but no one I really cared for either besides Chris Pratt. The villain is also very one-note but, thankfully, he doesn't play a major role.
Not to mention there are so many nods and even scenes reenacted from the first film it's ridiculous. I know this is the first film from this franchise in a long time and some nods are fine but there were so many of the same beats being hit it got a bit annoying. The final battle especially felt a lot like the final battle from Jurassic park with the raptors.
Overall, Jurassic World is not a worthy sequel to the first two movies. I'd say it's on par with JP 3. In fact, I like JP 3 a bit more because of my nostalgia for it. However, if you're a fan of Jurassic Park then there's no reason not to see this.