One Dinosaur, Two Dinosaur, Red Dinosaur, Blue Dinosaur

Rating: 6/10 (10 January 2016)

Oh, will those crazy dinosaur-creating scientists never learn? As if all the people gobbled up by giant reptilians run amok over the course of three previous movies wasn't enough, a giant corporation thinks it's a grand idea to open Jurassic World, the Sea World of dinosaurs. And because dinosaurs have become de rigeur, audiences demand bigger and meaner ones if they are to continue buying tickets. Thus, a team of geneticists manufacture monsters intended to satisfy customers, until they do too good a job and create one that's a sort of super hero and has all the best traits from various other dinosaurs combined into one. When it escapes from its pen, things go predictably badly.
Once I recovered from the disappointment of realizing that Bryce Dallas Howard was not going to be swallowed up or torn apart by the movie's end, I was able to settle in and enjoy this movie for what it was, which is a game if somewhat lacking attempt to recreate the roller coaster thrills of Steven Spielberg's first installment. Remember that one, that ancient relic of a movie that came out way back in 1993? Yes, it's so old I'm surprised it was even in color. Of course we need a reboot -- God forbid anyone should be bothered to push a button and stream the original from any number of available services.
"Jurassic World" has lots of set pieces that sound good on paper, and they manage to offer up a moderate does of entertainment, but there's something lacking from the whole enterprise that made the first one so special. It's got the same slick production values and technical wizardry (though the visual effects in the first one look better than the ones in this, despite being more than 20 years old). But it feels like a movie written and directed by a committee; you never appreciate Spielberg's ability to direct an action sequence until you see someone try to imitate him.
Chris Pratt, once again, is not up to the nominal challenge of the role he's been given. Every time I see him in a movie, he's just missing whatever essential quality the character he's playing needs in order to work. In "Guardians of the Galaxy," it was a roguish scruffiness. In this, it's a macho resourcefulness. But he's never convincing as anything other than a pretty boy bro. It's like ordering Indiana Jones and getting a doofus frat boy.
The most memorable sequence in the movie is one where a flock of pterodactyls swoops down on the unsuspecting visitors to the theme park and wreak all kinds of havoc. The rest of the movie is a blur.
Grade: B