Been there done that (and better too)

Rating: 6/10 (23 August 2015)

I was interested in seeing "Jurassic World" (2015) because (1.) I love dinosaurs, (2.) I love island adventure and (3.) it's the third top-grossing film in cinematic history, as of this writing. I thought that it would be at least be as good as the first movie (1993), which – contrary to popular opinion -- I never felt was great because the story and characters were never that compelling. Yes, the dinosaurs were great and the t-rex and velociraptor sequences are exceptional, but most of the rest of the movie was average at best, even forgettable, although Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum and Ariana Richards were effective. Despite my criticisms, I gave the film a solid grade of "B" or 7/10 Stars.
The second film (1997) and the third film (2001) were serviceable, but forgettable and somehow a letdown, which brings us to this fourth film in the series, a whopping fourteen years after the previous sequel. So how does it stack up?
While "Jurassic World" is better than the two previous movies it's not as good as the first one. In fact, the plot's pretty much a retread with marginal changes. The big difference here is that it's 22 years later and the original Park is now a Disneyworld-like tourist attraction called Jurassic World owned by Masrani (Irrfan Khan) and ran by an all-business woman named Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard). Chris Pratt plays the male protagonist, Vincent D'Onofrio the bad guy, Omar Sy the token black dude and BD Wong the token Asian scientist. Katie McGrath is on hand as the boy's hired quasi-nanny at the park, Zara, but she's not fleshed-out as a character; flesh-eaten maybe, but not fleshed out.
Actually, that's the main problem with this movie. The characters have little depth, although Bryce shines as the preoccupied-with-work Aunt and Pratt has the gravitas for his role. Unfortunately, the two kids (brothers) are decidedly dull. My wife thought so as well, so it's not just me. The writers should've worked-in the older brother's girlfriend to spice things up or, at least, some other girl at the park.
Nevertheless, there are a few effective sequences or concepts, like the Pterosaur attack on the tourists, the rousing Indominus/t-rex fight and the earlier revelation about the former.
The movie runs 126 minutes and was shot mainly in Hawaii, but also California and Louisiana.
GRADE: B-