Fun, but the magic is missing

Rating: 6/10 (10 September 2015)

Jurassic World is directed by Colin Trevorrow, who also directed the great indie movie Safety Not Guaranteed, and is a sequel to the Jurassic Park movies. Now, history as proved that the Jurassic Park sequels are not that good, the second one is only half as good as the first one and the third one is plain bad. Jurassic World is the best sequel to Jurassic Park, but unfortunately, that isn't saying much.
The action picks up 20 years later after the first one, and now the tourist attraction known as Jurassic Park is called Jurassic World. But dinosaurs have been around for so long that the audience starts to lose it's interest in the subject so the higher-ups come with a new attraction, Indominus Rex, a genetically modified dinosaur with elements from other animals. And of course, things go wrong. As one character quips in the movie: "These people never learn".
This is not a bad movie, but it's also not very good. It misses the great characters, the stunning visuals, the breathtaking imagery of the first one. This becomes a generic CGI-driven monster movie. It's fun, but it has no heart. A big complaint for me is the overuse of CGI for the dinosaurs. There are a lot of scenes where it simply looks fake. And you know that is not a good thing when a movie released in 1993 has better looking dinosaurs than one in 2015.
As far as the actors go, this movie is lead by Chris Pratt who plays Owen Grady, a former marine who now trains raptors. He does the best he can, but this tough guy, bad-ass type role doesn't really work for him in contrast with his more goofy roles from Guardians of the Galaxy or Parks and Recreation. But of course, he has some funny one-liners, and, for the most part, he delivers. Bryce Dallas Howard plays the park's manager, and I'm sorry to say, but she's not doing a very good job. Vincent D'Onofrio as the head of the security does a decent job, and the two kids, Ty Simpkins and Nick Robinson are good also, especially Ty Simpkins, who comes from his nice role in Iron Man 3.
All in all, this movie is a fun summer ride, with some nice action and suspense, but doesn't come any near the magic of the first one. I give this movie a 6 out of 10.