Good, Not Great (small spoilers)

Rating: 7/10 (14 June 2015)

Well, it's here, perhaps the summer's most anticipated sequel (the box office will tell us if Avengers should worry as estimates for this weekend continue to grow), Jurassic World. Picking up from Spielberg's original Jurassic Park, newcomer director Colin Trevorrow creates a new film and hopes to re-invigorate young and old alike on the dream that science can bring back the dinosaurs.
Trevorrow has what can only be described as a dream story, going from the small, low budget, endearing flick Safety Not Guaranteed to a huge Spielberg production after doing very well at Sundance. Jurassic World is truly an achievement for such a quick turn around for someone with so little experience. The film itself feels like a work of someone with far more blockbuster know-how, and in that way, it's similar to any other corporate production. But there are little things that stick out in Jurassic World to make it work and set it apart from other big budget flicks. That said, it's not the best film this summer (not by a long shot) and it still cannot touch the magic of the original, Jurassic Park.
What the film does right: (some small spoilers)
First things first, Trevorrow makes the right call by ignoring the horrible mistakes of Jurassic Parks 2 and 3. It explains that yes, the incidents that took place in Jurassic Park were horrifying, but ultimately could not prevent the inevitability of a Universal Studios like theme park on the island of living fossils. Money talks right? Even little jokes about corporate sponsors buying naming rights to the dinosaurs allude to the fact that Jurassic World exists in a real world run by real executives dying to have product placement. This makes the movie feel fairly grounded in reality.
The characters are not all dumb. That may not sound like a vote of confidence, but if you look back to Jurassic Park, you'll realize that most of the characters are really frustrating or ultra dumb. Some of that carries over to Jurassic World, but not as much as it could have. Chris Pratt is fun and believable, as usual, the child actors are decent, and other side characters help boost believability.
Animatronics, although not very prevalent, do make an appearance and support the extensive use of CG well. My biggest concern was that the digital creatures would appear weightless and fake. Like they didn't belong alongside their human counterparts. But the digital creatures looked pretty good, and the few uses of animatronics helped ground the digital animals as well. The world felt real and tangible.
What the film struggled to do well:
I love Bryce Dallas Howard and respect her acting chops a great deal. Unfortunately her character is a struggle for me in this film. First, she is a very young executive. I think it hurts plausible deniability to have a character who looks like she could pass for a person in her late twenties direct the world's most expensive resort. Her character goes from intense and business-like, to frantic and helpless and then back again multiple times.
The human villains are stupid. Their plans are stupid. Their execution of their plans is stupid. And when confronted by a raptor, they act stupid. Training raptors is already silly training them to be military weapons is just disrespectful to the audience.
Deus ex machina: The final climax scene of the movie is just plain absurd and works out perfectly for all the humans. After all the dinos go crazy and kill virtually everything and everyone for over an hour, they just happen to be sensible enough to not attack each other or the humans in this final moment, choosing instead to walk away into the night. I'm trying not to spoil the end here, but it really was annoying that after all this carnage we are supposed to believe that now everyone leaves in peace. How convenient and, unfortunately, expected.
Jurassic World was enjoyable, but it could have been better, and it could have even been great. I am excited for Trevorrow to go back to something a bit smaller, more artistic, and story driven. He himself has said he feels like he skipped many projects going from Sundance to this in a matter of two years I want him to make those "in-between" movies now.