Take this ride back to the Lost World...

Rating: 8/10 (20 June 2015)

There are few things as spectacular as a helicopter flying through the lush landscapes of Hawaii with that epic background score by John Williams that marks our escape to a magical land of the re-generated dinosaurs. In almost every scene, director Colin Trevorrow's sincere attempt at visualizing things in Spielberg's manner is conspicuous. With a massive budget compared to his debut Indie film, Trevorrow pushes the benchmark of special effects to give us more realistic thrills and creatures that are quite terrifying. John Hammond's dream of creating a theme park has been fulfilled without incident for 10 years now but corporate greed and people's desire for extreme entertainment leads to yet another disaster on Isla Nublar. As inhuman as it may sound, the fictional threat to human lives has seldom been so entertaining.
Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) is the Manager at Jurassic World where customer sentiment analysis, feedback scores and revenue growth demand more of her attention than her 2 nephews who are visiting the park for a week. Zach (Nick Robinson) attempts to flirt by just staring at girls while his younger, nerdier brother Gray (Ty Simpkins) is obsessed with the park and its creatures. For Claire however, the problem with the park now, is its need to evolve. Existing Dinosaurs aren't impressive anymore according to her research reports and the visitors seek more thrills with bigger, louder and scarier creatures bearing more teeth. Thus, within the confines of a solid walled enclosure, wanders a creature in solitude with the DNA of a T-Rex, Cuttlefish, tree fog and another secret animal. This hybrid monster is the highly evolved, intelligent and aggressive Indominus Rex. Claire calls upon Owen (Chris Pratt), who has been busy training Velociraptors to follow his orders, to evaluate the safety of the I-Rex enclosure before they open it as an attraction. Before they could even realize it, Indominus has displayed his superior intelligence and is now posing a threat to the park's other creatures and about 20,000 visitors. Owen and his bad-ass heroics will have to rescue Claire's nephews from their adventurous ride in the impressive gyroscope that went awry and then attempt to track Indominus before things get worse.
The aerial attack by pteranodons and killing rampage by Indominus wreak havoc and panic in the park whereas any sentimental affinity towards baby triceratopses and the dying Brontosaurus will only result in horrid disbelief. The creatures are truly terrifying in their own way. Much like we witnessed in last year's 'Godzilla', fleeting views of Indominus and a trail of his destruction provide the terror rather than his full-sized presence on screen. The Velociraptors are vicious, as expected and they possess enough intelligence to make them unpredictable. They are also a part of the film's iconic chase sequence with Pratt racing with them on his motorcycle in the hunt for Indominus. The showdown is between a hybrid and its predecessor, once again reminding us of 'Godzilla's' climax. There are several scenes that pay tribute to 'Jurassic Park' with the human-dinosaur interaction, re-visiting original buildings that now lay in ruin and several easter eggs that John Hammond would be proud of. These tributes are of course Trevorrow's salute to Spielberg himself, who is also the executive producer of this record-shattering blockbuster.
Even though the creatures dominate this thrilling ride into a lost world, the human characters attempt to peek through the chaos, reflecting the tension, uncertainty, emotions and just a hint of levity. Jurassic World is merely a fun summer movie that has matured after the 2 sequels, often to the extent that it could give kids nightmares. But the consumer wanted bigger, badder, scarier creatures with more teeth. Trevorrow delivered all that and more. His direction kept the flow of action steady with enough build up initially to set up all the thrills. Its flaws can be overlooked for the sheer excitement that a visit to the park provides and several of the sequences containing the remarkable special effects are awe inspiring. Needless to say, it is a must-watch for an entire generation that grew up fascinated by Michael Crichton's imaginative world, realized by a master film-maker. Trevorrow's World is a ride worth taking into that lost world. Buckle up.

8.471 on a scale of 1-10.