Highly Overrated, but Still a Very Fun Dinosaur Flick

Rating: 8/10 (9 March 2016)

Jurassic World is directed by Colin Trevorrow and is the long awaited sequel to the Jurassic Park trilogy, especially after the bomb that was Jurassic Park III (2001). This movie takes place once the dinosaur theme park known as Jurassic World has been open and successful for some time now. However, people seem to be getting bored of dinosaurs recently (we'll talk about that later), so the park manager, a young woman named Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard), orders the genetic assembly of the most scary dinosaur ever seen, the Indominus Rex. Once this beast breaks loose upon the island, Claire, a raptor trainer named Owen Brady (Chris Pratt), and Claire's two nephews (Ty Simpkins, Nick Robinson) must try to defeat the dinosaur, while also trying to survive.
This film is highly overrated. Coming out of the theater on June 12, the release day, I heard people saying it was ten times better than the first Jurassic Park (1993). Really? Better than one of the best movies ever made? I don't think so. However, that doesn't mean it's bad. This film is actually a very fun movie to watch. I enjoy it a bit more, in fact, each time I watch it. But it's not perfect.
The best thing this film has to offer is the mix of special effects and dinosaur action. Every time a dinosaur got into a fight, whether it be with people or another dinosaur, look amazing. None of the special effects look fake at all. All shots of the Indominus Rex look very real, and never look even near bad. This even occurs towards the beginning, before any chaos is even happening . The action with dinosaurs is very abundant as well, and is directed very nicely. All action shots are very clean, and usually wide when CGI was in use.
The worst thing this film has to offer is the subplots. One in particular is a certain character trying to militarize Owen Brady's raptors. Yes, there is a character wanting to make soldiers out of dinosaurs. This subplot is completely unnecessary and should've been wiped clean from the script. If this subplot didn't exist, the film would be much better. Another pretty useless subplot is background with the children. Not that the children are bad characters, but the back story with their parents and their home life could've been easily taken out of the film, and Jurassic World would've been better off.
Chris Pratt. This man has truly proved himself as an amazing actor, after Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), and especially now after Jurassic World. There's been a lot of talk of Pratt portraying Indiana Jones in Indiana Jones 5, but I'm truly confident in him being this ever-so-loved character if that's the decision that is made. After the trailer hit, there's been a lot of talk about Bryce Dallas Howard, and whether or not she would do good in this movie. Well, she did. She was one of the highlights, equipped with a major character arc, and good on screen charisma. Ty Simpkins and Nick Robinson also did rather well, despite their characters not being all that interesting.
This leads me into my next and final point, the characterization, especially of Zach and Gray, the two kids. Zach is the older brother of Gray, and actually has a pretty good arc within their relationship later on, but it takes a while for this to fully kick in, and that is a little frustrating. Their background, like mentioned before, is a useless subplot, and could've been removed altogether. However, both actors did pretty good, despite my expectations.
Overall, Jurassic World was not perfect, and pretty overrated. However, it was very fun, thanks to Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard's performances, great visual effects, and very cool action. Jurassic World deserves a B+, or an 8 out of 10.