Decent and fun, but not the sequel we've been waiting for

Rating: 6/10 (21 June 2015)

After a decade of preproduction, the fourth installment in the Jurassic Park franchise was finally released. The question on everyone's mind was whether it would succeed in recapturing what Jurassic Park brought to the table. It's an admirable attempt, but alas, not everything's as it should be.
As the title suggests, Jurassic Park has been transformed into Jurassic World, a theme park for the whole family, by the InGen company. Think Disneyland, but with dinosaurs. You've got two brothers Zach and Gray who're sent there to have fun under the supervision of their aunt Claire, the park's manager. Right away you can tell she's all about her job, because she's the kind of character who looks at her watch and says "three minutes late" Meanwhile the park's owner, Masrani, tells Claire to bring in a specialist to inspect the enclosure for the Indominus Rex (the 'iRex' if you will), the latest genetically modified dinosaur. This specialist is velociraptor trainer Owen Grady who, when he's not training his raptors, likes to spend his time dishing out one-liners like it's going out of style. Then you've got Hoskins, InGen's chief of security, who tries to persuade Owen to let his raptors be used for military purposes. When Owen inspects the enclosure, they find evidence the iRex probably climbed over the walls and escaped. Soon, and not altogether unexpectedly, things escalate, resulting in a film of extraordinary tension and excitement
not really though. It's not, as Jeff Goldblum would say, "one big pile of sh*t", but to be honest, I thought things on the action side of things were a bit lackluster and not because it was badly choreographed or anything like that. Quite frankly, the insistence on CGI and 3D ruined a lot of the tension. It's kind of like upscaling, it doesn't increase immersion or realism, it just enhances the flaws of the image and in this case the visual effects. Watching Jurassic World, I have doubts as to whether (and where) animatronics were used, even though the many close-ups allowed the filmmakers the opportunity to do so. It feels like you're constantly watching these dinosaurs that look just a bit too blurry. Even the introduction of the park itself is lackluster. You've got the impressive aerial shots and so on, but it just doesn't feel real.
On the other hand, Jurassic World does fit quite well into the storyline as a whole. It does manage to capture the spirit of it at least somewhat. There are all kinds of references to Jurassic Park and the storyline provides its own spin on the familiar tropes, which is more than I can say for Jurassic Park III. I like the idea of the theme park, the fact that visitors have gotten bored with 'regular' dinosaurs (hence InGen creates the Indominus Rex to meet consumer demand), the psychological angle of having Owen be the alpha to the raptors, etc.
There are plenty of ideas here, some better executed than others. For instance, while Owen being able to somewhat control the raptors is an interesting new idea, it also makes the raptors less threatening. Compare that to Jurassic Park where they were the most terrifying thing to occupy the screen, despite being way smaller than the T-Rex. No doubt the infamous kitchen scene wouldn't have become such a classic if there was a character who could get the raptors to stand down. Some of the characterization also doesn't quite work: when you discover that Claire and Owen used to date, you just know they'll end up together by the film's end. Also, Hoskins is quite underwhelming as a villain. He's so obsessed with using raptors for military purposes, I'm just waiting for him to say, "Think of the military applications!"
All this complaining aside, there've been way worse sequels than Jurassic World, especially when you consider this is the fourth entry. It's generally fun to watch and builds on the ideas of the original in its own way. No doubt, more sequels are inbound. Meanwhile, I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope we'll see more animatronics in the future and that the action will feel more grounded.