Takes franchise in new direction; general good fun.

Rating: 8/10 (12 June 2015)

There's a YouTube film channel called "BelatedMedia". There is a piece on the Star Wars prequels, where he states that a prequel or sequel should be "Familiar, but new." That is Jurassic World. It has familiar aspects (mostly in the form of homages to classic JP scenes, and a few Easter Eggs as well as the ruins of the old Park), as well as some similar themes (hubris being the main one). However, it has a lot of "new" to choose from; a functioning park, the Mosasaur is neat (we'll get to that bit at the end later) and the I. Rex, for what its worth, is a unique, dangerous 'villain' dinosaur. The tamed raptors—which I'll get to— were a bold move, & World puts the series in "new" genre On the note of characters: I think we all view JP with Rose tinted glasses; it is my favorite movie, and while I enjoyed Lost World and don't have half the vitriol for JP III as some, I fully admit that the series has been on a definitive retrograde in quality. However, World's characters are not far off the norm. The child characters, in my opinion, are less like helpless baggage to weigh down the adults as in JP, and their sibling dynamic is just as good, if not better, than Lex and Tims; they felt like actual brothers, as opposed to child actors reading lines. They manage to mostly take care of themselves for a large portion of their story (the only good part of Eric Kirby's character from III), and actually have a good reason for being there (The Lost World and III.) In their final fight against raptors they survived using wit & available resources; not once did they use gymnastics to kill a velociraptor. Onto the Velociraptors. I was of two minds about their domesticated nature going into it; on the one hand, they were the calculating, ruthless villains of the first two movies. They even set sadistic traps in III, but that's where they were also shown to have sophisticated group dynamics and care for their unborn young, as animals would have. This, coupled with the imprinting scene in JP, foreshadows tamed velociraptors. It's not quite as ludicrous as disgruntled viewers would suggest; we've not only tamed a species of highly intelligent pack hunters before, but we did it so well that some of their descendants are now called Chihuahuas. The idea that a group of raptors could be tamed, and only barely so (remember, they were going to eat the new worker in their first scene, almost ate Owen, and killed several mercenaries later), by an expert is actually an entirely feasible possibility. In the novels, rival firm BioSyn intended on making miniaturized pet versions. This is a universe where we can clone dinosaurs; the equivalent of a tamed tiger isn't out of the question, and sets up excellent dinosaur action. Speaking of dinosaur action; this movie does what none of the others did: Really good dinosaur fights. We finally get a herbivore battle; the I. Rex fighting an anklyosaurid, and while it's not the iconic T-Rex vs Triceratops fight I've been waiting for since I was four, it was actually quite good. The scene with the dead/dying "long necks" was surprisingly emotional for me, I'm not the sentimental type with movies. The Pteranodons attack was good if CGI heavy; and showcased one of the only things that World did better than the other films: Humans with guns are not helpless; Pteranodons did a lot of damage to the extras, and killed off the British assistant in spectacular fashion, but were quickly put down by trained persons with weapons. The raptor-vs-I.Rex fight at the climax was another callback to the original, but reversed; an echo I enjoyed. The sudden turnaround of the raptors didn't bother me either; they are pack animals, a new alpha showed up, and they changed allegiance. This lead to a callback to the "long grass" scene from Lost World. However, as Owen himself points out, the raptors and he have a relationship; they are loyal to him. The raptor that gets killed via rocket launcher stopped its rampage because it wasn't targeting him. Their change of heart and fight with the I. Rex isn't cheesy, it's a Vader-kills- the-Emperor moment. It's foreshadowed and allows for, again, that mirror of the JP Finale. And then: "We have a T-Rex." Bringing out the big gun to take on the I. Rex not only doubly referenced JP, with the T-Rex acting as the anti-hero, but it allowed for the series to redeem itself from the Spinosaurus victory in JPIII (which, in an aside, would have ended as soon as the T-Rex got its jaws onto the Spinosaurus' neck). The raptor-Rex tag team, while a little over the top, was the fun kind of over the top, and also not beyond reason. JPIII showed that the Rex was very territorial; it did not like another apex predator in its territory; the I. Rex was near to its paddock; and as such it would fight. The Raptor was fighting for Owen, and because it was justifiably angry at being swatted by the I. Rex and for the I. Rex killing its siblings. The T-Rex wasn't working with the raptor; it was just fighting its real enemy. The Raptor was coordinating its attacks (pack hunter, smarter than dolphins and primates). It was a great conclusion, save for its slightly goofy Mosasaur finale (also foreshadowed.) My main criticism is it lacking the depth and scientific ideas, but even then they finally lampshade why the dinosaurs aren't scientifically accurate; something even JP didn't do. In all, World was a good sequel; familiar but new, with plenty of callbacks to the original and what was best about the sequels, but in its own way. It wasn't the cerebral thriller of the original, or attempting to recreate formula like the other sequels; it was an action movie. And that's okay.