Adrenaline-pumping Jurassic sequel.

Rating: 8/10 (22 June 2015)

Jurassic World is set 22 years after the events of the original Jurassic Park movie, where Isla Nublar is now a fully functioning theme park with dinosaurs, running successfully for over a decade. To boost attendance, the park has created a hybrid dinosaur as their new attraction. However, the creation yielded unintended and horrific consequences.
The movie starts off a little slow, with scenes of brothers Zach and Gray's trip to the dinosaur theme park cutting back and forth to scenes of the scientists and park owners jabbering about corporate sponsors. But, the movie picks up steam when the Velociraptors were introduced, being trained by researcher Owen Grady (Chris Pratt). This leads to scenes of the various dinosaurs at the park through the brothers' point of view, with John Williams' original theme soundtrack playing in the background, which instantly brings back memories and nostalgia of the first movie. This was a very touching and clever touch that lets the viewers see a panorama of the entire park while connecting the story to the events of the first film.
The introduction of the hybrid dinosaur leads to the film's highlighted excitement and suspense, creating tension and thrills when it escapes and threatens to wreck havoc on the park with its thousands of visitors ambiguous to the threat. What results is one adrenaline-pumping scene after the other from start to finish.
The film may not be as good as the first one and the story could have focused more on the initial success and operation of the park and connect John Hammond's vision from the first movie more. However, I thought it's good that, in addition to the dinosaur mayhem, the movie also focuses more on the character development such as the on and off relationship between Owen and Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) and the bond between brothers Zach and Ty. It also gives a little more attention to the dinosaurs, as we are asked to sympathize with the injured Brontosaurus and to understand the Velociraptors' connection with their trainer.
The acting was decent for the most part, with Pratt and Howard delivering some spot-on performances in their roles. There is also some humor in the movie, though I thought some were forced and were pretty cheesy. The special effects were also decent - not as sophisticated as in the first movie, but it's good that the filmmakers used some animatronics rather than relying solely on CGI. The music score was catchy and am glad John William's theme was incorporated, and the direction was well-paced.
Overall, it's a fun and entertaining sci-fi adventure that does well as a Jurassic sequel.
Grade B+