Satisfactory in what it aims to be, but still leaves you with the feeling of being a missed opportunity

Rating: 7/10 (19 July 2015)

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
Gray (Ty Simpkins) and Zach (Nick Robinson) are two siblings who have been sent away for a holiday to the Jurassic World theme park by their over-bearing mother, trying to divert their minds from the divorce that's brewing between her and their father. Meanwhile, on the island resort, Claire (Bruce Dallas Howard), the boy's aunt and senior management figure, has to present the new, genetically created super-monster to some potential investors. To oversee it's behaviour, she selects old flame Owen (Chris Pratt), whose rough, renegade style will have it's ups and downs. But the new super dinosaur has a mind of it's own, and has plans to break free from captivity and wreak havoc on the island.
Anyone over the age of thirty is likely to have the original Jurassic Park moulded in to their minds in some way. Even if they never saw the film, the sheer amount of publicity and merchandise it attracted would keep it engraved in their minds. As such, Jurassic World, the spin off film of the series, is serving much the same function as The Phantom Menace did in 1999, for those for whom Star Wars was the film from their youth (and who are over the age of forty!) It's not a heartless, soulless spin off, like many that fall from the Hollywood cookie cutter machine these days, and there is spark and potential in the script, but sadly, while this is evident, it just doesn't manage to really be the sum of it's parts.
The idea of Jurassic Park having become a theme park for tourists, with tacky souvenir shops and franchise establishments everywhere, and having the dinosaurs as modern day animals in a modern day zoo ('kids get bored just staring at a stegosaurus these days...' as the Claire character comments at the beginning) is an interesting one, and has the potential to serve as a really good set up. But for some reason, the story moves away from this, and has some disjointed narratives serving as the plot, flitting from Pratt and Howard trying to bring the escaped animals down, to the two boys trying to stay out of harm's way, through to Irrfan Khan and BD Wong fighting for control as the situation worsens. Pratt is the new go to man for this kind of thing, and he is strong and solid in his role here, although Simpkins and Robinson are a pretty cardboard copy of the kids from the first film.
Visually, of course, the film is far from a disappointment. The dinosaur designs and effects are even more astonishing than they were twenty years ago, and are a breath-taking spectacle as we watch them battle on the island. Director Colin Trevorrow has managed to stick true to this aspect of what made the original so memorable, but has just failed to serve it with a stronger script or coherent narrative. It basically serves it's purpose, and can't really be called a let down in any way, just something that could have been a little more. ***