Tries to recreate a classic but only takes its most surface of elements; in the end, it just feels like filler.

Rating: 4/10 (10 June 2018)

'Jurassic World (2015)' apes the most surface-level aspects of the franchise's first entry without ever recreating what made that film so special. It almost entirely omits the themes that make the concept itself interesting and it misses out on any engaging characters, through which we should be viewing these extraordinary events in order to actually care about them. It also manages to totally overload the original trilogy's computer-to-practical ratio, losing out on all components that could make its, admittedly sometimes impressive, visual effects seem truly believable. The CG always feels exactly as such and doesn't become an extension of the story or world, unable to elicit the wonder or fear it once did with ease twenty-five years ago. It doesn't help that most of the narrative is essentially nonsensical and every few moments there's something to roll your eyes at. Plot points provoke pained sighs as opposed to a widening of the eyes, and the exposition is so blatant that it's a wonder why you're shown anything at all. It gets to a point where you realise that the filmmakers don't trust you to understand their narrative and so tell you everything at least twice, even when it's right there on screen. The movie is more interested in showing you dinosaurs dealing out damage to one another than anything else, with the suspense the series is known for at perhaps its least prominent. It really is the lack of character, despite the many core players (who all consistently make unintelligent and unbelievable decisions, by the way), that puts the final nail in the coffin of this technologically advanced but entirely less believable sequel, though. It just goes to show you that the script is the most important thing, everything else is just filler. Filler is exactly what this feels like. 4/10