Jurassic World: Initial Reaction

First Thoughts on Jurassic World (No Spoilers)

If you know me personally at all or have followed my blog in the past, you probably know that I am a gigantic fan of the Jurassic Park series. I've been somewhat obsessed with dinosaurs ever since first being welcomed to Jurassic Park by John Hammond at age five, and if someone were to put a gun to my head and ask me what my favourite movie of all-time would be, my default answer would be Jurassic Park (although I have many favourite films besides). Even though the sequel, The Lost World: Jurassic Park is, as a whole, not as good as the original, and the three-quel, Jurassic Park III, even less so, I enjoy all three movies, and can watch all three and have a good time with them.  However, nothing will ever beat the original.

Back when the first trailer for Jurassic World was released, I did a lengthy prediction piece on what I thought this movie was going to turn out like and why I was genuinely not excited. Even up to the moment of walking into the movie, my excitement was tempered (compared to my excitement for Avengers: Age of Ultron, I was practically comatose). But I still had hope it might be good. "Please be good," I thought, as the Universal logo came on screen and the haunting music began to fill the theater.

I can safely say, Jurassic World turned out...good.

In fact, I would say it's great.

In fact, I might even go as far as to say it's awesome.

Jurassic World is absolutely worthy of the Jurassic title. It paid tribute to the first film in subtle, well-executed ways, but took the story in some new directions. It felt consistent with what had come before, and even though there were many familiar elements and scenes, it wasn't a re-hash like Jurassic Park III was. I would say it is better than Jurassic Park III, and an argument could be made that it's better than The Lost World, and it's the true Jurassic Park sequel. At this point, I think I still liked The Lost World more, but I had a blast with Jurassic World just the same.

The biggest positives I have, is this movie took some chances, and delivered what audiences have been craving for 22 years. Finally, we have a dinosaur theme park with lots of people in it, and finally, those people are getting chased and eaten by dinosaurs! And the mayhem comes full force! There are plenty of dinos, both new and old, but the one at the forefront of the action is the Indominous Rex, a genetic hybrid that causes plenty of chaos, and turned out much better and cooler than I was anticipating. I-Rex was intimidating and thrilling and a better villain than Spinosaurus was in Jurassic Park III, because this thing is a true monster. It's not a traditional dinosaur; this is a Frankenstein of a beast, but it still functions within the realm of believability.

The Velociraptors and their trainer, Owen Grady (Chris Pratt's character) were another huge highlight of the film. The reason the "trained" Velociraptors worked was because they weren't really trained, as the later previews showcased. Somehow, I went from fearing the raptors, to liking the raptors, to rooting for the raptors, to being scared of them again, to feeling bad for the raptors, and back to rooting for them again, all throughout the course of this one film. Somehow, some way, they made it work.

Chris Pratt was excellent, but this is where I'm going to get into some of the negatives--because as much as I had fun with Jurassic World, it does have some flaws. As great as Chris Pratt was, he was still just Chris Pratt to me. Bryce Dallas Howard's character was not nearly as annoying as I thought she would be, and the child actors (especially Ty Simpkins) were also good. Unfortunately, all of the characters in this film are character archetypes we've seen before, either in previous Jurassic Park films or other similar-genre films. Chris Pratt is sort of like Muldoon from the first Jurassic Park, only funnier and more badass, and Bryce Dallas Howard is a cliche uptight businesswoman, though she does sort of make a transformation by the end. The kids are what you would expect--one is obsessed with dinos and really smart, the other doesn't care about being at the park very much and is into girls--and Vincent D'Onofrio's character is a militaristic antagonist with a motif pulled straight out of Aliens.

The other major problem I had was not entirely the film's fault, but partly due to the advertising. As much of a fun experience as Jurassic World is, I predicted nearly every major event before the film even began. This isn't just because I'm a super-fan--many people have been expressing the same complaints--it was clear what was coming, and it would have been nicer to have seen it go in a different direction and have it go places less obvious. That said, I'm not upset with where it went, and without spoiling it, the climax of the film is awesome. In fact, the opening and closing shots were almost exactly what I thought they would be, and I was glad to see they were.

Jurassic World's director/co-writer Colin Trevorrow doesn't try to capture the magic and wonder of the first  film, and it was a smart decision on his behalf. He goes for maximum excitement and crowd-pleasing scenes. If you stop to think about it too much, Jurassic World is pretty over-the-top, but it's a lot of fun, and has heart, which is what I wanted most from this movie. It's made by a big fan, for big fans, but does not feel like a fan-film. It's a solid popcorn monster movie, with exciting dinosaurs and plenty of well-directed action, and that's all it needs to be.

I'm probably going to see this movie several more times at the theater in the near future, and will post a full review with spoilers and a rating, in the coming days. It will be more of an analysis than a straight-up review--I'm going to get into the nitty-gritty of this movie and break it down, as a true fan, and determine how I really feel about it after seeing it again and letting it sit with me to think it over more fully. Stay tuned!