After spending such a long time in development hell, the question is, “Was Jurassic World worth the wait and the hype?”
Warning: Might contain some spoilers. Proceed only if you’re ready to read this review.
Firstly, if you were crossing your fingers and hoping to see a lot of the original “Jurassic Park” cast members in this installment of the film, you’re going to be sorely disappointed because only the only character from the original film that was featured in “Jurassic World” is BD Wong, who reprises his performance as geneticist Dr. Henry Wu.
But perhaps this is a good, solid telling sign that creator Steven Spielberg has big plans for the future of the “Jurassic Park” series. After all, it did spend more than a decade in the “storage” – it has been 14 years since the last installment of the series! So you can be sure that Spielberg wanted real bad for this to open with a bang.
A big one!
Hey, that’s a familiar gate 😉
Ignoring events from “The Lost World” and “Jurassic Park III”, “Jurassic World” served as a direct sequel to the original, allowing the filmmakers significant breathing room and a great opportunity to inject new life into the franchise. But with so much love and treasured childhood memories for the first movie, expectations are sky-high.
Since the previous “Jurassic Park” movies were all about dinosaurs coming back to life (which has been done to death, no pun intended), this time around, the park at the iconic Isla Nublar opens with new rides and living dinosaurs that visitors can really get up close and personal with. So up close and personal, children could ride the Triceratops, be allowed into a dino petting zoo, and watch the gigantic Mososaurus leap from an aquatic amphitheatre to eat a shark every day.
Yet, the park owners deemed it not impressive enough. Unsurprisingly.
In a bid to make the new “Jurassic World” that much more appealing, they included the introduction of a new hybrid super dinosaur named “Indominus Rex”. What is this new breed of dinosaur, you ask? The intelligent “Indominus Rex” was created with a cocktail of DNAs taken from various species and grown in captivity, making it the ultimate but terrifying attraction when unveiled. So intelligent, she knew exactly how to trick scientists.
And as luck would have it, she would break free and all hell will break loose.
Enter, chaos.
On the existing “Jurassic World” cast, however, Chris Pratt plays animal behaviour expert who can train Velociraptors, Owen, while Bryce Dallas Howard takes on the female lead and plays top-level executive, Claire. In the first 30 minutes of “Jurassic World”, it was revealed that the duo went on one unsuccessful date previously. Hence, there was supposed to be some sexual tension in the air whenever the camera was on them.
Eh?
While they both successfully played their individual roles spot on, unfortunately, I couldn’t see/feel the supposed “blossoming of a love story”. In any case, they both race to evacuate some 20,000 park visitors before they became Indominus Rex’s food.
And, uhm, I’m not going to tell you what happened next because that’s up to you to find out when you watch the film!
What did I love most about the movie? Although “Jurassic World” tried really hard to separate itself from its predecessors, it still paid homage to the original “Jurassic Park” film by including a scene where they brought back an abandoned location. I also loved the Gyrosphere, one of the funkiest features in the new park. When I say “love”, I mean that I’m easily its biggest fan.
As seen in the picture above, in essence, the Gyrosphere is a high-tech hamster ball that allows visitors to get up close to the dinosaurs without risking their lives to become dino food. Gotta admit though that it did make me wish that it was real!
Also, somewhere along the film, you’d see that the Tyrannosaurus Rex (T-Rex) still reigns as the champion of the “Jurassic Park” series. You’ll need to be prepared for the ride of your life!
Watch the trailer here:
“Jurassic World” opens in cinemas nationwide on 11th June.
Don’t forget to check out some little known facts about the film to best prepare you for it 😉
For more information, visit the movie’s official (super cool) website or Facebook page.
