18 Jun 2015

Jurassic World - film review

From At The Movies, 7:31 pm on 18 June 2015

Directed by Colin Trevorrow, starring Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard and Irrfan Khan.

Simon Morris reviews the all-conquering Jurassic World, which ups the stakes for the competition.

Steven Spielberg has a reputation for being a great story-teller, which isn’t completely accurate.  Most of his plots are a string of disasters, and someone trying to get home.

But you can’t deny his ability at inventing great movie moments, like the first appearance of the dinosaur in the first Jurassic Park. When Sam Neill’s jaw dropped as the camera panned to gigantic brachiosaurs, we knew how he felt. Nobody had seen anything like it before... which causes a problem for a new film. These days we’ve seen just about everything before. To the credit of the producers of the new Jurassic film, Jurassic World, they’re well aware of this.

Part of the fun is working out just what special powers the super-dino has. It’s bigger than a T Rex, with rather more furious front legs, and all sorts of other goodies up its sleeve.

Jurassic World has got story-smarts as well – bits of Alien, bits of Jaws and of course plenty of what made the original Jurassic Park such a hit. The kids are spunky, but still kids, the romance between Owen (Chris Pratt) and Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) is generally light and family-friendly, and the big moments when they happen are scary fun.

Above all, Jurassic World remembers what the point of a big blockbuster is meant to be.  Yes we want plenty of Wow Factor, but above all we want a story with thrills, spills, laughs and touching moments, all climaxing in a satisfying ending.  

Spoiler alert, it’s all about getting home. It is a Steven Spielberg production after all.

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