I may not be the biggest Jurassic Park fan, but having read the books and watched the first few movies, I was excited to hear about the release of Jurassic World, the fourth installment in the Jurassic Park movie franchise. This excitement only grew when one of my friends offered tickets to watch it in IMAX 3D at the Carousel Mall in Syracuse. Despite it being well-stocked with action, however, lackluster characters and a sparse plot left the film vaguely underwhelming.
Jurassic World takes place 22 years after the first Jurassic Park film, which helps explain its brand-new cast with the exception of B. D. Wong, who reprises his role as Dr. Henry Wu from the original film. The island of Isla Nublar, also from the first film, has been remade into Jurassic World, a popular theme park. Two kids, stereotypical adolescent Zach (Nick Robinson) and apparent boy genius Gray Mitchell (Ty Simpkins), travel to Jurassic World to visit their aunt Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard), the workaholic operations manager at the park. There, the character of Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) is introduced as a Velociraptor trainer. Of course, something is bound to go terribly wrong, and this something rises as (what else?) a dangerous genetically engineered dinosaur—Indominus Rex—breaks free and sends the entire island into a chain reaction of destruction.
From the beginning, I noticed that the characters weren’t as fleshed out as they could be. For instance, I was rather disappointed with the way that the two brothers, Zach and Gray, were portrayed. Their character developments started and ended with “two kids in the wrong place at the wrong time,” and they seemed to be put in just as an excuse to revisit the island. A few scenes of brotherly bonding and camaraderie helped me feel some degree of empathy for the two, but in the end I couldn’t think of any reason for their presence other than a couple of chase scenes and a need to have children involved in the plot in some way.
Speaking of chase scenes, the thriller segments of the film were plentiful and engaging. I admit that I found myself on the edge of my seat more than once as I experienced scenes ranging from stalk-and-kill to frantic and fast-paced as characters found themselves chased by various carnivorous and/or dangerous dinosaurs. The computer-generated dinosaurs were fantastic to look at as well, especially during dino-on-dino battles. With all this combined with a nostalgic soundtrack by Michael Giacchino including some trademark themes by John Williams, the film managed to pull off a few impressive scenes, but fell short of truly being noteworthy.
By trading some plot and character development for action, Jurassic World presents itself as a decent film that brings back fond memories of the first movie, but little more. If you’ve got nothing else to do, try this one out.