Just like I wouldn’t want to go to a surgeon who knows lots of theory but no practical skills, I didn’t like Jurassic World, which recognizes the reasons that it is so bad while failing to practice what it preaches. Colin Trevorrow’s reboot of the beloved ’90s series is dead on the operating table. Its self-awareness doesn’t amount to rising above clichés and tired conventions, and thus it never manages to create anything novel.
Some time after the disaster at John Hammond’s original theme park, Jurassic World was successfully built and maintained. Like kids who have been to Disneyland too many times, the general public is no longer excited by the sight of live dinosaurs. The fear of these once-terrifying beasts has faded — the theme park features pony rides with dinosaurs, and Sea World-like shows and attractions. The lessons about not playing God or underestimating the power of nature have been forgotten as the owner and coordinators of the park decide to make a “scarier” dinosaur with “more teeth.”
Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard), the aunt of two kids who have come to the park while their parents finalize their divorce, is in charge of containing the genetically modified Indominus Rex. After the giant, scary dinosaur gets loose, Owen (Chris Pratt), an ex-navy soldier, and Claire try to contain the monster while searching for her nephews. They might fall in love too!
Essentially what you have here is a film trying to justify its existence through simple pleasures: the chance to hear the iconic John Williams score and the ability to see a bigger newer CGI dinosaur with “more teeth” — a metaphor for the film’s pandering sensibility. The audience at the park is getting diminishing returns out of seeing dinosaurs similar to how the audience of this franchise has already seen the same thing three times.
So how do we get butts in the seats? Do the same thing but bigger! More fanservice. More dinosaurs. Larger-scale action. If all you want is simple nostalgia and action set-pieces, I suppose you’ll get your money’s worth. I expect more value for my coin; however, Jurassic World is not meant to challenge, only to provide exactly what you expect in the safest and most predictable of ways.
Instead of commenting on the issues with modern spectators that it hints at, the film indulges in the same tired clichés it clearly loathes — meaningless action with hollow characters; an angsty teenager, the cocky hunk, and the stiff and professional woman. Trevorrow finds no pathos or depth in any of them. They are archetypes with simple and purposeless backstories pinned to them.
What we’re left with are a series of action sequences that allude to the original. It’s bland, boring, and the same thing you’ve seen before, but with bigger teeth. For a film about scary dinosaurs, Jurassic World couldn’t be any safer. This movie is awful and you can’t argue otherwise (even the film agrees).
