Chris Pratt will make you want to hug him instead of your neighbor during the many guaranteed-to-grab moments in
Jurassic World.
IMAX has never looked so good and been so powerful. Twenty-two years
in the creation, Costa Rica's Isla Nublar now has a fully functioning
dinosaur theme park,
Jurassic World, the pet project of John
Hammond for his monster pets. Because attendance has been on the
decline, scientists have created a new creature to be fawned over, but
early on in
Jurassic World things begin to smell rotten in Isla Nublar.
A
new prehistoric terror is created in the Aviary and much bedlam pursues
as flying beasts light up the Costa Rican skies and devour. It seems
usually larger people are the targets of terror or undesirable souls,
and thus the plot can be predictable, but
Jurassic World keeps a lid on predictability and still gets you to jump due to unexpected "yikes" moments.
One of the more terrifying moments is when a gigantic living fish is fed to a gargantuan-sized shark in
Jurassic World's
pool surrounded by paid visitors who watch the death of the fish at the
jaws of the shark with applause, amusement and vulgar glee. "Too
much," I said to my friend as I watch the horror of the delight in the
patrons of the park as the fish was killed. Later I realized this was
the point of the entire film. Steven Spielberg, who directed the first
two
Jurassic Parks,, co-produced this dinosaur of a film along
with Frank Marshall and Patrick Crowley. Together they have generated
caring feelings for the mammals, animals, reptiles et al, Hence
Jurassic World is more than a monster movie.
Bryce
Dallas Howard is the darling zoo keeper to the dinos, and stunning at
that. Her transformation from fastidious bureauocrat to warrior
out-to-save-the-park is spot on. Pity her eye makeup had to come along
for the journey. In the final scenes her natural beauty radiates, but
throughout a large part of the film, she manages to have perfect makeup
while running for her life and trying to protect Gray (Ty Simpkins) and
Zach (Nick Robinson) from the danger that turns them on. The most
disturbing scene of Ms. Howards is of no fault of her own. The director
Colin Trevorrow who does a masterful job except for one slight flaw --
his choice of posing the beauteous Ms. Howard as though she were a
poster girl modeling for a calendar amidst the monstrous dinosaurs much
like Raquel Welch in
One Million Years B.C. This pose imposed upon Ms. Howard makes a really frightening part of this film downright silly.
The
children in danger about whom we are to really care are Ty Simpkins and
Nick Robinson, and while they perform their acting chores adequately,
a cuddly let's-really-protect-these-
cherubs-from-being-eaten-by-the-big-bad-dinos quality is lacking in
their personas.
Iffran Kahn, best remembered for his stellar performance in
Life of Pi, plays Masrani who is nobly running
Jurassic World against
Hoskins portrayed by Vincent D'Onofrio with the necessary evil though
his big bad wolf character could have been a bit more menacing. When
Masrani is flying in a helicopter to hunt for the creepy dino on the
loose unfortunately, his expressive eyes are hidden behind dark sun
glasses so intimacy with Mr. Kahn's wide array of emotions is limited
A
delightful scene between two employees Lauren Lapkus and Jake Johnson
who feel close yet must separate due to the impending doom of this
bizarre play land for prehistoric pets is charming and well written by
Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver. Their wit comes at an appropriate moment
and adds a youthful and hip feel to the dialogue which until this moment
is let's-move-the-plot-along-rapidly-so-the-dinos-can-show-off kind of
writing.
But it is Chris Pratt who along with the special effects
combine to pull this film together into one big fun fest if a good
scare will do ya. And Chris Pratt is oh-so-handsome and with the kind of
good looks that make you just yearn for him to be the one to rescue you
from an island infested with prehistoric creatures who haven't eaten
for centuries.
In the mid-seventies I had the privilege of being
invited to see Imax at a planetarium in San Diego by a friend, Dean
Tavoularis, who was Francis Ford Coppola's production designer.
Coppola was inspecting the technology as he wanted to film
Apocalypse Now
in IMAX, but he concluded it was too expensive to install cameras in
movie theatres. Bravo to technology which has advanced to allow us the
awesome experience of seeing not a war between men but a war between man
and mammals et al which is the heart of this story. Warning!
Jurassic World could turn you into a vegetarian.
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