Living Up To The Jurassic Franchise

And just like that, Dinosaurs were cool again.

Because seriously, what was the last good dinosaur movie or TV show you remember? Lately it’s all superheroes, zombies, vampires, and what not. It’s a welcome change of pace to finally get a long overdue dose of colossal dino-fun! 

Jurassic World is a direct sequel to the Jurassic Park Trilogy in the 90’s. Its basic premise – dinosaurs are recreated, turned into an attraction and things inevitably go terribly, TERRIBLY, wrong - as in, massive-death-toll kind of wrong. It’s the same basic through line of all the Jurassic franchise movies, and it worked then, and it still works now.

The world now has a fully functioning Dinosaur theme park called Jurassic World. Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard), JW’s cutthroat, no nonsense, operations manager, enlists the help of Owen Grady (Chris Pratt), one of the most successful dino-trainers in JW and an expert in animal behavior, to examine the actions of a new, genetically-engineered dinosaur, the Indominus Rex. But what was initially a research assignment becomes a life-threatening rescue mission, as this new, deadly dinosaur escapes from captivity, and Claire’s two nephews, Zach (Nick Robinson) and Gray (Ty Simpkins) Mitchell go missing inside the treacherous theme park.

Jurassic World essentially feels like a redo of the original Jurassic Park, with the same plot format, same thrills, and same character archetypes. The only central difference from the original being the great, game-changing, visual improvement. The dinosaurs, while being mostly computer generated, were utterly seamless in presentation. The elegant mixture of both digital and practical effects was what ultimately sold the exhilarating dinosaur scenes.

But the park itself deserves praise as well. Those amazing made up park attractions were so creatively imagined, it was almost as if they made a proof of concept for a real-life dino theme-park! The first half hour of the movie would make you seriously want to GO to a Jurassic World (even though the rest of the movie will remind you why you shouldn’t).

Anyone wanna go?

There’s a tangible sense of danger and direness as the movie does not shy away from the blood and gore. But there was nothing too distasteful or offensive, just an ample amount of people eating. Spirited carnage with a bit of inspired horror is what this movie’s got in spades! If there's something this movie succeeds in doing, it was relentlessly keeping us all in unease and at the edge of our seats! 

What watching the movie feels like.

But aside from the delicious suspense, I appreciated those small measures of levity. There were some genuinely heart-warming moments (like the scenes with the Apatosaurus/Long Necks) and economical but efficient humor (especially from the two boys and Jack Johnson’s Lowery). All the characters were utterly loveable, even the supporting ones. I especially enjoyed Simon Masrani (Irrfan Khan) and his eccentricities. Unfortunately though, I wasn’t all that invested in the two lead adults. Sure they were both pretty, and both badasses in their own right, but their subplot of a shared past and the shoe-horned romance was trivial and easily forgettable. But then again, love stories aren’t really what you watch Jurassic Park movies for.

Awww, brotherly love.

And the most surprising element of the movie that I really didn’t expect was the homages to the original Jurassic Park. I thought they were sort of rebooting it already, since none of the characters from the previous trilogy were cast here, until a key scene in the middle of the movie. I won’t give it away, but suffice to say that it demonstrated that the movie is perfectly aware and respectful to what has come before. And the bigger the fan you are, the more you’d appreciate all the small references to the classic Jurassic Park. It’s not a requirement, but if you haven’t watched World yet, I’d suggest reviewing the Park first.

Jurassic World was a total rush! It was an exhausting but glorious dinosaur spectacle with incredible thrills, delightful brutality, and jaw-dropping animation. It was a “world” in every sense of it, as it so much bigger and more realized than the original film. It may not have been as ground-breaking as when the first film came out, but it still progressed tremendously and proudly embodied the Jurassic Park tradition. And as it’s always reiterated in the movie, people want “more teeth”, and Jurassic World definitely delivers just that!

MICMIC RATING: 7.5/10

* First seen on The Philippine Online Chronicles!