Review - Jurassic World! My trip to the world's best park!

The highly anticipated Jurassic World delivered on all of its big promises and movie goers everywhere have absolutely loved it. If you have not yet had the chance to see it, I highly recommend it. It was amazing. The film has already broken several box office records (3rd largest box office opening day ever and biggest global box office opening weekend ever) and continues to earn more at the box office. Lets take a trip back to Jurassic World and see just how good the film really was.


Jurassic World is a true sequel in every sense of the word. It may have taken 22 years but fans received the sequel that they deserve. If you are a fan of the original Jurassic Park then you should love Jurassic World. The nostalgia level for this film is very high and it was only boosted by the SUV parked in front of my local theater that was painted to look like one of the park SUVs from the original film which was awesome. To play up the nostalgia factor, there are a lot of amazing Easter eggs in the film. It is incredible how many references they fit into this film without being so obvious about it. Wonderful work. However, the nostalgia level is not the only reason that this film is so great.

Fans are introduced to the park with some sweeping shots of the island and John Williams' familiar theme song welcoming them in as we see an updated park that looks beautiful. Director Colin Trevorrow does a great job at finding a balance between giving fans recognizable park features while modernizing it for today. Many fans spoke out about the huge difference in the two parks, Jurassic Park and Jurassic World, in a negative manner but it is very important to remember one key fact; Jurassic World is a theme park while Jurassic Park was designed more like a zoo. At their core the parks are the same but the approach was much different and therefore the appearance of each are different.

The story is set 22 years after the original where a new park, Jurassic World, has opened and has been running efficiently for years. However attendees have become less enthusiastic than what park owners would like about current attractions and attendance has dropped. To excite fans and get attendance back up, even though they are still pulling in 20,000+ attendees a day, the park along with Ingen decide to create a genetic hybrid dinosaur, the Indominus Rex, that is designed to be bigger and scarier than anything we have seen before. Of course this is going to come back and bite them (literally) and it doesn't take long for it to happen.

The film flows smoothly and unlike your usual "disaster films" that start happy, disaster strikes, and then everything is in peril until fixed by the protagonist, Jurassic World finds a balance by bouncing back and forth. The genetic hybrid Indominus Rex escapes its paddock on one side of the island and it takes time for it to travel down to the main part of the park. In that time the film flashes to park attendees having fun and observing beautiful dinosaurs. The back and forth between peril and peace was actually a welcomed change and showed how the situation really unfolded in the park. The only pieces to the story that I would have liked to have seen fleshed out are the backstory of Dr. Henry Wu (B.D. Wong) and how he got to where he is and where his ego came from and also how Ingen eventually became, in part, a military contractor.

A big part of this film was the relationship between Owen Grady (Chris Pratt), a behavioral researcher from the Navy, and his group of Velociraptors. This unique relationship between human and dinosaur added a form of depth to the story as well as Pratt's character who unfortunately does not get much growth as the film goes on. That said, Chris Pratt absolutely nailed the character. His delivery of humor combined with the seriousness that his character brings forward was wonderful. Also, the scene with him riding with the Velociraptors was just badass. Bryce Dallas Howard as Claire does a magnificent job as well and is the character who had the most development in the film. She goes from a business driven individual who puts work above all else and doesn't know much about her own nephews to an outwardly brave individual who risks her own life to rescue those that she cares about. As Pratt's love interest the give and take between the two is very enjoyable and gets a good amount of laughs.

The effects in this film were through the roof. I loved them. The dinosaurs looked spectacular and realistic and the park looked realistic and inviting. I have the honor of actually knowing someone who worked on the film who created the Mosasaur and the Ankylosaurus group and feel he did a truly outstanding job. I was blown away by his work. The baby triceratops petting zoo looked adorable and the attack sequence of the Pteranodons and Dimorphodons was truly suspenseful. The crown jewel however of course goes to the Tyrannosaurus Rex / Velociraptor vs Indominus Rex fight sequence. It was the moment everyone was waiting for and it was truly heart-pounding! I was on the edge of my seat throughout the entire sequence.

Overall, Jurassic World shares the spirit and heart of the original Jurassic Park while still making it feel fresh and new. The film is an extremely fun experience and I highly recommend that everyone goes to see it.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10


Be sure to follow me on Twitter for all the latest news! Twitter: CubedLink