JURASSIC WORLD – Colin Trevorrow

Director Steven Spielberg brought us a film in 1993 that changed the face of filmmaking forever. Special effects wise, Jurassic Park took the film studios and moviegoers by storm! Knocked us off our seats and pulled us into the screen like nothing before it. A new generation of filmmaking called: CGI had begun the year before with James Cameron‘s Terminator 2.

Spielberg saw this and knew the next level of filmmaking had begun. In the summer of 1993, Jurassic Park took us on an amazing journey of dinosaurs coming to life through science and scared the pants right off of us. Twenty-two years and two sequels later, it is time to return to that magic world and get scared…again! Jurassic World, the fourth film in the franchise has brought us back to the island of killer dinosaurs, but this time we get what we’ve always wanted and only heard about in the first film: the park is open.

Following the events of the first Jurassic Park, it has been 10yrs since John Hammond’s vision of opening a theme park all about dinosaurs for everyone in the world to come and enjoy. We’ve waited SO long to see this idea come to life..until now. Back to the original island of Isla Nublar, Jurassic World is a huge and successful theme park with all things dinosaurs from rides, attractions, gift shops, and more. It is amazing, beautiful, yet attendance is down after being open 10yrs, so what does any theme park do when attendance is down? They open a new attraction! In this case, a new dinosaur is “genetically engineered & modified” that is beyond terrifying!

When Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) the operations manager of the park, has her two nephews come to visit, Gray (Ty Simpkins) and Zach (Nick Robinson) they get more than they bargined for. For this is a theme park with live dinosaurs and ANYTHING can happen. And it does! When the new dino attraction, Indominus Rex breaks loose, chaos in the park begins. It is up to Raptor trainer Owen (Chris Pratt), a “Raptor whisperer” so to speak, to help capture the dangerous dino. When that fails, it is up to InGen rep Hoskins (Vincent D’Onofrio) to use his “military plan” to stop the animal. With theme park guests running scared, dinos are everywhere on the loose, and there’s nowhere to run or hide – has the dinosaurs taken over the island for good or will a surprise guest stop the Indominus Rex? To find out I highly recommend Jurassic World!

There has been a lot of talk about this film, mostly good, but some have grumbled that some of the acting was not so good, some of the magic wasn’t there, and some of the plots were not strong. I’m here to disagree on all counts. I think this film was a ton of fun! It gave us what we’ve been waiting for: the theme park. I was so excited to see just what and how they were going to do it. Rides, attractions, everything I hoped for.

I found myself in wonderment as if I was really there! It is visually stunning, exciting, and I only wish they slowed down just a little to be able to take it all in. The new dino’s are just as fun & scary to look at as the old favorites. The cast was good, a little weak in some areas, but mostly good. The “gyrosphere ride” (a clear ball you ride through the park in) was very exciting to see. Is the old Jurassic magic back? I think so. It certainly is better than the last two sequels, however, nothing beats that first film, of course. I really liked all the “nods” and cameos sprinkled throughout the film. Look quick and hard cause there are a lot of them!

Unfortunately, there are no extra scenes during or after the credits, but with the success this film is going to bring, you can count on a 5th Jurassic film very soon! So, if you want to have fun and get scared like you did back in the summer of 1993, then go see Jurassic World!