Film Review: ‘Jurassic World’ Starring Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard

Taking place 22 years after after the events of Jurassic Park, Isla Nublar, an island near Costa Rica, is everything that John Hammond had hoped it would be ­­ a fully functioning dinosaur theme park known as Jurassic World. To keep up with customer demand for the “wow” factor, operations manager Claire (Howard) has the geneticists, including Dr. Wu (Wong) from Jurassic

Park, create the first ever hybrid dinosaur: the Indominus Rex. To check on the conditions of the hybrid’s living situation, Claire is forced to bring in an animal (primarily velociraptors) trainer, Owen Grady (Pratt). When Claire brings Grady to the hybrid’s cage, it seems that the dinosaur has escaped, climbing out. Once Owen and a security guard go down to investigate, they realize they’ve made a huge mistake ­­ the hybrid is still there, it just has the ability to avoid being detected by thermal scanners.

At this time, Claire’s nephews Gray (Simpkins) and Zach (Robinson) are visiting the park and their aunt at the theme park. Gray and Zach are left with Claire’s assistant and eventually find themselves running off and going around the theme park on their own. The two go to several different exhibits, seeing numerous different dinosaurs and getting the chance to ride next to the dinosaurs. They take a bit of a detour into uncharted territory and within moments find themselves right in the middle of the hybrid’s rampage.

Obviously with Jurassic World, the first thing people will note will be the dinosaurs…and do they look good. With a blend of CGI and animatronics, the dinosaurs are beautiful to look at and still terrifying. While they may not be as realistic as the ones seen in the first three films, this time the dinosaurs are bigger and more exciting. People looking for authenticity may be annoyed, but this is also a movie focusing on a dinosaur theme park so realism isn’t something to be expected. The story and events in Jurassic World can, at times, feel predictable, but it doesn’t
detract from the film at all. Both Pratt and Howard bring strong, powerful performances to the screen with Howard bringing us another strong, female sci­fi role that won’t be forgotten anytime soon.

Going into Jurassic World, it only made sense to be nervous about what the final product would be. Trevorrow is still a relatively new name in Hollywood and him taking on a project that has a budget massively higher than his previous film ($750,000 to be exact). But Jurassic World is much better than it should be in a lot of ways. It’s exciting, exhilarating, and while it doesn’t have quite the thrills as Jurassic Park, it definitely holds its own. Plus, we’re shown something that we’ve never quite seen before in any previous Jurassic Park film ­­ and it may definitely be the most exciting part of the franchise. You won’t want to miss it.

The film hits theaters this Friday