Jurassic World is really a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions, centering on the poor Indominus Rex’s journey to find his true self. He was brought into this world as a mix of dinosaurs and reptiles and now is on a search to find his place in the world.
OK, so Jurassic World isn’t as serious as all that. In fact, it’s not serious at all. It’s a monster movie, just like the other two Jurassic Park sequels. While director Colin Trevorrow might have wanted to forget about The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III, his final product has more in common with those films than Steven Spielberg’s original Jurassic Park film.
The truth is, no matter how many different ways you approach the story, if the ultimate goal is to get humans to run from dinosaurs, there’s only so many different ways to do it.
The set-up for Jurassic World is that the parents of Zach (Nick Robinson) and Gray (Ty Simpkins) are getting a divorce, so they ship them away to the titular dangerous theme park where dinosaurs roam. Ha! Mom (Judy Greer) tells them to run if something chases them. Oh, we already know that’s going to happen. Their aunt Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) has an administrative job at the park, so she’s too busy to even guide them around.
Meanwhile, the shareholders are after Misrani CEO Simon Misrani (Irrfan Khan) - who bought Jurassic Park from John Hammond - to come up with something bigger to attract more visitors. So, he just gives Dr. Wu (B.D. Wong - the only actor from Jurassic Park in the film) and his other lab technicians free reign to come up with some genetically modified dinosaur. That turns out to be the Indominus Rex, which I can tell you about because he’s been in every trailer for the film.
Clearly, surprising audiences isn’t anyone’s top priority any more.
And just for kicks, there’s a Snidely Whiplash villain in the form of Hoskins (Vincent D'Onofrio), an InGen guy who wants to turn Velociraptors into soldiers. (“Imagine if we had these guys in Tora Bora!”) Because this is such a good idea. Owen (Chris Pratt) does know it’s a terrible idea and is actually the only person in the movie with any hint of intelligence.
Owen is our “good guy,” the dashing hero who is going to save the two kids when they get lost (which always happens to kids in Jurassic Park movies), has to come up with wild ideas to keep the Indominus Rex from killing everyone and has to melt Claire’s heart by the end of the movie.
All these actually make World feel like a smashing together of different movies, which is also what hurt The Lost World. Each act of the film is a mini-movie, Jurassic Park: Search & Rescue and Jurassic Park: Kill the Big Thing. Since Trevorrow has to hit all these notes - and come up with the perfect shots for trailers - it never really feels like there’s a singular director’s vision here.
It’s stunning that Universal allowed Steven Spielberg and producer Frank Marshall to give Trevorrow the keys to this film. His only previous feature is the quirky comedy Safety Not Guaranteed and very little of what made that film unique can survive in the studio system. Jake Johnson, who starred in Safety and is best known for New Girl, survives as comic relief, but there’s nothing small scale about World.
Eventually, World devolves into a monster movie mess that would make Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton cringe. But that is exactly what Universal wanted and what Trevorrow successfully made. There’s no serious attempt to take the franchise back to the science and concerns about “man playing god” that Crichton wrote about. Then again, there’s no way we could ever really create dinosaurs, even in the way Crichton wrote.
It’s definitely more fun, smarter and down right enjoyable than The Lost World or JP III. Still, the movie is really about getting the Tyrannosaurus Rex and Indominus Rex in the same area to fight each other while reminding you that Coke tastes great while running from things that want to kill you.
Next time, if that’s all you want Universal, just make a T-Rex and Velociraptor buddy movie.
screenshot from Universal YouTube video