Jurassic World (12A.)
Directed by Colin Trevorrow.
Starring Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Vincent D'Onofrio, Jake Johnson, Nick Robinson, Ty Simpkin and Irrfan Khan. 124 mins.
Hollywood, it’s just all sequels innit? Why don’t they make anything original? Well, probably because you won’t go and see anything original. A couple of weeks ago I literally couldn’t give away a spare ticket for Tommorrowland but when I had to admit that there would be no extra ticket for Jurassic World I was met with a sea of big eyed betrayal. Movies these days are like handbags and shoes if it doesn't have the right label you aren't interested – even Mad Max Fury Road, the best action movie this decade, is struggling to make a profit.
The great irony of Jurassic World's plot is the idea that dinosaurs alone aren't enough on their own to sustain consumer interest. Punters love those bloody dinosaurs and Jurassic World gives them what they want – the same again but just a little bit modified. So this time Jurassic's more theme than safari park. A pair of young siblings are at the heart of it but this time they are brothers (Robinson and Simpkin.) There's no Jeff Goldblum but there's Irrfan Khan, the next best thing. There are proper dinosaurs but also a genetically modified hybrid dinosaur called Indominus which, after some teasing, turns out to be much like a T-Rex.
Trevorrow only previous film was the charming micro budget time travel tale Safety Not Guaranteed. This big budget effort is largely impersonal and a bit shonky. The film seems to have been edited down from something much longer with little jumps in the story telling and there isn't a striking or memorable image in the film. Jurassic Park was the first big film to fully utilise the then new and revolutionary world of CGI, and from the evidence of this the art hasn't moved on much over the subsequent 22 years.
Hollywood's Random Leading Man Generator has taken Chris Pratt from musclebound grunt in Zero Dark Thirty to next Harrison Ford in the space of three years. I think we mostly like Pratt and here he does well enough in the easy-to-make-yourself-look-silly-in role of a kind of Dinosaur Whisperer, but I don't think we need to see him in everything.
Opposite him Bryce Dallas Howard plays the cold corporate-speak workaholic auntie, so evil she isn't even sure if she wants to have children, the callous bitch. Luckily some rampaging dinosaurs are on hand to bring out a nurturing side. Interestingly the process of thawing her out is represented visually by gradually reducing the amount of clothing she is wearing.
Jurassic World (12A.)
Directed by Colin Trevorrow.
Starring Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Vincent D'Onofrio, Jake Johnson, Nick Robinson, Ty Simpkin and Irrfan Khan. 124 mins.
Hollywood, it’s just all sequels innit? Why don’t they make anything original? Well, probably because you won’t go and see anything original. A couple of weeks ago I literally couldn’t give away a spare ticket for Tommorrowland but when I had to admit that there would be no extra ticket for Jurassic World I was met with a sea of big eyed betrayal. Movies these days are like handbags and shoes if it doesn't have the right label you aren't interested – even Mad Max Fury Road, the best action movie this decade, is struggling to make a profit.
The great irony of Jurassic World's plot is the idea that dinosaurs alone aren't enough on their own to sustain consumer interest. Punters love those bloody dinosaurs and Jurassic World gives them what they want – the same again but just a little bit modified. So this time Jurassic's more theme than safari park. A pair of young siblings are at the heart of it but this time they are brothers (Robinson and Simpkin.) There's no Jeff Goldblum but there's Irrfan Khan, the next best thing. There are proper dinosaurs but also a genetically modified hybrid dinosaur called Indominus which, after some teasing, turns out to be much like a T-Rex.
Trevorrow only previous film was the charming micro budget time travel tale Safety Not Guaranteed. This big budget effort is largely impersonal and a bit shonky. The film seems to have been edited down from something much longer with little jumps in the story telling and there isn't a striking or memorable image in the film. Jurassic Park was the first big film to fully utilise the then new and revolutionary world of CGI, and from the evidence of this the art hasn't moved on much over the subsequent 22 years.
Hollywood's Random Leading Man Generator has taken Chris Pratt from musclebound grunt in Zero Dark Thirty to next Harrison Ford in the space of three years. I think we mostly like Pratt and here he does well enough in the easy-to-make-yourself-look-silly-in role of a kind of Dinosaur Whisperer, but I don't think we need to see him in everything.
Opposite him Bryce Dallas Howard plays the cold corporate-speak workaholic auntie, so evil she isn't even sure if she wants to have children, the callous bitch. Luckily some rampaging dinosaurs are on hand to bring out a nurturing side. Interestingly the process of thawing her out is represented visually by gradually reducing the amount of clothing she is wearing.
