The long awaited Jurassic Park sequel, Jurassic World, is a definite must-see for both Jurassic Park fans and other movie-goers.
More than 20 years since the original release of Jurassic Park, Jurassic World returned to the big screen directed by Colin Trevorrow. Set on the same island where the original Jurassic Park was located, Jurassic World is yet another isolated island of genetically engineered carnivorous dinosaurs meant for the the public viewing. Also similar to the first film, the main characters include two brothers, (ironically both of which bicker a considerable amount like the first set of siblings) Zach and Gray, played by Nick Robinson and Ty Simpkins, who are visiting the park. The park is owned by the sibling’s Aunt Claire, played by the beautiful redhead, Bryce Dallas Howard. Chris Pratt plays Owen who oversees the functionality of the park and care-taking of the dinosaurs. As one could imagine, putting a bunch of meat-eating dinosaurs on an island with a large number of humans, something is bound to go wrong.
Synopsis: Spoilers of Jurassic Proportions Ahead!
(see what I did there? Dinosaur Pun and a Gears of War level? Nobody? Sorry bout it….)
Brothers Zach and Gray Mitchell are set to visit their notorious Aunt Claire’s Jurassic World park for a vacation while their parents have a “business trip” to be on. Gray is a little on the dorky side of the spectrum and is extremely excited to go and visit the park whereas Zach who plays an angsty teenager, does not have the same excitement as his younger brother. As stated, you see the same age divide as the first Jurassic Park movie between the siblings, but we know that when you’re being chased by large dinosaurs, you’ll probably create some sort of brotherly bond.
Meanwhile at the Jurassic World Park, we meet some of the main characters who work at the Jurassic attraction. Owen works with the Velociraptors where they have started to obey him as their so-called “alpha”. A military organization is utilizing him in order to try and use dinosaurs as weapons in the US Military (you constantly want that guy who is trying to do this to get his face eaten by dinosaurs due to his animal cruelty nature..but he’ll get eaten so don’t worry). Due to Owen’s dinosaur bonding techniques, Claire asks Owen to help her with one of the new genetically modified dinosaurs, the Indominus.
That just sounds terrifying before you even know what it is. The Indominus essentially is a dinosaur that takes genetic properties from all of the scarier dinosaurs making it essentially a “Super Dino”. There were originally two of them but of course, the dominant of the two ate the other. Seems like a dinosaur we want to have out of captivity.
Owen has pretty strong feelings about this new dinosaur because since it has lived in captivity its whole life, he does not believe it will play nice with other dinosaurs around. When Owen goes with Claire to see the Indominus, it looks as if the Indominus had actually escaped from captivity. Owen and a guard go into the dinosaur’s habitat only to realize that the dinosaur had faked its escape. The guard’s open up the doors in order to let Owen and the other guard out which only gets the guard eaten and allows for the Indominus’s escape. A flesh-eating dinosaur has escaped captivity at Jurassic World…seems ironically familiar.
Meanwhile, Zach and Gray are exploring the island being escorted around by Claire’s assistant since Claire can’t be with her nephews. However, there comes a point where the boys escape the supervision of Claire’s assistant so they can go abuse their VIP Jurassic World passes without the hovering of the assistant. The two get into a little futuristic go-kart to tour the island. Little do they know, they are driving right into the path of the Indominus. Despite there being an evacuation/shut down of park operations, the boys become the only set of visitors still out in the park area that is roamed by dinosaurs. Their vehicle is equipped to withstand pretty much any dinosaur attack…or so the park says so.
As the Indominus continues to get closer to the inland of the park(where the visitors are), Claire and Owen start assembling a squad to capture and tranquilize the Indominus. The first search team is immediately annihilated by the Indominus causing a state of panic for those in charge. Claire shortly finds out afterwards that her nephews are also out in the park and driving straight towards the Indominus’s location. Owen and Claire immediately find it necessary to go out and search for the boys before they could possibly get eaten by our Jurassic friend.
The boys narrowly escape the clutches of the dinosaur and are able to get back to the mainland where they run into their aunt and Owen. As all of this is happening, the military organization, InGen, has decided that this would be a good time to test the Velociraptors as weapons. While Owen is against this, it seems like the only viable idea at the moment in order to track and destroy the Indominus. Owen must lead his pack of velociraptors into battle in order to find the Indominus.
The pack of Velociraptors immediately pick up the scent of the Indominus and they are able to track the location of the Indominus quite easily. Plot twist: due to the Indominus’s unique genetic modifications, the velociraptors realize that the Indominus is also part velociraptor. The Indominus and the Velociraptor start exchanging different mating calls (the same terrifying ear-piercing noise we all know and love from the first film) and all of a sudden, Owen is no longer the alpha, he is now the prey. At this time people start dying left and right and we begin to realize that maybe, once again, having a park full of carnivorous dinosaurs is a bad idea.
As they lure the Indominus back to the mainland, Claire releases the T-Rex from captivity to begin the dino-battle of a lifetime. The two fight for a solid few minutes when one of the velociraptors returns and Owen is able to set him onto the Indominus. The Indominus is then dragged into the water habitat of the giant-whale like dinosaur where he is mauled apart by the Mosasaur and the characters are able to escape to safety.
Overall I was very pleased with the movie. As an avid Jurassic Park fan, there were a lot of “inside jokes” from the previous movies as well as little tidbits only true fans would understand. The plot was very predictable, but altogether actually very exciting. The dinosaurs were much more realistic, and a lot of the scenes were quite thrilling similar to that of the first movie. It essentially was the same overall story as the first movie which gave it a bit of a remake aspect, but at the same time, Jurassic World brought a number of new unique aspects to the storyline.
The romantic comedy aspect between Owen and Claire as well as the movie’s overall comedic relief was actually quite hilarious which made the movie laugh-out-loud funny at a number of moments during the film. The two brothers end up bonding pretty significantly and Chris Pratt immediately becomes everyone’s man crush after he pretty much single-handedly saves the day. The movie dominated the box-office becoming one of the highest grossing films of all time. Despite being a bit predictable, it was still exciting for Jurassic Park fans and non-fans alike making it definitely the top movie of the summer in my opinion. Rumors of a Jurassic World sequel have started to arise, but Jurassic fans will just have to wait and see.
