Update: June 9, 2015
Dragonlord's Review of JURASSIC WORLD (No Spoilers)
Bottom Line: The Indominus Rex and the Raptors shine through but it's the uninteresting human characters, cringey dialogue and recycled ideas that bedim the film.
Synopsis: Twenty-two years after the events of Jurassic Park, Isla Nublar now features a fully functioning dinosaur theme park, Jurassic World, as originally envisioned by John Hammond. After 10 years of operation and visitor rates declining, in order to fulfill a corporate mandate, a new attraction is created to re-spark visitor's interest, which backfires horribly.
Review: Director Colin Trevorrow steps in to revive a dormant franchise which pays homage to the original Jurassic Park while subsequently ignoring the two sequels that followed it. Trevorrow foregoes the sense of wonder and science (can't blame him though since it's already been done) and instead focuses more on the action adventure aspects. There's plenty of meta references and nostalgic nods to the original film. Unfortunately, the dull human characters are the weakest part of the film.
Chris Pratt was adequate as the leading man Owen Grady, a former Navy guy and the park's Raptor trainer. Though he plays the character a bit more serious than his Star-Lord role in GotG, there's just a sense of staleness to Pratt's performance that makes me question his newfound leading man status. Josh Brolin almost got Pratt's role and the True Grit actor's solemnity and gruffness would have been a better fit for this film. It also doesn't help that Pratt had a really awkward scene with Bryce Dallas Howard early on with the most cringeworthy dialogue.
The other main characters are a bust. Howard plays the park operations manager and becomes intolerable as the film progressed. Kept on thinking Charlize Theron would have nailed the role perfectly. The two brothers played by Ty Simpkins and Nick Robinson are too uninteresting to follow. Judy Greer, who plays their mother, should have been with the two on their adventures. They also showed multiple unnecessary scenes of the older brother staring at girls on the park but it just comes across as creepy.
The human characters might have been a failure but fortunately the Indominus Rex shines through. A hybrid from dinosaur and animal gene mixing, the Indominus Rex is a terrific, unstoppable villain that provides a great deal of scary moments. The execution for the "domesticated" Raptors concept was well done and believable. Though it's been shown in the trailers, Pratt riding with the Raptors to battle was still badass. The CGI effects are superb and the exhilarating third act is a monster mash mayhem heaven.
Preliminary Rating: 6.5/10
