Jurassic World (2015) review

(8/10)

   This breath of fresh air to the once-dead franchise was a fun, surprise-filled trip into a modern look at the Jurassic Park premise. Skilled performances, killer special effects, thrilling fight scenes, and an overall feeling of nostalgia almost overrule the movie's slight predictability and uneven pace.

PLOT; Scientists have attempted to revive the dream of a living dinosaur park, as attempted many years in the past. Young dino-enthusiast Gray (Ty Simpkins) and older, unenthusiastic brother, Zach (Nick Robinson), are sent to this new park to spend some time with their Aunt Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard), who is a big boss over the park. Claire informs the supervisors of the park that they have genetically engineered a new dinosaur, crossbred between a T. Rex and a classified dinosaur. The new dino is terrifying, intelligent, and fierce. As expected in a Jurassic-themed movie, the dino breaks out and starts to wreak havoc on the park's staff and guests. It's up to the staff, including Claire and dino-trainer, Owen (Chris Pratt), to contain the situation and save the people and the park, but twists and turns are around each corner. The plot contains the same beloved premise as the rest of the Jurassic movies, but adds some fresh, thrilling cliches and styles to help modernize the franchise. Though exciting, some parts of the movie seem utterly predictable. Though still fun, these cliches run the movie straight into summer blockbuster-popcorn thriller territory.

ACTING: The performances in this movie are pretty great. Though the characters themselves are of a stereotypical type, the performers themselves are excellent at what they do. The best performances in this movie would have to be from Chris Pratt as raptor-trainer Owen, Bryce Dallas Howard as Aunt Claire, Omar Sy as raptor-assistant Barry, Vincent D'Onofrio as conniving Vic Hoskins, and Irrfan Khan as big boss Simon Masrani. All performances, even the extras, were pretty well done, but these few stood out in securing their roles. 

SCORE: The musical score to Jurassic World is pretty epic and nostalgic, bringing back the traditional Jurassic Park theme music and adding some intense action music to the thrilling fight scenes. The great Michael Giacchino steps up to compose the music for this movie, and as usual, he does a fine job of the sort.

EFFECTS: The special effects in this movie were fantastic. The CG dinosaurs in this movie looked awesome and very close to real in detail. From the T. Rex to the raptors all the way to the water dino and the new dino, every one looked awesome. Even the aftermath of the fights and attacks looked amazing thanks to the modern effects.

OTHER CONTENT: This is probably going to be one of the best summer blockbusters of the year. Aside from the previously-mentioned pros, the movie contained thrilling scenes of high-energy dinosaur fights, twists and turns around every corner, and an overall feeling of nostalgia for the fans of the beloved franchise. The fight scenes had me on the edge of my seat, as well as all of the unexpected twists. This movie sparked a bit of nostalgia for myself by referring to the previous films in all the right places. However, the movie had a couple of minor flaws that deterred my viewing experience, such as the predictability in some scenes I mentioned earlier and the uneven pace. One minute, everything's moving in fast, high-energy fashion, while the next, it's dragging out every little step or precaution taken. It's not a major problem, but it is noticeable. The movie, overall, was pretty great, but still a standard Hollywood blockbuster.

   This movie was still really great to see. The acting, plot execution, effects, feelings of nostalgia, and high-energy action scenes definitely drew me in, but the movie is still just your standard Hollywood blockbuster, with some predictability and an uneven pacing. Recommended!