Jurassic World
The best aspects of "Jurassic World," in which a hybrid super-predator runs amok in the trouble-plagued theme park, are so good that they transport you that exhilarating mental space where the series' original director, Steven Spielberg , raised a tentpole back in 1993. The worst aspects are bad indeed: thin characterizations, a blase attitude toward human-on-animal violence and a weird male-supremacist streak that comes close to sneering at unmarried career women who don't have kids.
On the "smarter" side of the ledger, you can enter three, maybe four large-scale action sequences that do the master proud. Directed by Colin Trevorrow in a style that's Spielbergian but not slavishly so, they're bruising but not overbearing, and laid out with clarity. You always know where you are and what's happening, and you rarely see as much brutality as you think: some of the mayhem is suggested by sound effects, a blur of motion obscured by foreground objects, or a spray of blood on a wall. Every shot and cut pulls its weight. Every new development makes the sequence feel like a story-within-a-story with the end goal of getting the hell away from dinosaurs. The final half-hour is a sustained chase through dark woods that reverses expectations again and again, culminating in a whirl of dino-on-dino violence: a funnel cloud of claws and teeth. But best in show goes to the sequence where park visitors are attacked by pterodactyls that pluck them from the ground like mice—an homage to "The Birds" that amounts to Treverrow doing Spielberg doing Hitchcock. You can say a lot of things about this director, but not that he lacks confidence.
Less bruising but more intriguing are the the bits that feel like preemptive strikes against criticism—or at the very least, examples of a $200 million franchise installment sizing itself up as a consumer product as well as a film. It's as if somebody had taken one of the most-discussed bits from the original " Jurassic Park ," the shots of merchandise emblazoned with the same logo as the film you were watching, and unpacked it with care and joy, as if it were a bottomless, self-referential toy chest. That "Jurassic World" can think about itself as a sequel without taking us out of the story we're watching makes it truly Spielbergian.
When a friend heard the premise of "Jurassic World"—the park, which has been open for twenty years without an accident, decides to create a bigger, badder meat-eater—he said the tagline on the poster should be "We Never Learn." As it turns out, Chris Pratt's character says "These people never learn" when he hears about the new dino. Park staffers talk about how they introduce new creatures every few years to goose ticket sales. Jaded park visitors are compared to Americans who lost interest in moon missions after the first one, and require "bigger, louder" dinosaurs with "more teeth." The movie is talking about the "Park" series itself, which introduced new dinos each time out to keep viewers interested, and easily bored movie audiences in the age of computer-generated imagery, technology that the first two "Park" films made fashionable. It's also talking about the steady escalation of scale in the blockbuster, which mandated that the each new incarnation of Godzilla be larger than the previous one, and birthed superhero films so inflated that on those rare occasions when the good guys save the human race instead of the universe, critics congratulate the filmmakers for daring to be intimate.
The cartoon character "Mr. DNA" makes a brief cameo here, as a prelude to discussions of the new predator; ditto the original compound headquarters and the " When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth " banner, and they all remind us of how intimate the first movie now seems, and how comparatively old-fashioned. There's an even better scene where teenager Zach Mitchell ( Nick Robinson ), one of two brothers visiting the park, takes a cell phone call from his mom while behind him, a T-Rex approaches a goat in a paddock that's decorated to evoke the spot where another T-Rex tore apart two land cruisers in the first "Jurassic Park." Apparently the elapsed time has turned a moment of life-changing terror for Jeff Goldblum , Laura Dern , Sam Neill and company into just another theme for an exhibit. The young man in the foreground is so bored with what's happening behind him—just as, presumably, young moviegoers are bored by 1990s Spielberg films? I hope not—that he doesn't look up from his phone when the T-Rex eats the goat. This scene resonates with that moon missions comment. It also connects to a scene where a whale-sized predator in a Sea World-style aquatic theater leaps from the water and bites a great white shark off a dangling hook; this is a marvelous image on its own terms, but even better when you realize that it's summing up the last forty years of summer blockbuster cinema, starting with " Jaws ." Every twelve months there's a bigger fish.
A few of the action scenes break with Spielbergian tradition by treating the dinosaurs as monsters to be exterminated with impunity, rather than magnificent, human-recreated, once-extinct animals that ought to be admired and pitied as well as feared. Dinosaurs get wiped out by the bushel in this movie, sometimes in scenes that are too obviously inspired by James Cameron's " Aliens "; there's even a sequence where soldiers' deaths are tallied by freaky first-person helmet-cam feeds and flatlining EKG displays. The DNA-spliced super-predator, which goes by the knowingly silly name Indominus Rex, is immense and unnatural looking: its teeth are so jagged that you wonder if it cuts its gums when it eats. But even though it's basically a dino version of Frankenstein's monster, the film won't allow us any mixed feelings towards it, because that would complicate the movie's first person shooter-style, gee-whiz attitude toward mercenaries, guns and explosives.
Much worse is the relationship between the commando-turned-velociraptor trainer Owen Grady (Pratt, drained of charisma playing an eye-rolling know-it-all) and park administrator Claire Daring ( Bryce Dallas Howard ), who is entrusted with the care of her nephew Zach and his wide-eyed, sensitive kid brother Gray ( Ty Simpkins ). Claire's unflattering "business" outfits and helmet-like hairdo make her look like a life-sized 1980s "Office Woman" action figure. She wears high heels all through the movie so that she can look dumb running in mud and give Owen a crowd-pleasing line about her "ridiculous shoes"—shoes that the screenplay placed on her feet. All this stuff is a throwback to 1960s macho adventure pictures in which the he-man-of-nature knew best—knew everything , really—and the little lady was onscreen to get in the hero's way, scream, cry, and have her dedication to her career, her failure to produce children, and her lack of maternal warmth treated as fair game for sneering jokes.
Claire rallies near the end, of course, and does brave things in those heels, but the overall effect is so tonally inappropriate that you may wonder which of the film's producers went through a divorce recently. It's possible to filter out the irritating aspects and enjoy the movie as a raucous, often brilliantly assembled spectacle. But we shouldn't have to. The fact that we do makes an otherwise hugely impressive sequel feel small-minded.
Matt Zoller Seitz
Matt Zoller Seitz is the Editor-at-Large of RogerEbert.com, TV critic for New York Magazine and Vulture.com, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism.
- Judy Greer as Karen Mitchell
- Lauren Lapkus as Vivian
- Omar Sy as Barry
- Irrfan Khan as Masrani
- B.D. Wong as Henry Wu
- Vincent D'Onofrio as Morton
- Nick Robinson as Zach
- Jake M. Johnson as Lowery
- Chris Pratt as Owen
- Bryce Dallas Howard as Claire
- Amanda Silver
- Derek Connolly
- Colin Trevorrow
Director of Photography
- John Schwartzman
- Kevin Stitt
- Mark Protosevich
- Michael Crichton
- Michael Giacchino
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All Jurassic Park and World Movies Ranked by Tomatometer
Jurassic Park celebrates its 30th anniversary: Buy tickets for its 3D theatrical re-release this weekend !
Jurassic Park was a next-gen leap in the evolution of the Hollywood blockbuster, combining the high concept of man versus dinosaur with CGI, practical effects, and Steven Spielberg’s unmatched yet still growing directing prowess. Throw in some fleshed-out characters and a clever script dipped in the amber of moral and ethical quandary, and no wonder Jurassic Park became the highest-grossing film ever upon release in 1993.
Spielberg returned for sequel The Lost World: Jurassic Park , and Sam Neill’s chracter Dr. Alan Grant came back for 2001’s Jurassic Park III . The franchise lay dormant until 2015’s Jurassic World , and its sequel Fallen Kingdom , which go all-in on theme park spectacle. World stars Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard join OG JP crew Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum for the finale, Dominion .
Now see all Jurassic Park and World movies ranked by Tomatometer! — Alex Vo
Jurassic Park (1993) 91%
Jurassic World (2015) 72%
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) 53%
Jurassic Park III (2001) 50%
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) 47%
Jurassic World Dominion (2022) 29%
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Jurassic World
A new theme park, built on the original site of Jurassic Park, creates a genetically modified hybrid dinosaur, the Indominus Rex, which escapes containment and goes on a killing spree. A new theme park, built on the original site of Jurassic Park, creates a genetically modified hybrid dinosaur, the Indominus Rex, which escapes containment and goes on a killing spree. A new theme park, built on the original site of Jurassic Park, creates a genetically modified hybrid dinosaur, the Indominus Rex, which escapes containment and goes on a killing spree.
- Colin Trevorrow
- Amanda Silver
- Chris Pratt
- Bryce Dallas Howard
- Ty Simpkins
- 1.7K User reviews
- 714 Critic reviews
- 59 Metascore
- 15 wins & 58 nominations
Top cast 99+
- Claire Dearing
- Vic Hoskins
- Dr. Henry Wu
- Paddock Supervisor
- Mosasaurus Announcer
- (as Courtney Clark)
- Young Raptor Handler
- Jimmy Fallon
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
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Did you know
- Trivia The gyrosphere was executive producer Steven Spielberg 's idea. According to director Colin Trevorrow , Spielberg "wanted to create a way for people to get up close and personal with the animals, to make it a self-driving, free-roaming experience. It loads on a track, but once you're out there, you actually get to navigate around the valley", in contrast to the confined Ford Explorer tour SUVs from Jurassic Park (1993) .
- Goofs (at around 1h 9 mins) The abandoned Jeeps in this film really are the exact same Jeeps from the first movie. The incredible thing is no modifications were done to the vehicles because, astonishingly, the Jeeps really were left to rot after filming. The logos on the Jeeps haven't been tampered with in any way, they are faded as a result of the 22 years of sitting in a barn.
Claire : So, you can pick up their scent can't you? Track their foot prints.
Owen : I was with the Navy. Not the Navajo.
- Crazy credits Rather than fade to black, the Legendary logo fades to white into the movie.
- Alternate versions TV spots featured a scene with Claire covering herself in dinosaur dung, this scene was removed for the theatrical release.
- Connections Featured in Annoying Orange: Trailer Trashed: Jurassic World (2014)
- Soundtracks Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas from the film Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) Written by Hugh Martin , Ralph Blane Performed by Tony Bennett Courtesy of Columbia Records By arrangement with Sony Music Licensing
User reviews 1.7K
Graceful, popcorn filled thrilling and tense, taught and energetic. this trilogy gets much better as it goes on..
- deventhakkar
- Sep 27, 2015
- How long is Jurassic World? Powered by Alexa
- What animal D.N.A has been used to create the Indominus Rex?
- What is 'Jurassic World' about?
- Is 'Jurassic World' based on a book?
- June 12, 2015 (United States)
- United States
- Official site
- Official site (France)
- Mundo Jurásico
- Kualoa Ranch - 49560 Kamehameha Highway, Ka'a'awa, O'ahu, Hawaii, USA (dinosaur island)
- Universal Pictures
- Amblin Entertainment
- Legendary Entertainment
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- $150,000,000 (estimated)
- $653,406,625
- $208,806,270
- Jun 14, 2015
- $1,671,537,444
- Runtime 2 hours 4 minutes
- Dolby Digital
- Dolby Surround 7.1
- IMAX 6-Track
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