STACK NZ Jul #64

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34 JULY 2015 JB Hi-Fi
visit REVIEWS CINEMA
Over the last 20 years, CGI
dinosaurs have lost their ‘wow’
factor – a fact that’s quickly
addressed in Jurassic World. John
Hammond’s dream of a dinosaur
Disneyland has finally been realised;
the park is open for business and a
massive tourist attraction. But these
days, kids would rather stare at their
smartphones than at a stegosaurus,
creating the need for a genetically
engineered designer dinosaur – the
Indominus Rex – that’s bigger, badder
and scarier than anything that walked
the earth 65 million years ago.
Needless to say, this hybrid super-
predator will not be contained and
quickly escapes, threatening the safety
of Jurassic World’s visitors and the
bank balances of the greedy corporate
types who create monsters with
impunity. So who you gonna call?
Sam Neill, right? Well, no. Who needs
a dinosaur expert when you’ve got
Chris Pratt, JW’s resident raptor
wrangler. Still in Star-Lord mode
and prepping as the possible heir to
Indiana Jones, Pratt is a predictably
affable hero; at one point you’ll expect
him to distract a raptor with a dance-
off. The rest of the human cast are
mostly ciphers; of course there are
the obligatory kids lost in the park
(who you don’t really care about),
while operations manager Bryce
Dallas Howard does her best with an
underwritten role.
This is director Colin Trevorrow’s
second film, following the 2012
arthouse time travel drama Safety Not
Guaranteed. Hiring indie filmmakers to
helm blockbusters is a great idea; often
they’ll bring a fresh perspective to a
familiar formula, like Gareth Edwards
did with the visually creative Godzilla
remake. Trevorrow handles the big
set pieces with an assured hand, but
unlike Edwards, his Hollywood debut
looks just like any other FX-laden event
movie. Functioning as a direct sequel
to the 1993 original, Jurassic World is
a terrific spectacle, but doesn’t reach
the heights of Spielberg’s classic.
Training the raptors is a bad idea, as
is a disposable subplot involving the
weaponisation of dinosaurs for the
military. However, its rousing final
act is worth the price of admission
alone, recapturing the excitement we
felt at the climax of Jurassic Park,
while also paying direct homage to it.
Consequently, you’ll leave the cinema
thinking you’ve seen a better movie
than you actually have. Scott Hocking
Jurassic Park is the benchmark for dinosaur films, The Lost World should have been great but wasn’t, and Jurassic
Park III was a fun B-movie with A-grade FX. So where does reboot Jurassic World fit into the franchise’s fossil record?
JURASSIC WORLD RELEASED: Now Showing
DIRECTOR: Colin Trevorrow
CAST: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas
Howard, Vincent D'Onofrio
RATING: M
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