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Jurassic World

With the video release of Jurassic World, I was finally able to catch up on the latest installment of a franchise that had seemed stalled and left for dead. Then this film came out and made more money than any film not made by James Cameron. Why this is so is one of life's great mysteries.

It's been over 20 years since a gazillionaire industrialist funded the technology that brought dinosaurs back to life…with terrible results. But death and horror can't stop progress. Jurassic Park has been rebranded Jurassic World and hosts around 21,000 screaming visitors each day. Screams of delight turn to shrieks horror as things go awry, as they do, and tourists are on the menu.

You have to admire a film that so doggedly sticks to a formula. Human + dinosaur = dinotreat, repeat. Actually, it's stupid human releases dinosaur, terror ensues, repeat. Which means it's a stupid guard who releases the new super dinosaur (more on it in a moment), which catapults things into chaos. It's another stupid human who opts to chase super dino with baby tranquilizer darts, which catapults things further into chaos. And it's a stupid human who chases super dino into a cage of flying dinos, which catapults the park into further chaos. Scream, die, repeat, ad infinitum.

You may have gotten the impression that the film is repetitious, and you'd be right. It's the ultimate expression of the storyteller's admonishment that it's all right if stupidity gets your characters into trouble, it just can't get them out of trouble. In Jurassic World there's a veritable parade of stupid people, most of whom get an up close and personal view of a dinosaur's digestive tract.

Beyond being predictable, and thus being void of any suspense, the basic premise of the film requires your unwilling suspension of disbelief. The notion is this: People have become so jaded about dinosaurs living again that in order to maintain attendance at the park, the geneticists responsible for these modern wonders have to keep developing new ones. Think about that. The core concept of this film, the motivation for much of what transpires, is based on people becoming bored with dinosaurs.

Sure.

Because of this need to develop new, living creations, those JW geneticists are now developing custom dinosaurs. Behold, Indominous Rex. So as with a parade of films before JW, it's a story of man seeks to improve on nature and, in turn, gets eaten. Of course, there's also a ridiculous subplot involving militarization of dinosaurs, but don't even get me started on that nonsense.

Bryce Dallas Howard plays the lady managing the daily operations at the park; I can't remember her character's name but she does run very well in heels. Chris Pratt is the ex-Navy he-man who is, well, doing something at the park; I can't remember his character's name but, hey, motorcycle. Vincent D'Onofrio is a sleezy something; that's right, I don't know his character name, either. On and on for the rest of the cast. It's not that anyone is doing a bad job, it's just that each character doesn't even register as anything other than dino-kibble.

The closest thing to a stand-out is BD Wong, reprising his role as Dr. Henry Wu from the original Jurassic Park. Dr. Wu, you see, is the chief geneticist responsible for the miracle of bringing dinosaurs back to life. In JP, his role was so minor as to barely register. In JW, he has a little more to do and he's clearly being established for the inevitable follow up films, but there's moment when he's having an argument with Irrfan Khan (playing some gazillionaire who has taken over financing the park, yet somehow has no authority to do anything) which just delights me. The good doctor has to inform his financier that, duh, nothing in Jurassic World is natural, and that what constitutes a monster is a matter point of view. "To a canary, a cat is a monster. We're just used to being the cat." It's a standout scene and BD nails it.

But then we're back to scream, run, chomp, repeat. It's a CG banquet and clearly a lot of people enjoyed it because they kept lining up for tickets. It doesn't rank anywhere near the original Jurassic Park, and for a film which is a running feast, I think The Lost World: Jurassic Park tops it. I even prefer some of the inane charm of Jurassic Park III (best cell phone call ever), though overall JW is the better film. And Lost World has aspects that just irk the living hell out of me, so sure, JW is maybe the second best film in the series, almost by default.

That's more a comment on the poor quality of the sequels rather than how good a film Jurassic World is because it's a mess.

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