It’s been over twenty years since John Hammond first introduced us to the idea of a theme park featuring dinosaurs. Fast forward over twenty years, and two movies later, Hammond’s theme park has finally come to fruition. The new owner is idealistic Simon Masrani (Irrafan Khan) who believes it’s all about the fun. Unfortunately, “spare no expense” has suddenly become too expensive. In order to keep up with operating expenses, a new “asset” must be introduced every few years.

The story revolves around two story lines. Brothers Zach (Nick Robinson) and Gray Mitchell (Ty Simpkins) are sent to visit their aunt Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard), Operations Manager for Jurassic World. Unfortunately Claire is so busy trying to, ironically, save the park that she has her assistant, “babysit” her nephews. The kids stick with the babysitter until they have a chance to escape and go off exploring on their own. Their adventure provides the perfect opportunity to find trouble, especially on an island full of dinosaurs. The second story line revolves around the park’s survival. After seeing the disturbing cage of the new genetically-produced dinosaur, the owner asks Claire to retain the services of Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) to look for possible vulnerabilities within the new compound. Grady is a former military man, turned Velociraptor whisperer (expert). Soon the newest, largest and most terrifying dinosaur, the Indominus escapes and the non-stop man eating, terror begins.

Great movie moments:

I loved the way that Jurassic World played repeated homage to the original Jurassic Park movies. From the Jurassic Park t-shirt wearing communications engineer, to using a piece of the original Jurassic Park sign to light a torch. Mixing in the old with the new was a fun bit of trivia search during the movie.

B. D. Wong is the only member of the original cast to return to this sequel. He does an admirable job revising his original role as Dr. Henry Wo.

The view is breathtaking as the transport pulls up to the amusement park.

Vincent D’Onofrio does an excellent job as the “bad guy”.

Chris Pratt as the new hero? Outstanding!

Not-so-great movie moments:

The story opened with Zach and Gray’s parents taking them to the airport. Several times the children alluded to the parents getting a divorce, but I wonder if the movie would have been just fine without the constantly hidden storyline of the parents getting a divorce.

The “product placement” in this movie was way over the top – from Coco-cola, Starbucks, Pandora Jewelry, Brookstone to Verizon. In fact, Verizon was going to be the sponsor of the newest and deadliest attraction.

If Owens was such a great velociraptor trainer, why did the animals try to jump on him when he was saving the new kid from the pen?

Plenty of disturbing, nightmare level violence in the movie, including lots of slashing, blood and humans being snatched up into the jaws of dinosaurs. In addition if you consider dinosaurs to be real animals, you may be disturbed by the wreckage of the animal carcasses left behind by the Indominus killing for sport.

Running from dinosaurs in high-heeled shoes, not realistic, but definitely funny.

Details:

Rated PG-13: but don’t rely on the rating system. Lots of people and dino killing. Plenty of blood and kids in danger (even it it’s partly their own fault)

Director: Colin Trevorrow

Runtime: 2 hours 3 minutes (It goes by fast!)

Overall I give Jurassic World a 4.5 out of 5 stars.

I purchased this movie ticket with my own funds.