Wick's Review

Summary - Really Great 4.5

Dinosaurs rule the summer 2015 multiplex some twenty years after they first conquered the silver screen. Fact is, no one leaves un-entertained after experiencing Jurassic World, in 3D or not. No wonder then that it’s the biggest movie ever, or at least is off to the biggest opening ever, on its way to a billion dollar gross.

Steven Spielberg has exec-produced the best Jurassic chapter yet, complete with four legit moviestars and as many laughs as screams, which are several. We’re talking Genetically Enhanced Blockbuster here.

It’s a ridiculous movie, yet doesn’t even break a heel given how tremendously assured it is. Break a heel? Not when worn by Bryce Dallas Howard as she runs from voracious creatures through a spongy jungle. Near-rookie director Colin Trevorrow was clearly under instructions to turn everything up to 11. He did.

jWorld specializes in boy-girl reactions, being more about people than dinos. An early scene features a teen couple saying goodbye. Both start with “I …” and she goes “love you” while he goes “will be back soon.” Classic and perfect that, especially with the great young moviestar Nick Robinson as the diffident beau.

Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, young Robinson, Vincent D’Onofrio, Irrfan Khan, B.D. Wong & Jimmy Fallon are the bold names in a terrific cast that tops the dinos. Pratt’s a hunky Indiana Jones type, while Howard & Robinson nearly match him in star power. D’Onofrio – who is heavy – makes a great heavy.

Summer ’15 – off to a solid blockbuster start with Avengers, Mad Max & San Andreas – just got better.

Acting - Really Great 4.5

Chris Pratt as a Velociraptor trainer: How’s that for a cool role. Pratt wears his leather vest well, helped by having a big knife strapped to his back. The onetime TV costar has now delivered his second enormously successful leading man role, just a year after inaugurating Star-Lord in Guardians of the Galaxy.

Bryce Dallas Howard cuts a smoothly sexy figure as Jurassic World’s operations manager, the very picture of consumate corporate climber. With this role, she’s now deservedly famous on her own and not for being Ron Howard’s daughter. She’s got presence, grit and grace. Superstardom is knocking.

Nick Robinson is mostly growed-up as her older nephew. I proclaimed Robinson’s stardom upon his debut in The Kings of Summer two summers ago and wasn’t the only one. Now his star is about to go supernova.

Notable Others

• Ty Simpkins is sweetly impressive as Robinson’s squirt of a little brother.
• Vincent D’Onofrio brings his trademark incisive manner to the necessary role of the heavy. D’Onofrio is never less than very good and is better than that here.
• Irrfan Khan wears the mantle well as the billionaire owner of Jurassic World. Khan has become a reliable éminence grise, kind of an Indian Morgan Freeman.
• B.D. Wong brings his trademark smarts as the head of the team that creates the dinosaurs for Jurassic World. Per Wikipedia, “Wong is one of the few actors to reprise a role from any of the previous films and this is his first appearance in the franchise since Jurassic Park.”
• Jake Johnson is amusing as a tech-savvy control room guy with bad people skills.
• Lauren Lapkus is his equally awkward female colleague.
• Brian Tee is the leader of the security guards who go after bad dinosaurs.
• Katie McGrath is a Brit who fails at nannying.
• Judy Greer jumps off-screen as a successful professional with a messy family life.
• Andy Buckley makes less of an impression as her husband.

Watch For

• Jimmy Buffett as an escaping tourist during the pterosaur attack
• Jimmy Fallon as the safety instructor of the gyrosphere attraction
• Brad Bird as the voice of the park’s monorail announcer

Film - Really Great 4.5

Jurassic World manages to make its story not about dinosaurs, but about people: their foibles, their romances, their reactions. This is all the more amazing given how stupendously overwhelming the dinosaurs are. Most similar monster movies fail. Look no further than the recent remake of Godzilla.

Edge - Risqué 2.3

There is blood, just not that much of it. Nor is there hardly any gore. Thus a monster movie stays PG-13. But it’s not just blood & guts that are largely absent.

jWorld is an anal-retentive dinosaur movie. Really. These dinos never poop, don’t even seem to have assholes. No dung, no scat, no shit. No shit, really. Spielberg knows how to make an appealing blockbuster.

Reality - Supernatural 3.8

Nevermind the rFactor poppycock, which reaches well into the supernatural. Jurassic World is more interesting in terms of its not-so-subtle suggestions about our early 21st century society.

First, the top-of-the-food-chain, sociopathic dinosaur is a jurassic stand-in for we rapacious humans. Instead of Soylent Green is people, jWorld’s virtual equivalent is that its heartless monster is people.

However, the movie is an equal opportunity offender. While its view of people as despoilers is left-wing, its ridiculous depiction of a woman running through the jungle in heels has drawn left-wing feminist outrage.

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