What Jurassic Park's Biggest Fan Thought of Jurassic World

While many were excited about the prospect of a new film in the Jurassic Park franchise, many fans were a little bit wary.

Here's what our Jurassic Park expert, Tim, has to say about the latest adventure into dinosaur territory:

"It can be argued that the advent of computer-generated visual effects in the early 90s was as monumental as the move from black and white to colour in films.

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Jurassic Park is the perfect example of this, hitting cinemas at a time when the technology was having a major breakthrough. Thankfully, director Steven Spielberg masterfully crafted a film that had both spectacle and lots of substance, becoming a favourite with young movie-goers at the time.

Being eight years old at the time, it was an awe-inspiring experience for me, seeing these living, breathing beasts recreated with such realism on screen.

With such fond memories of Spielberg's 1993 original, it was with some trepidation that I approached the latest offering in the franchise, Jurassic World.

I am pleased to say my childhood is not ruined. In fact, I was able to relive my childhood through this film.

Director Colin Trevorrow was an odd pick for this franchise. With only one indie film behind him, Safety Not Guaranteed, he co-wrote the new script, taking a project of titanic (or should I say T-Rex) proportions on his shoulders.

Jurassic World takes place 22 years after the horrors of the 1993 original. A new park is now open to the public and thriving, albeit at the mercy of the corporate machine. Of course, these same themes were prevalent in the original but this is where the new film made a wise choice: to build upon what has already been done and up the ante.

The film works because it doesn’t take itself too seriously - it’s all about taking the audience on a good ride.

Gray (Ty Simpkins) is an impressionistic kid accompanied by his girl-ogling teenage brother Zach (Nick Robinson) on a visit to their Aunt Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard), who happens to run operations at Jurassic World. Naturally, she has no time for the boys (except for a brief hello). After all, she has a park to run.

The pacing of the film is quick, moving at a running pace as soon as the kids begin to explore this new world. The film doesn’t stop for character development, and we experience these attractions through the eyes of the boys. Gray just wants to experience the dinosaurs and Zach is more interested in females than to care that a massive T-Rex has just chomped its way through a goat in a pen (a welcome nod to the original).

In the push for the park to broaden it's appeal to the public, a new attraction is being prepared. A genetically modified super dinosaur - the terrifyingly named Indominus Rex - has been genetically engineered by lab engineer Henry Wu (BD Wong- the only original cast member that appears in the new installment).

Of course, the Indominus Rex grows larger, smarter and more dangerous than anyone ever expected (without giving too much of the game away), so Claire brings the park's expert raptor trainer - yes, you read that right - Owen (Chris Pratt), an ex-military type with a gift of authority , who has a genuine empathy for the creatures. In Jurassic World, Pratt displays exactly why he's the man of the moment - he exhibits humour yet a heroic charm throughout the film.

The new attraction breaks free in a well executed sequence and begins to wreak havoc on the park and it’s guests...and the action never lets up from there.

We are introduced to a very one-dimensional antagonist, Hoskins (Vincent D’Onofrio), who has ambitions for the trained raptors to be used in a military context, hunting on the ground to take out enemy forces. Hoskins is part villain but mostly embodies the ever-present theme of greed, and serves to fuel Owen into restoring order with millions-year-old creatures on the loose.

In another nod to the original, Jurassic World’s composer, Michael Giacchino, brings in some new themes that work remarkably well in the film's quieter moments. John Williams' iconic theme is brought in when we are first introduced to the updated park, and at other key moments in the film. You can feel the musical respect flowing out of the speakers - taking the score too far from the well-known and much-loved Jurassic Park theme would be like re-scoring Star Wars. Cue the wrath, fast and furious, from fans like myself.

Watching the early trailer, I had questions about the quality of the visual effects, especially as the original was so groundbreaking in this department. It’s been well documented that what made the original so good in this department was its restraint in not over-relying on computer-generated visual effects. Jurassic World’s dinosaurs are mostly CGI, which is especially evident when the dinos jump, chomp and run amok.

Thankfully, just like the original, some of the more close-up scenes use animatronic puppets that the human actors can interact with.There are a few (sometimes tear-jerking) scenes where Pratt's character is hands-on with the dinosaurs, producing very real and believable chemistry, which simply could not be achieved by relying on computer generated imagery.

The overall verdict? Jurassic World works because of its acknowledgment and respect of Steven Spielberg’s original. We get the same types of characters that we can emotionally invest in and go on the journey with.

New life has been injected by bringing a hero protagonist who not only is a motorcycling bad-ass, but who uses his instinct and humour to his advantage at all times. Secretly, all original Jurassic Park fans wanted to see the park in full operation, and this film gives them just that. It's Disneyland with claws. Think wonder, excitement and a good dose of carnage.

As with the original, the dinosaurs are still the true, and stand-out, stars, a fact reinforced with the film's closing shot for a new generation experiencing these magnificent creatures on the big screen for the first time."

Tim's Rating? 4/5

Jurassic World opens in Australian cinemas today.

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