Movie Review: Jurassic DejaVu

By Emma Barhydt

As a child firmly rooted in stories such as Dinosaur Roar; movies like The Land Before Time; and my all time favorite kid’s show, Dinosaur King; I already have a mild infatuation with dinosaurs. Having watched and loved the original Jurassic Park movie and its sequels, I was eager to get my eyes on the fourth installment in the Jurassic Park legacy. Sitting in the theater, I realized a few similarities between the first Jurassic Park and Jurassic World that made some of the plot repetitive, but in the end, I loved Jurassic World for the same reason that I have loved Jurassic Park for all these years. The story is about dinosaurs.

-Spoilers Ahead-

I look at the Jurassic movies as Dinosaur movies that they have to put people in just because they need someone to scream. The story of Jurassic World is really just about the development of the dinosaurs if we’re being honest.

Unlike in the first movie, the velociraptors are not the evil, terrifying, oh-no-what-am-I-looking-at, bad guys that we all fear. In Jurassic World the velociraptors are scary for about five minutes, but before and after that they are the lovable babies of Chris Pratt’s character, Owen.

Instead, the absolutely terrifying Indominus Rex is the “bad guy” of the movie. This is a dinosaur that is incredibly smart, and incredibly over powering for a dinosaur. With the base genome of a T-Rex and some other DNA added in to help it adapt (as well as to make it “cooler”) the Indominus is one of the most frightening dinosaurs I have ever seen – not that I’ve ever seen a real dinosaur.

Amid all of the dinosaur action, there is the story of the characters too. Bryce Dallas Howard’s character, Claire, has become a the leading businesswoman at Jurassic World and has her nephews Gray (played by Ty Simpkins) and Zach (played by Nick Robinson) come up to spend a weekend with her at the theme park, Jurassic World.

After spending the first day neglecting her nephews and having her assistant spend time with the boys instead of spending time with them herself, the Indominus Rex gets loose, and she and Owen, played by Chris Pratt, go on an epic quest to find Gray and Zach and make sure they are safe.

While I do love the movie, I love it as a stand-alone film. Having seen the first movie, I was less than impressed by the repetitive story line and clichéd tactics the writers of this film used. My friend who also went to see it and has never seen the first one says; “I really loved the movie and the effects that they used, especially for the dinosaurs. And let’s be honest, we all just went for the dinosaurs.”

When all is said and done the movie is great if you want to go see a summer action flick … or dinosaurs.

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