Respond to these rapid questions in our Jurassic World quiz and we will tell you which Jurassic World character you are. Play it now.
The most exciting aspects of “Jurassic World,” in which a hybrid super-predator runs amok in the trouble-plagued theme park, are so good that they transport you to that exhilarating mental space in which the original director of the series, Steven Spielberg, raised a tentpole back in 1993. The worst aspects are, without a doubt, the worst aspects: thin characterizations, a cavalier attitude toward violence committed by humans against animals, and a peculiar male supremacist streak that comes dangerously close to making fun of unmarried career women who do not have children.
On the “smarter” side of the ledger, you have the ability to enter three or possibly four large-scale action sequences that bring honor to the master. They are bruising without being overbearing, and they are laid out with clarity. They were directed by Colin Trevorrow in a style that is Spielbergian but not slavishly so. You are aware of your location at all times, as well as the events that are taking place; however, you do not witness nearly as much violence as you may believe because some of the carnage is suggested by sound effects, a blur of motion that is obscured by foreground objects, or a spray of blood on a wall. Each and every shot and cut contributes to the overall effect. With each new turn of events, the sequence takes on the feel of a story within a story, with the ultimate objective being to get as far away from the dinosaurs as possible. In the last fifteen minutes, there is an extended chase through some dark woods that repeatedly subverts audience expectations. It culminates in a whirlwind of violence between dinosaurs, which is depicted as a cloud of claws and teeth. The sequence in which park visitors are attacked by pterodactyls that pluck them from the ground like mice is, however, the highlight of the show. This scene is an homage to “The Birds,” and it can be thought of as Treverrow doing Spielberg doing Hitchcock. One thing that cannot be said about this director is that he suffers from an absence of self-assurance.
The parts that feel like preemptive strikes against criticism are less bruising but more intriguing. At the very least, these are examples of a $200 million franchise installment sizing itself up as a consumer product in addition to a film. It is as if somebody had taken one of the most talked about parts from the first “Jurassic Park,” which were the shots of merchandise emblazoned with the same logo as the film you were watching, and unpacked it with care and joy, as if it were a bottomless, self-referential toy chest. In other words, it is as if somebody had taken one of the most talked about bits from the original “Jurassic Park.” The fact that “Jurassic World” is able to consider itself a sequel without pulling us out of the story that we’re currently watching is what makes it a true Spielbergian film.
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When a friend of mine heard the premise of the movie “Jurassic World,” which is that the theme park, which has been open for twenty years without an accident, decides to create a bigger, badder meat-eater, he suggested that the tagline on the poster should be “We Never Learn.” When he finds out about the new dinosaur, the character played by Chris Pratt utters the phrase “These people never learn” (These people never learn). The employees of the park discuss the process by which new creatures are added to the goose ticket sales every few years. A comparison is made between jaded park visitors and Americans who lost interest in moon missions after the first one. These visitors want dinosaurs that are “bigger, louder,” and have “more teeth.” Movie audiences were easily bored in the age of computer-generated imagery, a technology that the first two “Park” films made fashionable. The movie is talking about the “Park” series itself, which introduced new dinosaurs each time out to keep viewers interested. It is also talking about the steady escalation of scale in the blockbuster, which mandated that each new incarnation of Godzilla be larger than the previous one. It also gave birth to superhero films that were so inflated that on those rare occasions when the good guys save the human race instead of the universe, critics congratulate the filmmakers for daring to be intimate.
Jurassic World Quiz
The cartoon character “Mr. DNA” makes a brief cameo here, as a prelude to discussions of the new predator; ditto the original compound headquarters and the “When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth” banner, and they all remind us of how intimate the first movie now seems, and how comparatively old-fashioned it was at the time it was made. A T-Rex approaches a goat in a paddock that is decorated to evoke the spot where another T-Rex tore apart two land cruisers in the first “Jurassic Park.” This is an even better scene than the one in which teenager Zach Mitchell (Nick Robinson), one of two brothers visiting the park, takes a cell phone call from his mother. Behind him, a T-Rex is in the paddock. Zach Mitchell is played by Nick Robinson. It would appear that the passage of time has transformed a terrifying experience that was once life-altering for Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dern, Sam Neill, and company into merely another subject for an exhibition. The young man in the foreground is so bored with what is happening behind him—just as, presumably, young moviegoers are bored by Steven Spielberg movies made in the 1990s? I really hope not; I don’t want him to look up from his phone when the T-Rex is devouring the goat. This scene has a lot in common with that comment about moon missions. It also connects to a scene in which a whale-sized predator in an aquatic theater reminiscent of Sea World leaps from the water and bites a great white shark off of a dangling hook; this is a marvelous image on its own terms, but it becomes even better when you realize that it is summing up the last forty years of summer blockbuster cinema, starting with “Jaws.” There is a fish that is larger after each year has passed.
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In a few of the action sequences, Spielbergian tradition is broken by portraying the dinosaurs not as magnificent, human-created recreations of once-extinct animals that should be admired, pitied, and feared in addition to being treated like monsters to be exterminated with impunity, but rather as monsters to be exterminated with impunity. In this film, a large number of dinosaurs are killed, sometimes in sequences that are too obviously inspired by James Cameron’s “Aliens.” There is even a scene in which the deaths of soldiers are tallied by bizarre first-person helmet cam feeds and flatlining EKG displays. The DNA-spliced super-predator is enormous and has an unnatural appearance; its teeth are so jagged that you wonder if it cuts its gums when it eats. The creature’s name, Indominus Rex, is a play on words and is intended to be humorous. But despite the fact that it is essentially a dinosaur version of Frankenstein’s monster, the movie won’t let us have conflicting feelings about it. This is because allowing us to have conflicting feelings would complicate the movie’s first-person shooter-style, gee-whiz attitude toward mercenaries, guns, and explosives.
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The relationship between the commando-turned-velociraptor trainer Owen Grady (played by Pratt, who lacked charisma in the role) and the park administrator Claire Daring (Bryce Dallas Howard), who is entrusted with the care of her nephew Zach and his wide-eyed, sensitive kid brother Gray, is much worse (Ty Simpkins). The unflattering “business” attire that Claire wears and her hairstyle, which resembles a helmet, make her look like a life-sized “Office Woman” action figure from the 1980s. Throughout the entirety of the film, she wears high heels so that she can give Owen a line that will please the audience by referring to her “ridiculous shoes.” These are shoes that were written into the screenplay to be on her feet at all times. This whole thing is a throwback to the macho adventure movies of the 1960s, in which the he-man-of-nature knew best—knew everything, really—and the little lady was onscreen to get in the hero’s way, scream, cry, and have her commitment to her career, her inability to produce children, and her lack of maternal warmth treated as fair game for sneering jokes.
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The overall effect is so tonally inappropriate that you may wonder which of the film’s producers went through a divorce in the recent past. Claire does rally near the end, of course, and does some brave things in those heels, but the overall effect is disappointing. It is possible to ignore the parts that are annoying and still enjoy the movie for what it is: a raucous and frequently brilliantly put together spectacle. However, this shouldn’t be a necessity. The fact that we do makes a sequel that is otherwise incredibly impressive feel insignificant and trivial.
For more personality quizzes check this: Our Kind Of Traitor Quiz.
