'Jurassic World' - Movie Review

Once again, someone rebuilt the dinosaur theme park. And guess what: it's remarkably similar to "Jurassic Park," with kids (Ty Simpkins and Nick Robinson) lost out amongst the very hungry dinosaurs. But since we've seen T.Rex repeatedly, there's a new "bad guy" called "Indominus Rex," a genetically engineered giant hybrid meant to attract larger crowds by being bigger and more toothy. Oh yeah: and the velociraptors are ... not exactly good guys, but they're kind of on the side of the right.

Among our human characters we have Bryce Dallas Howard as Claire Dearing, the corporate-minded operations manager who is the aunt to the two lost children. Vincent D'Onofrio is the evil military guy representing the hidden agenda at the park. And Chris Pratt is the velociraptor trainer and conscience of the movie who respects the animals. Omar Sy and Jake Johnson are both decent actors thrown into relatively minor roles and kind of wasted. Pratt is burly and manly and oh-so-cool, but is given some of the worst lines of the movie (which is truly saying something when the script is appalling from end to end), and he's not even trying to act. "I'll deliver these crap lines, you give me my paycheque." Non-speaking parts and bad guys die, good guys survive. Except for the bad guy who's carrying the sequel in a briefcase (in the form of eggs and/or genetic material) who survives by departing in a helicopter half way through the movie. By the end of the movie I expected Howard to loudly declare "I renounce my evil corporate ways for the glory of family values!" She didn't, but it wouldn't have made the movie significantly worse.

It's a special effects extravaganza. Better prose could have been written by your average college freshman.