Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Vincent D’Onofrio, Ty Simpkins, Nick Robinson, Irrfan Khan, Omar Sy, B.D. Wong, Jake Johnson, Judy Greer, Andy Buckley, Jimmy Fallon.
Humanity never learns, it assumes control and mastery over all and in the end it seems both nature and the beast will always win through. It’s a good job really, for if humanity ever truly learned from its mistakes, films like Jurassic World would never get made and cinema would be poorer for it.
Two decades on from the initial outing in which Richard Attenborough’s much loved character John Hammond beamed as his fantasy island became a reality and in which humanity could rub shoulders with the once mighty but now extinct creatures, something stirs in self awareness and the primeval need to dominate the landscape, thankfully there are also dinosaurs in which to marvel at also.
What Jurassic World reminds audiences is of the feeling of lost humanity, the connection we have with the world as we chase profit over potential and greed over knowledge. It is this hubris that makes the film fit with the times more so than any of the previous encounters cinema audiences have relished in.
Where the film stands out is in its depictions of humanity’s sheer arrogance of assuming control and mastery and how nature’s fickle temperament is more than willing to bite back at the self-indulgence and the feeling of entitlement. In one of the films more pathos driven moments, the sight of young children goading on a dinosaur to eat a tethered meal is both a sickening indication of how far down a certain road we as a species seem to have travelled in the need for entertainment and the lack of respect we have for the creatures around us. In a scene in which could be akin to the Gladiators of old and their fate being decided by the simple thumb gesture, the rabid, almost frenzied shouts and applause do much to serve notice on humanity’s failings.
As with any of the films in the franchise, it is the people behind the scenes and away from camera who really capture the best of what is good about the film and all credit should go to the people behind the animatronics and the special effects. The sight of Raptors, a T-Rex and the new Indominus Rex is still enough to scare a little part of you and in the film’s climatic scenes, the three way fight with humanity looking on is enough to convince audiences that in such a world, no matter our thoughts of mastery and control, we wouldn’t stand a chance.
With the film offering lighter moments as well as a captivating performance by Bryce Dallas Howard, the franchise is not only in safe hands with this third sequel, the case could be argued that Jurassic World is actually, so far, the finest of them all.
With one of the best screen deaths recorded, one in which the audience might readily cheer on the dinosaurs as they picked out their meal and the nice touches to both the late and dearly missed Richard Attenborough and the first film in the series, Jurassic World is a film in which to revel away the hours.
A clean slate and the right sense of gravitas makes Jurassic world perfect viewing.
Ian D. Hall