If you are like me, visiting the zoo leaves you with mixed emotions. On one hand, you enjoy the spectacle of it all; the dangerously toothy wild creatures in close proximity are an awesome sight, on the other, you can’t help but feel sorry for the beasts that are confined to these unnatural spaces.

Well, watching Jurassic World is a lot like this; the dinosaurs are spectacular to behold (even if they are missing feathers), yet you can’t help but feel sorry for the beasts (in this case the actors), for being confined to such restrictive roles.

This is especially true for the film’s leads, the far too serious Chris Pratt (Owen Grady) and Bryce Dallas Howard, who plays a strangely written park manager named Claire Dearing. Both talented actors feel out of place in Jurassic World, and are involved in a forced romance.

Jurassic World is crafted from the DNA of previous installments and the narrative comes across as quite archaic

Meanwhile, Claire’s nephews Zach (Nick Robinson) and Gary (Ty Simpkins) Mitchell are characterised in a manner so generic; they might as well be named child-in-danger 1 and child-in-danger 2. Here’s a hint to Director Colin Trevorrow: if you wish to create genuine tension, your audience has to care about the humans the dinosaurs want for lunch.

The story in Jurassic World seems to have been crafted from the DNA of the previous installments in the franchise and the narrative comes across as quite archaic. The film takes place over 20 years after the events of Jurassic Park. Child-in-danger 1 and 2 are visiting their aunt Claire at a new dinosaur theme park called … wait for it … Jurassic World. In order to further business, mad geneticist Dr Henry Wu (B.D. Wong), a possible graduate of Columbiana or Barklay, has combined the DNA of numerous dangerous dinosaurs with some modern animals to create a super predator termed the Indominus rex. This is clearly because the Tyrannosaurus rex wasn’t dangerous enough and the world was short on nearly unstoppable dangerous creatures.

Owen Grady, a Velociraptor expert trying to bring leather vests back in fashion warns that the Indominus rex isn’t ready for prime time. However, he too underestimates the super predator’s intelligence, when the genetically engineered dinosaur fakes its own escape so as to create an exit point from its enclosure. Soon we learn of Owen and Claire’s bad dating history as Owen spends the rest of the film trying to reignite a flame. Here, Claire’s character takes a strange turn.

Initially characterised as a cold and bossy woman, who is shamed for not having children, Claire is slowly charmed by Owen’s casual flirting as she embraces her maternal instincts for nephews she has little connection with. Claire’s metamorphosis from uptight career woman to reborn mother is weird to say the least. Like going from caricature to caricature.

Thankfully, the dinosaurs themselves are worth the admission fee though mileage will vary depending on your tolerance for the ignoramus storytelling. The special effects are fantastic, especially in 3D, and the film is sure to be a delight for the younger audience. In short, Jurassic World is one impressive looking bird-brained film.

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of science-fiction action and peril

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, June 28th, 2015

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