Jurassic World: We Know How This Ends

I just watched Jurassic World and I have thoughts.

THE GOOD

Christ Pratt, Byce Howard and Jake Johnson.

These three made the movie enjoyable and funny. Pratt was essentially Superman but he was funny, which helped take the edge off of the typical hero role he fulfilled in the movie. Howard plays the Type-A, control freak well and her scream is straight out of a good horror movie. An added bonus was the chemistry between the two, which was able to overcome some cheesy writing, to accompish a believable on-screen relationship.

Jake Johnson is one of my favorite 'newer' actors. He slays on New Girl and he didn't disappoint here either. He plays the everyman, comic relief perfectly. His Jurassic Park t-shirt is brilliant, along with the dinosaur toys on his desk, his aloof nature and the move he tries to pull near the end of the movie on his co-worker. So funny.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the visual effects and audio. They are spectacular and are the only reasons to see this movie in the theater. Now that I've tipped my hand, I suppose it's time to move on to the bad stuff.  

THE BAD

The plot. Have you seen Jurassic Park? Then you've seen Jurassic World. People build a theme park around live dinosaurs, something goes wrong, dinosaur rampage ensues, all the good guys make it out alive. Nothing new here, except that 20,000 people are in the park, knowing fullwell what happened 20 years ago on this same island.

That's right, this movie operates in the same cinematic universe as Jurassic Park, there are even some clever homages to the original in this movie. But this means that somehow, society has agreed, en masse, that a theme park containing live dinosaurs was a completely legitimate idea. I don't even know how to handle that, it's such an absurd idea, and it's the very basis of this movie.

Most everything that happens in this movie is fairly predictable. Who is going to die, most of the time how they are going to die as well, who the real bad guys are, and what that freaky dinosaur is really made of. There are a few heartwarming scenes but mostly the film is predictable and unsurprising.

Also, trained velociraptors? I don't....I can't....uggghhhhh, I feel dizzy.

They forgot to add humans to that list...

THE CONCLUSION

Now, an attempt to bring the good and bad together. 

Overall, this movie is fun. It isn't going to challenge you intellectually, or even emotionally, but you will laugh and you will jump once or twice. If you like 2 hours of poor choices and lots of action, this is the movie for you. All I can think after watching this is 'if Howard had only listened to Pratt from the get go, there wouldn't have been the stereotypical dinosaur rampage and lots of people wouldn't have died', but where's the fun in that?

If you're a fan of great visuals and incredible audio, seriously those dinosaur noises are fantastic, then cough up the cash and go to the theater. If not wait until it's on Redbox or Netflix and enjoy a few good laughs on a lazy night with some friends.

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PS. The Jurassic World website is fantastic.