Film: Jurassic World
Director: Colin Trevorrow
Cast: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard
Steven Spielberg’s first dino-disaster film, Jurassic Park , was an event in itself. It was instrumental in triggering global interest in the science of genetic engineering. The first sighting of the long-necked brachiosaurus in Isla Nublar inspired awe and wonder. When it leapt on its hind legs to chew on leaves, you knew it was a moment of cinematic brilliance.
The fourth instalment of the series, Jurassic World , is directed by Colin Trevorrow, whose first film, Safety Not Guaranteed , was shot with a budget of less than a million dollars. Interestingly, Jurassic World was released on June 11, the same date that Jurassic Park released in 1993. The new film was supposedly conceived as one that would introduce the Jurassic films for a new generation. Tough ask, really.
So, 22 years and three films later, what does Trevorrow do to reinvent the franchise for a generation that has been witness to spectacles like James Cameron’s Avatar and Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings ? Nothing much, really. There is a dialogue early on in the film that aptly reflects the makers’ dilemma (Steven Spielberg is the executive producer). Claire, the park’s operations manager, admits that the visitors don’t care much about dinosaurs anymore and that it’d have to take newer attractions to make them spend money.
Jurassic World is just a rehashed plotline, featuring two kids stranded on a guided tour of the fully functional park and a dinosaur nicknamed Indominus Rex, a result of the genetic fusion of T-Rex and other violent species, on the loose.
The characters of the film remain pretty much the same (Irrfan Khan plays a greedy businessman). To its credit, the new film features some stupendous action set pieces, consisting of both men fighting dinosaurs and dinosaurs fighting dinosaurs.
The film especially delivers in the last 20 minutes, in which the Indominus Rex battles its more docile cousin. Otherwise, Jurassic World neither inspires awe like Jurassic Park nor manages to adequately explain the science behind genetic modification.
Throwing bigger and more ferocious dinosaurs at the audience clearly doesn’t make the film better.
The film may have benefited greatly if it had taken a lesson or two from another Steven Spielberg disaster film, Jaws , wherein he, inspired by master filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock, created dramatic tension not by showing us the shark constantly, but by concealing its image for the first hour.
Udhav Naig
