Jurassic Park, along with Back to the Future and the Terminator, are the few franchises that I hold dear to, and no matter how bad some of the sequels can get, the goodwill from the classic original are enough to suppress their mediocrity.

As mentioned in my Jurassic Park Trilogy review, the sequels of 1993's Jurassic Park pales in comparison to the Steven Spielberg classic. After a decade in development hell (with one script even suggesting a human/dinosaur army hybrid... ew), a third sequel is released in the form of Jurassic World, which largely acts as a direct sequel to Jurassic Park (The Lost World and Jurassic Park III are still canon as it took place on a separate island).

Gone are the veteran directors like Speilberg and Joe Johnston, with indie filmmaker Colin Trevorrow in charge of rebooting the franchise to its former greatness. With a talented new group of casts, and a even bigger threat to a now functional theme park, is this modernised entry more like the original or the The Lost World?

Right off the bat, some reviewers have complained of the story which was in a way too straightforward, but that's being criticised in a time where convoluted storylines and complicated subplots are the norm in today's movies. Set 22 years after the the original, John Hammond's dreams of a dino-themed Disneyland is realised by billionaire Simon Mesrani (played by Bollywood star Irrfan Khan). To attract visitors (in a world where dinosaurs rides have lost its appeal), a new hybrid dinosaur was created, and as seen in previous entries, the bending of science has disastrous effects.

The only character brought back was Dr Henry Wu (played by BD Wong), who served a very minor role in Jurassic Park before being given a significant role here. Other than Wu and the return to Isla Nublar, everything in the film feels brand new, with the classic John Williams theme mixed in with new scores from Michael Giacchino, who previosuly worked on the soundtrack for numerous Jurassic Park video games. In hindsight, Jurassic World's simplistic plot is more of a homage to the 1993 film, and plenty of easter eggs are played out to bring out the nostalgia throughout the entire film (look out for Lowery Cruthers, played by New Girl's Jake Johnson, in a classic tee).

Gone are the animatronics by Stan Winston Studio, as it is now handled by Legacy Effects, the same group of people who worked on the trilogy. Despite that, the close-up animatronics in Jurassic World still relied on a lot of CGI touch-ups. Hence, the effects does not seem to have improved by much, with many close-up shots only on par with the original, the latter aging rather superbly. The long shots, which were used more frequently in this entry, instead looks absolutely gorgeous, from the resort landscapes of the theme park to the massive Petradon cage. The film also attempts to steer away from the original by introducing newer attractions (the Gyrosphere is high up on my 'real-life rides' wishlist), but the strong similarities to Jurassic Park is hard to ignore.

The main stars of Jurassic World are definitely the 65 million year old beasts. After entertaining us with the T-Rex and the Spinasaurus, a fictional hybrid beast, consisting of many different DNA traits, was introduced. The new Indominus Rex is as overpowered as it can be, with its many features explored as the film screams along, and it'll be interesting to know where the studio can go from here for further sequels. As for the velociraptors, their change from franchise villain to a raptor squad under Chris Pratt is an interesting character mix-up, and are one of the highlights during the film's climax. Both the I-Rex and the raptors are a great change, after the franchise started getting stale with the "big dino bad, raptors also bad" formula from Jurassic Park through III.

Aside from the creatures of mass destruction, there are humans amongst all the chaos in Jurassic World for us to either root for/hate on. Chris Pratt proves his leading man status yet again as Owen Grady, a part-dinosaur researcher and part-raptor whisperer. With a right balance of likableness and snarkiness, Grady feels like a diet version between the original's Alan Grant and Ian Malcolm, with Chris Pratt's added action and gruff making us instantly wish he was our new Indiana Jones. Other than the plot, another criticism of the film was how one-dimensional the supporting acts were, akin to characters in a cartoon. Vincent D’Onofrio, who plays InGen's Vic Hoskins, is the main antagonist in the story, and was quickly established in the first few scenes, where he intends to militarise the trained raptors.

Moreover, every film today seems to be gauged under the "Mad Max femisim"-barometer, to an extent that any film without a strong female protagonist is deemed a socially wrong film. The case was prematurely ignited with the first clip revealed, with an uptight corporate-minded Claire (played by Bryce Dallas Howard) being the subject of "70's stereotyping" by Avengers director Joss Whedon. However, what we got instead was Claire's development into an able and caring figure. Also, she runs around the entire film in heels without ever complaining, how is that not empowering enough?

Other characters abound are just as interesting, but none may hold a candle to the strong supporting cast of Jurassic Park, which had Samuel L Jackson, Wayne Knight along with the two grandkids of Tim and Lex. This time, another two set of siblings pop up in Gray Mitchell (Ty Simpkins) and Zach (Nick Robinson), who play Claire's nephews who decided to visit the theme park at the worst possible time. While the former is more annoying than Tim, Zach is just downright creepy, who spends the earlier parts of the film stalking. Jake Johnson, who also worked with director Trevorrow in Safely Not Guaranteed, is a bright spot in what is a small role, who plays a real-life Jurassic Park fan and has the most comedic scenes in the film.

What Jurassic World accomplished as a sequel was to tread on safer waters, with a streamlined story harking back to a simpler times of storytelling, along with a simplistic yet best group of characters since the original (not every film has to be Nolan-esque complicated). The safer route taken in Jurassic World is still an enjoyable romp due to cues taken from Jurassic Park, which isn't bad model to replicate in any circumstances. Miles better than the previous sequels but slightly behind the untoppable original, Jurassic World brings the dormant franchise back into top gear, while yet again proving to be a winning entry for indie filmmakers handling massive franchises, with Trevorrow following in the footsteps of Gareth Edwards and James Gunn. Along with sequel quality control nowadays, the future is set for more Chris Pratt and his Raptor Squads.



P.S. A neat little tidbit here, as every character in the above shot has previously played a Marvel character! Answers below:

Chris Pratt as Star-Lord (Guardians of the Galaxy),
Bryce Dallas Howard as Gewn Stacy (2007's Spider-Man 3),
Omar Sy as Bishop (X-Men: Days of Future Past), and
Vincent D’Onofrio as Kingpin (Daredevil TV show).

Honourable mention also goes to other casts in the film, including Ty Simpkins who played the inventor kid from Iron Man 3 and Irrfan Khan as Dr. Rajit Ratha in The Amazing Spider-Man. We only need to wait for casting announcements for Nick Robinson as Spider-Man, Jake Johnson as a Captain Marvel character with BD Wong as the real Mandarin and we'll have ourselves a little Avengers spin-off film with dinosaurs.