Saturday, June 20, 2015

MovieNotes: Jurassic World

Title: Jurassic World (IMDB)
*ing: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Irrfan Khan & Dinosaurs
Director: Colin Trevorrow
Language: English
Genre: Science Fiction cum Action

Basic Premise
Jurassic World is a dinosaur theme park. But corporate diktats need a newer, bigger attraction to ensure a better looking balance sheet. This results in the unleashing of a monster which needs to be put in control.

MovieNotes
Jurassic Park was probably the first contemporary English movie most Indians my age would have seen. It sparked a dinosaur craze, with dinosaurs starting to appear everywhere whether as merchandise, in fun fairs, almost every school science project or even appearing in puja pandals (news link). Even planetariums began having shows about dinosaurs in addition to their usual space related stuff.

Jurassic World is the 3rd sequel to Jurassic Park though it mostly ignores the actions from the 2nd and 3rd film of the franchise. The movie is set over two decades after the events of the first movie and it is full of tributes and references to the first one. The references sometimes act as a self-parody as well.

The key feature of the whole story is the subject of "control". Humans believe that they are in control and can play with the genetic make-up to create bigger, more menacing animals for their entertainment, while increasing their cash-flow. There is another group which believes that they can train and control the dinosaurs for use in military, as a kind of modern day cavalry unit. But as Irrfan Khan's character points out we feel that we are in control, though that's not always the case.

Acting wise, the humans do not really have much to do. Once the Indominus Rex is let loose, most of the human actors just keep running trying to escape the big dinosaur's jaws while the rest make a semblance of fight (mostly in vain). It needed the combined effort of multiple other dinosaurs to take out the new monster in their midst.

The dinosaurs maybe bigger, the visuals more spectacular but they are unable to generate that "wow" effect which made the original such a cult hit.

Mandatory India Connect - Irrfan Khan. He gets one of the lead human roles playing a character of a quirky billionaire who wants more "teeth" to boost up his park's revenues while at the same time making philosophical statements about humans never being in control although they might feel it to be the case.

Rating - 7/10. Not much story-wise, but a good one time watch. The makers may have succeeded in adding more teeth, but the story did not have the bite of the original.

Previously on MovieNotes - Tanu Weds Manu Returns

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