Film for Thoughts on Thursday: Jurassic World Review

This is a weekly meme that I am hosting here at Reviews from a Bookworm. To take part all you have to do is share a movie review once a week, link back to Reviews from a Bookworm and add your link to the linky tool.

This weeks movie review will be for:

Jurassic World

I really had no idea what to expect from this movie. I was a big fan of the original Jurassic Park movie as a kid, and even enjoyed the sequel (but let's not even bother talking about the disastrous third film!). So I will admit that I was very excited when I heard that they were finally going to be releasing a new movie in the series. Very excited, but also very nervous. I really didn't want them to screw the series up, especially the way they had with the third film - that I still don't want to talk about! But it felt like they had waited long enough that there was a good chance they had spent enough time and money perfecting this so that it wouldn't be a disaster. 

The first time I saw the trailer, I admit that I started to get a little nervous about the movie. It wasn't exactly what I had been expecting and I was a little sceptical. Yes, the special effects looked amazing and there were all the dinosaurs you could want. But it all felt a little too futuristic for a movie that is supposed to be set only twenty years after the events of the first film. I am a fan of Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, so that made me feel less nervous and more hopeful that they could really pull of an amazing movie.

Now, having seen the film, I am so happy that I can say that I absolutely LOVED Jurassic World. I left the cinema completely satisfied, with a huge smile on my face and the biggest urge to go back in a watch it all over again. The movie was everything that I was hoping for and more. Yes, there were elements that I wasn't completely happy with, but overall it was a brilliant film.

The basic premise of all
Jurassic Park films!

What I always loved about the original Jurassic Park was that it was never just a 'dinosaur movie'. It wasn't just a monster movie. The dinosaurs were a part of it, a crucial part of course, but the real story was the people. It was a story about man, the greed of man and our need to play god. We got to follow the people and their story, not just see them getting chased down by dinosaurs. It's a fact that there is only 15 minutes of dinosaur footage in the whole first Jurassic Park film, which has a running time of over two hours. Now whilst we see a lot more dinosaurs in Jurassic World, it also focuses on the people in the story and we get to know the characters as individuals. It can be quite hard to get to know characters when they spend most of their time running around, screaming and trying not to get eaten, but I feel like you get that here.

Jurassic World is set twenty-two years after the events of the first Jurassic Park movie, and now the park is a reality. Although I am still unconvinced as to how that happened, why was no one concerned about the crazy killer dinosaurs that ate people?!? Clearly they were able to sweep that firmly under the rug. The park is a roaring success, but they are always having to come up with new attractions to keep the guest interested. The people in the lab begin messing with genetics in order to create a genetically modified dinosaur, which they name the Indominus Rex. But the geneticists get more than they bargained for when it turns out the Indominus Rex is highly intelligent and manages to escape her enclosure. Here starts our classic Jurassic Park type storyline - scary dinosaur escapes captivity and starts killing all the people. AND I LOVE IT!!! 

I enjoyed the fact that we got to follow two main sets of characters throughout the movie. The first being Owen Grady, the parks Velociraptor trainer, and Claire Dearing, the parks operations manager. The two have a bit of a history, having gone on one disastrous date together before. The other people are Zach and Gray Mitchell, who are Claire's nephews, who have been sent to the park to visit their aunt. I liked all four of the characters and liked how their stories unfolded as the movie went on. I was excited for the moment when the four of them would finally come together.

I actually really loved Claire's character, I thought she was absolutely wonderful. I know there has been a lot of complaints from people who feel her portrayal is ridiculously sexist, which is something I never felt when watching the movie. Many complained that she comes across as the hard, workaholic woman who spends the movie running around in heels, slowly gets more undressed as the movie goes on and ends up getting the guy once she becomes less hard. Whilst that might all be true, I actually really loved her character and didn't have any problems with her portrayal. Some of my thoughts on Claire.

Claire in heels.

Me in heels.

1. The heels issue: Yes, she wears heels and they are not the ideal footwear when running around the bloody jungle, trying to escape from dinosaurs. But she didn't put them on that day with that in mind, to be fair. Instead of hating on her choice of footwear, I was rather impressed by the fact she can run in them like a pro. I know people race in high heels, but I can't even walk around in heels without looking like Bambi in that scene on the ice. 
2. Getting more undressed: I am not going to be judging the poor woman for that. If I had been running around for hours then I would have started removing layers too. This is coming from someone who is sitting in my bedroom, with a fan blasting on me. I can't be dealing with being hot at all, it does not work for me at all!

Now whilst the reasoning behind why the movie makers had her wearing those particular heels and outfit might not have been for the right reasons, they don't bother me in the slightest. You're watching a movie where geneticists have created a super dinosaur and we're really going to be arguing over how realistic the characters footwear choice was...

I really did like Owen's character but, let's be honest, the real stars of this movie were the velociraptors. I am rather in love with them all and became far too attached to them! I loved that the park being fully functioning meant that we got to see way more dinosaurs. There is no end to the amount of dinosaurs that can escape their cages and go on a human killing rampage. And I was silently cheering them all on to hurry up and do it! BRING ME DEATH AND BLOOD AND MURDER!!! (I've been watching too much Game of Thrones.... forgive me!)

The only real issue I had with the movie was that it seemed that it had technologically advanced far too much in the twenty two years since the first film. And also the fact that Jimmy Fallon exists as Jimmy Fallon within this world. I get bothered by the weirdest things when it comes to films and that bugged me when watching this. If Jimmy Fallon exists in this world then who else does.... Obama? Beyonce? Because then why is no one asking why Chris Pratt is going by a new name and training velociraptors  for a living. Don't take me out of my movie watching experience with your shitty cameo appearances!

9/10 Butterflies

This movie has divided opinion, but I absolutely loved it. This movie gave me everything that I could have asked for and wanted from it. It gave me wonderful characters, who threw in enough humour to keep me laughing throughout. It had spectacular special effects that truly exceeded all my expectations. It had non-stop action that kept my eyes glued to the screen the whole time. And a big finale that was superbly epic for many reasons. Not to mention all the nods it gave to the original movie. This was bigger, badder and more action packed than the three previous films combined. I absolutely loved it and I will be going back to the cinema to see it again. I really, really, really hope they do a sequel but I have no clue how they would work. There's no way in hell they would keep the park open after that disaster. But come up with something!!! GIVE ME MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Have you seen Jurassic World? Or do you plan to see it? Did you enjoy it? Or were you too distracted by Claire's completely impractical choice of footwear?