Monday, July 27, 2015

Jurassic World

There's a moment in this film where the owners of the Jurassic World attraction discuss the motivation they had to genetically modify a dinosaur. They lament the fact that the visitor numbers had reduced and the boffin reminds the owner what he had said 'We need more teeth.'

Jurassic Park was a new genre of disaster movie but pretty much the only disaster that could occur was escaping creatures. It was well done but the premise was established. I never went to the sequel.

So one can well guess that the teeth conversation also happened in script meetings, in re-imagining the franchise. Numbers are down. How can we get every school kid in the world to see this in the summer holidays?

This latest effort is film-making by numbers. We pretty much know that the new big baddie is going to get out. We know the kids will be in trouble. We try to guess which of the supporting cast will be dinofood.

There are some questions to ponder. The creationists are nailed in scene one as it is made clear to the audience that this team reckons birds are descended from dinosaurs. As most scientists do. We are invited to wonder if genetic-modification should be controlled by ethical limits rather than money.

But it didn't need a film to do that. Take a movie-cliché bingo card with you and tick off everything from Mum telling the kids to be careful to the happy couple walking off into the sunset.

If you like escapism and have never seen screaming crowds running backwards and forwards in panic, go now.

Empire (4/5) and Roger Ebert (3/4). Usually reliable guides. They can't have been paid off? Maybe the 3D is better.

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