Kurt Loder Reviews Jurassic World
Chris Pratt battles a new breed of dinosaur on Spielberg's old island.
Jurassic World is as close to a guaranteed smash as any movie might likely come. And it does offer a lot to look at, most of it scaly and snarling. The dinosaurs on view have the illusionary weight and detail of real creatures, and they move through the film's physical environments at a new level of precision complexity. What's missing, though, is the Spielberg touch (although he's onboard here as an executive producer). In Jurassic Park, the director was careful to pause for moments of wonder, showing us, for example, a long-neckedbrachiosaur gracefully nibbling leaves at the top of a very tall tree. New director Colin Trevorrow, whose one previous feature was the 2012 Sundance hit Safety Not Guaranteed, is more committed to raging spectacle. This would be okay, but all of the digital expertise that has been lavished on this picture is subverted by its script, which is thuddingly analog, writes Kurt Loder.