Jurassic World

**Jurassic World: A Jurassic Disappointment** As a fan of the Jurassic Park franchise, especially the first movie, I am quite disappointed with Jurassic World. I was honestly super stoked for the long-awaited sequel to Jurassic Park, but in the end, the movie lacked the charm and mysticism from Jurassic Park. From poorly-developed characters (with the exception of Chris Pratt's Owen Grady) to idiotic plot elements, Jurassic World's only saving grace is the fact that it's a sequel to Jurassic Park. The dinosaurs honestly look awful and pale in comparison to the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. The CGI is so obvious and doesn't look realistic at all. Jurassic Park found the right balance of practical effects and computer-generated imagery, giving viewers the feeling that the dinosaurs feel so life-like. Jurassic World basically uses minimal practical effects in favor of CGI galore. It's sad that a 1993 movie has better CGI than a movie made in 2015. Claire and her nephews Gray and Zach, are cheap imitations of John Hammond and his grandchildren Tim and Lex. Claire is primarily motivated by greed and exploiting the dinosaurs. Hoskins just wants to use the dinosaurs as military weapons. Dr. Henry Wu is a bit more antagonistic, revealed to be secretly creating hybrids for Hoskins as military weapons. The only character that's given some form of development is Owen Grady, played by Star-Lord a.k.a Chris Pratt. His motivations are for researching Velociraptor behavior and actually treats the dinosaurs like living creatures and not just exploited science experiments. Honestly the only redeeming factor throughout the entire movie. The Indominus Rex tricks the personnel into thinking it's escaped confinement by clawing away at the top of its enclosure. They somehow believe the dinosaur escaped, but wouldn't security be alerted right away? The enclosure doesn't come equipped with bells and whistles? To much surprise (not), the Indominus is actually inside the enclosure with them. This idiotic plot choice allows the Indominus to escape. Zack and Grey revisiting the original site of Jurassic Park brought back so many nostalgic memories of Jurassic Park. One of the best moments of the entire movie, absolutely loved when they picked up the Jurassic Park banner and the goggles used by Tim. But what killed the moment was when they managed to get the original Jeep started. It's been sitting for over 20 years, non-operational. But for plot convenience, they learned how to fix vehicles previously. I thought the assault upon the park attendees by the pterosaurs was chilling, swooping up people in the process. Gave a sense of terror that you could actually feel. One of those people being Zara, Claire's assistant. She is attacked by a pteranodon and then eventually eaten alive by the mosasaurus. Her death was just way too drawn out and totally undeserving. A death like this should have been reserved for the villain. The final battle between the Indominus Rex and Owen's pack of surviving Velociraptor brought me back to the battle between the T-Rex and raptors in Jurassic Park. Then Claire brings out the T-Rex, the very same one from Jurassic Park, and manages to outrun the T-Rex IN HEELS. I was rooting for the T-Rex to win, then the Mosasaurus swoops up and drags the Indominus into the lagoon. Though this movie attempts to bring back the Jurassic Park charm, it ultimately fails to capture that same magic. Unlike The Force Awakens, another similar movie that calls back to its roots, Jurassic World managed to be much worse than its source material. You feel no true connection to the characters or dinosaurs, the excitement factor is gone, and the music is not memorable at all. My Rating: 5.5/10.0