JURASSIC WORLD ★★★★★

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Out now / rated M / 124 Mins.

Director Colin trevorrow cast Chris Pratt, Bryce dallas Howard, Nick robinson, ty Simpkins, Vincent d’Onofrio, Bd Wong

plot After yeArs of trying, JurAssic PArk is oPen As JurAssic world. But A new hyBrid is ABout to stArt eAting the tourists.

Jurassic World is an

adventure 65 million and 14 years in the making, but the 14 is the key figure. In the time that’s passed since Jurassic Park III underwhelmed, creatively and commercially, other franchises and shared universes have come to the fore. They’ve made a series that once boasted the biggest film of all time seem like something of, well, a dinosaur.

Spielberg’s original movie remains, of course, an unimpeachable classic, and Colin Trevorrow’s assured blockbuster is comfortably the best since the first movie. While that may be the very dictionary definition of damning with faint praise, in this instance it’s fresh and thrilling. While it often tips its hat to the original, it’s not a slavish copy, introducing more than enough new wrinkles into the Jurassic playbook.

The temptation to plunge us straight into a dinofest must have been almost overwhelming, but Trevorrow opts for the Spielbergian slow build-up. A couple of neat fakeouts aside, we don’t actually see a dinosaur until roughly 20 minutes in, with the introduction of Chris Pratt’s Hunk McStubble (not his actual name) and his band of trained raptors. But if anyone thought that the series’ most effective threats had been tamed, we’re very quickly reminded that they still have teeth and claws and big appetites. But for his Big Badosaurus, Trevorrow needed something new. Enter the Indominus Rex; a truly terrible lizard.

Genetically engineered by BD Wong’s returning Dr. Henry Wu in a textbook example of being so preoccupied with whether he could that he didn’t stop to think if he should, the Indominus is at once a neat comment on our been-there-done-that generation and a genuinely menacing monster. Despite its size, it lends itself neatly to suspense sequences and all-out action, notably an

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use the free viewa app to scan the page and see trailers for the movies on this spread! Aliens-esque moment when it takes out an entire squad of soldiers. And because it’s been engineered in a lab, our heroes have no qualms about trying to send it back there in a box.

Of those heroes, Pratt cements his reputation as cinema’s new go-to leading man, even if his Owen Grady (his actual name) isn’t quite as quippy or charming as Guardians Of The Galaxy’s Star-Lord. Like Indiana Jones, he’s an unyielding man of action, who’s pretty much the same at the picture’s end as he is at the beginning. Instead, it’s up to Bryce Dallas Howard and, intriguingly, certain dinosaurs, to change as the movie goes on. When we first meet her park supervisor, Claire, she’s not quite as cold-blooded as the inhabitants of her park, but she is more preoccupied with profit margins than looking after her visiting nephews (in a neat touch, she can’t even remember their ages). By movie’s end, she’s transformed into a flare-wielding action heroine worth cheering on. Life finds a way.

There are flaws — some of the supporting characters are mere sketches, while InGen’s villainous agenda has a hazy, underdeveloped, fix-it-in-the-sequel vibe. But the joy here comes from watching Trevorrow make a substantial step up from his debut, the lo-sci-fi Safety Not Guaranteed. He’s as at ease with the ooh and the aah as he is with the running and screaming, and when the dino doo-doo really hits the fan, and the park descends into chaos, you can almost hear him cackling as he piles outrageous beat upon outrageous beat.

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VerDict The most notorious theme park in movie history reopens in thrilling style. Enjoy the ride.