The park is open. And as it so happens, so are all the dinosaur’s cages. An attempt to create a new theme park on the ruins of the original Jurassic Park ends in what appears to be success. Due to public demand for something bigger and more exciting than a normal dinosaur, a new genetically modified dinosaur is created. It’s name is Indominus Rex. However, this new creature shows us that its brain is much bigger than a walnut and that it’s teeth can crack more than that in Jurassic World.

Overall, Jurassic World was an extremely impressive film, albeit some flaws. The special effects were great, bringing to life some great dinosaurs like the Mosasaurus and Indominus Rex itself. The action is plentiful, excitement is constant, and the characters such as Owen Grady (Chris Pratt), Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard), and Vic Hoskins (Vincent D’Onofrio) are portrayed very well by their actors, although the characters themselves, while fairly interesting, could have been rounded out a bit more.

The film had a pretty engrossing plot. The idea of visitors wanting more from a park than “just dinosaurs” satirizes our society extremely successfully, and the potential problems of genetically modified organisms is also shown well. However, some elements of the plot left a bit to be desired. Some scenes, such as the babysitter’s pointless death scene, did little more to make a viewer uncomfortable and lose interest. Indominus Rex, like all dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, is made up of many different DNA strands, most of them dinosaur but some also gotten from modern day creatures such as frogs. However, the use of this frog DNA gave Indominus Rex some unusual powers, such as the ability to change his heat signature. Although an interesting idea, it was not implemented very well into the plot and didn’t give an acceptable enough explanation for why the frog DNA was used and why it gave Indominus Rex that power.

The relationships between the characters and dinosaurs adds a new dimension to both parties unseen in most monster movies. Indominus Rex’s intelligence makes him a truly terrifying creature. As a fan of the Godzilla movies, I am typically used to monsters being much more wild and rampant and bent on destruction rather than specifically going after singular people with a plan. Both ways of making monsters is great, but a monster’s intelligence typically makes them scarier.

Some design choices and cinematography also work well in the film, such as the scene in which Indominus Rex slaughters a crew of security guards looking for him which is cut in between with shots of the control room for Jurassic World, in which some of the main characters view the life signs of the people. This constant switch between shots showed both the terror of being around a dinosaur and the fear of seeing that many lives are being lost while having little idea of what the dinosaur is doing to them, and while knowing full well your responsibility in protecting those people.

All in all, Jurassic World was an extremely fun and exciting film. It did have some problems with its plot, but having not seen any of the Jurassic Park films before, seeing this one inspired me to look into some of the others. I would recommend this film for anyone looking for a fun movie… who isn’t planning to fully analyze the plot.