Jurassic World (2015)

Bigger isn't better. It's just louder. That's the thought I kept coming back to watching Jurassic World, a film that has absolutely everything it needs to be great and somehow adds up to something that's just... fine. Competent. Watchable. Average.

And I don't say that lightly, because I genuinely wanted to love this. The original Jurassic Park is one of those films burned into my childhood, the kind that made me feel things I didn't have words for yet. Wonder, terror, awe. So when this reboot arrived with a proper budget, proper effects, and a proper nod to what came before, I was ready to be won over. The dinosaurs do look genuinely impressive. The visual effects are top-tier stuff, and there are moments where the scale of the thing lands properly. I appreciated the continuity with the original park too, the little winks and callbacks that reminded you this is the same world, the same legacy. Those bits work.

But the magic is gone. That tension Spielberg built in the original, that creeping dread, that sense that nature was something to be humbled by rather than consumed, none of it carries over. What you get instead is a very expensive action film wearing a Jurassic Park costume.

Then there's Chris Pratt. Look, I like Chris Pratt. I think he's enormously charming when a film knows what to do with him. I'd seen what he could do with the right material. But here? His charisma is dialled all the way down to neutral. He's handed a character who feels like a sketch of a leading man rather than an actual person, and the script gives him nothing to build on. He's cool, he's capable, he trains raptors. That's about it. There's no arc, no real vulnerability, nothing to grab onto. It's not entirely his fault, but he doesn't help matters either.

The plot is serviceable, I'll grant it that. It moves along. Things happen. The Indominus Rex, a genetically engineered hybrid dinosaur cooked up because apparently the suits thought regular dinosaurs had gone a bit stale, is a decent enough threat. But that premise tells you everything about where this film's head is at. It's a film about how audiences need more, bigger, scarier, louder, and then it delivers exactly that without ever stopping to ask whether more is actually what we wanted. There's something almost meta about it, the park's executives engineering a monster because visitors have grown complacent, which is more or less what the filmmakers have done with us. I'm not sure that self-awareness was entirely intentional.

The honest truth is this film exists to reboot a franchise for a new generation of viewers, not because anyone sat down and said "I have a story I need to tell." You can feel that in every scene. It's calculated rather than felt. The wonder that made the original so special came from filmmakers who were genuinely excited. Here, everyone seems focused on not messing it up rather than on getting something right.

I will say this though: my six-year-old son absolutely loves it. Completely captivated. Eyes wide, grinning the whole way through. And honestly? Good. Maybe that's the honest audience for Jurassic World, kids who haven't yet got the original burned into them the way I have. For them, this probably lands the way the first one landed for me. I can respect that, even if it doesn't do much for me personally.

For what it's worth, things don't improve much from here. I've sat through Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) and Jurassic World Dominion (2022), and the series just keeps chasing its own tail, adding more and more while understanding less and less about what made those dinosaurs frightening in the first place.

Two and a half stars. Flashy, hollow, and best enjoyed if you're six years old and haven't yet seen the original.

Rating: ★★½  | Year: 2015  | Watched: 2025-04-14

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Where to watch

Watch in the UK
Stream: Amazon Prime Video · Disney Plus · Sky Go · Now TV Cinema
Rent: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Sky Store
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi

Watch in the US
Stream: Hulu · YouTube TV
Rent: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US

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