I must first admit that the first Jurassic Park holds an untouchable position as my favourite film of all time, so I am as biased as anything. That said, I will attempt to review this film as fairly as possible nonetheless. Secondly? Mild spoilers may well be ahead.
For me, the best comparison to make is to call this film the Aliens to JP's Alien. It doesn't try and match the first film for depth or development of character... just cranks up the action and the spectacle (and the body-count too.) And what action! The brand new Indominus Rex (whose rather uninspiring name is given a rather amusing [[lampshade]]/[[handwave]] is certainly a terrifying beasty, and the sheer stupidity of creating a super-intelligent, massive, killing machine is actually justified when it is revealed that it was not actually primarily developed for the park's clients at all.
On the other hand, the human characters really are the most cardboard and flat bunch for the most part, sadly. Chris Pratt plays it rather disappointingly straight in his action man role, with little of his Guardians-style charm and charisma to get you rooting for him.
Bryce Dallas Howard is given an even thinner character of a workaholic business type (who can't even remember her nephews' ages! The fiend.) who, what do you know, comes to care for them after all... though this development is just thrust upon her with no real plot motive. She just goes through a U-turn midway. That said, she gets perhaps the most awesome (human) moment of them all late on.
Vincent D'onofrio and the sole returnee of JP, BD Wong, are the human villains of the piece but are pretty bland and generic, 'corrupt executives totally underestimate the dinosaurs, pay for it' JP cutouts. That said, Wong gets a nice rant about the nature of the JW 'dinosaurs' that also just so happens to serve as a fourth-wall breaking justification for the utter lack of science marching on.
This is something the film does pretty well, in fairness. It does add a few clever lines that add something of a meta-commentary on the nature of blockbuster films and franchises without getting overly preachy. It tips its hat rather heavily to Jurassic Park, admittedly, but never to the point of being entirely beholden.
Overall? The best JP sequel by a very long way. But the best JP film? No. Nothing will touch the original, for me.
No Masterpiece, but enjoyable
I must first admit that the first Jurassic Park holds an untouchable position as my favourite film of all time, so I am as biased as anything. That said, I will attempt to review this film as fairly as possible nonetheless. Secondly? Mild spoilers may well be ahead.
For me, the best comparison to make is to call this film the Aliens to JP's Alien. It doesn't try and match the first film for depth or development of character... just cranks up the action and the spectacle (and the body-count too.) And what action! The brand new Indominus Rex (whose rather uninspiring name is given a rather amusing [[lampshade]]/[[handwave]] is certainly a terrifying beasty, and the sheer stupidity of creating a super-intelligent, massive, killing machine is actually justified when it is revealed that it was not actually primarily developed for the park's clients at all.
On the other hand, the human characters really are the most cardboard and flat bunch for the most part, sadly. Chris Pratt plays it rather disappointingly straight in his action man role, with little of his Guardians-style charm and charisma to get you rooting for him.
Bryce Dallas Howard is given an even thinner character of a workaholic business type (who can't even remember her nephews' ages! The fiend.) who, what do you know, comes to care for them after all... though this development is just thrust upon her with no real plot motive. She just goes through a U-turn midway. That said, she gets perhaps the most awesome (human) moment of them all late on.
Vincent D'onofrio and the sole returnee of JP, BD Wong, are the human villains of the piece but are pretty bland and generic, 'corrupt executives totally underestimate the dinosaurs, pay for it' JP cutouts. That said, Wong gets a nice rant about the nature of the JW 'dinosaurs' that also just so happens to serve as a fourth-wall breaking justification for the utter lack of science marching on.
This is something the film does pretty well, in fairness. It does add a few clever lines that add something of a meta-commentary on the nature of blockbuster films and franchises without getting overly preachy. It tips its hat rather heavily to Jurassic Park, admittedly, but never to the point of being entirely beholden.
Overall? The best JP sequel by a very long way. But the best JP film? No. Nothing will touch the original, for me.