Jurassic World (2015) ***1/2

Chris Pratt and friends storm into battle in Jurassic World.

In a year that is bound to be full of nostalgia (Terminator in July, Bond in November, Star Wars in December) this film has become the unexpected juggernaut of Summer 2015 and continues to rake in the dough at extraordinary rates. The fact that the Jurassic Park franchise has been lackluster at best since the great original film makes the success of this film all the more striking. 

It's been over 20 years since that terrible day when John Hammond's creation crashed into itself and dashed all of the hopes and dreams detailed in the first half of the original film. The park is closed, for good, or so we thought. Multiple deaths and general mayhem couldn't keep a great money making idea down and for the last two decades Jurassic World has been open for business, built on the corpse of the original park.

At this point the whole idea of dinosaurs actually being alive has become old and passe', so there is a need to up the ante so to speak. That means that, like the original film, it's time to play with our handy genetics set and create dinosaurs that never existed. Hybrids developed my man, making us more god-like than in the original film. Obviously, this becomes a huge mistake as our new creature is developed too well. Add in a plot that concerns weaponizing dinosaurs and you have your film ladies and gentlemen. 

Jurassic World is a great summer flick. It's what every summer needs and sometimes doesn't get, which is happening a lot lately. It's an action packed spectacle that finally carries on the tradition of the first film (but doesn't surpass that film). There are some problems with the film, mainly in the sub plot with the military that is so predictable it's boring, but otherwise the film stands up well and won't disappoint fans of the original film or newcomers to the franchise. Thankfully, it appears that this film ignores what happened in the second and third films.

Which begs the question of how will they follow up this film. The humongous amount of money this film has made makes a sequel inevitable, but the issue is that there isn't much you can do with the subject matter without rehashing one of the awful sequels or making an unrealistic sequel. But the film is about dinosaurs, so who cares.