The plot of a Jurassic movie has become standard by now. There are dinosaurs. Bad guys try to exploit them. Good guys try to save the dinosaurs. Dinosaurs chase the good guys and chow down on the bad guys. A cute child must be saved. And then the dinosaurs run off to breed more dinosaur extras for the next move. Insert occasional speechifying about man’s hubris, blah blah blah. Shush, Jeff. We’re here for the stampeding dinosaur scenes and to decide who can do the best agonised “Oh noes, my head is about to get bitten off!” expression in close-up. Jurassic World delivers on all counts.
Keep an eye on the scrolling news headlines on the tv in the background in some scenes. There’s a subtle little dig at Trump there. There’s also a good running gag where Franklin, the IT guy continually worries about being eaten by a tyrannosaurus rex while being menaced by a range of other carnivorous dinosaurs.
There is one area of the movie that I take issue with. The dinosaurs have been living on a small tropical island unattended for years since the events of the previous movie. Now, I don’t know how much vegetation one of the large herbivores would need, but if they’re anything like elephants who will eat ten per cent of their bodyweight every day, then that island would probably have lost most of its vegetation. As for the carnivores, presumably they’ve been keeping themselves fed by eating the herbivores - despite this, there still seem to be plenty of them around. As for the poor old mosasaurus, what he has been living on while trapped in the lagoon for years is anyone’s guess.