Jurassic World

When I was a kid (back in the 80’s and 90’s) I was a big fan of dinosaurs. I remember watching the animated film “The Land Before Time” on my VHS player and analog TV several times a week. I remember fighting and arguing with my classmates in recess time over which dinosaur would win in a fight, the t-rex or the triceratops? A brontosaurus or a pack of velociraptors? I always wondered how it would be like to see these animals in real life (even though I was terrified of all the carnivorous ones) and constantly nagged my parents to take me to a museum with dinosaur fossils. Unfortunately, my parents never took me to see dinosaur fossils but they did take me to the cinema to watch a movie called “Jurassic Park” and my obsession with dinosaurs  has prevailed ever since.

Although twenty-two years have passed since the first Jurassic Park movie was released and fourteen-years since the release of Jurassic Park III (which honestly everyone thought was going to be the last one) Hollywood decided to exploit one more sequel and challenge the high expectations from fans with the 2015 movie “Jurassic World”.  When I first heard of this “controversial news” and saw the official movie trailer I was very sceptical, but my inner kid was nagging me with such an excitement that I could not ignore and so I bought 2 tickets for Jurassic World in Britain’s largest cinema screen, BFI London IMAX. Some may ask why didn’t I just watch it on a regular screen? Well, as an adult I did consider the financial benefit of watching the movie on a regular screen but then my inner kid explained to me the opportunity that I would be missing out on “3D dinosaurs on Britain’s largest cinema screen!” and so I decided to ignore my boring adult logical thinking and be a proper kid again (a kid with a credit-card).

The storyline of Jurassic World is extremely similar (if not the same) as the first movie. Large corporations have practically re-invested and reconstructed Jurassic Park (now called Jurassic World) with a few new attractions such as a gigantic water tank ( that resembles Sea World) were they keep a marine dinosaur that eats everything it sees. Dinosaurs are now treated and trained like zoo animals and the scientists are genetically engineering “super dinosaurs” for commercial and military reasons. As it is to be expected, the ego-maniac entrepreneur that believes money can play the role of “god” is proven wrong when a genetically modified super dinosaur escapes from the enclosure and starts killing everything in its path.

As it turns out, my inner kid was right and the only thing that was amazing from this movie was the “3D dinosaurs on Britain’s largest cinema screen!”. The special effects and design of the dinosaurs is really well done. The realism that the director was able to create was beyond my expectations and considering that dinosaurs have always been about the view and the action, watching it on 3D IMAX helps you capture the real experience that the movie has to offer. I believe that if another fourteen years pass until another remake of the movie is done I will be happy to see it, not for the storyline but for the feeling that I get from being as close as possible to live dinosaurs.

Raul Robles