Nick Robinson as Zach, and Ty Simpkins as Gray, go out for a spin in Jurassic World (supplied).
Nick Robinson as Zach, and Ty Simpkins as Gray, go out for a spin in Jurassic World (supplied).
The best spin-off from the first Jurassic Park movie wasn't its two lacklustre sequels, films that only wiped memories of the special effects wonders and suspense of Steven Spielberg's 1993 original.
No, the best Jurassic Park afterthought was its official pinball machine. Take it from someone who once had a decent pinball habit back then. Yes, the dinosaur-themed arcade incarnation was, like its big-screen parent, a classic of its period.
Like the movie, it delivered old fashioned thrills with fancy new gadgetry. It looked and sounded terrific.
But - and bear with me here - I was fondly reminded of the franchise's early foray into coin-operated amusements in Jurassic World, the long-awaited reboot which also thinks those earlier sequels are best left forgotten.
This new one is easily the best sequel of the bunch. It's frequently exciting, happily, forgivably ludicrous if a little too pumped-up for its own good and less than memorable.
Anyway, that pinball thing? There is a scene where two young brothers - the dull lead dino-bait duo of Gray and Zach - are driving one of the theme park's shiny spherical vehicles through fields of benign giant herbivores.
Spooked by Indominus Rex, this film's, er, breakout star, the stampeding various-sauruses start pinballing the kids around the paddock. Then Indominus starts bashing at the glass. If the screen had lit up with a giant "Tilt!" the effect would have been complete.
A hat-tip to the good ol' Jurassic Park pinball game? Probably not.
But this reboot is enjoyably self-referential and inventive with its set-up - that Jurassic World, a tourist trap theme park with its human pinball ride and monorails and shopping malls, is the inevitable consequence of what was started in Jurassic Park.
There is a brief mention of how the old place it had its, um, teething problems. One control room geek is admonished for wearing an old Jurassic Park T-shirt by head of operations Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) who says "people died, you know." ("I bought it on E-bay", he says in his defence. "That first park was legit.")
The cross-country race the movie turns into later, as the big smart, chameleonic Idominus heads downtown to the mall, takes us, briefly, to the old park headquarters which the original residents wrecked so spectacularly 22 years ago.
No, it's not exactly seeing the Statue of Liberty poking out of the sand. But Jurassic World does have fun with the legacy of the first film while acknowledging it needs to impress on a whole new scale.
"Twenty years ago de-extinction was right up there up with magic," says Claire as she tries to sell a corporate sponsorship naming rights package to their new hybrid dino, the aforementioned Indominus Rex.
The place's dino-appeal is flatlining. Hence the need to build something bigger, better and nastier to keep the crowds flocking to the island off Costa Rica.
A scene from Jurassic World.
That, of course, is also a commentary on the blockbuster movie business which Spielberg helped invent. He's executive producer here, the directing duties having been awarded to Colin Trevorrow on the strength of his well-received quirky micro-budget time-travel indie flick Safety Not Guaranteed.
There are touches of other movies woven into the story strands too - Aliens, The Birds,King Kong. But care of this movie's shared DNA with the 1993 title - complete with John Williams' original theme pounding through every available moment - it can sure feel like a Spielberg tribute band: Spot the great white shark finding itself further down the food chain, or a dying brontosaurus which has kind of an E.T. look about it.
The movie's own human hybrid is its seemingly Indiana Jones-cloned leading man Owen (Chris Pratt), an ex navy guy and animal behaviorist - was he training seals? - who has become a sort of dino-whisperer to the villains of the first film, the velociraptors.
Likewise, Howard's Claire may start out as corporate workaholic wonder woman but out in the wild, she soon turns into something resembling one of Indy's old gal pals. Or, eventually, Fay Wray with an MBA and an ability to run in heels.
Around the periphery are the park's mega-rich Richard Branson-like owner Masrani (Irrfan Khan) who has inherited park founder John Hammond's flawed idealism; the security boss Hoskins (Vincent D'Onofrio) who has evil designs of his own on the company's intellectual property, and Dr Henry Wu (B.D. Wong back from the first film) the man in charge of the lab.
But mostly this movie is about those kids - and Owen and Claire. It's a pity the siblings (Nick Robinson and Ty Simpkins) are so bland. The elder's post-pubescent sullenness and the younger's pre-pubescent precociousness isn't much of a substitute for characterisation. Neither seems fazed by seeing so many folks around them get munched either.
Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard in Jurassic World.
Pratt is a solid centre, though you do spend much of the movie hoping he's going to say something funny. There's just not a lot of room for that. Once it's past its visitor's guide of a start, the movie is soon off and running . . . and running.
We don't really get a chance to consider Indominus in all her genetically engineered glory - she never stops eating - and it's a movie that doesn't really manage much suspense in its haste to get from one close encounter of the dino kind to the next.
It's fun while it lasts, sure. But Jurassic World just keeps on spinning and ricocheting and flipping until the game's over. And afterwards, there's just nothing much to remember it by.
Cast: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard Director: Colin Trevorrow Rating: M (violence) Running time: 124 mins Verdict: At last a decent sequel to Steven Spielberg's dinosaur classic
