Jurassic World (Dir.: Colin Trevorrow; Cast: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Irrfan Khan, BD Wong et al.)
The first time you hear that soundtrack play and the expansive visuals take shape before your eyes on the big screen, you feel having broken even. Having recovered your ticket prices, you tighten your seat belts for some fun. Jurassic World gives you that fun. Some of the tricks are old, some are just nods to its predecessors while some of the others are new, because movie-goers like new tricks – cooler, more thrilling shows just as much as thrill-seekers in theme parks.
(Spoilers Ahead!)
And this is where Jurassic World takes off, turning the mirror onto itself – to the world it lives in, highlighting how similar it is to the one it needs to recreate after 22 years. I feel it isn’t much use talking at length about the story itself and the dino-action, as that would merely be scratching the surface of this brave and significant piece of work. The performances are okay, the storyline simplistic, the set-pieces a mixture of novelty and d?j? vu, but what rescues the sequel from being a strictly average me-too movie is its courageous take on itself.
Hidden in the foliage of the on-screen monsters, their rampaging and battling, the adventures of lost siblings, teeth-gnashing villains and chase sequences lies at the soul of the tale of Jurassic World scathing observations and frank introspection on business, politics and ethics. Is a strong enough public/ market demand reason enough to stretch movie franchises or cook up mutated monsters?? Is weaponizing the inevitable destiny of any scientific innovation? Is making a bigger monster to tackle an already uncontrollable one a sustainable solution (read Arms Race)? These are just some of the questions Jurassic World raises, for the leaders/ producers of the society and us masses/ consumers alike. For, it is demand which fuels supply and the consumer’s craving is as much responsible for driving society as the advertiser’s incentives.
By turning the metaphorical into the physical with its scary beasts, Jurassic World serves as a stern warning to us – the confident homo sapiens of the age of Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Genetic Engineering. Knowledge isn’t Wisdom, and development as apart from progress as the Jurassic Age from the Nuclear. Jurassic World makes the point by laying bare the gap, as eloquently as the roar of synthetic monsters in a make-believe island of a family entertainer-cum-wannabe-blockbuster allow. Kudos to Colin Trevorrow and team for that!
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