WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE. 

BY MARK CERULLI

After a 14-year cinematic hibernation, the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park roar back with a vengeance.  This fourth installment in the franchise had a lot to get right – it had to stand alone as entertainment for the masses who haven’t seen the 1993 original and make the series seem fresh and relevant, while fanning the flames of awe with which we (well, most of us anyway) hold dinosaurs. It also had to acknowledge that today’s world is far darker, more commercial and more cynical than 1993. Jurassic World succeeds on all counts. Instead of picking up where Jurassic 3 left off way back when, Jurassic World creates a new narrative – the park has been open for years and is a thriving tourist destination. But like any theme park, it needs to be updated to keep the public coming back. Although they have herds of Triceratops, pods of Velociraptors (the baddies in the first film) and dozens of lumbering Apatosaurus, the park owner wants bigger, badder, “cooler”, so they’ve created a new species, “Indominus Rex.” (It should’ve been named “Ominous Rex” as it makes Godzilla look like the Geico Gecko.) This beast is a hybrid consisting of genes from many different species, so when it busts out, the park truly has a problem on its hands – only now it’s not largely empty as in the first film, it’s packed with 20,000 guests.

The human cast is led by Chris Pratt and his work in Jurassic World should propel him into the Harrison Ford leading man zone. His character, the park’s ex-Navy animal trainer, is a true Alpha Male, stoic, decisive and cool. (Although he could have used a touch of humor to lighten him up.) Bryce Dallas Howard is spot on as a driven career woman responsible for the park’s operations. She’s frazzled because not only is her enigmatic billionaire boss (Bollywood star Irrfan Khan) on site, but also her nephews (played by Nick Robinson and Ty Simpkins, marking his second Spielberg project after War of the Worlds) have arrived, expecting a VIP experience with their aunt. Complicating matters is a shady security operator named Hoskins (a swaggering Vincent D’Onofrio) sent by parent company InGen (remember them?) to assess the military possibilities for the park’s “assets” (aka dinosaurs).

As the film picks up speed, there are numerous nods to the series’ iconic past – one of the control room operators is wearing an original Jurassic Park t-shirt, which he bought off eBay. (“In mint condition they go for $300.”) As the nephews try to escape the park, they stumble into the original visitor’s center and hotwire one of the red and white Jeep Wranglers from the first film. The only original cast member to return is B.D. Wong, playing the park’s genetic scientist, coolly unaffected by all the mayhem his creations have caused.

As expected, the VFX is impeccable; the dinosaurs seem as alive as their human co-stars. The “trailer moment” when the huge Mosasaurus lunges up from the Sea World-like tank to devour a dangling Great White shark really was stunning, as is the flying Dimorphodon attack and – yay! – the return of the T-Rex.

Director Colin Trevorrow keeps things moving and gives the audience what it wants the most – dinosaurs and more dinosaurs. This CR scribe caught the Imax 3-D version, but Jurassic World will not disappoint in any format.