Leapin Lizards

If you can really, really suspend disbelief then I guess Jurassic World can keep you entertained for two hours but in a way I'm with the throwback guy in the movie who yearns for the simpler world of the old Jurassic Park in which the dinosaurs were "real," not the new generation of giant lizards conjured in a genetics lab. They're bigger, faster, smarter, and more fierce and, strangely, much less scary than the dinos of 20 years ago because they're so obviously fake. The plot such as it is is pretty much what you'd expect, a mish-mash of pop movies genres and cliches - boys sent off for xmas vacation at the Jurassic World theme park (run by their Aunt Claire who's a corporate type in conflict with the he-man dinosaur-whisperer - guess who evolves over the course of the movie and it's not the dinosaurs), the younger brother weepy at times because he believes parents are headed for a divorce (guess who's reconciled at end of movie), the corporate PR types and the mad-scientist lab types go head to head with not only those who love the "real" dinosaurs but with a militant Green Beret type who wants to commandeer the most fierce dinos for battlefield action (not a bad idea, really). Though there was not a single scream or even gasp in our limited audience, some of the chase scenes are quite well done, the park itself is well realized with crowd scenes rivaling even the crowd scenes in the great silents and Biblical epics, and there are a few laugh out loud moments, I have to admit, such as the kids rescued by Aunt Claire and he-man boyfriend pleading: Will you stay with us? and the neglectful Clair saying: I won't let you out of my sight. The boys: No, him! Pretty good entertainment, if you can swallow the irony of Universal doing a movie that laments the corporate exploitation of these dinosaurs. What about the beam that is in thine own eye?