Jurassic World

Though the main appeal of Jurassic World is obviously its very special effects, its sense of irony and its awareness of its tradition make it especially intelligent — and witty.

Before the two lads go off for their adventure the younger is dallying — he’s looking at an old View Master reel of dinosaurs. Of course he’s grabbing a preview of his imminent trip. He's looking back to see ahead. More broadly, the film that flaunts state-of-the-art 3-D and more convincing dinosaurs than clog the senate pauses to acknowledge its primitive roots. The film reflects on its origins just as the wiser characters acknowledge their connection to even primeval animal life. 

The plot adds a touching human concern to the battlefield. As in so many disaster films, the cataclysm restores a fractured family. Here the boys’ parents tacitly decide not to divorce after all, and their strictly-business Aunt Claire is shaken into an emotional openness and the resolve to settle with the handsome dino-maven, Owen, “for survival.”

In small ways the film reflects back on the conventions of American film. When the boys manage to animate a dead jeep the improbable scene draws on the simple mechanics that all the Andy Hardys could muster, to build or revive their old jalopy. Owen’s communications with the raptors and the heroic intervention of the overthrown king, T-Rex, draw on the tradition of man-horse bond and understanding in the old westerns. Even the villain is as familiar from old movies as from the current Republicans — amoral and ruthless in his desire to weaponize anything whether natural or synthesized.

      Finally the film works up to a feminist revision of the genre. In all the hoary B-films the heroine would always break a heel, hindering the hero’s flight from the monster du jour. Women were ornament and the man’s burden, even when they were the scientist’s daughter — or the rare as hen’s tooth scientist. Aware of that brutal fact of life, Owen reluctantly lets Aunt Claire come along — but only if she “loses those ridiculous shoes.” Only at the end, after we have watched her run full throttle, show great ingenuity, courage and stamina, and even kill the beast about to gobble Owen, do we see she’s still wearing those heels. Against the genre’s grain, here a woman can be heroic with compromising her womanhood or complying with the man’s demands. This futuristic exercise of an old genre catches the healthier spirit of our time.