An epic world of thrills, chills, romance, and of course, lessons in why-you-don’t-play-God. Four years after the first Jurassic Park, Universal released a sequel, which wasn’t so good, and four years after that, an even worse one. Fourteen years after that, we got a fourth Jurassic movie. Clearly Universal learned their lesson on making sequels (unlike the people in this fictional universe with genetic modification): make it bigger in scope, but keep some humanity in it. After witnessing the birth of the main antagonist of the film (Indominosaurus Rex, an inaccurate name, but try having a four year old say its real one. See: I can’t even spell it, or remember it), we meet the Taylors: Mom and Dad (Judy Greer and Andy Buckley) who send their kids Zach and Gray (Nick Robinson and Ty Simpkins) to Jurassic World, the successor to Jurassic Park run by Mom’s sister Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard), who starts out as a cold, distant aunt who makes her assistant Zara (Katie McGrath) sheppard the boys around. The beginning is much faster than that of the first Jurassic Park: they start with the boys leaving for Isla Nublar, followed by a park-centric montage set to a newer rendition of the endearing John Williams theme, followed by an inside look at Claire’s operation. Instead of being in that exciting montage, Claire meets with representatives of a potential sponsor for their latest exhibit: that dinosaur that hatched in the opening credits: the Indominosaurus Rex. These types of scenes are actually realistic as to how a theme park operates, because while the whole “Spare no expense” thing for John Hammond was fun, those expenses add up, so they eventually had to spare time to get corporate sponsors. Later, we meet Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) a likable, ex-Navy dinosaur tamer (whisperer could also describe it well) who’s brought in by Claire and her boss Simon Masrani (Irrfan Khan) to figure out why the Indominus is acting up. What happens after this and Zach and Gray’s escape from Zara’s supervision is a bigger, badder version of the first (legit) park’s containment breach. Everything about it’s bigger: the number of people (although they still focus on the small group of the Taylor kids, Claire, and Owen, with various workers and Vincent D’Onforio’s character who wants to weaponize the raptors splitting in so the plot can advance), the size of the main antagonist dinosaur, and the stakes (The experts, lawyers, and family members there for the ride on a safety inspection seems microscopic in comparison to 20,000+ lives on the line from an asset containment). Throughout this dinosaur movie, the humanity is not lost: Ty Simpkins performs splendidly as both the excited kid-in-a-dino-theme-park and as the terrified-kid-in-a-dino-theme-park-containment-breach. There’s also a little family drama in the Taylor home alluded to, but never touched on beyond one scene in the middle, but doesn’t drag down the movie like a certain subplot with a chaos theorist and his stow-away daughter who won’t be named here, but if you know what I’m talking about, good for you. Anyway, the plot moves smoothly, no BS, just Indominosaur birth, journey of the brothers, park montage, (spoilers), and adding to the realism of theme park operation: product placement that actually makes sense (You reading this Michael Bay?) and while not entirely adding to the plot, not detracting either, so it makes sense to see a Ben and Jerry’s, a Brookstone, and have Verizon Wireless present a new dinosaur. You thought the effects of Jurassic Park (and the idea of dinosaurs being cloned) was special? Try effects that still stick to animatronics where they can, while doing what 90s CGI couldn’t (or wouldn’t) do, like giant flocks of pterosaurs and GMDs (Genetically Modified Dinosaurs). Michael Giacchino provides a riveting score. Nothing original (that’s memorable like the original Jurassic Park overture), but with a little fine tuning and some new parts, we get the world’s first genetically modified soundtrack, which also reflects the heightened stakes of 20,000+ people instead of ten (twelve at most?). Jurassic World is not always doom-and-gloom: contrasting personalities of Zach and Gray, of Claire and the Taylor mom, Claire and Owen, this one guy from the control room with an original Jurassic Park t-shirt and Claire, as well as Claire and Simon, make for funny, if not hilarious moments that bring us back to the humanity of the situation. There is profanity, but all of it’s called for, and in good taste (unlike a certain t-shirt). All of this makes Jurassic World the Jurassic Park sequel we deserved, but didn’t need until now; because every generation needs a reminder of what happens when we play God. This theme is exactly the reason we stick together with film: for survival.