JURASSIC WORLD : Wednesday 17th June 2015.

'JURASSIC WORLD' - the fourth film in the popular 'Jurassic' franchise has arrived with a record breaking new story twenty-two years after Steven Spielberg first bought us 'Jurassic Park' in 1993 that in itself grossed in excess of US$1B after the release of the 2013 20th Anniversary 3D Edition. In 1997 'Jurassic Park : The Lost World' followed, again Directed by Spielberg and in 2001 'Jurassic Park III' came along this time with Joe Johnston on Director duty. Those first three films made US$2,02B from combined budgets of US$229M. For fourteen years the idea and various scripts came and went languishing in development hell, until Colin Trevorrow came on board in 2013 with the resulting fourth instalment which I saw earlier this week.

This film is set twenty-two years after the disastrous events of 'Jurassic Park' took place with a now fully functioning dino theme park 'Jurassic World' open for business on the island of Isla Nublar off the Central American coast - the location of the first film too. As the film opens brothers Zach & Gray Mitchell (Nick Robinson & Ty Simpkins respectively) are being packed off for a VIP trip to Jurassic World where Aunt Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) oversees the entire operation. Arriving via plane, ship & monorail on Isla Nublar the gates open on the new luxury theme park to hordes of eager tourists and sightseers keen to experience the biggest, scariest, baddest beasts of yesteryear roaming around wild and free (albeit captive on the island). When they arrive Claire is too busy to give them any attention and sends them off with VIP passes to go enjoy themselves. See ya later!

The park is operated by InGen and today the owner of said park, one of the world's richest men, Simon Masrani (Irrfan Khan) of the Masrani Corporation is visiting to check out his latest, and yet to be revealed, exhibit. Back in the lab Masrani converses with Chief Geneticist Dr. Henry Wu (B.D.Wong) returning from the series opening film but since promoted (big time). With the need to showcase new, big, exciting attractions to satisfy the tourists, secure additional sponsorship dollars and encourage more & more visitation Wu has engineered 'Indominus rex' from several predatory dinosaur genes as well as those from other modern animals (although Wu keeps the gene cocktail a closely guarded secret). Before Masrani shows off his latest greatest dinosaur creation he calls for Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) - the parks Velociraptor trainer, to check out Indominus and its purpose built enclosure for readiness, and presumably safety.

Meanwhile InGen's Head of Security Vic Hoskins (Vincent D'Onofrio) has a view that Grady's trained Velociraptor's could be trained for military purposes so creating an army of intelligent, agile, killing dinosaurs that could thwart any foe. After some Velociraptor shenanigans that show us what Grady has achieved with his four 'trained' reptiles, we move to the Indominus enclosure where Grady and Dearing are assessing its preparedness for opening. This is the first time that Grady sets eyes upon the engineered dinosaur, and quickly learns that this is one intelligent badass MoFo not to be toyed with. Needless to say that inspection doesn't go well and Indominus escapes leaving a trail of death and destruction quickly in its wake, and setting the scene for mayhem and misfortune aplenty.

Across the island 22,000 visitors on the day are enjoying interacting with dinosaurs large & small, friendly and vicious, carnivores and herbivores all. Oblivious about the fate that awaits, Dearing swings into action to close off the section of the island where Indominus is now roaming and doing its thang! We are talking about an intelligent agile animal here though with various abilities built into its engineered make-up, as well as its sheer scale, brute force and its basic need to eat. With various heavily armed security patrols sent out to capture and contain Indominus their fate too is not pretty and short-lived. The Mitchell brothers meanwhile check out the island in a gyrosphere sweeping across the grassland dodging non-dangerous dinosaurs and enjoying the spectacle. Until of course they venture across Indominus!

By now the island is in lock down and all tourists make there way back to the central hub to take shelter and prepare for evacuation . . . all 22,000 of them! As the dino-crap hits the fan Masrani (a chopper pilot in the making) takes off with two machine gun totting soldiers to track down Indominus from the air and end its trail of destruction. If only it were that simple! The rampaging animal smashes through into the pterosaur aviary unleashing a flock of vicious swooping winged killers, that as they escape take out Masrani's helicopter and head for the islands central hub and a tasty lunch . . . of the human kind.

With Masrani gone Hoskins assumes command of the island and the situation convincing Grady to use his four trained Velociraptors to hunt down and kill Indominus. Clearing out the lab of precious embryos Hoskins gets Wu off the island quickly with a bunch of safely secured samples (nicely setting up the sequel), and finishes off helping pack up more, when they are confronted by Grady, Dearing and the Mitchell brothers amidst all the carnage. Hoskins admits to them that Jurassic World is merely a vehicle with which to cultivate and engineer a super-army of genetically modified dinosaurs, at which point he is promptly munched upon by a Velociraptor.

This then sets the show down between Indominus, the Velociraptors and a T-Rex released deliberately to thwart the larger beast. More mayhem and destruction ensues across the central hub as night time descends on the park leaving Grady, Dearing and the Mitchells to dodge wrecked building debris and flying dinosaur bodies as the final fight to the death unfolds before us writ large, loud & proud on screen.

When the dust settles, the visiting public are evacuated back to Costa Rica and the island stands calm, peaceful and empty - except for the one victorious dinosaur and all those others that escaped and now roam free, and free of any human intervention.

This is a very respectable fourth film in the franchise and is well handled by Director Colin Trevorrow. The story is solid enough, it moves along at a good pace, the action set pieces are very well handled, the creature effects are first rate and the nods to the original film are a nostalgic touch. You should see this on the big screen, and given that this instalment has generated already US$760M as of 20th June and smashed a whole bunch of records, you can bet that another film will follow and that Chris Pratt will also star, having signed up for more Jurassic World outings.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

RICHARD ATTENBOROUGH - dies aged 90 - R.I.P.

Richard Samuel Attenborough was born in Cambridge on August 29th 1923 and died at lunchtime on Sunday 24th August 2014 following a prolonged period of illness, just five days from his 91st birthday.

Brother of David Attenborough, the acclaimed and equally renowned naturalist and broadcaster, he was educated at Wyggeston Grammar School in Leicester and studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He served in the Royal Air Force during the second World War, and after pilot training was seconded to the new RAF Film Unit at Pinewood Studios where he volunteered to fly with the film unit flying several sorties over Europe filming the bombing raids. This gave him a taste for film making which later on would fuel his hunger for Directing.

His acting career began in the Noel Coward/David Lean production of 'In Which We Serve' in 1942, although he was uncredited by mistake. It was however, the 1947 adaptation of the classic Graham Greene novel, 'Brighton Rock', in which Attenborough starred as small time local crim, Pinkie Brown, that was to prove his breakthrough. Two years later in 1949, he was voted the sixth most popular actor in British cinema.

For the next thirty years he worked prolifically, with his starring role alongside many Hollywood heavyweights in 1963's 'The Great Escape' that was to prove another milestone - his big screen epic Hollywood breakthrough. This was followed up by the likes of 'The Flight of the Phoenix', 'Sand Pebbles' and 'Doctor Dolittle' starring with James Stewart, Steve McQueen and Rex Harrison respectively - the latter two roles winning him back-to-back Golden Globe Awards for Best Supporting Actor.

His Directing debut came in 1969 with 'Oh, What a Lovely War' and then the period epics 'Young Winston' and 'A Bridge Too Far'. 1982's 'Gandhi' won him two Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture, as he also acted as Producer on that film.

He married actress Sheila Sim in 1945, and they remained married up to his death this past weekend. His eldest daughter, Jane Holland, and his granddaughter Lucy, were both tragically killed in the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami that struck Thailand while they were holidaying. In 2008 Attenborough had a pacemaker fitted and suffered a stroke later that year that left him wheelchair bound until his death. In late 2012 his wife was diagnosed with senile dementia and in early 2013 he moved into the actors nursing home, Denville Hall, to be with his wife.

In 1967, he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), and in 1993 was made a life peer as Baron Attenborough of Richmond-on-Thames. in 1983 he was awarded the 'Padma Bhusan' - India's third highest civilian honour and that same year the 'Martin Luther King Jnr. Nonviolence Peace Prize'. In 2006 with his brother David, he was awarded as a 'Distinguished Honourary Fellow of the University of Leicester', and in 2008 an 'Honourary Doctorate of Drama from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama'. He also has a 30,000 sq.ft. sound stage named after him at Pinewood Studios which was unveiled in 2012 - his career then almost coming full circle!

His film performances run to 78 credits and began in 1942 with 'In Which We Serve', and took in over more than half a century with the likes of 'Brighton Rock', 'The Great Escape', 'The Flight of the Phoenix', 'Doctor Dolittle', 'The Last Grenade', '10, Rillington Place', 'Ten Little Indians', 'Brannigan', 'Jurassic Park', 'Miracle on 34th Street', 'Hamlet', 'The Lost World : Jurassic Park', and 'Elizabeth'. In addition he has thirteen Producer and twelve Director credits to his name including 'Oh, What a Lovely War', 'Young Winston', 'A Bridge Too Far', 'Gandhi', 'A Chorus Line', 'Cry Freedom', 'Chaplin', 'Shadowlands' and his last offering - 2007's 'Closing the Ring'.

He was the recipient of 31 career award wins and 16 other nominations including two Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director for 'Gandhi'; three Golden Globes for Best Director for 'Gandhi' and Best Supporting Actor for 'Sand Pebbles' and 'Doctor Dolittle' with two other nominations; and six BAFTA wins for Best Actor for 'Guns at Batsai' and 'Seance on a Wet Afternoon', Best Film for 'Gandhi' and 'Shadowlands', Best Director for 'Gandhi' as well as winning the 'Academy Fellowship Award' in 1983, plus eight other nominations.

Richard Attenborough - an icon of British film history, a star of numerous Hollywood classics, active in the industry for seven decades, a respected influence to many, and the provider of a film legacy both in front and behind the camera that will live on in motion picture history, may you forever Rest In Peace in the knowledge that you have left an indelible mark on the world of cinema.

Richard Attenborough - Rest In Peace
1923-2014.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-