Fun, thrilling & appropriately horrific in the right places, Jurassic World is a ginormous addition to the monster movie cannon, with excellent visual effects, charismatic performances & great direction combining to make a highly entertaining popcorn movie.

It's been 22 years since Jurassic Park wowed the masses with its ground breaking special effects & iconic moments. Just like Jaws before it, filmmaker extraordinaire Steven Spielberg created a monster movie that set the bar for others to follow. 

While Jurassic World doesn't quite reach those heights, this forth entry in the series is the strongest since Spielberg first scared us with a vibrating cup of water all those years ago, director Colin Trevorrow applying the monster movie elements of Spielberg & James Cameron (Aliens) to create a mixed breed sci-fi horror adventure that features (ironically) a mixed breed dinosaur as its "villain".

The film begins with the dinosaur theme park located on Isla Nubar, and initially envisioned by John Hammond (played by the late, great Richard Attenborough), fully operational and taking on tourists by the thousands. Now owned by multibillionaire Simon Masrani (Irrfan Khan) and managed by Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard), the idea is hatched to create an even bigger attraction to boost revenue in the form of a hybrid dinosaur that’s more monstrous, intelligent and has way more teeth than anything spurned from the prehistoric age.

However when this “Tyrannosaurus Frankenstein” escapes from its enclosure and is let loose upon the unsuspecting man-made prehistoric theme park, it is up to Claire and on-site Velociraptor trainer Owen (Chris Pratt) to stop this vicious creature known as Indominus Rex from laying waste to thousands of lives (both human and dinosaur), including that of Claire’s visiting nephews Zach (Nick Robinson) and Gray (Ty Simpkins).

With his impressive directorial debut Safety Not Guaranteed securing him the director’s chair on Jurassic World, Colin Trevorrow does an impressive job establishing himself as a blockbuster filmmaker who not only lets his influences shine through his work, but also puts his own stamp on a franchise that will always be associated with Steven Spielberg.

While Trevorrow cheekily references the original Jurassic Park with consistent nods to its classic greatness, he wastes no time laying down his own creative vision as a filmmaker who is able to blend huge visual spectacle, horror movie elements, witty comedy and that ever important human element.

Unlike the 2014 version of Godzilla, the characters featured in Jurassic World are actually worth caring about, making the stakes that much more palpable and the scenes featuring carnivorous monsters trying to chomp on scrambling human prey that much more thrilling.

Key to the strength of this element is the casting of both Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, actors whose scene stealing talents are successfully implemented when up against their monstrous visual effects counterparts.

While the characters Pratt and Howard portray are very much in the vein of The African Queen duo Katherine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart (one pristine methodical, the other scruffy adventurer), when the dino-crap hits the fan they quickly resemble other iconic roles, with Bryce Dallas Howard channelling the likes of James Cameron’s female action heroines Ripley (Aliens) and Sarah Connor (The Terminator), while Chris Pratt does his best job auditioning for the Indiana Jones role which many have predicted he has secured.

A lively and gripping addition to the franchise, Jurassic World successfully resurrects a long gestating film series while securing the blockbuster credentials of all involved.