Films of the Decade, No. 22


Over the next 25 weeks I'll be rolling out my favorite films of the last decade. This is, as all lists of this kind, personal selections. Agree, disagree, make a comment and share your thoughts!

No. 22 Jurassic World (2015)
Starring: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Irrfan Khan, Vincent D'Onofrio, Nick Robinson, Ty Simpkins, and Jake Johnson
Director: Colin Trevorrow
Academy Award Nominations: 0
Academy Award Wins: 0
About: The countdown continues with one of the biggest pop culture hits of the decade, and one of the biggest surprises for me. "Jurassic Park," directed by Steven Spielberg, based on the novel from Michael Crichton and released in 1993, is one of my favorite movies of all time. In so many ways, I think it's a masterpiece. That includes the idea that the film tackles the dangers in thinking we can play God. When I originally heard about "Jurassic World," I was weary. The sequels to "Jurassic Park" weren't great, and the idea that the park could be built and welcoming visitors, commercializing these creatures, seemed so counter to the ideas in the original novel, which goes much darker than Spielberg's film. But what I saw was something moving, engaging, and wonderful. It was one of my favorite films that year, and it endures as a film that I've kept coming back to. While the sequel in 2018 wasn't great, and the next sequel has me concerned a bit, too, this original kept the ideas of the original "Jurassic Park," updating the themes to what we're battling in 2015. I thought that was a brilliant stroke, and one of the reasons I found the film so compelling and enduring. This is a big, pop culture film, but it's also a multi-layered piece of art. And it was one of the better entries in the last decade.
Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of science-fiction violence and peril.

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