Jurassic World Parent Guide

Few actors have perfected the steely stare-down as well as Chris Pratt. Luckily that demanding look comes in handy when he makes eye contact with a rogue velociraptor in the movie Jurassic World. Pratt plays Owen Grady, a maverick animal trainer in charge of this dangerous breed of dinosaur at the Jurassic World theme park.

Owen gets called into action by operations manager Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) when questions arise over an enclosure for the park’s latest attraction, the Indominus Rex. The huge, genetically altered creature was developed in a test tube at the facility’s research center as a way to attract more visitors to the island resort. However, it appears the carnivore is far smarter than the scientists intended.

After escaping from the paddock, the ferocious monster goes on a hunting spree that leaves a wake of dead carcasses and half-eaten corpses in his path. The scenes of animal slaughter and human consumption are often explicit, gruesome and bloody. Yet the fear factor increases when Claire’s nephews, Gray and Zach (Ty Simpkins, Nick Robinson) who are touring the attractions in a gyrosphere, become the prey.

For adults and teens, this awe-inspiring world of pre-historic beasts is worth visiting. The special effects have been upped in this production making the dinosaurs look amazingly real. In true amusement park fashion, this tourist destination features such things as a petting zoo, dinosaur rides, safari-like tours and shopping. Visitors can also float down the river among the plant-eating species or take a monorail ride through the reserve.

Still, as is to be expected, human tinkering in the lab leads to disaster in the field. That’s when this sci-fi turns into an authentic monster movie with explosions, gunfire, and destruction. (All of this is accompanied by stream of mild and moderate profanities.)

This reboot of Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park franchise releases on the big screen 22 years after the original film. Based on a novel by Michael Crichton, the first movie brought in over $900 million during its 1993 theatrical run. Like that script, the 2015 version focuses not just on threats from killer dinosaurs, but relationships between siblings as well. Gray and Zach gain a greater appreciation for one another, as do Claire and her sister Karen (Judy Greer). There’s a budding romance too—after all, what action film would be complete without a prolonged moment of kissing in the middle of the raging mayhem?

While Jurassic World may lack some of the fresh concepts introduced in it predecessor, it still comes with enough intensity and jump scenes to be a good option for teens or adults wanting some fright factor without a lot of content concerns.

About author

Kerry Bennett

Kerry Bennett is interested in media from both a journalist and parent perspective. Along with authoring articles for several family-oriented publications, she has written for Parent Previews for over 15 years. As a parent herself, she believes parents play a powerful role in teaching media literacy in their homes.