Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

When will we learn that life…uh…finds a way no matter what we try to do to control it???

Taking place a few years after the events of the original Jurassic World, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom sees our protagonists Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) and Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) yet again get drawn into a life or death situation involving genetically modified dinosaurs. This time around, however, there’s a twist: they’re trying to savethe dinos from another extinction event as the clock ticks down to the inevitable eruption of the volcano on the island, which will unequivocally destroy what remains of the original park and any living creature on it. But when Owen and Claire finally do arrive, not everything goes according to plan, and before they know it, a group of mercenaries supposedly sent to help the dinosaurs survive have taken matters into their own hands for a nefarious purpose unknown to our heroes. Now, it’s up to Owen, Claire, and a small group of Claire’s closest confidants to stop the mercenaries from acquiring the dinosaurs, or risk becoming just another fossil on an island that most definitely will not survive the night.

I have to admit, the trailers for this film really made me roll my eyes at the direction this franchise was heading in. The original Jurassic World, while not the best or worst film in the franchise, did a whole lot to update the series as well as add what I consider “modern” filmmaking trappings i.e. a lot of flash and sizzle, but not a whole lot of heart or substance. For the most part, the original succeeded in this regard, doing away with the more – for lack of a better word – “grounded” approach to the idea of dinosaurs running rampant, and making the series into more of an over the top action/adventure film than anything else. With Fallen Kingdom, these films have completely flipped genres to being straight-up action films, with very little else in between save for a few scenes of horror and tension when the script calls for it. Now that raptor’s out of the bag, seeing that this is the direction of the franchise moving forward, it’s a whole lot easier to swallow and tolerate what happens onscreen whereas the first time around I was a bit more hesitant to accept these changes.

With returning stars Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, Fallen Kingdom is able to ease back into the chaos of being dino dinner relatively easily. The opening scene, while eye roll worthy when you really think about it (as with most of the film), comes the closest to replicating that terror of the very first scene of Jurassic Park, bad acting aside. New director J.A. Bayona is, in my opinion, a much better choice to helm the series than Jurassic World’s Colin Trevorrow, mostly because the at times the weak and wacky script comes off as somewhat competent and fun in the hands of Bayona, the cinematography and lighting of all things allowing the film to look more serious and well put together even though what happens during the course of the film is just as shoddy as its predecessor.

That being said, and for all of the entertaining qualities Fallen Kingdom exhibits in its first two acts, nothing can really save the final half hour or so from becoming exactly what I was hoping this film would avoid becoming: a big, dumb, half-assed tent pole film that goes for the cool moments rather than the plausibility of said moments. Obviously the entire premise of these films is implausible at best – this I’m aware of – but a certain twist regarding a new character named Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon) just falls completely flat, and the beats involving the cool looking, but completely tacked on Indo Raptor, threaten to bring the relatively solid first three quarters of the film to a grinding halt. If it weren’t for my love of the franchise and dinosaurs in general, I would have scored this film drastically lower solely on the eye roll qualities of the last section of the film.

Regardless of the missteps along the way, I highly enjoyed this movie more than I think I should have, but with a final act that I found completely ridiculous and a few twists that were just plain dumb, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is a movie that doesn’t shy away from the absurdity of its premise, but also finds ways to create a fun, action packed thrill ride that surprises more than expected. I can’t say that I didn’t see the final few moments of set-up for the inevitable sequel coming (I totally called it a few years back), but whatever comes next will be the movie I think this franchise has been heading towards the entire time. Some pretty bad story decisions aside, I can wholeheartedly recommend this film to Jurassic Park fans and newcomers alike, just don’t expect to understand the reasoning for a damn thing during the last half hour or so.