Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is directed by J.A. Bayona and written by Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly, and is the fifth installment of the Jurassic Park franchise. Continuing off of the events from the last movie, the island containing the park is set to be doomed due to an active volcano set to erupt. In order to save as many species as possible, a former colleague of Dr. Hammond’s hires Owen and Claire to lead the expedition, along with finding the raptor, Blue. However, much like other films in this franchise, some greedy business is being brewed in secret.
In the topic of films that have left a landmark on film history, one of the first that comes to mind is Jurassic Park, which to this day is one of my favorite movies and one of Steven Spielberg’s best works. It took Michael Crichton’s novel about man’s tampering with nature to bring about dinosaurs, and crafted it into a genre film that tackles action adventure, family drama, science fiction, and horror perfectly, with a cast that defines these characters perfectly. I still remember going to see this at the 3d 20th anniversary re-release, and despite not being that great a conversion, there was never a moment where I didn’t feel like a little kid, watching a dark but fun movie.
The only problem that I have with it, is that it’s another one of those movies that should have never became a franchise. Sure, the first film was once the highest grossing film of all time, but even when they pressured Michael Crichton to write another book, it just felt forced. The Lost World, while has some memorable moments, is a film that felt tacked on to try and do something else. Jurassic Park III, while people argue as the worst, did have a few meta moments that, while looking back, I kind of see was done a little more tongue-in-cheek. Had the franchise ended there, I probably would have been okay with it, as long as it meant it was over.
I didn’t really think Jurassic World was going to that big a deal when it came out, especially when there were people trying to get me hyped up for it along with Age of Ultron and The Force Awakens. While the majority did say it was fine, they did mention how it leaves most of the grounded nature and wonder the first one; however, when I did my worst films of 2015 roundup, Jurassic World ended up being one of those films, because it ended up putting me to sleep. I’m not even joking, I fell asleep at a movie that had hybrid dinosaurs and Starlord riding a motorcycle with dinosaurs...and somehow grossed over $1 billion; to say that I’m shocked, would require not being used to overwhelming stupidity.
We pretty much knew a sequel was inevitable, but I was actually kind of interested in seeing where Fallen Kingdom would go, mostly due to the director, J.A. Bayona; getting someone like him who has worked with both horror and family entertainment prior to this, would have been a pretty good fit for the job. And to his credit, this is a very well directed movie; most of the action does flow progressively with the rest of the film, the framework and lighting are gorgeous (haunting, but impressive), and even the effects look better. A major complaint about the first film was that they marketed saying they were using practical effects again, but the finished product made it look like a CG mess; here, there are a lot of close ups of the dinosaurs, and you can see the details on the puppetry and animatronics. Michael Giacchino’s score is also magnificent; if there is anybody in this day and age that’s set to be the next John Williams, it’s him.
However, that’s pretty much all of the positive feedback I can give to the movie; the rest of it falls due to the messy, disinteresting, and unoriginal this script is. The movie starts and bookends with Jeff Goldblum reprising as Ian Malcolm talking about how this is a mistake that nature is correcting for us, and much like always, he is right...however, we have to focus on characters who are against it, but it doesn’t come off as naturally. Part of the reason I gave Jurassic World slack as better than the previous two, was because I thought they were ignoring those two movies and doing something new; however, it was revealed that they ARE canon, by saying the dinosaurs on the second island were taken to the first one. Why not send them back to the other island, so they can live in peace? Because then we would have a franchise to milk, that’s why.
The movie mid-way through ends up on auto-pilot, as it ends up recycling a lot of previous plot points and sequences from the rest of the series; the plot already feels like a remake of The Lost World, but they even recycle the stupid subplot about splicing dino DNA together constantly. The unity of action, on paper, reeks of the problems that Iron Man 2, BvS, and Spiderman: Homecoming; it feels like a placeholder film that was just made, so we have build up to the next one (at least Trevorrow ADMITS to that). Also, the third act keeps throwing in all these convoluted plot points all at once, such as Hammond's former partner having a lawyer that wants to sell dinosaurs in the black market, the main villain hunter guy letting the new dino loose, and...what is going on here? Also, apparently a group of living dinosaurs goes for about $120 million...this movie was $170 million, by the way.
As for the characters...there are none. I’m not even trying to be funny with this one, there is hardly any character development with anybody this time around. A problem I didn’t even notice with in the previous Jurassic World, was that the inclusion of a character like Owen as the lead, further ruins the charm of the first film; if you recall, Jurassic Park didn’t have any action-lead characters or any macho Stallone or Schwarzenegger type, it had nerds in the lead roles. That’s another reason people adore the first movie, because the characters were likable and relatable too. The only thing that’s really close to an action guy in the first movie was Bob Peck as Muldoon, and he got killed. Sure, Owen’s charming, but he doesn’t learn anything; he goes from being this bum building a house, to the same bum who builds his house, but with more dinosaurs. Claire might have gained a change of heart from the last film, but the film barely explores that aspect about she too is responsible. There are also two other young assistants that tag along, but they don’t add anything either.
SPOILER ALERT
Now if there is one major problem that I had with the film, it’s the little girl in this movie, who's the granddaughter of John Hammond’s old partner, who we never knew until now. She ends up released the dinosaurs into the world, instead of letting nature takes its course, because they’re clones, just like her...you heard right: the little girl in this movie, was a clone...okay, can I ask something: WHY ARE YOU FOCUSING ON BUYING DINOSAURS, WHEN YOU CAN SUCCESSFULLY CLONE A HUMAN BACK TO LIFE?!? Or even better yet, why is this subplot not explored even further?! And the movie doesn’t even treat this like a “HOLY SHIT! What a discover!”, it instead treats it as if the girl just came out as gay to her parents! Seriously, what the hell are you people smoking?!!
SPOILER ALERT
In conclusion, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom might have been more entertaining than the last, that does not excuse any of the batshit insane idiocy that’s crammed into this mess. And it sucks, because I thought this was finally going to be the first good Jurassic Park sequel; instead, we got the worst. If you guys want a Chris Pratt fix, just go watch any of his MCU movies; if you want dinosaurs, go watch the original Jurassic Park. I probably know a third Jurassic World is coming with Colin Trevorrow returning as director, but this franchise has overstayed its welcome, and it seriously needs to end.
Rating: D
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