The dinosaurs are back and bigger than ever in the newest installment to this 25 year old franchise. The question is if it is time for this series to become extinct? Join me as I review/discuss Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.
Fallen Kingdom makes up the middle chapter of this new trilogy of Jurassic films, from J.A.Bayona as the diretor, we see the return of Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard. The synopsis reads.
“Three years after the destruction of the Jurassic World theme park, Owen Grady and Claire Dearing return to the island of Isla Nublar to save the remaining dinosaurs from a volcano that’s about to erupt. They soon encounter terrifying new breeds of gigantic dinosaurs, while uncovering a conspiracy that threatens the entire planet.”
This review/discussion will have a few paragraphs discussing spoilers from the film, but that doesn’t come till later.
Going into this film, I was of two minds. Firstly I was promised this film would be tense, with some aspects maybe alluding to horror, I can say for me this was delivered in spades. I felt tense in some scenes, completely caught in the scene, there are indeed a scene or two which head towards a horror feel. Secondly I went into this film feeling like I knew everything what would happen from the 2 or maybe 3 trailers I had seen. Unfortunately this turned out to be true, I sometimes found myself thinking “I’ve seen this already”. This really annoyed me at parts of the film, knowing what would happen, it did somewhat distract me from the film.
The characters are for the most part enjoyable, none seemed to really take me out of the film, apart from a moment or two (discussed in the spoiler section). For me personally, unless its Alan Grant, Ellie Sattler or Ian Malcom, I don’t tend to connect and or care about the human characters in these films. While I do enjoy Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, they aren’t exactly the reason why I go to see this film. Just like human protagonists there must be a human antagonist, this film had a serviceable antagonist, he was there and didn’t serve much purpose other than “I’m bad and want money”, pretty bland but again the human characters don’t often grab my attention.
I had some minor problems with the film, for me film was too slow and a bit too much obvious exposition, however the film did pick up the pace as the plot got into motion, it kept a steady pace till the end of the film.
*SPOILERS*
I will be delving into the spoilers of the film right now, so if you do not want any spoilers, avoid this next section.
The opening to the film, was one of the scenes which had me on the edge of my seat, I was 100% in the hands of the film makers, it also made me realise just how much I wanted a horror Jurassic Park film. Seeing the T-Rex stood behind the man, almost stalking him and waiting for the perfect opportunity, was a moment which I truly loved.
The first act of this film did indeed have its problems, I felt as though I was getting a previously in Jurassic World, that may have been just me. Bryce Dallas Howards character “Claire” felt like a natural progression from the film film, she now wants to protect these animals from the volcano on the island (believe me I’ll get to that). In the first film her turning point was the Brachiosaurus dying caused from an by the Indominus Rex, now she is heading a group attempting to save the dinosaurs left on the island. However I was not a fan of how Owen and Claire broke up off screen, then guess what they are back together by the end, I joked after the film but if they break up again off screen, I won’t be too happy.
Now the human antagonist Mills played by Rafe Spall, was serviceable, he had 0 motivation for doing what he did besides the basic bland “I want money”. He wasn’t a deep character who I felt like added to the film, neither did he take away, he was just there to move the story ahead.
Now to on to one of the discussion points and somewhat divisive points of the film. Human cloning is now a thing, for some reason? This will be undoubtedly be expanded upon in the 3rd Jurassic World film, however in this film I wasn’t the biggest fan of the idea. I have to say that the child “Maisie” played by Isabella Sermon, was perfectly fine. It just beat me over the head with her being the spokesperson for the dinosaurs at the end. She has to tell us that the dinosaurs need to live because they are like her.
I do not particularly enjoy the idea of the volcano exploding, just out of personal preference, I get that they were going for a Lost World vibe of dinosaurs in the modern world, however it just felt like a quick and lazy way to get the dinos off the island and on mainland. That shot of the Brachiosaurus left on the island did get to me, I was upset and heartbroken for it, it was a great little moment.
My single biggest problem with the film is the trailers. The first trailer let me down as I saw “The T-Rex” moment, as the film went on I knew there would be another but I wasn’t happy about being shown that moment. That second trailer showed the Dino being “rescued” then taken and being auctioned as well as more from the IndoRaptor. I saw Blue get shot, the only part of this I got wrong in my prediction was that I thought Blue may have died, which I am glad she didn’t die. Quick note, I may have this wrong but I got really happy when at the end of the film, Blue runs off and goes elsewhere in the country, if I am not mistaken it looks like Utah, please correct me if I am wrong. It looked like Utah to me and as a grown man child, who was obsessed with dinosaurs, I got happy to see if Blue had migrated to Utah as that were Raptors lived.
The Indoraptor was enjoyable in the film, it did feel unkillable and far in a way too powerful, but I guess if they wanted to keep the hybrid dino story going, this was a natural progression. I do personally buy into the theory that this is the 3rd hybrid Dino, with the Indoraptor, Indominus rex and the Spinosaurus. Personally I hope this is the end of the hybrid dino story. I personally preferred the Indominus rex, but that comes down to person preference. However powerful the Indominus rex felt, it still felt killable to me where indoraptor didn’t at all.
Also just a quick last point, can someone explain to me how in a film with dinos and hybrids, that the scene which took me out of the film most and confused me was when Chris Pratt’s Owen straight up kicked the shit out of half of a dozen of trained soldiers? I really didn’t understand that scene at all.
*SPOILERS DONE*
This is a good film, and I would recommend anyone wanting a bit of fun to watch it, I personally prefer Jurassic World for the nostalgia feel. This will undoubtedly get seen by me a few more times. I would give Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom a 3/5. Please tell me what you all thought of the film, did you enjoy it? Please tweet me, go to my Facebook page or simply comment below, thanks.
My next film review will be the upcoming Sony superhero film, Venom. Tom Hardy will be staring at the character of Eddie Brock.
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