Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)

Review

128min

Genre:     Action, Adventure, Sci-fi

Director:  J.A. Bayona

Cast:       Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jeff Goldblum…and more

Writers:   Colin Trevorrow, Derek Connolly and Michael Crichton

-Synopsis-

Four years after the disastrous events at the ‘Jurassic World’, ‘Owen’ and ‘Claire’ return to the ruined island park on an expedition to save the surviving dinosaurs from re-extinction at the hands of a raging volcano, only to be confronted by a conspiracy involving corporate greed and genetic meddling . . . in that which should have remained extinct.

Three years after lucratively reviving the franchise and proving how much dino love remains out there, Colin Trevorrow turns writer/producer and hands over the reins to Spanish director J.A. Bayona (The Orphanage, A Monster Calls), as they reunite the stars of ‘Jurassic World’ while bringing in both new and familiar faces—crafting the latest big-budget parable about man’s folly in playing god . . . and proving that Hollywood always finds a way.

Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard return as Owen and Claire, grown apart after surviving the destruction of Jurassic World, him going back to rural life and her becoming an animal welfare activist—both brought back together by a dino rescue mission funded by ‘Benjamin Lockwood’ (James Cromwell) and his right-hand-man ‘Eli Mills’ (Rafe Spall), intent on rescuing the remaining ‘Isla Nublar’ dinosaurs from their fiery fate. But when hidden agendas are revealed and things take a turn, the two former lovebirds and their capable friends must choose who and what to protect—while preventing the many mistakes of the past from being repeated . . . again.

In terms of dinosaurs running wild and humans paying for their arrogance, if you thought you’d seen it all . . . you would be right. ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ has no intention of taking real risks or providing anything new, let alone something particularly inventive or groundbreaking. With a proven formula which netted them a staggering $1.6 billion at the global box office in the last outing, Universal understandably plays it safe and delivers a timeless parable wrapped in huge non-stop action sequences, sprinkled with plenty of nostalgia and the odd bit of genuine humour too.

Yet if you’re a fan of the whole ‘Jurassic’ series, and not just the masterpiece of a blockbuster which started it all in 1993, then there’s plenty here to feed your dino disaster needs, and ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ will probably tick many of your boxes. You can expect plenty of huge action set-pieces and creature mayhem, brought to life by a mix of traditional and modern cinematic techniques, throwing popular characters into the frenzy and introducing some spirited new ones—not to mention delivering an environmental and animal rights message through some good old-fashioned Hollywood anthropomorphism.

You would be forgiven for thinking that audiences might have become weary of the whole ‘man messing with nature’ thing by the third film in the series back in 2001, yet the success of ‘Jurassic World’ proved that we’re willing to take more broad sermonising for the promise of dino-disaster and classic ‘Jurassic’ touchpoints. And ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ certainly stays on message, adding a human element to the genetics parable while weaving some corporate deception into the narrative, and taking the crisis beyond a park or an island—as ‘The Lost World’ did in 1997—but upping the scale to potentially put the franchise into ‘Planet of the Apes’ territory.

However there’s no denying that the formula is becoming stale, and that seeing dinosaurs run wild on screen has lost its magical appeal for most of us too old to wear knee pants. Despite the commendable efforts to blend traditional effects like top-notch models and animatronics with lavish CGI, no amount of impressive effects—or indeed another accomplished score from Michael Giacchino—can gloss over the fact that this just looks and feels like your standard well-made but underwhelming modern studio blockbuster. There’s also a lower level of charm and humour here than in ‘Jurassic World’, with Chris Pratt’s talents being underused, if not altogether squandered.

Yet Bayona, Trevorrow and fellow writer Derek Connolly do manage to introduce something slightly new, by somewhat changing the tone and re-introducing some of the darker thriller elements which made the 1993 original so gripping, and even taking a tentative turn into creature horror by the third act—but never truly committing to it.

There’s one thing this film doesn’t have that its 2015 predecessor did—time. More specifically fourteen years since the previous film in the series ‘Jurassic Park III’ and plenty of absence to make the audience’s heart grow fonder, not to mention being able to introduce cinematic dino-mayhem to a new generation, all of which undoubtedly contributed to the success of that film. ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ will rake in the dough but it’s unlikely to bother the box office records, with this becoming the latest series to be diluted by its release frequency and perhaps suffer from audience fatigue—as yet another studio reaches for the tantalising low-risk ‘cinematic universe’ dollar.

Though it sets up what is a less refined cinematic universe than certain Disney fare—although it’s already more promising than Universal’s own ‘Dark Universe’ and some other studios’ efforts—‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ adds up to another slick, nostalgic and entertaining if uninspired bit of big-budget escapism, largely sticking to a winning recipe and proving to be a solid enough two-hour time-killer.

The Bottom Line…

Predictable and familiar but entertaining big-budget creature-feature escapism, ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ rarely veers from a proven formula and builds slightly on the nature parable running through the whole series—making for an enjoyable if uninspired summer blockbuster which further dilutes the novelty of the premise, while pushing the franchise out into the big bad world . . . and perhaps launching yet another lucrative cinematic universe.

Similar films you may like (Home Video)

Jurassic World (2015)

On the original island where the tragic events of ‘Jurassic Park’ took place and after 10 years of a successfully run international ‘dino-park’, the novelty starts to wear off and profits are squeezed prompting management to create a genetically engineered ‘super-dinosaur’ as an attraction, unsurprisingly the consequences are disastrous in the 4th installment of the ‘Jurassic Park’ franchise.

Directed by Colin Trevorrow and starring Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard and Vincent D’Onofrio among others.

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