A Reel Review: JURASSIC WORLD - FALLEN KINGDOM

Ever since Steven Spielberg wowed us with his dinosaur action-flick JURASSIC PARK in 1993, filmmakers, including Spielberg himself, have been trying to find the proper way to follow-up the story of cloned dinosaurs existing in today’s world. The problem is that anytime dinosaurs and humans get together, only one thing can happen, so every sequel is doomed to repeat what’s been done before. It’s been 25 years of that and we now arrive at sequel no. 4 to crack the code, with JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM.

Three years after the events of the previous film, Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard), a former Jurassic World employee turned dinosaur activist, and Owen (Chris Pratt), a former dinosaur trainer, are recruited by a corporation led by Eli (Rafe Spall), and his grandfather (James Cromwell), a former partner of dino-cloner founder John Hammond…to return to the former Jurassic Park/World island to rescue the dinosaurs, which are now in danger of extinction thanks to an erupting volcano on the island.

Seemingly aware of the repetitive nature of all the JURASSIC PARK sequels, director J.A. Bayona’s first order of business this time around is to change things up. The idea of travelling back to the island to pull the dinos off for conservation is a new angle, and offers a modern-day, eco-friendly, green-activism storyline that is new to the franchise. This takes up most of the first act, and is very effective. By act two, a few predictable twists come around, and the dinosaurs and our heroes are double-crossed; the creatures are taken off island for other purposes other than conservation.

What then follows is a mish-mash of too many plotlines including corporate greed, new dinosaur species, human cloning, Russian mobsters and terrorists, war profiteering, and family secrets. It all gets thrown at us at faster than a T-Rex on a lunch date, and not one of the plot lines really stick. And despite the attempts at changing things up, by the third act we’re right back to dinosaurs escaping captivity and tearing things up while stopping for a human-sized snack now and then.

JURASSIC WORLD feels like it went into production based on a first draft of the script; characters do stupid things for no reason (Claire gets suckered back to the island way too easily), and we’re introduced to an expert on dinosaur biology (wonderfully played by Daniella Pineda), who has never seen a dinosaur. There’s also gaps in continuity (lava comes out of nowhere in one scene), and a complete lack of depth (a late twist involving a character’s parentage has zero effect on anyone). It’s a shallow mess.

Bayona has a few moments of brilliance here and there. A scene involving a brontosaurus burning to death on the exploding island is a heartbreaker, an early sequence with that same old T-Rex creeping down a darkened hallway is excellent, and the film’s only emotional moment comes from a raptor in pain.  These moments are few, and most of the film doesn’t have the ability to raise any pulses; it’s bland, predictable, and quite boring. Some callbacks to the first film appear here and there, and serve little purpose other than reminding us what world we’re in. The CGI dinosaurs look great in some scenes, cartoony in others…while some practical effects puppets look fantastic. Michael Giacchino’s score is ridiculously out of place; sounding like a damn opera with its blasting choral sections and overdramatic swells.

Acting is all over the place. Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Pratt are fine; both very funny and seem to enjoy working with each other. Pratt’s character is completely inconsistent as he suddenly goes from a nature-lover to kung-fu fighting expert. Rafe Spall is a surprise and shows great chops as a bad guy, and screen veterans James Cromwell, Toby Jones, and Ted Levine are fine as always. Daniella Pineda is excellent, and Jeff Goldblum reprises his old JURASSIC PARK character in a cameo…and does nothing but recite metaphors. Young Isabella Sermon (since all JURASSIC movies have to have a kid) is excellent.

By the time the noisy and headache-inducing finale is over, the dinosaurs are finally, and mercifully, in a different space. It’s the first sequel of the JURASSIC PARK franchise to take the story of the cloned creatures forward, it’s just too bad that the path to get there was so ill-conceived and sloppy. The ideas are there, but it is poorly put together to the point that it becomes an annoyance. To paraphrase Goldblum’s character from the first JURASSIC PARK, this is one big pile of shit.

BOTTOM LINE: Fuck it