Credit: Universal Pictures
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The previous Jurassic World film took the world by storm. Making box office history with an international openning weekend box office intake of $500 million. Smashing the box office intake of Marvels Age of Ultron. And whilst The Force Awakens knocked it off its perch later that year, it was an undeniable truth. A film with dinsoaurs and not superheros can make money. And the film itself was an enjoyable experience, a crowd pleaser. No masterpiece like the first but for what the film was, a fun ride with dinosaurs stomping, biting, killing and fighting, it accomplished what it set out to do.
Fallen Kingdom on the otherhand does not achieve the same level of entertainment. The film firstly seems to lack focus. Unlike Jurassic Park and Jurassic World where the focus was on the dinosaurs (or dinosaur in JW case) escaping and wrecking. This film tries to have twists and turns, which would have been fine if they were not seen from a mile away. The story starts two years after Jurassic Worlds disaster. A volcano is about to erupt and wipe out the dinosaurs a second time. And now Clair Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) and Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) are saving the dinosaurs. The issues wth the story arise when it tries to be complex and in the end just ends up just being baffeling and ridiculous. As for the characters they are still two deminensional. The difference here is that in Jurassic World, they were still entertaining, they never did anything that made you seriously question thier motives. Chriss Pratt had cool moments with the dinosaurs and Bryce Dallas Howard had a nice arc from a women who cares about the job and money to caring about the animals and people. It was a simple, cliche but still affective and touching story. Sadly that is not the case in this film. Both ators felt very dry and worse still had no chemisty. As for the new characters. Well the comic relief in the form of Justice Smiths Frank Webb (hes good with computers, geddit?) was not as annoying as he could have been but still the comedy felt oddly timed and delivered poorly. As for Daniella Pineda who plays paleo-vetrenarian Dr Zia Rodriguez, she was fine but her character was incredible obnoxious. They tried to paint her as a go getter but she acted more like an angry activist who thinks shouting is the key to getting what you want. A very obtrusive character to watch. As for the other characters they range from ok to baffling. Toby Jones and Rafe Spall who play Gunnar Eversoll and Eli Miles respectively are such characters. They start off fine then descend into lunacy near the end. Jame Cromwell felt underused as Benjamin Lockwood as if Jeff Goldblum who reprises his role as Ian Malcom. The child actress Isabella Sermon who plays Maisie, the obligatory child in every Jurassic Film, is ok, if a bit dry in the acting catagory but there have been worse child actors. Though her character does have an arc that is one of the afformentioned ridiculous moments. And Ken Wheatly as Ted Levine, the Robert Muldoon or Roland Tembo of this fim. Sadly without the memorable dialogue or perfromance of those characters. Though admittedly he has a very creepy and effective scene with the new hybrid, the Indoraptor. Even if it was brought about by stupidity and lazy writting.
That leads nicely into the good about this film, the dinosuars. This film contains some of the best dinsosaur scenes in any Jurassic films. From a truely fantastic opening involving two of Jurassic Worlds biggest dino-stars. To the inclusion of new dinosaurs such as Allosaurus, Carnotorous, Seinoceratops, Stygimolock and british dino Baryonx (finally a dinosaur not from the Americas of Asia). Which is something Jurassic franchise has always been good at introducing ether dinsouars that are unheard of or dinosaurs that haven't had they're big screen apperance. And the new hybrid The Indoraptor, whilst lacks the presence of the Indominous of the previous film, is still an eery and honestly terryfying addition. As for the films visuals, its a very aesthetically pleasing fim. The use of cinmatograhy and lighting to convey the size and scale of the dinosaurs. From tgetting the scope in the scene of the dinosaurs stampeding to the claustrophoic feeling when the indoraptor is let loose.
This film is very difficult to review. On the one hand it has some of the best cinematography and dinosaur scenes, including a truley heartbreaking one with a series staple, of the entire series yet also the worse characterisation and story the series has scene. Despite a truly epic opening the film just cannot kee the feeling of truimphant joy and fear of previous Jurassic films. (Excluding Jurassic Park 3)
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