JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM (2018) Review

Steven Spielberg had a vision. To create a world wherein human nature is tested when faced with the decision in altering its course. Five movies and millions of synthetically created dinosaurs later, Spielberg’s vision has been pushed further into the ground (where the actual dinosaurs lie). With JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM, Juan Antonio Bayona and his crew not only abolished the park, but nailed the coffin to this franchise. Here’s hoping the Park is gone, and for good.

Years after the tragedy of Jurassic World, a volcanic eruption threatens the lives of the dinosaurs who roam the island of Isla Nublar. Claire (Dallas Howard) fights to save these Paleolithic creatures, advocating for their lives with a team of young justice warriors (Smith, Pineda). When approached about moving the dinosaurs to an island sanctuary, Claire recruits Owen Grady (Pratt) to help. However, their rescue mission is not entirely what they believe it is, and the group must ensure these animals do not become extinct, again.

FALLEN KINGDOM wishes to be an exciting addition to the JURASSIC PARK franchise, as well as a fun and action-packed summer blockbuster. It is neither. It is senseless. Everything about this film’s plot was uninspired, which is impressive. You have a concept that is interesting, dinosaurs, and lots of action, so to say that the people behind this movie managed to make this bland is actually a great feat. The plot reveals and twists were easily spotted as an attention-grabbing-and-holding tactic, and they might have worked had they not been delivered at the same intensity as the rest of the movie. Blowing over major reveals does not do justice to the intelligence behind the actual idea.

Technically, there were parts I liked. Some scenes were acceptable call-backs to Spielberg’s original, with the rain, strobe lighting, and shadows. However, immediately after seeing cinematography I enjoyed, the CGI and reliance on the same boring cinematographic features were right there to slap me back to the reality of the quality of this film. Expanding on the technical aspects of this movie, this is quite honestly the most obnoxiously loud movie I have ever seen. There were multiple points I had to try and convince myself that there are a lot of movies that are loud. Finally, I realized that this movie is actually unnecessarily loud. It really took me out of the action, since I had to think whether or not I have ever experienced this decibel before.

It is hard to talk about actor performances when dialogue is a shifty as this. It felt as if every person involved with this film phoned it in. I say this because it is difficult to act with your complete potential when your character is somehow less than one-dimensional. I am talking in particular about Chris Pratt’s character, Owen Grady. Somehow, this movie reduced my interest in Pratt’s character, by diminishing him (and others) to one character quality: dinosaurs are humans too! JURASSIC WORLD was able to set up their main characters with at least some interesting background, and FALLEN KINGDOM was able to take away all of that character work in the interest of the main message. Secondary characters were even more unlikeable, and this is mainly due to the blatant misuse and needless nature of their simple existence.

Despite all of this, the main problem I have with this movie is its blatantly conflicting messages. It is pretty clear that throughout this movie, the characters and the audience are meant to feel sorry for the dinosaurs, in a “they did not ask to come back, and they are alive just like we are” way. Everything about the movie says this. The dialogue, the character choices, the plot reveals, everything. It could have worked like this, had it not been for the speech from Jeff Goldblum’s character, who gives the complete opposite message – “they are dangerous and were not supposed to come back”. Now, with the right tone and storytelling, this also could have worked, by making the audience believe Jeff Goldblum could be wrong. Yet, the audience is meant to agree ALSO with Goldblum! The inconsistency in the main message is impossible to look past, and the all of the film’s events are ultimately senseless because Jeff Goldblum had the audacity to speak logically.

Had the villain been interesting, had the plot points not been delivered at the same tone as the rest of the movie, had this not been the loudest movie I’ve ever seen, had the characters peaked my interest, and had the overall message not contradicted itself so obviously, this could’ve been good! But, alas.

Score: 1.3/10

Jade