'Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom' A Review

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is an action/adventure movie. a sequel to 2015's Jurassic World and the fifth in the Jurassic Park series. The story picks up three years after its predecessor and the volcano on the dino-island is about to erupt. In a hard-to-believe animal rights effort Claire(Bryce Dallas Howard) and Owen(Chris Pratt) return on a mission to save various dinosaurs and get them to an animal sanctuary. The team is organized by the blatantly suspect Lockwood foundation and the turn, which is spoiled heavily in the trailers, is that the mission is not a rescue effort but a money making mercenary scheme. The fact that the "rescue mission" is made up of a force of 100 paramilitary is something the lead characters seem not to question. Our leads barely survive the volcanic eruption and the black market dino auction and final showdown take place at the Lockwood estate.

Howard and Pratt, both solid performances, fail again to rise above the lazy writing and convoluted illogical plot in which their characters appear. There are a handful of decent performances- Jeff Goldblum reprising his role as Dr. Malcolm, Daniella Pineda as Dr. Rodriguez, Geraldine Chaplin as Iris, and Isabella Sermon as Maisie- but they are all supporting even bit players with slivers of screen time. The bulk of the movie is carried and dropped by Howard and Pratt. They are competent actors but this new trilogy operates under the false impression that it was the dinosaurs alone that made the original film rocket towards the front of the cultural zeitgeist when in fact it was the fully flushed out compelling characters that allowed us to experience the wonder and danger of the dinosaurs.

Overly CGI'ed and apathetically plotted this installment is marginally better than it's predecessor perhaps because it abandons the lip service to characterization the first Jurassic World attempted and so disgustingly failed at.

In a world where dinosaurs are genetically re-engineered it may seem odd to question the internal logic of the movie however genre films work doubly hard to maintain narrative credibility. The whole concept of worldbuilding exists for this reason- to have fictitious sometimes fantastic worlds that operate by other-wordly means in consistent ways. I can buy that these dinosaurs exist but I can't buy the inconsistency and vagueness of Claire's character, job, and skills. I don't buy that Dr. Rodriguez and Owen are ostensibly veterans but don't recognize a clearly military force. The characters half-assedly debate the "rights" of the dinosaurs yet the movie is book ended with an excellent monologue by Dr. Malcolm explicitly refuting the idea we should care about them. Not to mention the ENTIRE SERIES has been about human hubris and the inevitable violent reaction of the dinosaurs. How could this "animal rights" angle possible exist after the sweeping and substantial loss of life over the course of three decades. It makes no sense.

The reason Jurassic Park was so successful and stands the test of time was because it had heart and conveyed a certain wonder and mystery about life. It wasn't because it featured multiple violent dinos. It seems the Jurassic World creators have no idea why the original was a success and continue to flounder pathetically.

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