BrynnonPicard's Review of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

Posted Jul 11th, 2018

This movie started out strong, and the action sequence on the island was well put together, with plenty of tense and thrilling moments. However, it really falls apart in the second half. One of the things that I felt was missing from this movie that its predecessor had was the sense of adventure. Only about a third of the movie is actually set on the island of Isla Nublar, and the rest of the plot unfolds at an old, secluded mansion in the US. I think this was a mistake, since it would have been really interesting to see what happened to the park in the years since it closed, and how the dinosaurs had adapted to it. I might have forgiven this disappointment if there had been a compelling story to keep me entertained instead. However, past the initial island sequence, which was well executed both in terms of direction and in terms of visuals, the story is weak and predictable. Once at the mansion, it basically becomes a game of hide and go seek with a new dinosaur we've been introduced to, interspersed with minor characters bumbling about, releasing more dinosaurs to make things worse. It became obvious the longer I watched that the director was chasing the thrill and tension of the island segment, trying to recreate these feelings in a long series of forgettable, nearly identical scenes.

Characters are remarkably 2-dimensional in this movie, with essentially no character development occurring. With the exception of Chris Pratt and Bryce Howard's characters, the others are remarkably stereotypical. I can sum up many of the characters in just a few words: the insufferable activist, the computer nerd, the military vet turned opportunistic soldier of fortune, just to name a few. The bad guys are all generically evil, and there's one particular scene which really showcases this, when the bad guys are auctioning off the dinosaurs, all the audience members look nearly indistinguishable from each other, dressed in all black, as their only function is to look ominous. Closer to the beginning of the movie, a little bit of work was done to develop the young girl's character, adventurous and mischievous, but it doesn't take long for her to lose it and become a generic kid running around scared. Jeff Goldblum's character, who acts as a sort of narrator for the beginning and ending, comes across as meandering and vague, saying nothing so concise or profound as "life finds a way" in the original Jurassic Park.

There are a few jokes in the film, but they were too few and far between to break apart this unfortunately underwhelming mess. As someone that enjoyed Jurassic World and its predecessor, the original Jurassic Park, I found this installment to be very disappointing.

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