Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)
After the SPECTACULAR blockbuster film in 1993, a part of the dinosaur film Jurassic Park legacy was ruined by its poor sequels in 1997 and 2001. With Steven Spielberg as the main director and around, you've would have hoped it would have turned into the fun Indiana Jones series that had fun sequels. Instead, it turned into an epic miss of a series with an epic first film. Flashforward to 2015 to which you get had Jurassic World, the new reboot series which was sloppy and smelled of a money grab but was enough to get by. Now in 2018, you have Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, the sequel to Jurassic World. My oh my, this film.
After the events of the first film, Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) is trying to save the remaining dinosaurs on the island of Isla Nubar after the disaster of the Jurrasic Park theme park in 2015. She teams up with businessman Eli Mills (Rafe Spall) who was hired by old John Hammond friend Benjamin Lockwood (James Cromwell) to save the dinosaurs by putting them on a separate island. Claire hires old friend and former dinosaur trainer Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) on the mission. Eil Mills has other ideas up his sleeve along the way though that deals with old friend Dr. Henry Wu (B.D. Wong).
Like the 2015 film and really if the series was to go on (it will), it has the advantage of Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Pratt as leads. With the chemistry between them, both bring a likable personality's that is evident in every role they take. Howard is that strong female role who makes her characters determined, strong, and fun. Chris Pratt is broken and has his issues as a character but at the same time, he's lovable and a funny character. As actors, they do well in scenes involving saving the dinosaurs and it's the only sort of epic to the film. Even you get to have a lot of fun with the new character Franklin Webb (Justice Smith), the techy, nerdy guy who seems to be caught in always the wrong situation on the island. Besides those three characters, nothing is to like in the script/character department. Ellis Mills is a sloppy character who's idiotic with his plan, actor Rafe Spall struggles to be villainous and because of the direction of new director J.A. Bayona, he shelters the character of Ellis limiting him to only one set in the Lockwood mansion. Nobody can carry this film and it's one reason why pacing is laughable. Why is the third act of this sequel so dull beyond belief? You have good characters/ actors in Zia Rodriguez (Daniella Pineda), a former nerdy marine who's around on the island or Lockwood granddaughter Maise (Isabella Sermon), two female characters who are just basically around lurking and it's wasting good acting including good child acting to Isabella Sermon. An even worse potential is wasted on old actors B.D. Wong and Jeff Goldblum (who's back as the famous Dr. Ian Maclom), such a tease of what came before of the two great characters. Such a mess of direction/script and that falls back on new director J.A. Boyana and writers Colin Trevorrow (director of Jurassic World) and Derek Connolly.
With a big budget in the $170-187 million, you expect something big. Dinosaurs, action (you have too much of it actually), an island but it's a film losing a sense of 'aw' within itself. Like how the original sequels struggled, you crave to be back in an amusement park setting again instead of the dull mansion we are in and it's one reason why Jurassic World from 2015 worked well enough. Amusement park brings us back to how great 1993 was. Sure, you get to see dinosaurs in this latest film and you get good shots of it at times but it feels nothing more than CGI and that big budget. A film so dull with its eye candy and elements.
It's over. You didn't have the plot to start with. On top of it, it feels as if you've run your course with this series. You have left nothing left to prove. Give it up. Time to burn this series. Please and thanks.
