'Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom' (2018)


Look, today was meant to be a book review but stuff happened, then more stuff happened, then I had a little sleep and the next thing I know it's the evening and there's not an awful lot of time left for a book review (especially if I do what I normally do and put off writing anything until about 11pm). I did watch 'Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom' though so here are some thoughts on that instead. Not many thoughts though because to be honest, 'Fallen Kingdom' isn't a film to inspire much in the way of thoughts. And that may be the way I like it, normally, but I'm not so sure this time.

It’s been three years since theme park and luxury resort Jurassic World was destroyed by dinosaurs out of containment. Isla Nublar now sits abandoned by humans while the surviving dinosaurs fend for themselves in the jungles.

When the island’s dormant volcano begins roaring to life, Owen (Chris Pratt) and Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) mount a campaign to rescue the remaining dinosaurs from this extinction-level event. Owen is driven to find Blue, his lead raptor who’s still missing in the wild, and Claire has grown a respect for these creatures she now makes her mission. Arriving on the unstable island as lava begins raining down, their expedition uncovers a conspiracy that could return our entire planet to a perilous order not seen since prehistoric times.

Did they really build a multi-million dollar theme park on an island where the volcano would kick off only three years later...? Turns out that they did, maybe the events of 'Jurassic World' were a bit of a blessing in disguise then. Just imagine loads of holidaymakers trying to get off an exploding island while also trying not to be eaten by dinosaurs... Actually, that would have been awesome, dammit...

Thinking about it, that's kind of what we get with 'Fallen Kingdom', at least the first half of the film which is full of people dodging lava and trying not to be eaten. It looks brilliant and for a franchise that's kicking on a bit now, 'Fallen Kingdom' can still make you jump with sudden dinosaur attacks. You get more of the same in the second half and that's all you can say really.

The problem is that there's nothing else to this film. I mean, that's ok if all you're after is a 'big dumb dinosaur' movie, I was and I got it. 'Fallen Kingdom' is a lot of fun but all spectacle with little else to back it up. That would be ok if that was all it wanted to be but the film wants to ask big questions, at the same time, and it can't quite get the balance right. Every time Ian Malcolm opens his mouth to say something meaningful, it's drowned out by the latest 'big bad monster' or the T-Rex having a yelling competition with a lion (a closer fight than it seems). When we find out Maisie Lockwood's secret, it's immediately drowned out by an Indo-Raptor attack. 'Fallen Kingdom' needs to decide what it wants to be, and stick with it. For whatever reason, it's just not a film that can do 'loud action' and 'deep and meaningful' at the same time.

I enjoyed it though, it's impossible not to enjoy a film where the bad guys are more or less guaranteed to be eaten at the end. Just don't go looking for any hidden depths because they may be deep but all they're full of is echoes...

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