Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018 Film) Review
"Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" is the fifth film in the "Jurassic Park" franchise. Returning from the first "Jurassic World" are stars Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard. They are joined by actors Rafe Spall, Justice Smith, Daniella Pineda, and Isabella Sermon. Jeff Goldblum also makes a small reappearance as his famous character, Ian Malcolm.
"Fallen Kingdom" is written by Derek Connolly and Colin Trevorrow, who directed the first "Jurassic World." Frank Marshall, Patrick Crowley, and Belén Atienza produce this fifth installment.
Overall Thoughts
Ever since my first viewing of "The Lost World: Jurassic Park," I've believed that Hollywood shouldn't have made sequels to the original "Jurassic Park." That they should've went on making more original films. Sadly, Hollywood was persistent and continued the franchise. Even fourteen years after "Jurassic Park III," Universal Studios refused to let it stay extinct and released "Jurassic World," a mediocre film that served as a light reboot of the franchise. It was better than its two predecessors, but it still fell short of the original's greatness. After that film, I knew that another one was going to be made. A gleam of hope shined upon this sequel, though, when I discovered that J. A. Bayona would be directing it. The man directed "The Impossible" and "A Monster Calls," two different yet incredibly well-made films that were inspiring and disheartening at the same time. While that made me curious about this film, I was still skeptical about whether or not any director, even one as talented as J. A. Bayona, could justify the existence of a fifth entry in the franchise. Was Bayona successful?
No. No. No. No. Not even J. A. Bayona can continue this franchise without it being as dumb, incoherent, and as unoriginal as the sequels before it. Right out of the gate, "Fallen Kingdom" decides to continue the franchise's most weakest point: the dense characters. How many times will it take for the characters in this franchise to learn that dinosaurs should never be interfered with, even if it is for a good cause? The first film may have been guilty of having its characters make a few dumb decisions, but with the sequels, the number of dumb decisions has only increased, and with "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom," the number has hit critical mass. I can't think of one character that made a logical decision in this film. Other than, you know, running away from dinosaurs, but even then, some idiots decide to willingly go near them. It's absolute chaos what all the characters are doing and not even the protagonists are making sane decisions. No one feels intelligent. Despite how much they know about dinosaurs, they seem to forget all that when in the presence of one. It's absolute bonkers throughout the film and that keeps me from enjoying the cast that was assembled. To be fair, they aren't that entertaining as one might hope.
Not one member of this cast gives a performance that's close to entertaining. Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard are boring in this film. The relationship between their two characters is brought back to square one, so all the progress that was made in the first "Jurassic World" is essentially erased. Throughout "Fallen Kingdom," their relationship goes nowhere. They'll keep arguing with each other, find one another attractive, and then go back to arguing again. Rinse, spit, and repeat for the entire runtime. The filmmakers don't even try to take their relationship forward. That's probably because there's zero chemistry between Pratt and Howard in this sequel. In the first film, there was some chemistry there, but I'm not feeling it in this movie. The two actors give their all, but their characters come off as lifeless.
The supporting cast is even worse. Justice Smith and Daniella Pineda are there to be irritating. Smith's character is too cowardly to be entertaining and Pineda's character is essentially the tough girl stereotype. You know, the girl who is a part of a mission and is mistaken for being incapable when she's actually capable and who resorts to using foul language and being rude as a way of acting tough? Yeah, that dull and unlikeable persona. Hollywood keeps doing this caricature all the time. They should stop doing this all over again.
The villain, played by Rafe Spall, has conviction and his motivation, hackneyed as it might be, is sufficient enough to make us root against him, which is what a villain's supposed to do. I'll give him that, but he still came across as one-note. Spall seems unusually casual in this role. He's jumping from scene to scene with little-to-no effort on his part to make the character entertaining because you feel as if he isn't putting any effort into his part. It's annoying, but not annoying in the way that you might think. He's not annoying in the way that Justice Smith and Daniella Pineda were annoying. Where you just didn't want to be around Smith and Pineda's characters, every time Rafe Spall showed up, I was annoyed trying to figure out the reason why Spall was so passive in his role. I still don't know the reason why, and that only adds to my frustrated feelings about Rafe Spall's character and his acting, or lack thereof.
In my review for "Ant-Man and the Wasp," I stated that Walton Goggins's character was "the most unnecessary character that I've seen in film this year." Boy, was that statement prematurely made. Isabella Sermon's character is not only the most unnecessary character I've seen in a movie this year, but one whose is history is creepy and left a lot of questions that I'm not sure I want the answers because of what it might be. She had a good performance and tried, to no avail, to have her own emotional moments, but she ended up making a decision in order to create an excuse for yet another sequel, so her character was more of a plot device than an actual character.
In the middle of this movie, Bryce Dallas Howard's character says, "Do you remember the first time you saw a dinosaur?" Clearly, this movie doesn't and it's now confirmed that the wonder of seeing dinosaurs in these movies is lost.
"Jurassic Park," the first of this franchise, pushed the then boundaries of CGI and made dinosaurs that were a mix of CGI and animatronic puppets. With the two sequels, there was that same sense of wonder, but it was slightly diluted because the same creations had been seen before. When "Jurassic World" came out, there were further innovations in the technology, enabling effects artists to create a whole new breed of dinosaurs that, while made up, had a distinct look and even featured some eye-catching abilities.
"Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" has a dinosaur with no such thing. It attempts to catch the attention of moviegoers with a new dinosaur that’s just plain lame.
I can't lie to you. The new dinosaur, the Indoraptor as it's called, was a poorly-thought out creation. It wasn't just indicative of the thoughtlessness of it's creators, but it wasn't interesting to even look at. It was only a raptor on steroids. There were no other features that made the creature distinct or noteworthy. The Indoraptor was a simple bastardization of a well-know beed of dinosaur. Half velociraptor, half Indominus Rex which was also a made up dinosaur. When will these people learn that playing with Godlike powers goes horribly wrong all the time?!
Michael Giacchino, as I've indicated many times on this blog, has composed many great film scores. Despite that, his work this year has left something to be desired. I thought that his score for "Incredibles 2" was alright. It wasn't as good as his work in "The Incredibles." I may not have considered his score for "Jurassic World" to be one of his best compositions, but that score was better than the work that he did with "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom."
To summarize his score for the first "Jurassic World," I felt that it successfully brought a new theme to a franchise that was in desperate need of one, but it continued to fall back on using John Williams' original "Jurassic Park" theme, which did nothing but show an unwillingness on the creative team's part to move the franchise in a new direction.
Michael Giacchino's score for "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" doubles down on using that original theme. It fails to provide any theme of its own. This score brings back John Williams' theme more than it does the theme that Giacchino made for the first "Jurassic World." That's not to say that it's not brought back, but when it does, it's then overshadowed by Williams' theme which is ingrained in people's memory, that even I have a difficult time remembering anything that Giacchino might've brought to the franchise. I decided to listen to the score by itself. On its own, it shines at times, but it's one Giacchino score that I won't be returning to anytime soon. Thus, it's yet another unremarkable part of this film.
The Cast
Not one member of this cast gives a performance that's close to entertaining. Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard are boring in this film. The relationship between their two characters is brought back to square one, so all the progress that was made in the first "Jurassic World" is essentially erased. Throughout "Fallen Kingdom," their relationship goes nowhere. They'll keep arguing with each other, find one another attractive, and then go back to arguing again. Rinse, spit, and repeat for the entire runtime. The filmmakers don't even try to take their relationship forward. That's probably because there's zero chemistry between Pratt and Howard in this sequel. In the first film, there was some chemistry there, but I'm not feeling it in this movie. The two actors give their all, but their characters come off as lifeless.
The supporting cast is even worse. Justice Smith and Daniella Pineda are there to be irritating. Smith's character is too cowardly to be entertaining and Pineda's character is essentially the tough girl stereotype. You know, the girl who is a part of a mission and is mistaken for being incapable when she's actually capable and who resorts to using foul language and being rude as a way of acting tough? Yeah, that dull and unlikeable persona. Hollywood keeps doing this caricature all the time. They should stop doing this all over again.
The villain, played by Rafe Spall, has conviction and his motivation, hackneyed as it might be, is sufficient enough to make us root against him, which is what a villain's supposed to do. I'll give him that, but he still came across as one-note. Spall seems unusually casual in this role. He's jumping from scene to scene with little-to-no effort on his part to make the character entertaining because you feel as if he isn't putting any effort into his part. It's annoying, but not annoying in the way that you might think. He's not annoying in the way that Justice Smith and Daniella Pineda were annoying. Where you just didn't want to be around Smith and Pineda's characters, every time Rafe Spall showed up, I was annoyed trying to figure out the reason why Spall was so passive in his role. I still don't know the reason why, and that only adds to my frustrated feelings about Rafe Spall's character and his acting, or lack thereof.
In my review for "Ant-Man and the Wasp," I stated that Walton Goggins's character was "the most unnecessary character that I've seen in film this year." Boy, was that statement prematurely made. Isabella Sermon's character is not only the most unnecessary character I've seen in a movie this year, but one whose is history is creepy and left a lot of questions that I'm not sure I want the answers because of what it might be. She had a good performance and tried, to no avail, to have her own emotional moments, but she ended up making a decision in order to create an excuse for yet another sequel, so her character was more of a plot device than an actual character.
The Dinosaurs
In the middle of this movie, Bryce Dallas Howard's character says, "Do you remember the first time you saw a dinosaur?" Clearly, this movie doesn't and it's now confirmed that the wonder of seeing dinosaurs in these movies is lost.
"Jurassic Park," the first of this franchise, pushed the then boundaries of CGI and made dinosaurs that were a mix of CGI and animatronic puppets. With the two sequels, there was that same sense of wonder, but it was slightly diluted because the same creations had been seen before. When "Jurassic World" came out, there were further innovations in the technology, enabling effects artists to create a whole new breed of dinosaurs that, while made up, had a distinct look and even featured some eye-catching abilities.
I can't lie to you. The new dinosaur, the Indoraptor as it's called, was a poorly-thought out creation. It wasn't just indicative of the thoughtlessness of it's creators, but it wasn't interesting to even look at. It was only a raptor on steroids. There were no other features that made the creature distinct or noteworthy. The Indoraptor was a simple bastardization of a well-know beed of dinosaur. Half velociraptor, half Indominus Rex which was also a made up dinosaur. When will these people learn that playing with Godlike powers goes horribly wrong all the time?!
Score
Michael Giacchino, as I've indicated many times on this blog, has composed many great film scores. Despite that, his work this year has left something to be desired. I thought that his score for "Incredibles 2" was alright. It wasn't as good as his work in "The Incredibles." I may not have considered his score for "Jurassic World" to be one of his best compositions, but that score was better than the work that he did with "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom."
To summarize his score for the first "Jurassic World," I felt that it successfully brought a new theme to a franchise that was in desperate need of one, but it continued to fall back on using John Williams' original "Jurassic Park" theme, which did nothing but show an unwillingness on the creative team's part to move the franchise in a new direction.
Michael Giacchino's score for "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" doubles down on using that original theme. It fails to provide any theme of its own. This score brings back John Williams' theme more than it does the theme that Giacchino made for the first "Jurassic World." That's not to say that it's not brought back, but when it does, it's then overshadowed by Williams' theme which is ingrained in people's memory, that even I have a difficult time remembering anything that Giacchino might've brought to the franchise. I decided to listen to the score by itself. On its own, it shines at times, but it's one Giacchino score that I won't be returning to anytime soon. Thus, it's yet another unremarkable part of this film.
Grade: D+
Full of uninteresting dinosaurs, unbearably stupid characters, and generic action scenes, "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" is yet another sign that this franchise should've been a one-time deal. Even if you are a die-hard "Jurassic Park" fan like myself, I have a hard time recommending this film to you. I guess if it's discount day at your local theater, you could check this film out then. Just lower those expectations by a lot. If you do choose to see this in the cinema, skip the 3D.Conclusion
This has been my review of "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom." I cannot believe that this has made over a billion dollars already. That money should've gone to "Incredibles 2" or "Ant-Man and the Wasp," two films that are significantly better than this piece of dino droppings. And yes, I did just reference the original "Jurassic Park" film with that previous statement. If you have seen it, what is your take of the film? Do you agree with my opinion, or do you think that I'm missing something here? I'd love to hear from you, feel free to suggest a film that you'd like me to review next, and share this review with your friends and/or family while you're at it. Thanks for reading, I'm Dallin, the Film Fanatic, bye-bye.
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