Jurassic World, Fallen Kingdom: Fallen Pieces of a Fallen Franchise

Originally written 6/24/2018.

'Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom' is a mediocre film, but so is the 'Jurassic Park' franchise as a whole. I know it may be sacrilege to say so in some film circles, but understand that I was born in 1995, two years after Steven Spielberg redefined the potential of CGI as a story-telling device in the original 'Jurassic Park.' I’m a part of the first generation to take those graphics and that narrative style for granted and, as such, never found much to identify with in the entire series. Sure, the first one was certainly a good enough film and the second one had the magnetic attraction that was a young Jeff Goldblum, but the third one was so bad it put the franchise on ice and 'Jurassic World' was more a nostalgic spectacle than a fully-developed film. And that’s the cinematic landscape where 'Fallen Kingdom' has to plant its flag. In its defense, it does the best with what it has.

The story picks up in real-time from the events of 'Jurassic World.' It turns out that the island which housed the titular park is actually a recently reactivated volcano, putting all the dinosaurs on a death clock. Frazzled modern businesswoman Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) is determined to save what she considers to be the greatest scientific advancement of all time and signs on with Benjamin Lockwood (James Cromwell), the ludicrously wealthy financier of the original park, to mount a rescue operation. She convinces ex-boyfriend and raptor-wrangler Owen (Chris Pratt) to come along and the two of them go back to the island to capture as many dinosaurs as they can, but especially Owen’s pet project, a velociraptor named Blue who proved that dinos can be tamed and controlled. Almost immediately after they arrive, their fellow hunters betray them and leave them to die on the island while they escape with the dinosaurs, planning to auction them off to arms dealers. From there it’s a typical action romp where all the main players get their big moments and things come together in a weirdly bland climax.

The acting in the film ranges from Bryce Dallas Howard’s ‘ironically’ invested performance to poor Jeff Goldblum’s bored line reading. Seriously, the man’s in the middle of a career renaissance and this is the second time he’s been called up to do a half-assed retread of one of his iconic characters. Can you blame him for not really caring? Chris Pratt phones it in but that’s fine because his character begins and ends with ‘generic action hero.’ Isabella Sermon plays Lockwood’s precocious granddaughter Maisie as the obligatory child in need of protection and she does okay for a child actor but isn’t given the kind of weight and breathing room that made the kids in the original seem actually important to the movie.

The side characters fair even worse. Toby Jones and BD Wong both show up for five minutes apiece. Jones gives an uncharacteristically blasé performance and Wong just looks happy he gets to be in movies again. Rafe Spall plays the main villain, Lockwood’s scheming assistant Eli, and is completely subdued and soft-spoken throughout the entire film. This feels like more bad direction than bad acting, but it’s clear his heart wasn’t in the part. The best actor of the whole film is Daniella Pineda as Zia, a sarcastic millennial dinosaur doctor, who at least seems to be having fun on set and relates to her character. Ironically, the worst actor of the whole bunch is her sidekick Franklin, a smarmy tech nerd plated by Justice Smith who seems to think that his grating, high-pitched screams, loud gasps, and frantic eye rolling counts as a performance. He is wrong.

One of the only places that the film actually excels in the cinematography. It copies the sweeping vista shots and tight close-ups from the original films really well and finds interesting way to play with light and reflection for some truly spectacular shots. Director J.A. Bayona is best known as an experimentalist and, like his other films, this is often a mixed blessing for his projects. While some moments of suspense and action truly seems to leap off the screen thanks to his touch, there are other scenes where his stylistic ambition undercuts the cinematic moment. There is a particularly dire sequence in act one where all the tension is shattered by a shaky-cam long take that it seems Bayona shot just because he could and he wanted to, not because it would improve the drama of the scene. It kills the movie dead in its tracks until a masterful shot of a brontosaurus dying in a plume of smoke brings it back. The effects are also pretty fantastic. 'Jurassic World' was criticized for not using as many practical effects as it promised, but 'Fallen Kingdom' seeks to fix that problem. Sure, you can tell when they’re using CGI, especially for the big action sequences, but the quiet moments with the dinosaurs are almost all practical. There’s a scene where a dinosaur has surgery and it’s the most genuine and startlingly real dino sequence since the first movie.

But while the cinematography has its moments of brilliance, every second of the film is at least vaguely hindered by a miserable script. The pacing is consistent, but most of the dialogue is jaunty and lacks any emotional weight. There’s a ton of build up about a character’s origins and when the big reveal comes towards the end of the film, it not only has no consequence or really any purpose but is immediately glossed over for more dino action. What should have been a huge moment of character building is sacrificed for a cheap jumpscare. The characters themselves are paper cut outs. Claire is the supportive woman. Owen is the handsome hero. Eli is the greedy villain. Maisie is the child. Et cetera, et cetera. I criticized the acting in this film, but in all fairness it’s not like they had a lot to work with in the first place.

While 'Jurassic World' was derivative, it was also the shot in the arm the franchise needed. For too long, the films had been confined to telling the same story over and over with little variation. 'Fallen Kingdom’s attempt to replicate that success by literally destroying the set location of the previous four films is an admirable endeavor but falls short of really mattering since that game-changing, movie-altering event happens at the end of the first act and is never referenced again. The film’s other main conceit is the same as it was in 'Jurassic World': a greedy businessman sees the military and financial potential of training and weaponizing dinosaurs through genetic manipulation while the good guy animal rights activists see this as a perversion of the scientific miracle of their existence. It’s a message that the series has been drilling in since 'Jurassic Park: The Lost World,' but the problem here is essentially the same as the problem was then. Namely, the specific situation in which the characters are meant to act as pro-PETA propaganda is not compatible with such a pacifist ideology. To put it another way, it’s hard to take a message of animal rights seriously when the messenger is being chased by a T-Rex.

There isn’t a lot more to say. If you have dinosaur obsessed kids who want to see it, you can spend a few hours and dollars to make them happy on a weekend afternoon and if your significant other thinks 'Hereditary' looks too scary, but you still want that old-school, arm-grabbing movie date night, this one will serve you well. But outside of those two very specific demographics and those slavishly devoted to the franchise, this is one you can easily skip. 2/5.

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