Ryan Shoots First: Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
Welcome back to… Jurassic Park.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is the follow up to the global record-breaking smash Jurassic World and in many ways, it reminds me a lot of Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Relax, let me explain before you let that reflect on whichever camp you reside in on the TLJ matter. What I mean is both films follow predecessors that were absolute phenomenons that took their place in the top 5 domestic all-time gross list. Films that were the first movies in over a decade to franchises we all assumed long dead. Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Jurassic World were also movies that many felt were “safe” and told a lot of the same story beats as the franchises they were revitalizing. The Last Jedi in many ways sought to be different than previous Star Wars movies and similarly, I feel Fallen Kingdom does the same.
Let’s face it at this point we just won’t buy that people existing in this universe were stupid enough to try and open a dino theme park again so the franchise needs to make some bold moves and go in a different direction if it is to grow and develop into anything that can have sustainability. Whether you agree with that direction is up to you but new ideas and directions have to be presented. Honestly compared to some of the previous ideas that were on the table I enjoyed the path Fallen Kingdom takes.
Without spoiling too much (even though the movie’s trailers spoiled plenty) Fallen Kingdom picks up 4 years after the Isla Nublar disaster that was Jurassic World. As a catastrophic event threatens the lives of all of the dinos on the island the world governments are now forced to face the facts that these animals exist in the world and how exactly they need to be protected or handled. This brings us to our leads from the previous film Owen Grady played by Chris Pratt and Claire Dearing played by Bryce Dallas Howard. They no longer are involved with Ingen or the park in any way but work for a dino protection benefit named the Dino Protection Group. By the way when you’re done check out their website www.dinosaurprotectiongroup.com/ for a cool piece of viral marketing, something this series has nailed (I adopted a Velociraptor). Anyway, they go to the island to try and save as many dinos as possible including Blue, Owens Raptor lifemate. Instead what they uncover is a sinister plot that threatens to shift the food chain so to speak for the entire planet.
The cast chemistry has improved in their second outing, Claire especially but the relationship between Blue and Owen was one of the cooler moments of JW and it is great to see it explored deeper in this film. On the surface, it appears they neutered one of the scariest creatures in cinematic history but the somewhat delicate nature of their relationship seems to show a respect for that fear and there is at least an inkling that at any moment Blue could just turn on Owen. One trope the movie does fall into that I’m not crazy about is the love story that culminated in the first movie is undone off-screen in-between and we have to do the whole thing again, I hate when movies do that. It’s not a deal breaker for me but I just don’t find it necessary to do it all over again. Jeff Goldblum makes a return to the series as Doctor Ian Malcolm and while brief seeing a member of the main original cast helps ground this film into the universe of the original as other than Doctor Henry Wu Jurassic World almost felt like a total reboot.
The movie shines brightest with its suspense and scares. Once J.A. Bayona was tapped to direct, it was clear this would be a more stylistic, suspenseful movie than JW. Bayona brings his palette and sense of dread to the film that was missing in the previous film. One my favorite movie-going memories was seeing Jurassic Park with my family and my mother shrieking in the theater multiple times as Lex barely moves her leg away from the Raptor or the Explorer almost crushes Tim and Allen. Those tense moments have returned in Fallen Kingdom.
Again, it is not really a spoiler since it is all over the film’s marketing but Dinos do return to the mainland in Fallen Kingdom and while it will be tempting to compare this film to The Lost World and say it is just a remake this round of Dinos on the mainland is crucial to the plot and continued story of the franchise as opposed to a bloated third act romp through San Diego. I can assure you in the next film everyone will not just go on with their day like a dinosaur didn’t just rampage through a major US city.
Fallen Kingdom is dire, dark and not as vibrant as its predecessor but it is still an action-packed good time at the movies watching dinosaurs eat people. Jurassic Park is arguably one of the greatest films of all time and that kind of lightning in a bottle can never be captured again (even by Spielberg) but the franchise is heading in interesting places, places I am excited to see and while I am hearing that they are “Fast and Furious-izing” the franchise I maintain that we have not fallen that far into mindless summer fun yet. The movie and franchise as a whole still presents interesting dynamics, thoughts, and scenarios that get the mind wondering just what it would be like if life really could find a way.
