Three years after the demise of Jurassic World, a volcanic eruption threatens the remaining dinosaurs on Isla Nublar. So, Claire Dearing recruits Owen Grady to help prevent the extinction of the di...
The “Jurassic Park/World” films are full of scientists and billionaires who never learn from their mistakes— that’s how we get the main conflict in both “Jurassic World” and its new underwhelming sequel, “Fallen Kingdom”. While the former got along just fine on its overflow of nostlgia, “Fallen Kingdom” never manages to pick up on anything good that the first installment had laid down, lacking its fun, charm, and simple coherence. Needless to say, the Jurassic franchise has taken a turn for the worse; it’s now doing the complete opposite of what made it so perfect 25 years ago.
Years after the Jurassic World fiasco we witnessed in the first movie, the dinosaurs on Isla Nublar are in danger of extinction by way of a massive volcano. While the government decides to leave them there helpless, Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard), now an advocate for the animals’ preservation, and Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) are recruited by a scientist/billionaire who plans to relocate the dinos on a private island where they can thrive. But, as always, not everything is as it seems, and the duo eventually finds itself in the middle of a dangerous plan to sell and exploit the rescued dinosaurs for profit.
Even though it gives a decent introduction, “Fallen Kingdom” quickly becomes a very sloppy movie; what seems like a viable premise in the first half-hour is soon demolished by several confusing twists and useless backstories. Eventually, it gets pretty annoying to keep up with yet another “new species development” and another scheme to weaponize dinosaurs (both already done in “Jurassic World”, but brought back here to be absolutely beaten to death). The movie tosses all sorts of storylines up in the air, but fails to tie many of them together to form any sort of solid coherency; being a pretty unnecessary sequel, its plot is really only a flimsy stepping stone for the inevitable third film.
There are two things that are the most tragic to me about “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom”. First is the fact that there is little to no charisma in any of the characters. It has possibly the most charismatic actor alive today in the leading role, but it is depressing to watch Pratt’s notorious charm never do its thing. Similarly, Bryce Dallas Howard — whose was at least fun to watch react in the first film — begins as a passionate activist, but quickly gets lost in the muddy action to become just another cardboard sidekick like the rest of the cast.
The most depressing thing about the movie is what ironically should’ve been the best part about it: the dinosaurs. 1993’s “Jurassic Park” is ripe with striking moments that still give us goosebumps today, but that awe has since been lost in the “Jurassic World” franchise. While dinosaurs were genuinely fearsome in the original, “Fallen Kingdom” completely takes away their wow-factor and makes them disposable CGI animations. Some dinosaur fights were pretty cool to watch in “Jurassic World”, but here they are poorly constructed and painfully predictable. During one scene in which a pudgy dinosaur goes on a wild rampage in a room full of people, I heard people in the theater actually laughing like this was some sort of “Three Stooges” gag. I realized how divergent this movie is from the spirit of the original; the dinosaurs were never meant to be used for lazy storytelling shortcuts, much less for slapstick comedy.
Maybe it’s too pessimistic of me, but “Fallen Kingdom” sucked up the last inkling of hope I had that this franchise would ever be restored to its former glory.
