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Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom Review
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Directed By: J.A. Bayona
Written By: Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly
Runtime: 128 minutes
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of science-fiction violence and peril
Chris Pratt – Owen Grady
Bryce Dallas Howard – Claire Dearing
Rafe Spall – Eli Mills
Daniella Pineda – Zia Rodriguez
Justice Smith – Franklin Webb
Ted Levine – Ken Wheatley
Isabella Sermon – Maisie Lockwood
James Cromwell – Benjamin Lockwood
Geraldine Chaplin – Iris
Toby Jones – Mr. Eversol
BD Wong – Dr. Henry Wu
Jeff Goldblum – Ian Malcom
The Jurassic Park film franchise continues with its fifth cinematic entry, titled Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Of course, the Fallen Kingdom plot here serves a double meaning. The “Fallen Kingdom” refers to the dreaded fate of the dinosaurs’ homeland as shown in the trailers, as well as the what is the probable fall of humanity’s kingdom.
Talented filmmaker J.A. Bayona (The Orphanage, A Monster Calls) takes over as director this time around, replacing Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow, who stays on as co-writer for this installment. Three years after the events of the overwhelmingly successful Jurassic World, which restored the franchise to the top of the box office food chain, the island of Isla Nublar is facing an extinction event.
What was home to the park from the original 1993 film and the once flourishing theme park from Jurassic World is facing total annihilation. That includes the dinosaurs that still inhabit the island. Jurassic World protagonist Claire Dearing (Howard) has now made the career switch from corporate suit to animal activist as she seeks to save and provide new shelter for the dinosaurs. Unfortunately, thanks to the urging of returning original cast member Dr. Ian Malcom (Goldblum), the government is taking a hands-off approach and wants nothing to do with any type of dinosaur rescue.
Claire’s desires are soon answered by an unlikely benefactor. Eli Mills (Spall), representing elderly billionaire tycoon Benjamin Lockwood (Cromwell), gives Claire an enticing offer. Cromwell’s estate is willing to rescue a number of species from the island and relocate them to a remote private island sanctuary, where they will be left isolated and in peace from the world at large. However, they need Claire to participate in the operation to provide her park security access to utilize the dinosaurs’ embedded tracking devices from when the park was still active. They also hope to recover Blue, one of the velociraptors raised by Owen Grady (Pratt), and want Claire to persuade her ex-boyfriend for the trip is well. Owen is reluctant and is smart enough to smell a rat, but this wouldn’t be much of a movie if he did the smart thing and refused to go.
Obviously, Eli Mills’ cover story was a too good to be true situation, and it’s not long after Claire, Owen, systems expert Franklin Webb (Smith) and paleo-veterinarian (“Yes, that’s a real thing.”) Zia Rodriguez (Pineda) realize they’ve been bamboozled. Mills has, in fact, been orchestrating the covert capture of a number of dinosaurs off Isla Nublar in order to sell them to the highest bidder to fund new research for Dr. Henry Wu (Wong), to create new and more dangerous prehistoric predators. Case in point, the film’s newest threat in the form of the vicious and deadly Indoraptor.
Jurassic World definitely had a lot going in its favor in the case of its nostalgia factor, with a similar aesthetic that evoked the original, as well as showcasing the error in actually creating a fully functional dinosaur theme park with real-life dinosaurs and what disaster that could wreak. For all its flaws, Fallen Kingdom does a good job of not rehashing past stories and feels different from previous cinematic entries for the franchise.
Bayona does solid work here as the franchise’s latest torchbearer. Additionally, Bayona skillfully incorporates his horror film sensibilities from The Orphanage throughout the film. The Indoraptor is a fairly terrifying creature. But more than once in the film, Bayona will set up the dinosaurs by having them drenched in darkness or shadow, only to be illuminated in short frames by a flash of lightning or dripping of molten lava. It’s a neat trick that really builds the suspense and terror behind such creatures. There’s a very eerie opening sequence involving a submersible before the return of the Mosasaurus that appears downright Lovecraftian in nature. At times, the dinosaurs in Fallen Kingdom almost appear to have qualities of Eldritch Abominations. Those are qualities they already embody.
Some parts of the script, co-written by Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly, are on the rough side. Even with three years having past, Claire does not come off as the same character from Jurassic World. Additionally, it seems Claire got off very easily from any legal reprisals resulting in all the death and destruction from that film. Claire’s transformation into a strong advocate for the safety and lives of dinosaurs is not very plausible. Basically, there is not a strong justification for Claire to make this transition to her belief in the salvation of the dinosaurs. At least Owen has to be heavily persuaded to go and has to watch some old footage of his time with Blue as a raptor baby to go along on his reluctant hero’s journey.
None of the supporting characters leave much of an impression. Justice Smith is the prototypical cowardly nerd computer hacker character who is always worked into these films. He even has the sequence showing him hacking into a system before saying, “I’m in.” Smith is an annoying presence and comic relief character trope for the film. This is a nitpick, but why is Zia Rodriguez a paleo-veterinarian without ever having seen a real dinosaur? If there was once a functioning Jurassic World theme park with living dinosaurs, wouldn’t they need paleo-vets on staff as well as geneticists to monitor the health of the dinosaurs? The writers easily could have had Zia as one of the former staffers for Jurassic World who used to work with Claire on the island.
Additionally, what about Isla Sorna? Wouldn’t the dinosaurs be safe there? There isn’t even a throwaway line mentioning Isla Sorna. Why can’t dinosaurs be relocated there? Why is government legislation or involvement necessary at all? For the previous films, it was never brought up at all.
After the film leaves the island, the plot makes an interesting transition where it becomes a type of haunted house or house of horrors story. It’s a nice departure for a Jurassic Park movie. However, certain parallels between Fallen Kingdom and 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes are hard to ignore. One beat in particular almost appears to be a carbon copy from the latter.
Bayona exceptionally showcases the dinosaurs. All of the visuals look very good for the most part, especially the new Indoraptor. Some of the CG did look a bit shaky and very noticeable in certain parts, but it was high quality for the most part.
Regardless, Fallen Kingdom could provide a very bold and interesting setup toward the potential future of the franchise. Universal should probably consider setting up some sort of license agreement for Cadillacs and Dinosaurs as that would be the best possible outcome for Jurassic Park 6.
