Jurassic World (2015) breathed new life and fire into a forgotten franchise while giving a new generation an opportunity to be amazed by some of the oldest and most mysterious creatures to ever walk the earth. People have always been enamoured with thoughts of the prehistoric beasts that once roamed the land. With a very serviceable plot and a solid cast behind it, the last edition of Dinosaurs Gone Wild made a killing in theaters while raking in more that 1.6 billion dollars worldwide. A sequel was a no-brainer with numbers like this. This time around, however, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom will be facing its toughest adversary yet…high expectations.
If you remember anything about how 2015’s movie ended, you wouldn’t be surprised that the island attraction is still in ruins and off limits. This doesn’t stop some very determined individuals from looting certain commodities from the island, while a much bigger plan starts to come into focus. With the remaining dinosaurs at risk of being wiped out (AGAIN) at the hands of a recently active volcano, Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) seizes an opportunity to act as a guardian to these creatures. In order to it effectively, Claire realizes that she cannot go at it alone. Enter Owen Grady (Chris Pratt), former lover and former pain in the butt. The pair must put the past behind them if they are going to act as saviors to some of nature’s oldest children. The wise Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) once spoke of a “chaos theory”. As this story places out, chaos will be in full effect.
Besides Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard and Jeff Goldblum, BD Wong, James Cromwell, Toby Jones, Ted Levine, Rafe Spall, Justice Smith and Daniella Pineda round out the cast of main stars. No one really stands out or steals the show this time around in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, which is kind of disappointing. And none of the new (or old for that matter) dinosaurs will make audiences stop and take note. I think the idea well was running on empty throughout. Even the various places that you’ll travel to follow this story don’t seem to be that compelling. Director J.A. Bayona does not get the most out of what he has to work with.
Listen, I REALLY wanted to like Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, I honestly did. With all of its stars returning, and with Colin Trevorrow once again writing the script along with producing this time around, you would assume that the experience would be at least in the same neighborhood as its predecessor. Unfortunately that doesn’t prove to be the case. The movie is almost 130 minutes long, which isn’t exactly exorbitant, but audiences will feel every single one of those minutes as Chris Pratt tries to life to an otherwise flatling plot.
This film is full of cliches, shoddy CGI and just an overall bland plot. Even though Universal thought to leave a tasty morsel after the credits, that too felt like a flavorless flop of an idea. For dignity’s sake, I truly hope the franchise dies here just so it can preserve some of its perceived value. But just like the “Park” movies before all of this, poorly planned sequels will most likely sully the memories of anything that was good. If you do choose to Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom in theaters, prepare for an extinction level event to occur on your hopes and dreams.
