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| The cataclysmic volcano eruption leaves even the T-rex looking small on this amazing poster for J.A. Bayona's Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom |
A few years after the disaster at the newly opened Isla Nublar Jurassic Park, a volcanic eruption threatens to end all life on the island, and Claire Dearing is engaged by the Lockwood estate, heirs to John Hammond's genetic dinosaur invention, to help move some of the dinosaurs to a sanctuary island, with the help of velociraptor wrangler Owen Grady of course.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is the sequel to Colin Trevorrow's (The Book of Henry (2017)) great Jurassic World (2015) and is the second film in the new Jurassic trilogy. It is written by Derek Connolly (Monster Trucks (2016)) and Trevorrow and directed by great Spanish filmmaker J.A. Bayona (The Orphanage/El Orfanato (2007)).
I am a huge fan of the Jurassic franchise and therefore will probably always have a lot of thoughts on the films, - so here goes:
I saw the new film in a 4DX cinema in 3D, which is a cinema with seats that move, while blitzing lights, water drops and sprays, air whistling, smoke and smells are issued to enhance the experience. And although it didn't make me forget that I was not a part of the action on the screen, I thought it was a thrilling added layer and a fun elevation of the experience. It is certainly an added expenditure that a film like Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is tailored for. So I recommend it.
Critics of this franchise will sneer that the films are so silly and all tell the same basic story. - But that isn't true. Ultra-short summaries of the four previous films may run like this:
1. Jurassic Park (1993): Billionaire philanthropist John Hammond creates Jurassic Park on Pacific Island Isla Nublar, but a greedy employee and hybris run afoul, and his grand children and others struggle to survive there.
2. The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997): 4 years later Hammond sends a team to prevent his greedy nephew's guys from capturing the dinosaurs on a neighboring island (Isla Sorna), but they fail to stop the military honchos, and dinos are taken to San Diego, where they wreak havoc but are ultimately returned to Isla Sorna, now pronounced a natural preserve.
3. Jurassic Park III (2001): A divorced couple trick Dr. Alan Grant from the first film to accompany them on a flight that ends on Isla Nublar, where their son is stranded after a parasailing accident.
4. Jurassic World (2015, franchise reboot): 22 years after the first film's events, a new dinosaur park has emerged and operated on Isla Nublar for 10 years. But to pander to the demanding audiences and lure more cash from them, a genetically modified species has been developed, the Indominus Rex. But as it breaks free, the park is ravaged by mayhem and chaos.
So, as you see, a different story each time, to be precise.
The new film rejoins Bryce Dallas Howard (Hereafter (2010)) and Chris Pratt (Moneyball (2011)), who are an immensely likable couple. Howard's Claire's coldness in the previous film has stifled here as she now heads a youthful dinosaur preservation organization. They venture to the island with two fresh young faces: Justice Smith (Every Day (2018)) and Daniella Pineda (Newlyweds (2011)), representations of what might be termed the idealistic, loud, 'woke' Parkland generation, with appropriately reversed (compared to traditional convention) gender balance: Smith spends most of the film being less than useful and scared witless, while Pineda's resourceful Zia takes action and stays cool. Both also seem like they may be gay, (and a lesbian scene with Zia was actually shot and dumped for trimming reasons), but the film has no time to get into this, regrettably, for Fallen Kingdom is in a rush!
Of the rest of the cast, most noteworthy is Ted Levine (Bleed for This (2016)) as the film's ruthless mercenary villain, SPOILER who removes teeth from dinosaurs as souvenirs. Levine brings back memories from The Silence of the Lambs (1991), in which he portrayed Jame 'Buffalo Bill' Gumb so terrifyingly, and makes another memorable super-villain here. - And Toby Jones (Agent Carter (2015), TV-series) who is also rather slimy with fake teeth and a lisp as a shameless auctioneer swine. - They both get their becoming in two of the film's most satisfying scenes.
Fallen Kingdom also has distinguished actors Geraldine Chapman (Sand Dollars/Dólares de Arena (2014)) and James Cromwell (Hawkeye (1995), TV-series), who are good without becoming really memorable in smaller parts. With Ron Howard's daughter, Charlie Chaplin's daughter and all the rest, the film brings feels like something of a golden trust of cinema establishment. Jeff Goldblum's (The League (2011-12)) return as chaos theory mathematician Alan Grant has made headlines of anticipation, but really he is only in two scenes, or rather one scene, which is cut in two, spouting some more or less prophetic wisdom about our messing with dinos and genetics at an official hearing, I suppose, which there also isn't any time to really make us understand. (What is this concerned gathering?) Nevertheless he manages to be great once again. And BD Wong (Oz (1997-03)) also returns as Dr. Wu, who may evolve into a real villain on his own in the next film I expect.
The film encompasses so much that we inevitably feel rushed through to some degree. - There is also a new child, SPOILER the Lockwood patriarch's (Cromwell) grand-daughter, who is revealed to be a clone, - but there also isn't time to really go into this, which may also likely be an element to revisit in the next film.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom naturally needs the time for its dinosaurs and action scenes, which are many, seamless and expectedly thrilling. - We are harder to woo at this point, and making a Jurassic movie may therefore inevitably become harder by each film. Fallen Kingdom lacks the scenes of wonder and bright thrills that its predecessor had plenty of; instead this is the darkest Jurassic movie yet, most comparable in the bunch to The Lost World, although it is a significantly better film. SPOILER It is a matter of taste if audiences prefer the first half of the film, which culminates with the impressive but also despairingly sad volcanic destruction and pillaging of species, or the second half, which mostly takes place at the North-Californian Lockwood estate. Great production and set designs have gone into this semi-Gothic mansion, which reeks of old money and appealed to my imagination. SPOILER: My favorite scene in Fallen Kingdom: The auction scene, and especially its breakup by an energetic Stygimoloch!
Owen's relationship to Velociraptor Blue plays a major part in Fallen Kingdom, which is pulled off impressively.
Bayona's Jurassic movie is a giant beast that doesn't match the amusement park ride-like greatness of Jurassic World - or, of course, the original 1993 masterpiece for that matter, - but which charters new ground with a steady hand and is an impressive, hugely expensive-looking elephant of a spectacle movie with teeth and enthusiasm.
Related posts:
J.A. Bayona: 2018 in films - according to Film Excess
2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
A Monster Calls (2016) - Bayona forgets the sugar in overly gloomy adaptation turkey
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2012 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2012 in films - according to Film Excess
Top 10: The best true story movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
The Impossible/Lo Imposible (2012) - The 2004 tsunami depicted in one of the strongest disaster films ever
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: 170-187 mil. $ (different reports)
Box office: 717 mil. $ and counting
= Already a big hit (at least 3.83 times the cost at time of writing)
[Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom premiered 21 May (Madrid, Spain) and runs 128 minutes. Filming took place in England, including London, Scotland and Hawaii from February - July 2017. Shooting reportedly required more stunt work of Pratt than the previous film, and more dinosaurs than any of the previous films. The film opened #1 to a 150 mil. $ first weekend in North America, down significantly from the previous film's spectacular 208.8 mil. $ opening. But the film is bigger in China than the preceding film; here it has made 170 mil. $ in just 10 days; the previous film made 228.7 mil. $ in China overall. Fallen Kingdom has a long way to go to match Jurassic World's staggering 1,671.7 mil. $ world gross, which seems unlikely to happen, but less will also suffice. A whopping 185 mil. $ was reportedly spent by Universal on the global marketing campaign for the film, which, if added into the budget cost, would raise the film's break-even point to the 930 mil. $ area. It has one market left to open in: Japan on 13 July. Trevorrow is set to return to the franchise to direct the finishing film in the proposed trilogy for a June 2021 release. Bayona's next project is not sure yet. Pratt has two scheduled releases approaching, both for 2019: The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part and Cowboy Ninja Viking, as well as the yet unscheduled Vincent D'Onofrio-directed The Kid, about western legend Billy the Kid. Howard is returning as herself in Arrested Development (2018, TV-series) and has no other projects lined up officially right now. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is rotten at 50 % with a 5.7/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom?
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