Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Sequel stuffed with silliness
With a global box office haul of $1.5 billion, a sequel to 2015’s Jurassic World was as inevitable as Scotland missing out on yet another World Cup.
But, as entertaining as that franchise reboot was, there were concerns that audience fatigue would set in if another island-set dinosaur tale was served up.
The team behind this sequel’s solution to the conundrum?; let’s blow up the island. Yep, it’s time for the series to venture off into unknown territory as a volcano eruption leads to a returning Owen (Chris Pratt) and Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) leading a rescue mission to try and save the dinosaurs from an extinction-level event.
First flick helmer Colin Trevorrow retains writing duties – once again alongside Derek Connelly – but directing responsibilities fall on the shoulders of Spaniard J.A. Bayona.
A tense opening sequence packed with underwater threat gets pulses racing and the promise of a fresh direction for the franchise sets early anticipation levels sky-high.
Sadly they are never met as this over-stuffed follow-up gets bogged down with predictable swerves and people making dumber decisions than feeding a Gremlin after midnight or saying Candyman five times in front of a mirror.
You can just about go with the silliness of a dinosaur blood transfusion or our heroes outrunning a volcanic eruption, but some of the other plot developments – which are too spoilerific to give away – are just too daft to give a free pass.
Because the dinosaurs – bar one, geneticallymodified creation – are more heroic than ever, Trevorrow and Connelly decide to make a chunk of their human characters the film’s antagonists.
To say they overdo this would be an understatement, with one male in particular behaving so manically and psychotically you half expect him to reveal he’s related to Norman Bates.
The trailers gave away all the best action beats relating to the volcano set-piece and while it still thrills, the fact there’s still an hour and change left of the movie afterwards leads to an overload of dialogue-heavy scenes, most of which play out in tight, uncinematic locations.
The first film was steeped in nostalgia and this one tips its hat to Spielberg’s sequel The Lost World – although Bayona makes a better job with the off-island events.
Bayona’s background in horror (The Orphanage) comes to the fore during latter stalk n’slash – or should that be creep n’claw? – sequences that rate among the flick’s finest.
Complete with glint in his eye, Pratt is a charismatic delight and while he doesn’t stick around long, it’s nice to see Jeff Goldblum’s Dr Malcolm back.
It all ends with an intriguing set-up for a third entry; albeit one that leaves you wondering where the hell they’re going to go from here!