Jurassic’s ‘Fallen Kingdom’ falls short with same old roar
‘JURASSIC WORLD’ SEQUEL FUN BUT DERIVATIVE, DISJOINTED
Give it points for trying. • “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” actually takes some chances with the franchise, moving the dinosaur action off the island and into a house — yes — for part of the film. Not all risks pay off, alas; J.A. Bayona’s film never figures out what it wants to be, casting about for a coherent tone. Thanks in large part to Derek Connolly and Colin Trevorrow’s script, it doesn’t find one. • But at least it has some fun making the effort.
That alone makes it better than “Jurassic World,” which came out in 2015. Three years have also passed in the film, and the damage wrought in that movie is still being cleaned up — $800 million has been paid out to patrons unlucky enough to have been in attendance when things went haywire. The park itself lies in ruins, and it’s going to get worse.
An inactive volcano has gone active, and threatens to destroy the remaining dinosaurs. A national debate rages over whether the government should step in to save them. (A crawl across the bottom of a cable news screen reads, “U.S. president questions existence of dinosaurs in the first place.”)
The dinosaurs are, after all, an endangered species, so much so that they were actually extinct until God-playing scientists and businessmen brought them back 25 years ago. Jeff Goldblum makes a cameo as Ian Malcolm, a scientist from the first film (and others), who testifies before Congress — and, surprise, says to let the dinosaurs die. Enough of this monkeying around with nature.
On the other side of the debate is Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard), the former Jurassic Park manager perhaps best remembered for her ridiculous choice of footwear for fleeing from dinosaurs. Bayona, a good sport, addresses the infamous high heels with not one but two shots in the new film. Claire feels badly about her role in making money off the animals, and now works with the Dinosaur Protection Group to try to save them.
The government’s no help, but soon rich old man Benjamin Lockwood (the great James Cromwell), evidently an early partner with Jurassic Park founder John Hammond, steps in. He wants, with the help of administrator Eli Mills (Rafe Spall), to save the dinosaurs and set them up on a new island sanctuary, free from tourists.
They’ll need her help, as well as the help of Owen Grady (Chris Pratt), of course — they want Blue, the velociraptor he trained and bonded with, the last of her kind. Owen’s off building a cabin in the remote part of nowhere, but soon he’s on board with Claire, as well as walking hipster-nerd stereotypes Zia Rodriguez (Daniella Pineda) and Franklin Webb (Justice Smith) to save the dinos. They’re met on the island by paramilitary tough guy Ken Wheatley (Ted Levine), whose manner and weaponry suggest that maybe there’s something a little off here.
Various twists and turns follow, and eventually our gang and the dinosaurs wind up back at Lockwood’s super-gigantic mansion, where his granddaughter, Maisie (Isabella Sermon), snoops around and overhears things she shouldn’t.
If that sounds like something from a different movie, well, yeah. And that’s a problem.
So no, “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” isn’t exactly a classic. For my money, frankly, none of the franchise’s films have been, but I’m pretty lonely in that argument. At least Howard is given far more to do in this movie, which is a welcome development. Pratt is kind of subdued, which is a shame; he comes alive on occasion, thankfully.
But no one is having more fun here than Bayona, who directed the great horror film “The Orphanage.” He’s really good at creating tension in individual scenes (like the terrific pre-credit sequence, better left to your own discovery) and in framing beautiful shots. He’s also not shy about showing off influences. Among the ones I counted, and I doubtless missed some, were “Citizen Kane” (!), “The Shining” and, again and again, “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” There’s also a shot near the end of the film of a dinosaur on the roof of the mansion framed against the moon that should be ridiculous, and kind of is, but is also breathtaking.
Where Bayona, and by extension the film, falters is in piecing these elements together. The story is pretty stupid, and that’s a problem, of course. When the original came out 25 years ago, it was an amazing technological feat; having Steven Spielberg as director certainly didn’t hurt. But in the quarter century that’s passed, we take the jaw-dropping effects for granted. (Yes, we’re spoiled, but what can you do?)
That makes the story all the more important. You can’t rely on just the wow factor. “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” spends more than two hours proving it.