Depending on whether or not one is a fan of the Jurassic Park movies, the latest instalment is either comfortingly familiar or achingly tired.
Anyone who buys a ticket for Jurassic Park: Fallen Kingdom knows pretty much what to expect; an action-packed story in which dinosaurs tear stuff up, with perhaps a nod to corporate malfeasance and human greed.
Fallen Kingdom hits all of these notes adding a dash of horror and some texture about the folly of playing around with genetics (but that’s not explored too deeply). On the whole though, it does what it says on the tin; kids will love it, action junkies will love it and discerning viewers are advised to look elsewhere – there’s not much here they haven’t seen before.
To be fair, Fallen Kingdom starts off very well. After a particularly nerve-shredding intro, the movie sets up a world in which, after the disastrous events of Jurassic World, the globe is debating whether or not dinosaurs should be allowed to survive. The island, Isla Nublar, where they’ve all been marooned has an active volcano on it that’s going to erupt in a matter of days making them all extinct again.
Since the government can’t be bothered, billionaire Benjamin Lockwood (James Cromwell) and his assistant Eli Mill (Rafe Spall) tap up Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard), the former Jurassic World park curator turned dino-rights-activist. They want Dearing to lead a mission to relocate the dinosaurs to another island where they can live in peace.
To that end, she recruits her ex-boyfriend and dinosaur-whisperer Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) and they fly to the island to be greeted by a bunch of beefy, well-armed mercenaries lead by a man who smiles like a rather hungry Velociraptor. You don’t need a compass to read the direction this mission is heading in.
The first third of the movie is highly entertaining, even while it hits all the familiar beats. One set-piece in which the heroes have to outrun a volcanic dust wave while dodging fleeing dinosaurs is particularly enthralling. It’s only when the true motives of certain characters are revealed and the film moves into its second act that the bottom starts to fall out.
Lord knows the film’s stars do the most they can with the material. Dallas Howard and Pratt are convincing leads and there’s lovely chemistry that exists between them. The rest of the characters are generic archetypes, but then no one goes to Jurassic Park films for deep characters and a nuanced plot. They go for the action and this film has it in bucketloads.
Once the dinosaurs break loose (and that was always going to happen) structures are wrecked, humans are eviscerated and cars are chucked about like toys. It’s all very competently handled. Director Juan Antonio Bayona (who helmed the 2007 horror masterpiece ‘The Orphanage’) even manages to throw in a couple of scenes that make hairs stand on end; one that takes place a dimly lit bedroom between a terrified child and a particularly savage dinosaur plays out through close-ups and garish shadows, and is quite harrowing.
But for the most part, it’s business as usual. The ideas the script raises are never fully explored, the pace leaves the potential for a lot of scenes unrealised and, towards the end, some characters make stupid decisions just to move the plot along.
It doesn’t matter though. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is as much a brand extension as it is a movie. Its backers and creators know their audience and this film will arrive in theatres this week with the authority of a bellowing T-Rex. It’s more than likely the box office receipts will be sufficient to ensure that there’ll be another franchise entry thundering along shortly.
★★★☆☆
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