I seem to be a little late getting to movies this summer but at least I'm getting to them! The latest of which being JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM. To sum up my review of the previous Jurassic World film I felt the movie was par for the course. I liked the dinosaurs in Jurassic World but all the dumb decisions of the human characters made me dislike them all. I would've been happy to see all the humans die. In that respect Jurassic World embraced everything I love about slasher movie sequels and giant monster movies of the 50's and 60's. No one watches these movies for the humans. We come to see the monsters (in this case: dinosaurs) do what they do best!
One of the reasons why I'm a little late to seeing this movie is that I wasn't very excited for it. Like Star Wars, I expect a little more from the Jurassic Park franchise. I realize this is my problem and that most of the evidence tells me that my expectations are too unreasonable. But seriously, the movie studios are dropping in excess of $200 million dollars on these films (meaning nigh endless resources to make these films amazing beyond the competition). What it appears though is that they could care less about the script. C'mon people, invest in a great and worthy story before anything else, please! I'll always love dinosaurs but there is so much competition out there nowadays you'd think they'd want to make their movie standout beyond the rest.
Wow, this review went to a whine-fest rather quickly. Sorry about that.
Anyway, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, to me, felt a little better than Jurassic World (2015) but not by much. Hey, I'll take steps in the right direction even if they're babysteps.
THE PLOT
The island on which the Jurassic World park was based has been abandoned and the dinosaurs have been left to their own devices. Now the island's long dormant volcano has become active, threatening the lives of every creature living there. The world debate is whether to let the dinosaurs be wiped out by the volcano (in essence another extinction for the dinosaurs) or to save them. In an unexpected intelligent move by mankind they elect to let the dinosaurs die. But Claire Dearing, defying all logic and common sense, is determined to save them, dragging her idealistic friends along for the ride. Claire's plans go awry when the foundation she's partnered with to help extract the dinosaurs reveal their less than altruistic motives: the weaponization of dinosaurs... like the last time.
WHAT I LIKED
The Dinosaurs. These terrible lizards are once again a sight to behold and absolutely awesome. The Mosasaurus gets a tiny bit of screen time (not enough in my opinion) but is still amazing. The T. Rex has some moments here and there too. Of all the dinosaurs though it is the raptor named Blue who is treated incredibly well, becoming the great hero of the film even. The filmmakers go to great lengths to flesh out Blue's character, in doing so even further explaining Blue's connection with Owen Grady (making more sense as to how Chris Pratt could be Alpha to a pack of raptors). Also I feel Chris Pratt upped his game in this film. Pratt's acting was surprisingly potent, I felt.
The Indo-Raptor. The latest hybrid (brand new) dinosaur is the Indo-Raptor, a cross between the Indominous Rex and the raptor, Blue. Smaller but smarter than Indominous, meaner and deadlier than any dinosaur in creation, bred for warfare. I loved the look of the Indo-Raptor, scary as hell, and its scary hands (yes, I liked specifically its hands). My favorite sequence in the film is easily the Indo-Raptor stalking the little girl in her bedroom. I was getting chilling vibes of ALIEN and PUMPKINHEAD while watching that scene and wondering if it was appropriate for the little kids in the audience. The Indo-Raptor made dinosaurs scary again and I am all for that!
NITPICKS
Stupid People. As always with the Jurassic Park films they function on stupid people making stupid decisions. No exception here. Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) is a little less annoying this time around but still frustratingly naive. Then there are the countless other dumb characters, a lot of them being the villains but some good guys too, that really irritated me. The character of Maisie makes perhaps the dumbest decision anyone in the history of the franchise has ever made (the writers have a small attempt at justifying her action but it's still ludicrous). It had me audibly groaning in the theater, much to my fellow patrons dismay. Although, Maisie's actions directly result in what I've wanted all along from the title: letting the dinosaurs loose on the civilized world.
Not all of the characters are bad though. Jeff Goldblum (Ian Malcolm) = great! James Cromwell = great! It was good to see BD Wong back again too. And I do enjoy Toby Jones in whatever he does. And there was a nice little cameo by John Carpenter stock player, Peter Jason, which was fun to see. I also appreciated certain characters calling out our main cast on their bull$#!t from the last film (a jab at the terrible script of the last film).
Remember when Bruce Campbell was doing little appearances here and there in movies like in Congo and The Hudsucker Proxy? I wish I could see more of that... Sorry, I don't know where that came from. I miss Ash Vs The Evil Dead... 'sniffle' 'whimper'
THE VERDICT
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom makes better a little bit on the previous film, fleshing out some of my big beefs (like Chris Pratt's Alpha presence to the raptors) and actually making moves to create what the title suggests: an actual Jurassic World of sorts. My title suggestion for the next movie...
Jurassic World: Dino Crisis
Thus the difference between this franchise and the latest Planet of the Apes trilogy, both franchises with a lot similar goings on. Planet of the Apes has the far superior story and characters in my opinion.
Overall Ranking: 5 out of 10
Good. Average.
Despite my feelings toward the Jurassic World films I am very pleased with the number of "Giant Animals/Monsters on the loose" films we're receiving this year! Pacific Rim: Uprising, Rampage, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, and THE MEG coming soon! Seriously, this is awesome! It's like my dream come true!
For my review of the last Jurassic World film and other similar recent films check out these reviews below!
RAMPAGE
(okay, so I don't have a review of this yet as I just saw it a day ago! I liked it! Expect a review of it coming soon!)
 |
| I know this is from the first Jurassic World, but I just saw this and I so love the Mosasaurus. |
No comments:
Post a Comment