Movie Review: Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

Certificate 12A, 128 minutes

Director: J.A. Bayona

Stars: Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Pratt, Jeff Goldblum

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom begins underwater with a two man minisub making its way towards what turns out to be a pair of huge metal gates, which then open as the sub approaches. The gates open into the Mosasaurus lagoon on Isla Nublar in the old theme park. As the sub enters the lagoon, one of the men in the sub looks rather nervous but the other reassures him that “…anything in here would be dead by now.” A statement that is never a good idea to make.

Harvesting DNA

The sub is looking for the remains of the Indominus rex, the genetically engineered super dinosaur (because regular dinosaurs aren’t dangerous enough). A sample of bone is collected and, as it heads to the surface with an inflatable buoy, a huge shape is seen above the sub.

On land (and why is this being done at night in a storm? Hardly the best time to do it) a helicopter heads off to collect the sample. another man is operating the lagoon gates, using the park’s systems. The helicopter successfully retrieves the sample but underwater the lights of the minisub have been extinguished – there was a huge shape behind them. On land, there is something in the woods. The man operating the gates can’t contact the minisub any longer, so he starts shutting the gates anyway. The men in the helicopter can see that there is a Tyrannosaurus rex behind the man, and eventually he, too, notices and starts heading for the helicopter.

The man drops the tablet he was using to operate the gates and it gets broken, meaning that they don’t shut (surely, unless the command was terminated, the gates would have continued to shut?). He manages to get onto a ladder dropped from the helicopter, but the T. rex grabs hold of it. Still, the ladder breaks and he successfully gets away – until the Mosasaurus leaps out of the lagoon and swallows him, as the helicopter heads back to whoever wanted the DNA sample from the Indominus rex and the Mosasaurus looks to be heading out to sea.

The Volcano is Erupting

It’s been three years since the disastrous events of Jurassic World, and the once-dormant volcano on Isla Nublar has become active and is about to erupt. In true stereotypical fashion, the dinosaurs are going to be wiped out by an erupting volcano (this is not an original concept by any stretch; when the dinosaurs are not genetically engineered, the lost world they live in is typically destroyed by a volcano just as the people from the outside world find it). Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) is giving evidence before the Senate on whether the dinosaurs deserve the same right to be saved as other species (summary: saving the dinosaurs is not a good idea and genetic engineering is a worse one).

Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) is now running an organisation called the Dinosaur Protection Group trying to save the dinosaurs from the eruption. The Senate essentially agrees with Malcolm regarding saving the dinosaurs, meaning that they are all going to die. Then Claire gets a call from a representative of Benjamin Lockwood (James Cromwell) and she heads to his estate, a misplaced mansion in California.

At the estate, Claire is met by Eli Mills (Rafe Spall) who runs Lockwood’s charitable foundation. The mansion also has some basement labs which were the place where the first dinosaur DNA was extracted from amber – Lockwood used to be a friend of John Hammond, but they had a falling out. The plan is to rescue at least eleven species of dinosaur, preferably more, but they need to activate the system that allowed all the dinosaurs to be tracked, and that’s why they need Claire. They also want to rescue Blue, the Velociraptor that Owen Grady (Chris Pratt, Avengers: Infinity War, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2) trained. The very ill and by the looks of it dying Lockwood, who lives at the estate with his granddaughter Maisie (Isabella Sermon) wants to transport all the dinosaurs to a new island where they will be left in peace.

Rescuing the Dinosaurs

Claire tries to convince Owen to return and find Blue (he does go) and takes two people from the DPG as well, paleoveterinarian Zia Rodriguez (Daniella Pineda) and systems analyst Franklin (Justice Smith). The latter being very definitely the comic relief, and also terrified of meeting a T. rex. On Isla Nublar, there is already a substantial force of what look like mercenaries led by Ken Wheatly (Ted Levine). This force has already managed to capture quite a few dinosaurs, but they want more. Why they want more is not the reason that was originally given, being far more underhand (dinosaurs are valuable), and once they get what they want, Claire, Owen and Franklin become utterly expendable (Zia still has some useful skills). Leaving them on the island with a volcano that has erupted. Of course, they get off and have to foil whatever is planned.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom in Review

The film is available in 2D and 3D, with the 2D version being the one watched. Fallen Kingdom does make extensive use of CGI – dinosaurs not exactly being available to perform as themselves and erupting volcanoes not being safe to be around, assuming they even erupt when wanted – so it could perhaps have worked well in 3D. Realism regarding the erupting volcano has taken a bit of a back seat; you can’t outrun a pyroclastic flow as is depicted in the film. If it had been portrayed realistically, those left on the island would have died and the film would have been a lot shorter.

The films in the franchise have started showing a tendency to get bigger and are possibly suffering as a result. The engineered dinosaur from the previous film, Indominus rex, which was deliberately created to be more dangerous than any normal dinosaur, and which is described in film as being the dinosaur that destroyed Jurassic World has been made more dangerous yet again. The park has now been thoroughly destroyed, so future films will be different, but it does make the viewer wonder where it is going to end up: Jurassic World: Dinopocalypse?

Fallen Kingdom is visually spectacular and a definite treat to watch. The dinosaurs look fantastic and the erupting volcano, however unrealistically survivable it might be, is another great set piece. Especially with all the dinosaurs fleeing the eruption. This is the main action scene of the film, but there are plenty more; they are just on a smaller scale, with less dinosaurs and more often than not indoors. Much of the actual physical violence takes place off-camera, or it would have had a much higher certification from people being eaten by dinosaurs. In one case, too much takes place off camera and it’s slightly jarring to find someone has been killed.

Looking at the Ethics

There are some subtle commentaries on the ethics of cloning, genetic engineering and saving dinosaurs, but much of this is rather lost amongst the noise. The main exception is where a single dinosaur is seen being enveloped by the cloud from the volcano. This actually seems upsetting; dinosaurs may be lethal but seeing them destroyed is not pleasant. A specific effort looks to have been made to single this scene out though.

The true villain is rather laughable in many respects. He doesn’t seem to be well thought out, nor does the amount of money in play actually seem that big (yes, it’s a large amount, but it would be thought that he already had access to and control of more). His statements made to several different people that “This is all your fault, I’m simply benefiting from it” also plays to the ethics part – what they did led to this situation – but seem too self-serving to quite strike home the way they should.

The secondary villain might as well have a flashing neon sign above his head saying “Bad Guy.” He seems to be such an obvious villain of the piece that even when he appears to be helping, it’s like waiting for the other shoe to drop. Said villain also gets his comeuppance in a way the audience can easily see coming. He, despite his supposed skills, cannot.

There is a post-credits scene to watch out for, that might hold some hints for the next in the series. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is definitely a spectacular film to watch, full of special effects, but it isn’t really much more than that.