Don't Analyze Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom Too Much - Logan's Review

JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM is in theaters, Real-D 3D, Dolby Cinema and IMAX June 22nd, 2018.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom takes place years after the first installment, we now have an active volcano on the island of dinosaurs, and our heroes are part of the team that must attempt to save some of the species. Fallen Kingdom surprised me in ways I wasn’t expecting, and that’s not necessarily a good thing. This film somehow kept me intrigued throughout the entire runtime, while also leaving me very underwhelmed by the time the credits roll. I’ll attempt to explain why.

Fallen Kingdom’s marketing strategy is a solid example of how not to release your trailers. The film is very predictable in its format alone, but the trailers lay out so much of the exciting beats that nothing story driven actually caught me off guard. Speaking of story, it’s incredibly generic. Having a generic story isn’t always a bad thing, and it certainly isn’t something we haven’t come to expect with big blockbuster films, but Fallen Kingdom further cements the fact that no one should ever have hopes that any sequel in this franchise will live up to the original Jurassic Park, because they aren’t even trying. This film is full of giant action but is also very forgettable.

After the gigantic volcano erupts, the story transitions into attempting to become more of a monster movie, while all taking place in one giant house. This is why they hired J.A. Bayona to direct this film, and I have to say he doesn’t disappoint in terms of his skillset. What does disappoint is the script and story he was given to shoot. A large portion of the second half of the film is full of completely outlandish “villain” characters auctioning off dinosaurs to more bad people. The one exciting aspect of this auction is the reveal of our new dinosaur, the Indorapter.

Jurassic World did something with the original Indominous Rex that helped the audience connect with the craziness that was happening on screen. They explained what DNA was used to create that monster, and then showed how each animal’s traits are used in deathly situations. In Fallen Kingdom, the Indorapter has certain abilities that only make sense if the animal has a literal computer in its brain, but we never get any explanation as to the process of creating these abilities. Instead of carrying over the storyline of weaponizing trained raptors, this animal seems to be directly controlled by technology, which completely undermines the entire storyline of needing Blue or any other trained raptor.

Fallen Kingdom is an experience for the casual movie goer. If you analyze it too much, as you can see, it tends to fall apart pretty quickly. Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard are incredibly likeable, which helps with the experience. Also, turning off your brain for 2 hours and having fun with incredible CGI and dumb action makes the film undeniably entertaining. The script of both Jurassic World movies is written by the same team, and they’ve both been underwhelming. Jurassic World 3 seems like it could be a very different film by the end of Fallen Kingdom, but with the same team returning to write and direct that film, because they got fired from Star Wars and now have the time to do so, I find myself lacking little excitement for the future. Also, this film HAS an after-credit scene, but it isn’t worth sticking around for. I’ve never had to say that before.

Rating: 3.3 out of 5

Logan (Contributor) is a Texas native and a massive fan of all genres of film. You can find him talking about movies on YouTube as half of the CraZCouple or in line for the latest Star Wars/Comic Book film.
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