MadCap At The Movies - "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom"

So...Jurassic World was a pretty good movie. Star-Lord commanded raptors and fought an abomination of science and while it had some issues it was overall enjoyable as a popcorn movie and you really weren't expected to think too much about it. There were plot elements that were clearly to be set up for sequels, but overall it was just an enjoyable roller coaster ride with dinosaurs involved with the charisma of Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard elevating it beyond its means.

It made money.

And a lot of money at that. So, naturally, a sequel was going to happen. Just as The Lost World came in 1995 after the original, it was preordained by the gods of the box office that we would have a Jurassic World 2. And lo has it come, it's existence shouted from the highest mountain top of Isla Nublar as it exploded in a fiery mess of magma.

And it's not bad...
But I'd be more than a little hard-pressed to call it good either. It just sort of is. I'm not sure whether this means that the series has done all that it can in terms of where it can go and what stories can be told...but at the same time, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom doesn't feel like a rehash of what has come before...at least, not completely. There are certain elements of its plot that are clearly ripped off from other films in the franchise - most glaringly The Lost World - but there is at least some variations to both our expectations of those elements as well as the overall tone.

But getting into that plot, it's three years after the incident on Isla Nublar...the one in Jurassic World, not the one in Jurassic Park...and Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) gets contacted by Eli Mills (Rafe Spall), the right-hand man of Benjamin Lockwood (James Cromwell), who wants to save the dinosaurs from Isla Nublar because a volcano is about to erupt that will surely kill all life on the island. What Lockwood doesn't know, however, is that Mills is working in a rather underhanded manner with some individuals who want to use the dinosaurs for military applications.

Y'know, the plot thread from Jurassic World that was literally the last thing you cared about when you watched that movie?

But Claire is asked to come in because she knows the layout of the park as well as the ability to access the computer systems. Because the totally-not-evil group wants the only remaining raptor on the island, however, she has to call in Owen (Chris Pratt). He's at first reluctant, but eventually does agree and they're off on an adventure to the island...which basically ends up ripping off the front half of The Lost World. Militant group lands on the island and starts to capture dinosaurs. Unlike that movie, they don't have a ridiculously long montage where we're supposed to be uber-sad for the fact that these terrible, terrible humans are capturing dinosaurs, so kudos there.

In fact, a lot of this film feels like Lost World done right.

But yes, Owen and Claire learn early on that they were hired under false pretenses and that Mills has hijacked the entire endeavor to sell off dinosaurs to the highest bidder and use the money to fund the projects of Dr. Henry Wu (B.D. Wong), the architect of the dinosaurs in the original Jurassic Park and Jurassic World. This time, Wu has cooked up something rather horrifying...or so the film thinks...a genetically-modified creature called the "Indoraptor". Basically, it's the same thing as the Indominus Rex from the previous film. This seems to be the new gimmick that they're going with, so until it bombs on them they'll likely run it into the ground.

The good news is that the Indoraptor has a few short scenes but all of them are quite memorable, which is definitely a good thing. While the Indominus had a few scenes too, a lot of them could have been seen as just generic monster movie scenes and didn't really feel all that unique. Fallen Kingdom does make a very memorable villain of the Indoraptor, and I won't lie and say that there weren't a few moments where things were tense and even one or two where the film got a genuine laugh from me.

I don't really care for the weaponizing dinosaurs plot that the Jurassic World films have been trying to push, but I understand why it's there: mostly so Jurassic World doesn't get accused of being a reboot. Still, it's fine...and it doesn't really get in the way of it being a decent movie. I would say it's an "action-packed thrill ride" and it is...in doses. However, I do agree with what a lot of people are saying: they're not showing that they can bring something new to the franchise.

There are bits and pieces of things that are supposed to be plot. You have Lockwood having been the former business partner of John Hammond (Richard Attenborough sadly having passed away in 2014) in a few scenes with his granddaughter and some lead up to us finding out about where she came from (spoiler alert: if you see it coming, you have eyeballs), but nothing ever comes of it besides a few schmaltzy scenes at the end.

I will say, in true Spielberg style, we do have a lot more of that whimsical feeling from the original that was sorely lacking in Jurassic World. I didn't really think about it, but you only really had a scene or so of the park where you had that same feeling. Here, it comes back in full force in just the right amount. For a few moments, I felt like a kid again seeing Jurassic Park for the first time and marveling at the amazing dinosaurs.

The characters from the previous film that come back don't really get anything added to them (though it's always nice to see Chris Pratt) and the new characters are...anywhere from boring to annoying (particularly one of the new comic relief characters - a techie/hacker type - I found to be completely insufferable).

Like I said before, this film's a lot like The Lost World but only in the way that it zigs in every way that that film zags. It's very quick and to the point, unlike Lost World dragging its feet (which is ironic, considering they have roughly the same run time), and Fallen Kingdom doesn't feel like two films that were Frankenstein'd into one as Lost World did. It flows rather seamlessly from being on the island to being in civilization again.

That being said, where The Lost World had a finale that was worth getting to with a T-Rex rampaging through San Diego...Fallen Kingdom doesn't really have that. It's a bit more focused of a film than it's immediate predecessor, and it suffers from that in the finale. Then again, the finale of the last film had a T-Rex and a Raptor fighting a genetically engineered abomination of science that was finished off by a giant ass shark dinosaur...so it'd be a wee bit difficult to top that.

When it's good, it's great. Honestly, I can't really say it's at all bad. The only thing I can really say to its detraction on the whole is that there isn't more Jeff Goldblum (a crime in any film). It just...is. It's not some great, sweeping epic...but it's not trying to be. It's a popcorn film. Watched, enjoyed, and then forgotten about later. Perfect, mindless summer entertainment.

With dinosaurs.

What more could you ask for, right?

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is now in theaters from Universal Pictures, Amblin Entertainment, and Legendary Pictures.

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