Hold onto your butts. Twenty-five years ago, Steven
Spielberg made dinosaurs awesome for a whole new generation with 1993’s seminal
Jurassic Park. Before this, dinosaurs were laughable foam puppets as in Roger
Corman’s schlockfest Carnosaur, or were literally just iguanas with spikes
glued to their backs, in defiance of concepts such as effort or giving a damn.
But with the adaptation of Michael Crichton’s novel, we had dinosaurs that
looked, felt, and sounded real—thank Stan Winston and the revolutionary CGI for
Tyrannosaurs that crushed vehicles, Brachiosaurs that dominated the landscape,
and of course, vicious, door-opening clever girl velociraptors.
I must admit, Jurassic Park was one of my childhood films,
and I loved every moment, from the rather terrifying opening scene to the wonder
of the dinosaur herds unveiled to the tense kitchen scene. Looking back with my
best attempt to take the nostalgia glasses off, it holds up still decently well—the
CG, while slightly rough around the edges, still is damn fine for the 90s,
though there are some infamous continuity gaffes that involve either levitating
T-Rexes or spontaneously appearing chasms. Despite that and a few other moments
that are cheesier than I remember, the film deserves its landmark reputation,
if only for the tightly directed moments that sold it all.
Then came the sequels. Jurassic Park: The Lost World
is…honestly mediocre at best, with forgettable main characters, scenes that
just lurch from one to another, and just lacking the same impact. It did give
us Peter Postelthwaite as unflappable hunter Roland Tembo, so there’s that. And
then there was Jurassic Park 3, which just gave up the pretence and gave us a
straight B-movie of ludicrously persistent dinosaurs chasing poor saps through
the jungle. In some ways it’s more enjoyable than the previous one for that schlocky
straightforwardness, despite the talking dream raptors (no, really).
Finally, fourteen years later, a soft reboot came along with
Jurassic World, giving us a new cast, new hybrid dinosaurs, and an entire
populated park to destroy. It was really dumb, but in all honesty, as a monster
flick fan, I did enjoy it for its silliness. You had an invisibility-augmented
genetic monster downing helicopters, fighting mercenaries, trained raptors
running alongside Chris Pratt, and then finally a showdown with our good ol’
Rex. Turning off your brain just for some dinosaur popcorn fun, you got what it
promised.
And now comes the inevitable sequel to the reboot, Fallen
Kingdom, bringing back Chris Pratt starring as Chris Pratt as Chris Pratt—sorry,
Owen. There’s also Bryce Dallas Howard returning as Claire, and hey, er, eh, Jeff
Goldblum is, er, um, ah, back as Ian Malcolm! For about two minutes as a couple
of cameos, but hey, there’s something for the trailers!
The plot carries some déjà vu with Lost World, as Chris and
Bryce are recruited by a suspiciously close substitute for Richard Attenborough’s
John Hammond and his sleazy corporate lieutenant to retrieve the intelligent
velociraptor Blue from the now-abandoned theme park now set to be destroyed by
volcano. You even have an ersatz for Postelthwaite’s Tembo, just far less cool,
and less competent. Tagging along for the ride are a couple of secondary characters
who I honestly forgot about real fast, namely Hacker Guy, and Environmentalist
Girl. Trust me, that’s how you’ll remember them too.
One positive though is that it overall looks better than
Jurassic World—the colors are warmer, pop out more, and there’s some
surprisingly decent shots, including one that does succeed at wrenching at the heart
of anyone who remembers one classic moment of the original. The environments
overall feel more real, and the dinosaurs also look better on a technical level.
There’s a few more animatronics and physical body parts used for close ups,
helping to give a couple scenes more weight.
Eventually, it diverges from following Lost World halfway
through as it shifts to a gothic mansion setting, and more or less stays there.
That brings me to the main problem I have with the film—it feels smaller, and
not really in a good way. There’s another killer hybrid dinosaur, but it also
feels less consequential, and just another hazard to take care of. The one in the
last film dominated most of the plot of that, selling the danger of this beast
and the technology, but here, it feels more tacked on. As does its creator, BD Wong
as now full-on mad scientist Doctor Wu, who also just feels there for contractual
obligation.
Chriss Pratt does fine at Chris Pratt being Chris Pratt, and
if nothing else the two main characters remain better than most of the cast of
Lost World. The bad guys make more effort in being bad, and there’s some
vaguely environmentalist themes about preserving the dinosaurs, but it just
doesn’t feel as cohesive. The previous film at least knew what it was going for—being
a big dumb monster romp—and did just that. Here, it’s setting up for yet
another film, while trying to be it’s own dino flick, while also trying to
tackle some themes about cloning, and also animal preservation, and, eh, just
feeling thinly spread.
Overall, it’s not the worst film in the series—it’s still better
than The Lost World, if only for better leads and a better look, but I put it
around the same level of Jurassic Park III. See it for a scaly schlockfest but
don’t expect the impact of the first film or even the big sprawling extravaganza
of the prior film. If you didn’t like Jurassic World, this one definitely isn’t
going to convince you. If you loved it, you’ll like this one fine—just scale
your expectations down a bit, much like they did with the killer hybrid.
A clever girl, this one ain’t.
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