Review of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) by Teddy F — 25 Jun 2018

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is a fun summer blockbuster, but fails at greatness as it is never very thrilling or scary.

Chris Pratt is still charismatic and humorous, Bryce Dallas Howard does a good job stepping back into her role from the previous movie despite remaining little more than a damsel in distress, and the rest of the cast fills in fine. The dinosaurs look great, as realistic as ever. One thing I really liked was the attention paid to the development of Owen and Blue's relationship; if there is one character you care about at all in the film, it is that velociraptor. Fallen Kingdom is never boring and does what a movie should do - entertain. But, there are some problems with the film which cause concern about the future of the franchise.

The original Jurassic Park, and even the recent Jurassic World, were both exciting not only because of the dinosaurs, but because they were tense, thrilling movies. Watching them you did not know who would make it and could sense the danger. Watching Fallen Kingdom, I never felt this way. This might be for two reasons: we see more of the dinosaurs and who dies has become too predictable. CGI is so advanced and realistic today, directors no longer have to rely on practical effects the way they used to. This means the dinosaurs look more real and there is less reason to hide them. However the less we see of the monster the scarier it is. Now, we see so much of the dinosaurs that even the scariest creation the visual effects team can come up with isn't so scary. My other major criticism is with who is killed off. Remember when all that remained of Samuel L. Jackson was his arm or when the assistant was plucked out of the sky? These were deaths I did not see coming; Fallen Kingdom has none of that. It is so predictable who dies in the movie and how. The forgettable antagonists will get eaten by the dinosaurs. The movie takes no risks in this area and not for a moment do I believe anyone that matters is in any real trouble. A movie like this should have you on the edge of your seat and this one wasn't doing it for me. A couple of other minor critiques I have are that I felt the saving the dinosaurs mission on Isla Nublar should've been longer and more of the focus of the movie, and there is one twist late in the film that comes from out of left field and there is no reason to care about it.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is fun and will keep you entertained, but I fear the thrilling nature of the Jurassic films is on its way to being extinct.