Film Reviews & Movie Analysis

Dinosaurs are no longer bones to be studied or creatures to be imagined, unfortunately history threatens to repeat itself when they are once more on the brink of extinction.

But when a kingdom falls, another will rise.

It has been three years since the destruction of Jurassic World.

The theme park which was to bring relics from the past into the future, instead saw countless civilians injured and dead. Left to its own devices since, the island and its no longer prehistoric reptiles are in danger from an active volcano.

A rescue mission by a private company is arranged to get as many species as possible to a sanctuary. Chosen for their knowledge of the island, Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) and Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) are reunited, with Owen also having the task of locating the last Velociraptor; Blue.

Unfortunately Claire and Owen soon learn that their mission is too good to be true, and the people they are working for have a whole other set of objectives – and preservation isn’t one of them.

I feel like I should start off by saying that I’ll just be looking at Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom in its own right, not in comparison to the original trilogy.

With that being done – I have to say that I am sticking with my initial thoughts after I came out of the cinema; I really enjoyed this movie.

One thing I liked was how well it moved. Scenes and situations shifted efficiently and I was never left bored. The movie has a 128 minute running time and with the kind of pace it had, for once I wouldn’t have been mad if it was longer. This ties in with how good the structure was because – heck, I love a well structured movie.

Surprisingly the movie made me stop and think about the reality of extinction. Like. One second you’re there and the next no part of you or anyone like you will ever exist again. Yeah. Let that sink in.

On the flip side of my minor existential crisis, I loved watching the dinosaurs fight – the action equally involved them as it did the humans.

By some miracle the movie managed to tug on various emotions – sadness, fear, rage, fear and of course fear. Seriously though, there was a shot of a Brachiosaurus left on the island that had me close to blubbering. Not to mention a scene where a particularly vicious and dexterous Velociraptor creeped – CREEPED – into a little girls bedroom.

NOT TODAY SATAN!

Naturally with the good comes the bad, no matter how much you enjoy a movie.

There were two things that stuck out to me as more annoying than terrible in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. The first was the somewhat pointlessness of Dr. Zia Rodriguez (Daniella Pineda) and tech expert/resident scaredy-cat Franklin Webb (Justice Smith).

Sure they had very distinctive albeit one dimensional characteristics, but they were so obviously there to fill plot holes which the main characters where too busy/ill equipped to handle.

Without giving too much away, the next thing I wasn’t so sure about was the mysterious history of Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon). I didn’t mind it per se, my qualm was to do with how necessary it was the the Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom story.

To be honest I’m splitting hairs – for all I know it could be significant in a later movie…

According to the interweb, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is receiving mixed to negative reviews from critics. However it’s still early days and thankfully they only make up a very small number of viewers, because at the end of the day – it was a solid movie.

The Planet of the Apes vibe it was itching towards makes me interested to see what will come next in the currently untitled third installment of the franchise, scheduled for 2021.

I’m thinking; Jurassic World: This is what happens when you resurrect predators dumbass! 

Too much?