Review: Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
The park is gone! At long last, four sequels after Stephen Spielberg's nature-run-amok masterpiece, the powers in charge of the Jurassic Park franchise finally let the theme park shtick rest. For a series that's constantly exploring the idea of evolution and adaptation, it's baffling how resistant the filmmakers have been to changing up the formula in everything that came after Spielberg's initial blockbuster. Last years Jurassic World was especially frustrating as it introduced new characters, new park technology and new dinosaurs only to squander it all by recreating the same sequence of events over again; the dinosaurs escape, retake the island and kill everyone in the process. For a film that was meant to both relaunch the franchise and usher in a new trilogy, it was incredibly disappointing and ultimately a really fucking tiresome film. It's a pleasure to report then that Juan Antonio Bayona's entry is remarkably better in nearly every way.
Kicking off a long time after the fall of Jurassic World, Fallen Kingdom opens with scientists recovering the bones of the Indominus Rex, the previous film's genetically engineered big bad dinosaur. It's a fantastic, white-knuckle opening scene that captures the spirit of Spielberg's original while teasing the horrors to come. After the recovery operation we learn that the dormant volcano at the center of Isla Nubar; the island where the dinosaurs now roam freely, is about to erupt. Cue the intrepid Claire, now a dinosaur rights activist, contacting her estranged ex Owen in hopes of recruiting him on her mission to rescue the animals before they're wiped out once again.
The films set-up is a stretch even for this series, with the volcano reading as one giant MacGuffin, but in the end it really works. Not only because Bayona nails the epic scenes of wanton disaster amid the volcano eruption, but because it's a plot device that's finally let the franchise evolve. Once the island has been destroyed (which isn't a spoiler...it's on all the films marketing), Bayona's entry kicks into high-gear, with the director adding lashes of fresh visual flair and exciting new set-pieces. The script runs with the idea of what might happen with the dinosaurs on mainland and as such they've been returned to their monstrous roots. Gone are the ridiculous slow-motion CG fight sequences (for the most part anyway), replaced with scenes of raptors stalking their prey in gothic locals and darkly lit T-Rex's menacing it's meat. It's reassuring to see the franchise embrace its horror elements, as the scarier these creatures are, the better the films are.
Of course, Fallen Kingdom isn't perfect. Mid-way pacing issues really interrupt the flow of the film, especially after such a stellar first hour and Chris Pratt is still the same two-dimensional cardboard cut out, but Bayona's sequel does just enough to quash any problems the film suffers from. The action works, the practical, animatronic dinosaurs are present and accounted for and Jeff Goldblum returns (albeit for a tiny cameo) so there's plenty more working for the film than against it. Hopefully this is a course correction for the franchise that'll last, as the end of Fallen Kingdom sets up a sequel that could be the best yet, if handled correctly.