Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
I’m not going to lie- it’s a bit depressing when my favorite thing about “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” is the way the ending sets up the next film. I don’t want that to appear as though I do not recommend the fifth film in the “Jurassic” franchise, however; it’s more of an indication of where the franchise seems to be as it hits its 25th anniversary since Steven Spielberg’s 1993 adaptation of the Michael Crichton novel hit theatres. In fact, if the underlying point of J.A. Bayona’s adventure film is to get me on the hook for the sixth film a few years from now, count me all the way in.
The “Jurassic” franchise feels a little like the “Jaws” series in that it appears to serve no point existing beyond racking in box-office dollars. But while that franchise made a gross miscalculation on focusing on the Brody family, Spielberg’s made sure the ultimate stars of this series are the dinosaurs, while bringing back characters from previous installments, as needed. Having Spielberg shepherd the series along these 25 years, while other directors have taken the reigns since 2001’s “Jurassic Park III,” the franchise feels like Spielberg acting as a mega-budget Roger Corman to filmmakers he admires as they put their own stamp on the series after he began it with “Jurassic Park” and 1997’s “The Lost World: Jurassic Park.” Seeing the latitude Colin Trevorrow and Bayona have been given on the “Jurassic World” part of the series made the rushed nature of Joe Johnston’s “Jurassic Park III” all the sadder to revisit. Man if he had been given the time to make that work, this franchise would be all solid B-movie fun.
“Fallen Kingdom” begins with a prologue that sets up the rest of the movie, because of course it does. Here, there is a group of people on Isla Nublar, years after the destruction of the Jurassic World park, on an expedition to retrieve part of the Indominus Rex from “Jurassic World,” and naturally, it doesn’t quite go as planned. Cut to after the title, and we see news informing us of a volcano eruption eminent on the island, which is threatening to make the dinosaurs extinct again. This brings up a moral question as to whether these genetically-engineered creatures from the past have the same right to life as other wildlife, and if so, what can be done. While Dr. Ian Malcolm (the great Jeff Goldblum) argues against that right to life in front of Congress, Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) is part of a group arguing FOR the preservation of dinosaurs, and she is brought to the estate of one of John Hammond’s early collaborators in the creation of these dinosaurs, Benjamin Lockwood (James Cromwell) with a proposition to go with a team back to the island and attempt to save 11 of the species to take them to a sanctuary Lockwood has ready for them. Special interest is paid to Blue, the velociraptor that connected so strongly with Owen (Chris Pratt) in the last film, and because of that bond, Owen returns to the island with Claire to try and save the dinosaurs from another extinction.
Part of the thing that feels so interesting about “Fallen Kingdom,” written by Trevorrow (who will return to the director’s chair for the last part of this trilogy) and his partner, Derek Connolly, is how many parallels it seems to have with Spielberg’s “Lost World,” which is also a bit of a mess, but has an interesting thematic hook at its center. One of the reasons it’s so comparable is because, and I have to get into some spoilers here, when the film is on the island, it’s much stronger than when it is on the mainland. The latter part here is about half of the film, and I think that’s part of why I have a hard time ranking it higher among the franchise’s entries. The stuff on the island is where, I think, Bayona (director of the phenomenal “A Monster Calls” a couple of years ago, as well as “The Impossible”) really shines as a filmmaker. I really enjoy the way he stages this material, from when the team crosses the path of a Brachiosaurus to the moment Owen is reunited with Blue to the escape from the island after the volcano erupts, leading to one particularly haunting image that Bayona and composer Michael Giacchino make surprisingly wrenching. (If you’re familiar with Bayona’s previous work, you won’t be surprised to read that.) Once they leave the island is where the struggles in Trevorrow and Connolly’s script really shine through, and while there are fascinating ideas, it’s hard for even a visionary as bold as Bayona to keep that part of the film being anything but ridiculous, although when he has room to take things in a dark direction, he goes for it in a powerfully satisfying way.
This film feels very similar to this year’s “Pacific Rim: Uprising,” where the ideas it has don’t always have a strong center of balance to keep them moving in a nimble, engaging way. While I would put both films on the same level in terms of overall quality, however, “Fallen Kingdom” has me far more interested in what might be in store after it than “Uprising,” because “Fallen Kingdom” has upended the status quo in the franchise in a way that can only make one excited about the possibilities of what will happen next. I wish it were in Bayona’s hands again, but as long as Trevorrow can bring it all together in a way that is respectful to Bayona’s vision here, we might see new life breathed into this franchise 65 million years in the making.
