Jurassic Park is a film series that needs no introduction at this point. What started with director Steven Spielberg’s 1993 adaptation of author Michael Crichton’s 1990 novel of the same name has gone on to become one of the most famous franchises in pop culture history. The original Jurassic Park still stands as one of the most famous blockbusters of all-time, touted for its groundbreaking visual effects (both animatronic and CGI-based) that were used to bring the story’s dinosaur creatures to life. Because of this, it was the highest-grossing film of its time, earning over $914 million worldwide, a record that stood for four years until James Cameron’s Titanic became the first film to earn over $1 billion at the worldwide box-office (Jurassic Park would ultimately join the billion-dollar club itself when it was re-released in 3-D in 2013 for its 20th anniversary). It was then followed by two immediate sequels, the Spielberg-directed The Lost World: Jurassic Park in 1997, which adapted Crichton’s 1995 sequel novelization that was made after the success of the first film, and the Joe Johnston-directed Jurassic Park III in 2001, the first film in the franchise that was not based on a Crichton novel. Both films did well at the box-office but neither of them was as well-received by critics and audiences compared to the first film. After that, a planned fourth film spent several years stuck in development hell due to numerous rewrites of the script, with writers like William Monahan, John Sayles, and Mark Protosevich being brought in to try and make it all work, ultimately to no avail.
It ultimately saw the light of day in 2015 with Jurassic World, directed by Colin Trevorrow, fresh off his 2012 indie hit Safety Not Guaranteed, who also co-wrote it with writing partner Derek Connolly. Serving more as a direct sequel to the original Jurassic Park (while still recognizing the previous two films as canon), the film was a monster hit at the box-office when it was released that summer. It earned over $208 million on its opening weekend in the United States and over $524 million worldwide, officially setting the record for the biggest opening weekend of all-time, a record that has since been outdone by Avengers: Infinity War both domestically and worldwide. And while critics and audiences seemed to be just as split on it as they were with the previous two films, it was still considered to be the best of the original film’s sequels. Cut to three years later and the series continues from its biggest financial hit to date with Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. This time, though, Colin Trevorrow isn’t in the director’s chair due to the commitment that he made to Star Wars: Episode IX before he ultimately left the project, though he and Connolly are still involved here as the film’s main writers. Instead, we have J.A. Bayona, who was previously considered to direct Jurassic World before he backed out due to fear of it being a rushed production, behind the camera. Like Trevorrow, Bayona’s been well-known for his work in the indie circuit with critically-acclaimed hits like 2007’s The Orphanage, 2012’s The Impossible, and 2016’s A Monster Calls. And for his first major blockbuster outing, he proceeds to give us yet another enjoyable dinosaur-centric adventure that does manage to carve out its own identity when compared to its four predecessors.
It has been three years since Jurassic World, the second major attempt at realizing industrialist John Hammond’s vision of a theme park featuring genetically-cloned dinosaurs was abandoned after the park was ravaged by its newest creation, a genetically-produced hybrid dinosaur known as the Indominus Rex. When it’s discovered that the island of Isla Nublar is about to be ravaged by an eruption from its previously dormant volcano, the U.S. Senate decides to not attempt to rescue the island’s dinosaurs to avoid any further dinosaur-related catastrophes. While this is going on, Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard), Jurassic World’s former operations manager who now runs an activist group seeking to rescue the dinosaurs, is approached by Sir Benjamin Lockwood (James Cromwell), who was Hammond’s primary business partner in his initial dinosaur-cloning experiments. Lockwood and his aide, Eli Mills (Rafe Spall), devise a plan to extract the dinosaurs from the island and have them moved to a safe location away from any human interference. Claire is selected to lead the rescue team and she also recruits her ‘ex’ Owen Grady (Chris Pratt), Jurassic World’s former Velociraptor trainer, who is ultimately convinced to go when it’s revealed that Blue, the last surviving member of both his raptor pack and her species in general, is one of Lockwood and Mills’ primary targets. Once on the island, however, Claire and Owen learn that Mills and his team have different plans for the dinosaurs. Instead of transporting them to safety, Mills plans to have the dinosaurs be sold off to buyers all over the world. And as for Blue, she’s needed to further the development of a new genetic hybrid that’s touted as being even more dangerous than the Indominus Rex, the Indoraptor.
Many have touted Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom as being more akin to a horror film, and it’s easy to see why. The way in which some of the film’s biggest sequences are filmed does give off a neat horror vibe, whether it’s a young girl being hunted by a vicious raptor in her own home or two characters being hunted by a Baryonyx in an abandoned facility that’s slowly being destroyed by lava. And overall, this does give a nice new spin to the traditional franchise concept of humans being hunted by dinosaurs. Still, even with that in mind, admittedly the story doesn’t always match the quality of some of this film’s most memorable sequences. This is especially the case when one big twist regarding a secret about one of the new characters is brought up but is never expanded upon after that reveal despite it being based around an intriguing new concept for this universe. Still, like the previous films, Fallen Kingdom doesn’t skimp on its dinosaur action, with a thrilling finale set not on the island of Isla Nublar but an old gothic mansion. On that note, Fallen Kingdom is quite arguably the best-looking film yet out of the Jurassic Park franchise. The cinematography from Bayona regular Oscar Faura produces some truly vibrant imagery, especially during the sequences where Isla Nublar is being ravaged by its volcano. And for those who were disappointed by the previous film only featuring one dinosaur animatronic in favor of CG-created dinosaurs (which weren’t even ‘bad’, even…), you’ll be pleased to know that Bayona goes for a greater balance between the two visual mediums in this film. Yes, there’s quite a lot of CG dinosaurs in this film, but there are also plenty of instances where the same great style of animatronics that was perfected by the legendary Stan Winston (which won him an Oscar for Best Visual Effects for his work on the original Jurassic Park) are on full display.
Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard are the only major cast members from Jurassic World to reprise their roles in this film, and the two of them are just as excellent here as they were in that film. Pratt’s great charisma is once again in top form here, and this film does give him some stronger character development to work with through the emotional bond that he shares with Blue. And while Bryce Dallas Howard doesn’t necessarily get to work with the same great transformative arc that Claire underwent in the first film, going from an uptight, work-focused businesswoman to a more emotionally-driven badass, she still gets to have just as plenty of badass moments as Pratt does. Plus, the two have excellent chemistry, better here than in the first film, even. As for the rest of the cast, while a lot of them do end up filling the franchise’s typical collection of characters who end up being ‘dino-chow’, all these actors and actresses do solid jobs in their respective roles. You’ve got your reliable screen veterans like James Cromwell as Sir Lockwood, Ted Levine as the imposing leader of Mills’ mercenary group, and Toby Jones as an auctioneer working in cahoots with Mills. And then you also have some solid newcomers as well, namely the other two members of Owen and Claire’s core group, Daniella Pineda as tenacious paleo-veterinarian Zia Rodriguez and Justice Smith as timid systems analyst Franklin Webb. But easily the most talked about member of this film’s cast is Jeff Goldblum making his heralded return to the Jurassic Park franchise as Dr. Ian Malcolm, who last appeared in 1997’s The Lost World: Jurassic Park. But as Goldblum himself noted in an interview, Malcolm does not factor that much into the film’s plot, as he only appears briefly at the beginning and end in sequences that do not have him interacting with any of the main characters. Still, for what it’s worth, Goldblum does make the most out of his brief appearance, delivering more of the stoic truths that he uttered in previous films that tie into the franchise’s biggest themes revolving around the ethical debate of resurrecting creatures who have been extinct for millions of years.
With a mediocre 50% rating on Rotten Tomatoes (at the time that I’m writing this), Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom continues the series’ trend of several folks feeling that the sequels don’t even remotely compare to the quality of the original film. But as someone who didn’t necessarily grow up with this franchise (outside of seeing Jurassic Park III when I was like six while over at a friend’s house), I’ve never held these heightened expectations against any of the sequels while still regarding the original film as one of the all-time greats. With that in mind, I enjoyed this film just as much as the other entries in the Jurassic Park franchise. To his credit, J.A. Bayona delivers what is easily the darkest installment of the series to date both thematically and visually. His horror genre roots do come in handy here, producing some effectively tense visuals that are bolstered further by Oscar Faura’s stunning cinematography. And while plot and character development are still not exactly this series’ strongest suit, it does deliver on everything else that fans of the franchise love about it when it comes to its wide array of dinosaur creatures and the chaos that is regularly caused by them. As such, this film ends on a truly fascinating note that paves the way for what will surely be an exciting conclusion to this new Jurassic World trilogy. This third installment will be hitting theaters in the summer of 2021 and will see Colin Trevorrow returning to the director’s chair and closing out the trilogy that he started a la J.J. Abrams returning to direct Star Wars: Episode IX (which, coincidentally, was originally set to be directed by Trevorrow). Until then, we have Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, another worthy follow-up to the iconic blockbuster that was the original Jurassic Park.
Rating: 4/5
No comments:
Post a Comment