2190. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)

Starring: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Rafe Spall

Director: J.A. Bayona

Running Time: 128 mins

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is an American film and the sequel to Jurassic World. After the destruction of the Jurassic World theme park, the dinosaurs are left alone on Isla Nublar facing a major eruption that could cause their extinction. However, a plan is devised to save the last valuable specimens from extinction.

I had a lot of fun with Jurassic World last time round. As a simple popcorn blockbuster, it worked really well, and that’s largely the case for its sequel, albeit with quite a few more caveats. Fallen Kingdom, while by no means perfect, does have the chops as a very basic piece of entertainment, the sort which you can look at for the best part of two hours and not feel all that bored by. That’s setting a very low standard, but it’s what I felt while watching this film: not entirely satisfied or impressed, but still entertained on a very basic level.

First off, let’s touch on what it manages to carry on from the successes of Jurassic World, particularly its impressive visual effects, with the dinosaurs looking pretty good throughout the whole movie (although with one or two major hiccups that look rather poor). Furthermore, much like the first film mimics Jurassic Park, this sequel really seems to mimic The Lost World. It’s clear that they try and do some things differently, but its most entertaining moments are where you see it tread the same path as the original sequel – not the most impressive thing to do, but it does make for some enjoyment at times.

And in all of that, there are some really entertaining action set-pieces throughout this movie. I can’t say that it’s the most riveting piece of work, but there are about three or four scenes that are there to simply entertain, and they do exactly that, with Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard returning with more action chops that last time out, and as such featuring a couple of action sequences that are even more entertaining than Jurassic World.

With all that said, the truth about Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is that it’s an incredibly simplistic and one-dimensional affair; one that totally misses the mark on delivering any sort of dramatic intrigue or unpredictability, and instead treading a very familiar path with absolutely no surprises at any point throughout.

Without the special effects, you wouldn’t be blamed for thinking this film was released in the mid-90s, because it really is a part of that incredibly basic, action-oriented blockbusters with next to no character depth or originality in the story, instead featuring Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard in very generic and uninteresting lead roles (their romantic relationship has to be down there as one of cinema’s most forced and pointless ever written), Rafe Spall as the most generic villain imaginable, and a plot that tries to introduce some interesting ethical and political dilemmas, but eventually ends up just going mad with dinosaur fantasy and action.

The fact is that Fallen Kingdom is a very simplistic and unimpressive film. It’s enjoyable, yes, particularly if you turn your brain completely off, and that saves it from being a total disappointment, but there really isn’t anything there that’ll help you remember it a couple of days after you’ve watched it, which is why I’m giving it a 7.3 overall.