Sunday, June 24, 2018

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

For me, and many people will disagree with me, the Jurassic Park franchise has always been about the dinosaurs.  I absolutely love the sense of wonder on the faces of the characters when they see the dinosaurs for the first time in Jurassic Park.  I even really liked Jurassic World, which has its fair share of issues, because the action sequences involving the dinosaurs are really intense and exciting. Last Thursday I went to a preview of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom thinking that, if nothing else, I would enjoy the dinosaurs.  I was a little bit disappointed.  Isla Nublar is now threatened by a volcano and debates arise about whether the dinosaurs who remain there should be protected as an endangered species.  Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard), who now heads a dinosaur rights activist group is hired by Eli Mills (Rafe Spall), the head of the Lockwood Corporation, to rescue the dinosaurs and take them to a new island sanctuary and she recruits Owen Grady (Chris Pratt).  It turns out that Mills just wants the dinosaurs for nefarious purposes and is using Claire to access the island tracking system and Owen for his skill with the velociraptors.  The dinosaurs are brought to the Lockwood estate for auction to the highest bidder and that goes about as well as you would expect.  I really enjoyed the sequences on the island as they try to round up the dinosaurs (except for one which actually made me tear up a little bit).  These were really thrilling, especially on an IMAX screen!  But as soon as they leave the island, I found the narrative to be tedious because it turns into an atmospheric conspiracy thriller.  For much of this, the dinosaurs are sedated and in cages as Claire and Owen try to figure out what is going on.  And there are a lot of things going on!  I think that some of the subplots are entirely superfluous, especially one involving Lockwood's granddaughter, and some of the characters are unnecessary, particularly Geraldine Chaplin's character.  There is a spectacular battle with one of the dinosaurs at the end of the film but I wanted more dinosaurs (I also wanted more of Dr. Malcolm!)!  I'm sure that many people will enjoy this movie but I found it to be disappointing.

Note:  For me, the best movie in the franchise is the original Jurassic Park.  It will be screened in concert with the Utah Symphony playing the iconic score at USANA Amphitheatre on September 8 (go here for tickets).  I already have my tickets and I am so excited!

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