Three years ago the Jurassic Park franchise returned with a new story set 22 years after the events of the original film.
Jurassic World revealed what Richard Attenborough’s John Hammond had envisioned before everything went wrong – a theme park with real-life dinosaurs. But it wouldn’t be a Jurassic Park movie without the prehistoric beasts been let lose and running havoc, would it?
And that’s exactly what happened, with Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard dealing with the massive repercussions.
Incredibly Jurassic World absolutely smashed the box office, becoming the first movie ever to make over $ 500 million in its opening weekend – and the well-received dinosaur adventure went on to becoming the third-highest grossing film of all time with $ 1.672 billion worldwide.
So no wonder Universal Pictures and Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment were as hungry as caged velociraptors for a sequel, and here we are three years later with just that, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom – helmed by Spanish director JA Bayona, best known for horror classic The Orphanage.
The sequel is set a few years after the dinosaurs took over Jurassic World on Isla Nublar, however a volcanic eruption could see them wiped out all over again.
Howard returns as Claire Dearing, the former Operations Manager of the park, who teams up with John Hammond’s old partner Benjamin Lockwood to bring the dinosaurs to a sanctuary back in the USA. Her boyfriend and the park’s old dinosaur trainer, Pratt’s Owen Grady, returns with her to locate his old raptor Blue.
Yet the pair soon learn there’s more to Lockwood than meets the eye, as the prehistoric creatures start getting auctioned off, while a hybrid dinosaur called the Indoraptor wrecks havoc on the mainland.
Sceptical after reading that muddled synopsis? So were we, especially after much of it was already revealed in the trailers.
It’s sad to say this after such a fun, adventurous return to the franchise in Jurassic World, but Fallen Kingdom is not the sequel we were hoping for.
After returning briefly to Isla Nublar in the first act, that’s actually it for time spent in the Fallen Kingdom. Not to mention the comic relief from a supporting cast which barely gathers a titter. And the hilarious Jeff Goldman’s returning role? His screen time is about one minute total.
Instead, much of the plot sees the captured prehistoric creatures being auctioned off to twirly-moustachioed Texan tycoons and Russian oligarchs at a mansion somewhere back in the US.
All the while Pratt and Howard watch on, trying to work out what they can do. To be fair there’s nothing wrong with the leading duo and villainous co-stars played Toby Jones and Rafe Spall, but instead they’re let down by the messy and dull script. One that really should have been called Jurassic World: Boring Auction.
Of course the action does pick up later on when things eventually go wrong, and Bayona does provide a couple of decent horror moments, but that’s not enough to save this lacklustre blockbuster.
If anything the whole uninteresting affair seems to be setting up Jurassic World 3, a film with Colin Trevorrow back in the director’s chair, announced for 2021.
Let’s just hope he can bring back the spark of his original, perhaps getting Goldblum, Sam Neill and Laura Dern back for a reunion. Something certainly has to be done to stop this franchise from going extinct.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is out from Wednesday in the UK.
