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Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018), PG-13, ★★


The park is closed. Or it had been closed in a while since this sequel takes place three years later. Now, it has been three years since the phenomenon of Jurassic World. Nobody expected it to much as much money as we anticipated. I guess we underestimated the value of dinosaurs in the movie and people want to see dinosaurs cause mayhem and tear people to shreds. However, it was a divided movie, some people thinking that it was a fun movie (like I did) and people hating the movie. But, I believe that the movie relied heavily on nostalgia that it did not provide as much wonder as the first Jurassic Park. However, even though I appreciated the different direction it was going with its camerawork and some of its special effects, the dark tone of its story created some dull action and unnecessary plot twists that made it less fun.

Again, it has been three years since the disaster of Jurassic World, and the island is on the verge of a volcanic disruption, threatening the dinosaurs' lives left on the island. People are divided as to whether or not dinosaurs should die on the island and remain extinct or dinosaurs should be saved and be taken off the island. At a U.S. Senate hearing, Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) argues that the dinosaurs should be left to die as they should not have been created in the first place.

Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard), the former director of the park, is now in charge of the Dinosaur Protection Program, to provide some nurture and a home for the dinosaurs. She watches that there will be no legislative action taken upon to save the dinosaurs. However, Claire is contacted by Benjamin Lockwood (James Cromwell), the former partner of John Hammond, Jurassic Park's original creator. She arrives at his home and is contacted by his aide, Eli Mills (Rafe Spall), who tells Claire that the dinosaurs will be relocated to a new island.

Knowing the raptor, Blue, is on the island and difficult to capture, Claire contacts Owen Grady (Chris Pratt), the one person who knows how to communicate with Blue. He reluctantly goes back to the destroyed park with Claire and a group of people. Owen, Claire, Zia (Daniella Pineda), a paleoveterinarian and a technician, Franklin Webb (Justice Smith) meet the head of a mercenary team to retrieve the dinosaurs. As Owen encounters Blue, who does not appear to recognize him at first, Blue gets tranquilized along with other individual species of dinosaurs and gets taken away, leaving Owen, Claire and Franklin on the island as the volcano erupts.


I really like the first half of the movie as the politics and the action start to balance one another very nicely. It's more of an animal survival movie than a human survival movie because we care about the dinosaurs very much as we are fond of them from movie to movie. We want to see most of the dinosaurs survive because in the end, they are animals. They need a home. But, when the second half kicks in, as they are off the island and into the mansion, the movie slows down and becomes mediocre as the story is predictable and does not make as much sense. You can actually pinpoint which characters are going to get killed off like Jurassic Park III. It is as predictable as that movie. Plus, the whole plot has the structure of The Lost World. It is a nearly identical structure except the third act of San Diego is a lot shorter than this movie.

Basically, Chris Pratt is still charismatic and can commit but his character is still not as memorable nor as Bryce Dallas Howard's character. Their chemistry does not seem to click here this time around. The characters of Zia and Franklin are well-drawn on paper but here, I think, the character of Franklin was a bit annoying. And, the villains here are cheap and weak and felt like any other type of villain from any other disaster or action movie. I did like Isabella Sermon as the granddaughter here as she gives an interesting performance but her character in the story did not do her justice.

Director J.A. Bayona, who directed the nearly well-told A Monster Calls, has some interesting new angles of direction and visual terror, especially proven in the first half. However, the script was on auto-pilot in the second half as cliches and boredom took over and it was not as fun. No, I'm not looking to rely heavily on nostalgia because Jurassic World did it and did it well enough. I want something new every time but it has to be well-told and more of interest and it was not either of those things. Plus, there is a twist that came out of nowhere that was ludicrous and it was lame and the ending made no sense and the movie is basically setting up for another sequel to make more money. Yeah, there are dinosaurs, but I want to have fun and I want a more interesting storyline the third time around.

**


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