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| Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) |
Let me clarify two things in this opening paragraph. I feel that this instalment of the Jurassic franchise gets two very important things exactly right that every other Jurassic movie did to varying levels of success. The first is to build the tension around the dinosaurs making them seem like monsters. Holy crap, did they nail this. That first scene in particular was extremely well-paced, it delivered on the scares, and it did the whole 'build up the threat so that when it appears it's even scarier thing' flawlessly, and that was just for one scene. The whole movie is like that. When it wants to establish a threat, it does an excellent job of building it up. The other thing the movie nails is making the dinosaurs feel like actual animals. In fact, I think this movie succeeds on this front far better than any Jurassic movie before it. Not just with the visuals, I'll get to that later, but the way the story is set up, it really makes you feel for the animals and helps you make the kind of connection with them that you would with any other animal in that same situation, and it's just so effective. This Jurassic movie does the best job of balancing that dichotomy of treating the dinosaurs both like monsters and like real animals, which is no small feat, and I don't think it should be overlooked.
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| Blue and Chris Pratt as Owen Grady |
But, onto the presentation. This is by leaps and bounds the best looking Jurassic movie. You know my opinion of the heavy use of CGI in the previous film: I wasn't against it and it still looked fine. Here, they find a much better balance between CGI and practical effects, and I'll admit this looks far superior. It's also important to note here that they found a way to make each animal visually distinct from each other, which is important since there's a bigger variety of dinosaurs in this film, and it would be very easy to confuse them with each other, but they find a way to avoid that from happening. In particular, the design of the Indoraptor is glorious, and I love how menacing it looks with the yellow stripe. Great stuff. The other thing to mention is the soundtrack. The Jurassic soundtracks have always been impressive, but this might just be my favourite, mainly because it does something with its music that no other Jurassic film has done. I won't give away what it is, but trust me, it's a treat for the ears. I was also impressed by how reserved they were with just using the original Jurassic Park theme. Don't get me wrong, it's here, but I only noticed it in a couple of scenes, and they were some of the more quiet moments. When getting sweeping shots of the island or when everyone is gazing at a dinosaur on the island for the first time, it would have been so easy to break out that main theme and just let the nostalgia do the talking, but they allow the movie to stand on its own, which I like.
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| The Indoraptor |
The other thing this movie does that I really appreciate is it left me guessing with its plot. I couldn't always predict where it was going, and I don't just mean with the plot twists they pulled out, which I thought were genuinely shocking and well-executed. The story itself ended up going places I wasn't expecting it to, especially with how it was set up in the first act. I remember thinking something like 'Oh, this again', and I'm trying to be as vague as possible to avoid spoiling it, but it didn't do 'this again'. I read a review that used the phrase 'adds nothing to the Jurassic franchise' and I thought, 'How? How does this add nothing?' If anything, it adds the most, as it actively takes steps to move the franchise away from the stories its been telling for 5 movies and it sets up something new, which I'm all for. This is the first time I've walked out of a Jurassic movie genuinely saying 'I can't wait for the sequel'. The other great thing the story allows for are the emotional moments. Yeah, I said it, there are some real tear-jerker scenes in here. I don't dare tell you where they are, but I was legitimately welling up in my seat, and as you may know, it takes a lot for a piece of media to make me cry, so they pulled it off extremely effectively.
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| Jeff Goldblum as Ian Malcolm |
You may have noticed I haven't talked about the characters yet, and that's because, yeah, they're a little bland, but I wouldn't argue that's a bad thing. As I said in my Jurassic World review, it's by design. If the characters were super complex, it would just detract from what we're here to see: the dinosaurs and their story. Because, that's what this story is really about. The other Jurassic movies were about the human characters, but this one is first and foremost about the dinosaurs, so is it any surprise that the humans are sort of pushed to the side? The ones in the forefront are still solid, in my opinion, and the acting is great across the board, so I didn't mind it. The one human arc that is fleshed out and compelling is handled very well, and I won't reveal what it is for spoilers, so let's leave it at that. The only other thing I'll say is that there are couple of logic inconsistencies. Mainly the ones about lava physics and the fact that that's not how blood transfusions work. Do they detract a little? Yeah, but I wouldn't argue they break the movie. There's too much good stuff in here to count: the gyrosphere scene, the entire third act, Owen's relationship with Blue, so I'm willing to overlook a couple of errors. That's how I view inaccuracies in movies: the more entertaining they are, the more I'm willing to suspend my disbelief for. Take the first Jurassic Park. It has its inconsistencies and plot inaccuracies, but I still gave it a 10 because nothing ruins the movie. Jurassic Park III, on the other hand, has the plot errors I notice more because of how boring the film is. I'm more likely to pull the movie up on them because it hasn't pulled me in. This film pulled me in, and pulled me in well, so I can acknowledge those inaccuracies, but not necessarily crucify the movie for them.
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| Isabella Sermon as Maisie Lockwood |
Guys, I'm sorry, but Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) is just an excellent movie, and easily the 2nd best Jurassic film. I feel like these films get a lot of hate in the same way the new Star Wars films do (and I'll get to them, trust me) but to me, it feels very unwarranted. I had a blast with this film, and I can't wait to see what the franchise does next. 9.5/10.
And that's all the Jurassic films. Can't wait to see what's coming next with this franchise. But, now, back to your regularly unscheduled miscellaneous reviews.
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