Jurassic World: The Fallen Kingdom Review – Spoiler Free
Jurassic World: The Fallen Kingdom is a film which comes directed by J.A. Bayona who some may know as the director of A Monster Calls (2016). The film stars Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Rafe Spall, Justice Smith, Daniella Pineda, Isabella Sermon and Jeff Goldblum. Jurassic World: The Fallen Kingdom is the latest film to be released in the Jurassic Park franchise and the second in recent years.
Going in to see this film, I actually wasn’t too sure what to think about it. I had enjoyed the previous film and I’ve always enjoyed the franchise. There’s something about seeing all the dinosaurs in these films do what they do that pleases me. Although with each Jurassic Park film experience, I just sit in hope that I get to see a decent amount of people get eaten whole by a T-Rex or something bigger. Did I get that in Jurassic World: A Fallen Kingdom? Yes I did 🙂 and there were quite a few of those instances too 🙂
The plot itself in this film is fairly straight forward. There’s little placed into the narrative to confuse the audience and there are very few twists. It’s a very easy to follow story. Basically what’s happened is that the island where the dinosaurs are currently living has a dangerous volcano on it. It’s going to explode. This means that Chris Pratt’s Owen and Bryce Dallas Howard’s Claire get motivated to go back to the park to rescue a couple key dinosaurs before they are wiped out. While out there, there’s a villain they encounter who has other ideas for the dinosaurs. Will Owen and Claire survive this endeavour?
Leaving the film this afternoon, I felt quite satisfied with the story we got. It’s a simple plot from beginning to end, but it does the job it’s supposed to do. It basically delivers the dinosaur action moments which I think fans go in to the cinema to see. It does have some weaker components though, the film’s villain doesn’t really seem threatening at all. Other than Claire, Owen and a delightful young girl called Maisie (Isabella Sermon) the rest of the characters don’t really make an impact at all either which is a little bad.
Chris Pratt is very enjoyable in the film and he’s an actor that is hard to dislike. Although his presence in quite a few big franchises at the moment means that we get a little more of the same experience we just had in the cinema only a few weeks ago. If you’ve seen Chris Pratt in anything, you could have a fairly good idea what to expect from him here too. But he gets the job done. I enjoyed watching Bryce Dallas Howard in this film, although I would have liked a little more screen time for the actress whose character seems to fall away towards the end after quite a bit of build up that doesn’t go anywhere. Isabella Sermon as mentioned was delightful, hopefully we can see all three of these in the next instalment and hopefully cut out the rest. There’s some scenes featuring Jeff Goldblum which are good, but these are about 5 minutes I would guess out of the whole run time.
The special effects and the action sequences are the high point of the film. I very much enjoyed seeing each of the dinosaurs and their various animations in Jurassic World: A Fallen Kingdom. As a big blockbuster released in 2018 and in amongst the many releases in recent weeks, Jurassic World delivers pretty much everything you would want to see happen in a dinosaur film. When characters were in danger and dangerous dinosaurs were lurking near them while they were hiding, things do feel a little tense and you do worry for some characters. The second half of the film is where all the fun is and there’s quite a bit of destruction to be seen.
Overall I’m happy to recommend going to see Jurassic World: A Fallen Kingdom at the cinema this weekend. If you’re a fan of Jurassic Park or especially the last film in the series you’ll more likely than most enjoy this experience. While I don’t think this is the best film in the franchise ever, it is quite an entertaining experience which delivers some great action moments. The plot is simple, yes, but it’s not a bad thing. It’s just a straightforward easy to follow film experience which I very much enjoyed.
Additional Information: There is a short post credits scene at the end.
