Hey, everyone! We are back with (finally!) a new movie
review! Today’s a big one. That’s right, we’re talking Jurassic World:
Fallen Kingdom. As usual, no spoilers ahead.
First off, I’d like to clarify I didn’t hate the
first Jurassic World movie. It just seemed like every time we talked
about it, I found something else to point out about it, and not in a positive
way. Sure, it got everyone back on the dinosaur train
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| I SWEAR THIS WAS AN UNINTENTIONAL PUN |
But it really didn’t
do it for me. A lot of it was the characters, which just felt like flat
stereotypes without the realness that previous characters had. There was also
the blatant ‘HEY, REMEMBER JURASSIC PARK? WASN’T THAT MOVIE AWESOME?’ sense
that really needed to be toned down to let this new movie stand a little more
on it’s own legs. I know they did basically the same thing with The Force
Awakens, but it didn’t feel so cheap about it, and I actually care
about those characters.
Okay, so enough complaining about what came before and talk
about the here and now. Fallen Kingdom is a huge improvement. The
writing is better, the camera work is better, the characters are better, it’s
just better. It’s also much darker and does something new with the
franchise. Will this make it The Last
Jedi of the franchise? Maybe, but
at least these films are actually trying to do something different and keep their
franchises from getting stale. But that’s different rant altogether.
WHAT THEY GOT RIGHT
-As I said, the
characters are better. I don’t know if they’re necessarily deeper, but they
feel less one-dimensional than they did. The new characters are also pretty
good, especially the little girl, Maisie, and Franklin and Zia. Claire and Owen
were a lot better, too, and you get more background with Owen and Blue and a
better sense of their relationship.
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| awwww Baby Blue |
Dr. Wu also is less of a cackling mad
scientist. He’s more like a man obsessed, addicted, but not over-the-top about
it. I hope we get some kind of conclusion to his story in the next one to
really wrap up what started way back in 1993.
- The dinosaurs
look better and this is the last hybrid. Far more animatronics were used here
than in the last one, and overall the dinosaurs looked so much better. The Indominus rex was never really that threatening, or even as visually interesting as
the Indoraptor. It was just sort of an ugly special effect
that was never really scary. The Indoraptor
was scary, and you know that in some
of those shots, it’s actually there on set.
- The music is
better. Michael Giacchino is awesome. I think my favorite score of his is still
Rogue One, but this is right up there. The subtle
cues and nods to John William’s original work woven into the new stuff, it all
works. Top notch.
- Going back to the
ethical questions integral to the series. Perhaps not in the depth that the
original film did, but it is nice to get back to the real core of Jurassic Park. It would’ve been nice to see more of the question presented in the
first half of the movie discussed more, but then the question switches in the
second half and that helps to inform the motivations of several characters. It’s
good to have this back, and it was sorely lacking in Jurassic World. Not that the questions weren’t there, it’s just they never did
anything with them.
- New dinosaurs. It’s
always nice to see more dino diversity, and there’s several new species, or at
least species we haven’t seen in a long time. The new standout is ‘Stiggy’, the
Stygimoloch. She is adorable, and has a couple of great moments in the film. Kids
will definitely love her. I mean, ours did. I mean, this movie might be scary
for little kids but it really depends on your kid. Ours are obviously well-versed
in all things dinosaur so they were fine.
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| Stiggy! |
-The nods and
callbacks were subtle and didn’t interfere with the flow of the movie. If you’ve
seen the first film, you should pick up on at least some of them. For me, they
were an ‘ah!’ moment, not something that ground the story to a halt to remind
you of the past.
- You know what Jurassic World didn’t have that Fallen
Kingdom did? Dr. Ian Malcolm. Nuff
said.
WHAT THEY GOT WRONG
-There’s one part
with one particular dinosaur that rips your heart out, stomps on it, stubs out
it’s cigarette in the remains, and then makes you eat it (the last part is my
kid’s addition). When you see it, you’ll know. Bring tissues.
So, in conclusion,
I actually liked this movie more than I expected I would. After the first Jurassic World I wasn’t super excited and I had pretty tempered expectations going
in. And, thankfully, I was pleasantly surprised. It’s a definite, definite step
up and I recommend it.
