The Fifth Installment in the Jurassic Series...Cash Grab? - Cabell's Review

JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM is in theaters, Real-D 3D, Dolby Cinema and IMAX June 22nd, 2018.

It's been three years since theme park and luxury resort Jurassic World was destroyed by dinosaurs out of containment. Isla Nublar now sits abandoned by humans while the surviving dinosaurs fend for themselves in the jungles. When the island's dormant volcano begins roaring to life, Owen (played by Chris Pratt) and Claire (played by Bryce Dallas Howard) mount a campaign to rescue the remaining dinosaurs from this extinction-level event. Owen is driven to find Blue, his lead raptor who's still missing in the wild, and Claire has grown a respect for these creatures she now makes her mission. Arriving on the unstable island as lava begins raining down, their expedition uncovers a conspiracy that could return our entire planet to a perilous order not seen since prehistoric times.

So to start this review, I loved Steven Spielberg’s (who previously directed “E.T.” and “Jaws”) original Jurassic Park (1993). I also had fun with Colin Trevorrow’s (who previously directed “Safety Not Guaranteed” and “Book of Henry”) Jurassic World (2015), but Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is a complete disappointment. It is not as bad as Jurassic World III, but still pretty horrendous. To start with the plot, it is very surface level and honestly barley moved the franchise’s storyline further. In the end it just set up for another sequel. The script is also a mess, with the most stereotypical villains, unfunny jokes, poor pacing and meaningless characters. And while I am a Chris Pratt (previously seen in “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “The Lego Movie”) and Bryce Dallas Howard (previously seen in “Gold” and “The Help”) fan, there characters were forced into this film for star power and really were not needed for the story. However, they were more tolerable than their supporting cast. Specifically Justice Smith (previously seen in “Paper Towns” and “Every Day”) playing Franklin Webb. Unfortunately, he was given the most annoying lines, and his acting was even more intolerable. And my final point, this film did not feel like it had a good direction. J.A. Bayona (who had previously directed “A Monster Calls” and “The Orphanage”) really did not seem like he knew what he was trying to accomplish. And while most of his films are foreign language films, his American filmography is not that bad. Not quite sure if the studio was overly involved in this film, or if he just was not engaged enough in this film.

Before I conclude this review, I did want to give a shout out to Óscar Faura who did the cinematography for almost all of J.A. Bayona’s films including this one. His cinematography was really good and some shots specifically stood out as beautiful (I.E. when the Raptor is on top of the roof).

To conclude this review, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is a waste of time. The supporting cast feels like they could be from a Disney Channel Original Movie, and the script is a complete, utter mess. If you are a Jurassic Park/World fan, I really hope you do not rush out to see this film, so the studio will understand that they need to take more time with their films, rather than dropping cash grab blockbusters as quick as possible.

Rating: 1.9 out of 5

Cabell (Senior Contributor) is a filmmaker from Tampa, Florida. He will watch just about any film but when he's not reviewing the latest hits he spends time directing films of his own.
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