Jurassic World was a noticeably flawed and borderline pretentious
movie. However, it was saved from total
mediocrity by three things: bits of enjoyable elements, a strikingly spectacular
set piece in the third act, and the sheer likability of Chris Pratt. On the other hand, its sequel, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, has a shortage
of the first and none of the second, putting much burden on the third – which is not enough on its own.
The story follows Owen Grady
(Chris Pratt) and Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) returning to Isla
Nublar, the location of the Jurassic World theme park that had been overrun by
its dinosaur attractions, as part of a rescue mission for the dinosaurs that are presently threatened of being wiped out by the impending catastrophic eruption of the island’s volcano,
which had suddenly awakened after a long period of being dormant.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom does have solid thrills to
offer. But they are extremely few. Most of its efforts to incite excitement are
pretty generic and unremarkable. Most
notably, it doesn’t have anything equivalent to that awesome T-Rex/Raptor tag-team
moment in the first movie.
Without any quality distractions
present, the thoughtlessness of its script becomes easy to notice. Now, I could cut it some slack regarding its scientific
inaccuracies, specifically its nerfing of lava heat and pyroclastic materials, since:
a.) countless other movies/TV shows have also been guilty of this; and b.) it was
for the sake of pulling off something potentially stimulating. However, what is unforgivable is the
deficiency of common sense and consistency in its narrative. Characters shockingly lack foresight for
obvious hazards, which leads to laughably stupid decisions, while a couple of
plot details are so infuriatingly corny and/or dumb that one’s willingness to
uphold his or her suspension of disbelief is seriously challenged as soon as they
unfold.
On top of my head, here are the two
most idiotic parts of the movie (SPOILERS):
1.) The “big bad” dino of this movie is the Indoraptor, which is the result of merging the DNAs of the Indominus rex, i.e. the “big bad” dino of the first movie, and the – drum roll – Velociraptor. Wait, what? Did the writers forget that the Indominus rex is already part-raptor?!
2.) The “big bad” human auctioned the dinosaurs at ridiculously cheap prices. Come on, $10 million for a living, breathing dinosaur? Some thoroughbred racehorses have been sold at higher prices than that, while Sir Lancelot Encore, the first cloned dog, has an estimated worth of $16 million. Besides, if it’s possible in real life to clone a dinosaur, surely, the total cost of the cloning process, raising it to adulthood, and maintenance must be way more than $10 million.
Lastly, Jeff Goldblum’s much-hyped
return to the role of Ian Malcolm is simply a glorified cameo in a scene that
the trailer had given out already. Boo!
So, was there anything about this
movie that I particularly liked? Hmmm. There’s Chris Pratt, of course, though he
wasn’t really remarkable here. Seeing Jeff
Goldblum is always a win, even though he was only on the screen for a brief
time. The opening sequence was okay; it was suspenseful enough. I dug most of the “return to and escape from Isla Nublar” scenes, one of which was a manipulatively but effectively heart-wrenching moment involving a
Brachiosaurus. The T-Rex and the lion roaring at each other during the ending montage was cool. And the Indoraptor’s breaking of the fourth wall
was so absurd enough to be hilarious. If there were any other things I liked, they were so minor or ordinary that I had forgotten them.
In the end, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom has nothing
of real substance worth relishing about. I was fairly entertained, sure, but I will just remember it as one of the dumbest movies of the year.
No comments:
Post a Comment