Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is the franchise's most tonally ambitious entry since the original and also its most dramatically incoherent. J.A. Bayona brings a visual sensibility and a willingness to push the material into darker, stranger territory than any previous instalment has attempted, and the result is a film that is intermittently arresting and persistently frustrating. It is a sequel that contains the seeds of a worthwhile film and consistently fails to grow them, a production whose individual sequences are more accomplished than the whole they comprise and whose ambitions are more admirable than its execution.
At a Glance
Director: J.A. Bayona
Runtime: 128 minutes
Starring: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Rafe Spall, Justice Smith, Daniella Pineda
Release: 2018
Critics Rating: ★★ (2/5 stars, visual ambition undermined by dramatic incoherence)
Audience Rating: ★★½ (2.5/5 stars, more interesting than satisfying)
Review Breakdown
Plot
Three years after the events of Jurassic World, Isla Nublar's volcano is about to erupt. Owen Grady and Claire Dearing are recruited to rescue the remaining dinosaurs, only to discover that the operation is a cover for an illegal auction of the animals to private military contractors and wealthy collectors. The screenplay splits the picture into two distinct halves: a volcanic disaster movie on the island and a gothic horror film in a Californian mansion. Neither half is fully realised, and the transition between them is abrupt enough to feel like two different productions edited together. The auction sequence, which should be the dramatic centrepiece, is resolved with a speed and a convenience that suggests a screenplay more interested in reaching its next set-piece than in developing the moral questions it has raised. The ending, in which Maisie releases the dinosaurs into the wider world, is the franchise's most consequential narrative decision since the original, and it is handled with a brevity that does not match its significance.
Characters
Pratt and Howard return with the same chemistry and the same underwritten material as before, their characters' relationship developing in ways that feel obligatory rather than earned. Owen's bond with Blue is the most emotionally engaging thread, a connection the screenplay invests in with more care than it gives to any of its human relationships. Toby Jones' auctioneer is the most enjoyably theatrical supporting performance, a creation of broad villainy that suits the gothic register of the mansion sequences. Isabella Sermon's Maisie Lockwood is the most significant new addition, a character whose importance to the franchise's future is established with enough care to make her feel like a dramatic investment rather than a plot device, and whose revelation is the most genuinely surprising moment in the picture. James Cromwell's Benjamin Lockwood gives the picture a connection to the franchise's origins that feels earned rather than contrived, and his scenes with Sermon have a warmth that the more action-oriented passages cannot match.
Tone
Bayona's visual sensibility is the picture's greatest asset and its most consistent pleasure. The volcanic eruption sequence is staged with a scale and a physical immediacy that the Jurassic World trilogy had not previously achieved, and the mansion sequences have a gothic atmosphere that is entirely new to the franchise. The Indoraptor sequence in the child's bedroom is the most purely effective horror passage the series has produced, a demonstration of what Bayona can achieve when the material gives him a contained space and a clear threat. The tonal inconsistency between the island and mansion halves is the most significant structural weakness, but within each half the direction is more assured than anything the Jurassic World trilogy had previously offered.
Meaning / Themes
The picture raises more interesting questions than it answers. The auction of dinosaurs to private buyers gestures toward arguments about the commodification of life and the ethics of ownership that the screenplay does not develop with adequate rigour. Maisie's revelation as a human clone introduces questions about identity and the definition of personhood that are more interesting than anything the franchise had previously attempted, and that Dominion would subsequently handle with considerably less care. The ending's decision to release the dinosaurs into the world is the franchise's most consequential thematic statement since the original, and the picture's failure to give it the weight it deserves is its most significant missed opportunity.
Direction
Bayona's direction is the most visually distinctive in the franchise since Spielberg's original, with a command of atmosphere and spatial tension that the Jurassic World trilogy's other entries cannot match. The Indoraptor sequence is a masterclass in contained horror filmmaking, and the volcanic eruption is the series' most viscerally spectacular set-piece since the T. rex attack in the rain. Michael Giacchino's score is the trilogy's most emotionally varied, finding a gothic register for the mansion sequences that distinguishes it from the more straightforwardly adventurous tone of the preceding entry.
Cultural Reception
Fallen Kingdom received mixed reviews on its release and was a solid commercial success, grossing over $1.3 billion worldwide. Critics acknowledged Bayona's visual ambition and the Indoraptor sequence while noting the tonal inconsistency and the screenplay's failure to develop its more interesting ideas. It is now regarded as the Jurassic World trilogy's most visually accomplished entry and its most dramatically frustrating, a picture that demonstrated what the franchise could achieve with a more adventurous director and a more rigorous screenplay working in concert.
Who Should Watch
Viewers interested in what the franchise looks like under a director with a distinctive visual sensibility, and those who want to see the series attempt something tonally new. Fallen Kingdom is more rewarding than its reputation suggests for those willing to engage with its ambitions rather than its failures. Those who found Jurassic World too safe will find this considerably more interesting, if not entirely satisfying.
Final Verdict: A visually ambitious and dramatically incoherent sequel that contains the franchise's most atmospheric direction and some of its most interesting ideas, none of which are developed with the rigour they deserve. Bayona's craft is evident throughout, the Indoraptor sequence is the series' finest horror passage, and Maisie Lockwood is the most intriguing new character the franchise has introduced in decades. The screenplay lets all of it down. A better script would have made this the franchise's most significant entry since the original.
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