I am not sure if I entirely believe the curse of the sequel. For example, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is better than the first. The only reason I still love the first is simply because it is the first. In addition, I thought Hunger Games: Catching Fire was the best film in the entire series. Also, The Dark Knight is the best in Nolan's Batman trilogy. So there are instances where the sequels are better or at least equally as good. Unfortunately, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, is not one of those cases. It's good. It's action-packed. It's got comedic Chris Pratt scenes. Jeff Goldblum is in it, briefly. And it's got the dinosaurs! But it feels like it is a bridge film that needed to be made so we can get the third one. The first half of the film is our traditional island of extinct creatures that reek havoc, while the second half of the film is man foolishly bringing those dinosaurs to the city and we get our very own Godzilla AKA Indoraptor vs. Giant Mansion.
The whole film was made just so we could get the last five minutes. Granted, you may not realize that until the film ends. I watched the whole film thinking it was a mediocre sequel, only to leave the theatre deciding it was an entertaining segue between introducing the "successful" theme park where current society could learn about a past world and the infamous end result that Goldblum's Dr. Malcolm has been talking about since the very first film. It is the idea of if you bring them back, you upset the balance, and eventually, the dinosaurs will rule again. There's the line: "God creates dinosaurs. God destroys dinosaurs. God creates man. Man destroys God. Man creates dinosaurs. Dinosaurs eat man--" and the last line is originally "Woman inherets the earth" but I think this film suggests the truth is "Dinosaurs take back the earth."
In this film, it has been three years since the Indominous Rex destroyed the theme park and now the volcano is going to destroy the island. Claire (Howard) and some of her colleagues, tech-guy/whinybutt Franklin (Justice Smith) and dinovet Zia (Daniella Pineda), are trying to raise enough money to save the dinosaurs from their inevitable second extinction. Enter Mr. Mills (Rafe Spall) and his boss, Hammond's co-creator, Lockwood (James Cromwell) who fund Claire's trip back to the island with Owen (Pratt) to rescue Blue the raptor and several "all the other dinosaurs"--but it's a TRAP! Turns out Mills just wants several species so he can sell them off and they needed Owen to get Blue. This films goes from another Jurassic Park film to an Endagered Animal Auction.
Imagine if you will, staring from the hidden confines of a military truck securly placed on a boat back at a brontosaurus staring back at you through smock and lava, crying out and then suddenly all you can see is their silhouette as they are covered in smoke and debris before falling down dead. It's a cry-worthy moment to watch nearly all of the dinosaurs die again. Most Jurassic Park films have dinosaurs trying to kill the humans, and succeeding, but the underlying message is they were extinct and we brought them back. There have been a few scenes (Sam Neill's character trying to heal the sick triceratops in Jurassic Park and Owen/Claire comforting the dying brontosaurus after the I-Rex mauled her) where we feel empathy for the dinosaurs. Not many, but a few. However, what I do love about this film is there are many more scenes where we feel empathy for them and we remember they are creatures/animals with the same thoughts and emotions as us. Yes, I know, I'm a big softy.
Though I understand why the film takes place in a mansion in California, it is still "too weird" to take seriously and truly be scared. I mean, imagine a large dionsaurs traipsing across the roof, crashing through hallways, and using it's nail to turn the latch on the balcony window and walk in...it's just too disjoining from the isolation of "we're all alone, trapped on an island with dinosaurs"--which is where half the scare-factor came into play in the first couple films.
Then again, part of why I might not have liked those scenes as much is simply because it brought back one of my childhood classic nightmares. The scene in question is where our child screamer Maisie (Lockwoods "granddaughter"), hides under her covers and the Indoraptor opens her window, walks through, and looms over her. When I was five I accidentally saw Jurassic Park, meaning my teenage cousin was babysitting and let me watch it, which my parents resented him for when I started screaming and having nightmares. I lived in a one-story house with a bedroom that faced the street, with a large window I could have climbed through easily. After watching the first film, I was convinced that the T-Rex was going to smash through my window and eat me out of my bed, and there was nothing my parents could do to change my mind, except for dad sleeping on the trundle next to me, in between me and the window--so the T-Rex would eat him first.
You've seen "Indoraptor" a few times and unless you've seen the film, you're likely guessing at what that is--it's this films new scary dinomonster. It's a mix of the velocirapter and the Indominous Rex (which was already part raptor)...however, while the I-Rex was playing and exploring her surroundings, I-Rap is having fun tricking humans before tearing them to pieces. Simply put, the dinomonster from the first Jurassic World was more T-Rex with the stomp and chomp, while this new dinomonster is more vicious, intelligent predator. Curtesy of Dr. Henry Wu (Wong) who is back as our very own Dr. Frankenstein, cursed with his god-complex and desire to create and control life.
The idea of life brings us to the wonderful Jeff Golblum and his character, Dr. Ian Malcolm, who makes a framing cameo in the film--only appearing in the very beginning and the very end, as our narrator and doomsday sayer. He provides our on-the-nose line of "it really is a jurassic world" and reminds us of the chaos theory and how "life finds a way", which then is the theme of the whole film, and is then our warning at the end of the film to foreshadow the third film in the trilogy. I think this also plays into the popular tagline of the film, "the park is gone". The use of the word "park" suggests amusement and play and not-taking-it-seriously. To say the "park is gone" suggests that there's no more play, this is real, this is dangerous, and you can't take it back.
I actually do hope the third film gets made, because even if I didn't like this film as much as the first one, I still love the concept of Jurassic Park, and I still am intrigued by the idea of what will inevitably come next after this film.
SPOILERS, DON'T READ ANY MORE UNLESS YOU'VE SEEN THE FILM
OR DO NOT CARE
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The ending where all the dinosaurs are going to die from poisonous gas if they are not set free echos the scene earlier where we watch all the dinosaurs die who were left on the island. It is just as heartbreaking and cry-worthy, but with a more bittersweet ending. They're set free and we're glad because we didn't want to watch them die, but now they're lose on California. Then again, it is very poetic how they are set free. The little clone girl becomes a mass murderer when she lets them out, but then again, since she's a clone too, it is fitting.
Learning that Maisie was actually a clone of Lockwood's daughter, and that he cloned the first human, actually made me enjoy the film even more. Lockwood wanting his daughter back and breaking the laws of humanity is why he and Hammond had a falling out, because it is suggested that Hammoned only wanted to clone dinosaurs to educate people, not as test subjects for human experimentation. I do like the implications that this now means we have the ability to create actual clones, because Maisie seems to be a success. On the other hand, I feel that is an entirely different story that does not truly fit with our Jurassic storyline.
I feel the only true reason we need Maisie to be a clone is so that the clone sets the other clones free, because she is the only one who can truly understand what they're going through. She was dead and brought back when she should not have been, and now all of California and probably America is going to pay the price.
I'm looking forward to seeing what comes next.
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