Chris Pratt Doesn't Like Sequels (Fallen Kingdom Review)
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is not a movie that necessarily needed to be made, but after it's predecessor made $1.6 Billion and became (at the time) the third highest grossing movie of all time and now still stands as the fifth highest, producers were right in thinking people wanted to see dinosaurs again. Warning: Spoilers.
This movie opens feeling more like an original Jurassic Park than Jurassic World ever did, complete with rain, miscommunication, and near misses. It quickly spirals into a political battle of whether to save the dinosaurs from a second extinction. This could have been an interesting angle, if the movie had chosen to focus on it. Instead it focuses on- actually, no it doesn't focus on anything. The movie is scrambled and mismatched, like late-stage cooking when you already know it's not turning out like you hoped and you just throw in random spices. Cayenne? Sure! Little girl is actually a clone? Why not! Oregano? What could go wrong!
More so than Jurassic World, this one depends on old characters returning, but the introductions of these familiar faces fall flat. In The Force Awakens, when Han Solo and Chewie enter the Millennium Falcon and Solo says, "Chewie, we're home," that is an example of a good entrance. When it just cuts to and someone we've never seen before is talking about his relationship with someone we know, that is a bad entrance. Even the introduction of Chris Pratt's character Owen, whom we will continue to refer to as Chris Pratt because god knows that's what everyone else does, is unsatisfying.
The movie doesn't focus on developing it's old or new characters. We're left with cookie cutter new figures such as Innocent Little Girl™, Sarcastic Millennial Scientist™, and Panicked Programmer™. The old characters, Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Pratt, feel like they were vaguely trying to remember what their characters were like in the first movie, and just play off that. Now, I don't claim to see inside the complex mind of Chris Pratt. I haven't memorized his mannerisms from interviews and I couldn't tell you what he's feeling from the way his eyes look, but it felt like he didn't care too much about this movie. All respect for the man, but it felt like going through the motions for the paycheck.
Two things that annoyed me heavily that kind go together are this movie relied way too much on faulty lighting and an intense score. There was only a pocketful of scenes, that I could probably count on one hand, that did not involve flashing lights. And the score, oh my god the score, was so loud and displaced it pushed me out of the scene instead of pulling me in. It was so distracting I couldn't tell what was going on, and it didn't make me feel anything but annoyance, because it was not used sparingly. In moderation, anything can be good. In excessiveness, anything can be bad.
Fallen Kingdom suffers from the idea that an action movie has to have ten thousand things going on at once to be interesting. In one scene alone there will be witty dialogue, quick exposition, dinosaur roars, a loud and misplaced score, comic relief, a plot twist, and someone getting chomped. Now, take that chaos, and apply it to plot.
I'm a sucker for a two act structure. The example I most often use is Titanic. Give me characters, throw them in situation la-ti-da-da. Then, about half way through, flip the script on them. Give them whole new problems but let their old ones carry over, so everything can be wrapped up in a neat little bow. I knew going in that this movie basically followed this structure, that the first part would be getting the dinosaurs off the island, and the second would be keeping them in a house for some reason? Not only was the island half completely disappointed except for the fact that the destroyed park would make an excellent setting for a ride, but there was no clear turn into the second part. It just kind of trickled into it, making it less interesting and fun.
There are quite a few scientists and businessmen exploiting the dinosaurs for military power, something we saw in the last one. In the end, they all get what was coming for them, but overwhelmingly. There were way too many dinos taking down the people that took advantage of them to be satisfying. It's just gratuitous.
Nods to the last one exist, but aren't supercool movie moments. At one point, they get into the gyrosphere from Jurassic World. Cool, but they're in it for 30 seconds and it proves to be more of a problem than a solution. When dinosaurs escape for I don't know the eighth time, Eli Mills climbs under a car, the same thing Chris Pratt did in the last movie. It doesn't work out as well for him.
The climax is just a smaller version of Jurassic World's: the super mega ultra man made dinosaur is taken down by it's original counterpart. Also, where did the super mega dinosaur even come from? One minute they were talking about the idea of it and the next minute they have a prototype.
I think the main problem with this movie is it forgets itself. It doesn't realize that Jurassic Park is and always has been about showing grown up dinosaur nerds their fantasy, then turning it into their nightmare. There is one scene that reflects, when Chris Pratt asks Maisie if she likes dinosaurs in an attempt to calm her down, and she nods. Pratt responds with "me too." This amounts to an estimated total of 10 seconds screen time and was quickly forgotten by a raptor or something. The original sense of wonder isn't there anymore, it's all action. Even the signature theme was only used once, although it sounded like it was being played on a kid's klinky piano and could only be noticed if one was paying attention.
This movie opens feeling more like an original Jurassic Park than Jurassic World ever did, complete with rain, miscommunication, and near misses. It quickly spirals into a political battle of whether to save the dinosaurs from a second extinction. This could have been an interesting angle, if the movie had chosen to focus on it. Instead it focuses on- actually, no it doesn't focus on anything. The movie is scrambled and mismatched, like late-stage cooking when you already know it's not turning out like you hoped and you just throw in random spices. Cayenne? Sure! Little girl is actually a clone? Why not! Oregano? What could go wrong!
More so than Jurassic World, this one depends on old characters returning, but the introductions of these familiar faces fall flat. In The Force Awakens, when Han Solo and Chewie enter the Millennium Falcon and Solo says, "Chewie, we're home," that is an example of a good entrance. When it just cuts to and someone we've never seen before is talking about his relationship with someone we know, that is a bad entrance. Even the introduction of Chris Pratt's character Owen, whom we will continue to refer to as Chris Pratt because god knows that's what everyone else does, is unsatisfying.
The movie doesn't focus on developing it's old or new characters. We're left with cookie cutter new figures such as Innocent Little Girl™, Sarcastic Millennial Scientist™, and Panicked Programmer™. The old characters, Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Pratt, feel like they were vaguely trying to remember what their characters were like in the first movie, and just play off that. Now, I don't claim to see inside the complex mind of Chris Pratt. I haven't memorized his mannerisms from interviews and I couldn't tell you what he's feeling from the way his eyes look, but it felt like he didn't care too much about this movie. All respect for the man, but it felt like going through the motions for the paycheck.
Two things that annoyed me heavily that kind go together are this movie relied way too much on faulty lighting and an intense score. There was only a pocketful of scenes, that I could probably count on one hand, that did not involve flashing lights. And the score, oh my god the score, was so loud and displaced it pushed me out of the scene instead of pulling me in. It was so distracting I couldn't tell what was going on, and it didn't make me feel anything but annoyance, because it was not used sparingly. In moderation, anything can be good. In excessiveness, anything can be bad.
Fallen Kingdom suffers from the idea that an action movie has to have ten thousand things going on at once to be interesting. In one scene alone there will be witty dialogue, quick exposition, dinosaur roars, a loud and misplaced score, comic relief, a plot twist, and someone getting chomped. Now, take that chaos, and apply it to plot.
I'm a sucker for a two act structure. The example I most often use is Titanic. Give me characters, throw them in situation la-ti-da-da. Then, about half way through, flip the script on them. Give them whole new problems but let their old ones carry over, so everything can be wrapped up in a neat little bow. I knew going in that this movie basically followed this structure, that the first part would be getting the dinosaurs off the island, and the second would be keeping them in a house for some reason? Not only was the island half completely disappointed except for the fact that the destroyed park would make an excellent setting for a ride, but there was no clear turn into the second part. It just kind of trickled into it, making it less interesting and fun.
There are quite a few scientists and businessmen exploiting the dinosaurs for military power, something we saw in the last one. In the end, they all get what was coming for them, but overwhelmingly. There were way too many dinos taking down the people that took advantage of them to be satisfying. It's just gratuitous.
Nods to the last one exist, but aren't supercool movie moments. At one point, they get into the gyrosphere from Jurassic World. Cool, but they're in it for 30 seconds and it proves to be more of a problem than a solution. When dinosaurs escape for I don't know the eighth time, Eli Mills climbs under a car, the same thing Chris Pratt did in the last movie. It doesn't work out as well for him.
The climax is just a smaller version of Jurassic World's: the super mega ultra man made dinosaur is taken down by it's original counterpart. Also, where did the super mega dinosaur even come from? One minute they were talking about the idea of it and the next minute they have a prototype.
I think the main problem with this movie is it forgets itself. It doesn't realize that Jurassic Park is and always has been about showing grown up dinosaur nerds their fantasy, then turning it into their nightmare. There is one scene that reflects, when Chris Pratt asks Maisie if she likes dinosaurs in an attempt to calm her down, and she nods. Pratt responds with "me too." This amounts to an estimated total of 10 seconds screen time and was quickly forgotten by a raptor or something. The original sense of wonder isn't there anymore, it's all action. Even the signature theme was only used once, although it sounded like it was being played on a kid's klinky piano and could only be noticed if one was paying attention.
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