Jurassic World: The Fallen Kingdom

The dinosaurs are back with their innate bigness, fury, ferocity and cluck-cluck inelegance, this time in the expert hands of director JA Bayona.

The Jurassic franchise, ever since it overturned the cinematic perception of big canvas, jaw-dropping cinema by bringing in these extinct species through the lens eye of Steven Spielberg, has continuously recreated itself with more action and apocalyptic leanings than the previous editions.

This one, too, travels back to the scenic and remote volcanic island of Isla Nublar off the Costa Rican coast, but with a total extinction storyline that brings in a lot more emotions for the 11 species of dinosaurs who are all being left to burn up as the world stands and watches with unhesitant Government sanction.

The story unravels on much the same grounds with victims, saviour, conspiracy, a grandly dirty genetic project, exploitation of the dinosaurs and genetic engineering to create warfare machines out of the dinos — it’s all there to propel a big-time thriller but you could still see much of the same thing all over again.

But that will be just a small niggle with Jurassic loyalists who soon get sucked into the big scale action and thrills that constantly play to the gallery to keep your attention stoked. Chris Pratt, Jeff Goldman and Bryce Dallas Howard are the usual suspects but Bayona skillfully keeps them only as second citizens to the dinos who are there in their full glory and with all their issues. Owen and his girlfriend Claire Dearing, the original park workers and the most obvious dino lovers, are roped into a secret rescue mission but soon enough they learn that it was all a ruse to get the dinos to the labs for demonic genetic modification and selling them to the underbelly men for millions of dollars, right on the estate which houses the dino museum with apparent tender loving care.

As the US Government decides to let the dinos die on the island where the volcanoes have erupted, it is the film’s most moving sight as the longest necked one gets slowly engulfed in the lava and magma as Owen and gang see it burn to death helplessly from afar.

Then there is the raptor Blue which Owen trained as a hatchling in early years and it shares a uniquely emotional bond with him even after he is captured by the meanies.

As total destruction films go, this one from the Jurassic franchise is quite a tear-apart film with all its CGIs and locational beauty. Yes, there is a plot there somewhere too but if you’ve been a Jurassic loyalist you might find it much too similar to the prequels. But then, that’s a little bit of nothing – because when it’s Jurassic, it’s big, apocalyptic and intimately dramatic.

Just a thought though — perhaps producer Spielberg needs to turn director Spielberg for the next one in line for this billion dollar cinema series. 

Source: Sunday Pioneer, 10 June, 2018