Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

2015 saw the release of the highly anticipated Jurassic World which did well at the box office but, personally, lacked that Spielberg charm to raise it beyond being another popcorn action flick. One of my issues was that it felt too safe and just repeated what the previous films had offered but with new characters. Hoping to improve in 2018, director J.A. Bayona, who comes with a strong resume, aimed to bring back that missing spark in the last film with less CGI and more of what made the original great with Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.

Bayona was also behind The Impossible that was a character-driven drama about the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami but also featured lots of special effects making him an ideal choice to direct. This time the island where the entire park is based is about to be destroyed by an erupting volcano and Bryce Dallas Howard wants Chris Pratt to help rescue the endangered species. Also joining the ride, as well as a bunch of military guys (surely there to help, right?), are several of Howard's annoying and forgettable colleagues, and this is where things started to look concerning.

Regardless, the first act is fun and exciting to watch as the team venture back to rescues the dinosaurs and visually it looks amazing. The opening scene alone offers plenty of prehistoric horror and tension that the series had been missing since the original. But sadly this is very much a film of two halves and the second, while daring to be different from what we've seen so far, is ultimately disappointing and betrays the strong beginning. The first act had drama, tension and even a surprising amount of heart (viewers will know the scene :'/) but the second is muddled with cliched baddies and poor writing.

If Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom had expanded the first act by focusing on the adventure and the race-against-time aspect this would have been a much better and more entertaining film. Instead, FK takes a direction that isn't all that exciting and leaves the series in a strange place for the next sequel. Fans of Star Wars should be able to sympathise...