Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom Review: Better Than The First

Sometimes a movie gets so close to greatness you can taste it as strongly as the goopy spit dripping from the mouth of the dinosaur whose face is hovering directly above yours as you lie prone and helpless on the jungle floor. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is a hell of a ride, an exciting, terrifying, and funny follow-up that will have you at full attention until it ultimately sags in its third act, drooping under the weight of promises it makes, but fails to follow through on. That's what third movies are for, apparently.

Fallen Kingdom's basic plot has been somewhat unclear in some trailers, so I won't spoil it. But the setup is that, following the new park's destruction in the first Jurassic World, the now dinosaur-filled island has grown volcanically active. All the dinosaurs there are going to die in the impending eruption, effectively triggering a new extinction event, unless someone intervenes. Bryce Dallas Howard's returning character Claire Dearing now works as an activist looking for any way to save the dinosaurs. And she's wearing highly sensible shoes this time, as the movie deliberately conveys.

There's a note of satire in the early scenes, as Claire talks to members of Congress on the phone and Jeff Goldblum (in his one meager appearance in this movie) gives a grandiose speech about life finding a way without technically uttering those exact words. A news ticker underneath makes a vague joke about the president being an idiot. But the movie's social commentary lacks any real bite--unlike its CG stars--which serves to tangibly blunt its impact later on.

As Claire gets roped into a dubious rescue scheme, she of course can't do it without on-again/off-again beau, the unstoppable "beefcake" (to borrow the movie's own term) Chris Pratt as Owen Grady. Pratt continues to be utterly, inoffensively charming, while Grady is still a less funny version of Star-Lord. They're both would-be white knights, too, although much like Gamora, Claire proves she's plenty capable of fighting her own battles.

Anyway, all that story basically takes place in the first act, and from there, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom goes to some surprising places. Its biggest problem is that it simply doesn't go far enough; there's some fantastic setup in the first half for things that wind up going differently than you'll hope, or events that they clearly wanted to save for Jurassic World 3. This movie's climax almost goes in a fun new direction from what we've come to expect in this movies, but instead limply falls back on the familiar: a rain-drenched, pseudo-horror cat-and-mouse between a singularly dangerous dino and a handful of human characters. It's well done, but we've seen it before, and Fallen Kingdom diverts its own great setup to get there.

The dinosaurs themselves have never looked better, from a briefly glimpsed underwater leviathan to Owen's hyper-intelligent raptor pal, Blue. Fallen Kingdom frequently places its characters--and the camera--uncomfortably close to the CG beasts, and their every detail stands out wonderfully. The original Jurassic Park--which is 25 years old--holds up incredibly well today, but it's amazing to see how far special effects have come.

Fallen Kingdom's action actually peaks fairly early in a jaw-dropping sequence whose nature I won't spoil, but which runs the gamut from dino jaw-snapping narrow misses to an explosive chase/escape sequence that had me on the edge of my seat for several minutes on end. There's a weightiness to the action that some CG-heavy movies lack, with dinosaurs and people alike throwing their weight around appropriately. Given the gargantuan subject matter, it's much appreciated.

Fallen Kingdom also introduces a handful of new characters of varying disposability, including James Cromwell's aging dino philanthropist Ben Lockwood (who apparently was John Hammond's partner in Jurassic Park lore, though he hasn't appeared before now), Justice Smith's sniveling Franklin, Rafe Spall's buttoned down Eli Mills, and more. Daniella Pineda stands out among the new additions as a young activist/dinosaur doctor who doesn't hesitate to pick up a gun and start getting s*** done the second she feels threatened. She's the polar opposite of Claire in some ways, although the movie thankfully feels no need to pit them against each other in any contrived ways.

Like many a sophomore film, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom serves most of all as set-up for a third, potentially very exciting dinosaur movie. From its opening scene, the movie gets one thing across with extreme effectiveness: There's always a bigger dinosaur. And given Fallen Kingdom's success--despite its faults--we're going to keep paying to watch those dinosaurs eat people for the foreseeable future.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is out now in the UK, and hits theaters June 22 everywhere else.