Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom Review - 5 Ups & 7 Downs
Why is everyone an idiot?!
After the first, nostalgia-drenched Jurassic World made almost $1.7 BILLION at the box office, it was inevitable that the sequel (which itself was always going to be made after that) would be hugely hyped. Right now, Universal are doing their best to double down on that initial excitement by spending more advertising money than anyone else making sure there are lots of eyes on the product and it looks like it'll pull in a lot of money.
Whether it'll break a billion remains to be seen though, because the trailers weren't entirely great and early word of mouth is a little split, but it's currently only at 5% less on Rotten Tomatoes than its predecessor. So maybe there's a chance, especially with the projections of a $150m opening weekend in the US (when it eventually releases on June 22nd).
But is it really any good? The best things to say about Fallen Kingdom is it will give a lot of fans exactly what they want from a Jurassic Park franchise movie. At the same time, however, it will give a lot of other fans lots of ammunition to criticise the franchise. It really is that divisive.
In short there are lots of things to say both good and bad about the newest addition to the world John Hammond and Steven Spielberg built. First the negatives...
Downs
7. It's Repetitive
To a certain extent, it's inevitable that Fallen Kingdom would seek to emulate Jurassic World in looking back to the original three Jurassic Park films for inspiration, but the first film managed to cut a balance a lot better. And it paid homage to the RIGHT things.
In contrast, Fallen Kingdom draws way too much from the poorer sequels - particularly The Lost World - and by the time the credits you'll end up feeling like all you've really watched is a cannibalised meal made up of bits from elsewhere. And in the interest of extending the franchise, there's no satisfaction to the ending, because it simply resets to where Jurassic World ended (albeit with some changes to the specifics).
Try and shake the feeling that we aren't destined to do this dance forever...