‘The park is gone’
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is a 2018 monster movie directed by J.A. Bayona (A Monster Calls; The Orphanage) from a screenplay co-written with Colin Trevorrow (Jurassic World) and Derek Connolly (Monster Trucks). The movie stars Chris Pratt, Jeff Goldblum and Bryce Dallas Howard.
The film’s budget is rumoured to have been $260 million, considerably more than the Jurassic World‘s $150 million dollar budget.
Bayona has commented: “…what we’re doing is a sequel to Jurassic World, but it’s definitely the fifth chapter of a longer saga. It’s very interesting. It’s always tricky, but you need to find a balance in what people expect to find, and the new stuff you’re bringing to the story. And I think the story is looking for a connection between Jurassic World and Jurassic Park — more than what Jurassic World did.”
Bayona has also told ComingSoon.net: “I think there’s a lot of possessiveness towards our creations. I think it’s very interesting where the new movie is heading. It’s so different from the other films, it talks a lot about the moment we live in right now. It’s darker… but at the same time it’s going to be a lot of fun. It’s a blockbuster, you have Chris Pratt, it’s a great adventure, but it’s very interesting the way the film is darker than the other ones.”
Reviews [may contain spoilers]:
” …despite Bayona’s admittedly competent direction, various engrossing set pieces (best one is in the opening) and the film’s (very welcome) resurrection of female agency after a predecessor that openly despised women, Fallen Kingdom adds up to nothing more than a visual headache; one that’s more watchable than Jurassic World, yet, still not as crucial or philosophically sound as Steven Spielberg’s 1993 classic.” Tomris Laffly, Film School Rejects
” …bloodless, soulless, bereft of personality or idiosyncrasy, delivering only meticulously engineered thrills based on repeating what has worked in the past. This is a movie that’s annoying in part because it doesn’t care if you’re annoyed by it. It doesn’t need you, the individual viewer, to like it. It just needs a crowd to see it. Whether you’ve been entertained or enlightened is immaterial.” Glenn Kenny, RogerEbert.com
“The film ends up being a bludgeoning political satire that queries the ethical implications and economic advantages of poaching genetically engineered animals, be it for biopharmaceutical weaponry, corporate seed money or to keep as collector’s items. There’s also an embarrassing coda about how we’re “causing our own extinction by way of avarice and political megalomania.” Simran Hans, The Guardian
“Fallen Kingdom’s first act feels like a Jurassic Park greatest-hits reel. There’s a technician stalked by a dinosaur in the rain. A young hacker named Franklin (The Get Down’s Justice Smith) works magic rebooting the park’s systems. Owen patiently tracks Blue through the forest, until the Bad Guys Who Don’t Get It (led by Ted Levine) shoot her with a tranquilizer. It’s as if the filmmakers are rotely checking off a list of Jurassic Park signifiers, and their apathy is palpable.” Bryan Bishop, The Verge
Main cast:
- Chris Pratt
- Jeff Goldblum – Jurassic Park; The Fly
- Bryce Dallas Howard
- Toby Jones – Morgan; Berberian Sound Studio; The Mist
- Rafe Spall – The Ritual; The World’s End; Shaun of the Dead
- BD Wong
- Justice Smith
- James Cromwell
