Thursday, June 21, 2018

Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom Review - Off and really running

This is a no spoiler review. There are a lot of cool plot points that shouldn’t be spoiled. Especially the end.

Let me start by saying that I like the first Jurassic World movie, didn’t love it, but liked it. I wasn’t waiting on pins and needles for the sequel, but I went anyhow on preview night.

Unlike many, my favorite Jurassic Park was the third film. I don’t know why, but it was. This one comes pretty close, but to be honest, at the beginning of the movie, I was rubbing my brow, eating my popcorn and wondering why I even went.

It starts unimaginative and like every other Jurassic film. Give us an action bang sequence of three minutes, cue the credits, bring it down for story development.

They start out with a nice bow on a package ‘this is what happened after the last movie’ newscast, bringing us back to Bryce Howard’s character. For the life of me I couldn’t remember her character name, but once I googled it, I was like, ‘Oh, yeah, Claire’.

After her re-introduction, that was when I got bored, irritated, as I followed her through the induction of the story. At first, I believed, here we go again, a repeat of Jurassic Park 2. Hell, I even did an eyeroll when I saw the kid running about, then again, later when the nanny couldn’t find her. I truly believed, like JP2, she stowed away on the plane.

Let’s back up. While Claire is getting the gist of the story and plot, I fidgeted wondering where was Chris Pratt. I couldn’t wait for him, then when he arrived, I was disappointed. I wanted his witty, snappy character, instead if was evident from the get go he was being portrayed as an action hero only. But it was Chris Pratt, how can you not love everything he is in?

Admittedly, right now, it sounds like I am hating this film, but what I described to you was only ten percent of the total movie. Once it got moving, I was locked tight, squeezing my grandson’s hand, and at points, jumping out of my seat.

It had the imaginative story of the first Jurassic Park, it ended up being original and it had the nonstop action, barely able to catch my breath feel that the 3rd film had.

It was good, it was fun. It had characters that you loved to hate and some new people that made you laugh. Although, I hated that they never said their names much.

And Bryce Howard was kick butt this film. I went into this ready to dislike her because I wasn’t crazy about her in the first film and she was pretty great in this one. Chris Pratt … what can I say? He’s like that old Blue Bonnet Margarine saying, ‘Everything’s better with Blue Bonnet on it’, well everything is better with Chris Pratt in it.

Summary … lots of suspense, a few screams, family friendly, awesome cast and a boatload of dinosaurs (that’s actually a double a tundra)


Go see Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, you won’t be disappointed.