Warning: Spoilers Ahead
I am a huge fan of the original “Jurassic Park”. It was one of the first movies that scared me half to death as a kid and become one of my favorite classics as an adult. Created by none other than Steven Spielberg himself over 25 years ago, “Jurassic Park” changed the game for the world of blockbuster cinema and special effects technology.
My love for “Jurassic Park” set high expectations for the premiere of “Jurassic World” in 2015, and I was not disappointed. So naturally I was super excited to see the newest installment of the films, “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.” Like me, thousands of other people rushed to the box office over the weekend to see the newest movie, racking up nearly $150 million in ticket sales throughout the country.
However, I’m sad to report that although filmmakers made a decent effort, the movie was simply below average. While you’ll still experience a few decent scares and awe over the magnificence of the dinosaurs, the plot seems more complicated now and the lines between who the good and bad guys are is continuously blurred.
The new movie is set three years after Jurassic World was closed and the island abandoned, only now there’s a giant, murderous volcano that’s about to erupt and take out the remaining dinosaurs (again). Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard), who’s now a dinosaur-rights activist, takes on the challenge of saving these animals before the volcano erupts after she is recruited by Eli Millis (Rafe Spall). Millis is the assistant to Benjamin Lockwood (James Cromwell), who happens to also be the former partner of John Hammond, the creator of the original Jurassic Park. Claire convinces Owen (Chris Pratt) to join her and he eventually agrees because he wants to save Blue, a velociraptor that he’s trained since she was a baby.
Plot twist: Millis turns out to be one of the bad guys and everyone in the audience pretended like they didn’t know it was coming. So, in short, the island volcano erupts. After trying to kill Claire, Owen and their new sidekicks, paleoveterinarian Zia (Daniella Pineda) and systems analyst Franklin (Justice Webb), the bad guys take some of the dinosaurs off the island and transport them to a mansion in Northern California (great idea) where they attempt to sell them off as weapons. Also, believe it or not, they used their gene splicing capabilities to create (you guessed it) a new, even more powerful and violent dinosaur.
On the other end of the spectrum, you have Claire and Owen, along with Lockwood’s granddaughter Maisie (Isabella Sermon), who believe that the animals should be released to sanctuary. They clearly never saw the original Jurassic Park movies. So, as the film rushes to a finish, rather than keep the dinosaurs in containment and allow them to die (due to a toxic gas leak), they release the dinosaurs onto the streets of California.
The whole movie I was really just pondering the stupidity of man. I, like many other people, have a deep love and affection for animals and would never wish for their extinction or their harm, but in the words of Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), “these creatures were here before us. And if we’re not careful… they’re going to be here after. Life cannot be contained. Life breaks free. Life… finds a way.” We’re not talking about puppies here, but rather dinosaues that were literally bred to kill and survive.
Regardless of how many times Blue comes to the rescue or we see a touching scene showcasing the beautiful relationship between man and dinosaur, I will never think this is a good idea. The point of the movie was to illustrate the destruction of man and the carelessness of humanity with access to great power, but largely over complicated the larger issue, which is that dinosaurs should never have had a place in modern society.
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