"Fallen Kingdom" Has Big-Budget Special Effects, but Not Enough Dino-Scares
By: Keaton Marcus
Genre/Action/Adventure
Age Rating/13+
Lemonradar/52% sour
So What’s The Story?
Hi, this is Keaton Marcus from Sweet and Sour Movie Reviews and today I will be reviewing the newest installment to the famous dinosaurs franchise, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. After the park was destroyed by the dinosaurs outbreak years ago, certain organizations attempt to literally steal and sell the animals off of their island which is about to explode, Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) and Nick Owen (Chris Pratt) are tricked that these dino “smugglers” are trying to save the creatures, however once they find out the plot, Nick and Claire must get the dinos out of their reach before it causes war and destruction throughout the globe.
How Was The Cast?
Fallen Kingdom, the newest installment to the inter-connected franchise, is the supposed sequel to Jurassic World (2015), meaning it brings back many characters and the cast members to make a bigger and ultimately better film than its “predecessor.” Reprising main character, Nick Owen the raptor trainer is Chris Pratt, secondly we saw Bryce Dallas Howard as the over-serious scientist Claire, some new characters were Franklin Webb played by Justice Smith and Ken Wheatley played by Daniella Pineda. As I said, Chris Pratt known for Guardians of the Galaxy, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Avengers: Infinity War etc. is once again returning as the famous Nick Owen for the film. Although unlike Chris Pratt’s most movies, Fallen Kingdom is not the freshest Pratt flick in most cases, the actor continues to show that he still has it for high-octane, action flicks at about 40 years of age and even though that there may be much better adventure films such as Indiana Jones than this and we were expecting much more laughs from his original script. Even though he is not good as the other male Jurassic heroes, Chris Pratt combines his sly, and smooth charisma from other films and still manages to make Nick Owen a successful, still fun character. Again reprising a role from the original Jurassic World is Bryce Dallas Howard known for Pete’s Dragon, Spider-Man 3 and the Twilight franchise as Claire the scientist. Dragging down the movie a whole lot, the writers still have not successfully completed a great compelling script for this character and still even though her acting overall has been improving over the years, Claire the character herself is nowhere near as fun and interesting than the other new and old characters in this special, mostly-fun franchise. Concluding for the actress, there is neither energy nor depth in this character, I suggest quitting this franchise before it becomes real terror for the audience. Not showing up in Jurassic World, is newly added character Franklin Webb played by Justice Smith known for Paper Towns and Every Day. More in the romantic flicks than action/adventure type movies, Justice Smith does get some credit for being a fresh, teenage actor, which mostly makes up for his overwhelming script (all though not entirely bereft of laughter) is a little clunky. However overall, as being a decent creature-feature, Smith did well despite the stuffed up action sequences and roaring special effects. Lastly, the second new character hoping to come back for the third flick in the rebooted franchise is Ken Wheatley played by Daniella Pineda known for Newlyweds and The Originals. Like Smith, Pineda also happens to be a more romantic-film-actress than a crazy adventure one, and also has only done a couple movies, although I would have to say that she was somewhat a small character, that just cannot make up for the terrible overall performance; Desperate for some attention the whole entire 2hr 10min of the movie, the actress becomes stranded between the perilous action sequences and the unbelievable CGI which creates many, many problems for not just her career, but for the entire film.
Is It Worth Your While?
The Jurassic franchise has been extremely ever changing, from director-to-director and from actor-to-actor, from Steven Spielberg (Jurassic Park, The Lost World), Joe Johnston (Jurassic Park III), Colin Trevorrow (Jurassic World) and finally now we see Juan A. Bayona (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom) and off of that basic timeline we saw many-ups and downs for the franchise. Although Bayona (A Monster Calls, The Impossible etc.) is not as refined as director of the originals (Steven Spielberg) and he never will, he is a large improvement over the directing of the latest installments, crushing together some decent performances, amazing CGI outings (the best in the franchise) and some nostalgic references to Jurassic Park, to overcome the shaky scripting and predictable plot making it a faithfully directed flick to the original without ever comparing to it. Special effects wise, I have raved about it being the best in the franchise with a production budget standing at 170M which is surprisingly pretty impressive for an all-out, dinosaur action filled movie with an expensive cast, even though it is the biggest out of the franchise; Jurassic Park (63M), The Lost World: Jurassic Park (73M), Jurassic Park III (93M) and Jurassic World (150M); Concluding with the CGI, the Jurassic franchise was and is still now an amazing specialist with this section. While the directing was solid and the special effects were amazing, I was not fully convinced by the film’s thin, predictable plot and story which is common for the newest installments, but even that cannot cope with the unrelentlessly amateur minds for creativeness despite more characters and action sequences than previous films in the franchise.
Aging ‘The Fallen Kingdom’
Much more intensity and action sequences than the older ones, Fallen Kingdom is mostly okay for older Tweens and up, but is strictly not recommended to kids with loud, bombastic violence, minor blood spurts, mild jump scares, and common language, flirting etc. Violence wise there are many scenes with terror-on-screen (not horror like), gun fights, dinos devouring people, explosions and an intense fall for Isla Nublar (original island). Secondly, like most action/adventure films there are many quick scenes with bad language such as s..t, f..k, bull s..t and damn but there is nothing too bad to worry about. Lastly for sexuality, like in the newer ones, there are some flirting scenes inlcuding Claire and Nick and in one scene Claire has her hand down Nick’s shirt accidentally while sleeping.
Jurassic Reboot Takedown
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom 61% sweet/sour
Violence: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
Sex: ⭐☆☆☆☆
Language: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
Age Rating: 13+
Jurassic World 56% sour
Violence: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
Sex: ⭐☆☆☆☆
Language: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
Age Rating: 13+
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom 61% sweet/sour
Storyline: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
Cast: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
Role Models: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
Jurassic World 56% sour
Storyline: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
Cast: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
Role Models: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
