Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom Review (No Spoilers)

3 years ago the Jurassic Park franchise was given its fourth instalment Jurassic World (2015, Colin Trevorrow). A film that went on to become a box office juggernaut. De-throning Avengers(2012, Joss Whedon) as the third highest grossing film of all time (before Star Wars came along). And now the franchise continues with the latest instalment Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018, J. A. Bayona). 
But with many fans criticising Jurassic World of relying heavily on Nostalgia and a director who hasn't worked on a big-budget blockbuster before, will this film reach the same level of success as its predecessor?

First Thoughts

This film is amazing! Whilst the first Jurassic World relied heavily on the nostalgia of the original Jurassic Park this one is more or less its own thing! It has an emotional story, the characters have improved since the previous film and the dinosaurs are incredible! 

Owen/Chris Pratt

I loved Chris Pratt in this film. I think that this film solidified him for me as an action star. In his previous action roles, he's been more of a comedic star. But in this film, he reached Dwayne Johnson-levels of full-on action hero! My favourite scene is his fight with the Indo-Raptor in the finale of the film. However, in this film, he has a lot more heart to his character than he did in the first film, such as his relationship with Claire to his father/ daughter relationship with Blue, the raptor. This is possibly my favourite Chris Pratt performance!

Claire/Bryce Dallas Howard

It's interesting to see how much Claire has evolved since the last film. In this film, she's a lot more sympathetic in this film whereas in the first one she was somewhat annoying and useless in the first film she's a lot more practical in this film. For those wondering, yes! She doesn't wear high heels in serious situations! I also really liked her relationship with Owen in this film. The two work really well as foils for one another

Franklin & Zia/Justice Smith & Daniella Pineda

The new kids! Actually not as annoying as I thought they were going to be. I mean, Franklin got on my nerves occasionally but as the film went on I grew to like him. As for Ken, I really liked her! She had a lot of really good moments, particularly when interacting with the soldiers. But these two together almost rival the chemistry between Pratt and Dallas Howard. They were able to bounce off of each other very well, particularly with their polarising personalities.

Ian Malcolm/Jeff Goldblum

For fans going in for Jeff Goldblum, I hate to say that his screentime is extremely limited. I'd say he's only in the film for five minutes. Which is a damn shame because he was a fan favourite from the original. However, Goldblum makes the most of his scenes. He has some really good lines in this film and brings back the nihilistic personality of Ian Malcolm that fans loved from the original Jurassic Park.

Story

As I said earlier, the story in this film doesn't rely heavily on nostalgia, instead, this film is its own story and I believe even tries to evolve the franchise beyond just being a story about a park gone wrong. Diving into more serious topics that you wouldn't expect from a Jurassic Park film. Which I think they did successfully! Also, the story does a really good job of balancing genres such as action and horror in a way that hasn't been done in the whole franchise. 

Sequel Set-Up

No spoilers here but the film sets up a sequel very well. Usually, when a film wants to set up a sequel it sacrifices its third act and doesn't really feel like a proper ending. But for this film, I say they were able to set up a sequel whilst still having a strong third act. In fact, this was kind of what I was expecting from the previous film when I heard it was going to be called Jurassic World. I'm very excited to see what the creative team will do with the third film!

Conclusion

This is a really good sequel that's worthy of the original 1993 film. It has good action, good horror, the acting is on point and the story tries to evolve the franchise beyond the park.

So that's my review of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. What did you think of the film? Do you agree or disagree with any of my points? Please leave a comment down below. And, if you liked this post you can follow this blog for more content. Thank you for reading. :)