{"id":12229,"date":"2025-06-25T19:37:17","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T23:37:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=12229"},"modified":"2025-06-25T19:37:17","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T23:37:17","slug":"jurassic-world-fallen-kingdom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/06\/25\/jurassic-world-fallen-kingdom\/","title":{"rendered":"Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom <\/strong>(2018)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Sci-Fi-Action-Adventure\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 128 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (intense sequences of sci-fi violence and peril)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: J.A. Bayona\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Michael Giacchino\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Oscar Faura\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 22, 2018 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Rafe Spall, Justice Smith, Daniella Pineda, James Cromwell, Toby Jones, Ted Levine, Isabella Sermon, Geraldine Chaplin, B.D. Wong, Jeff Goldblum.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $417.7M (US)\/$1.3B (World)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0Before I left my house to see Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom<\/strong> this morning, I got to thinking about the summer movies of my youth- e.g. the original Star Wars trilogy, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Superman II, E.T., Ghostbusters, The Goonies, Back to the Future and many others. They\u2019re all great. Also, they have a special quality that today\u2019s summer movies lack. When you left the theater after seeing Star Wars or Raiders, it felt like you saw something totally awesome. You felt 100% satisfied. Sadly, that\u2019s not the case with today\u2019s summer movies. Too many of them turn out to be hollow viewing experiences. More often than not, they leave me with an empty feeling whether or not they\u2019re any good. As much as I liked Solo: A Star Wars Story, it\u2019s nowhere near as awesome as Return of the Jedi.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The same can be said of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom<\/strong>. It\u2019s nowhere near as awesome an experience as Jurassic Park which roared into theaters in summer 1993. Back then, CGI effects were still pretty new. It was the first time realistic-looking dinosaurs stomped across the big screen. Now it\u2019s old hat. I wasn\u2019t too excited for 2015\u2019s Jurassic World. I felt the same for the sequel Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom<\/strong>. I just couldn\u2019t muster up a lot of enthusiasm. At the same time, teenage Movie Guy 24\/7 hoped it would be cool. I admire my teenage self\u2019s idealism. In this case, it was well-founded. I actually enjoyed it. It\u2019s not great but it is good.<\/p>\n

\u00a0After the events of the last movie, Jurassic World is no more. Dinosaurs inhabit the island while the occasional human shows up to snatch up DNA-type stuff. The island is about to be destroyed by a volcano; there\u2019s some concern about the living prehistoric creatures still roaming around. Should they be saved? Some people don\u2019t think so. Jeff Goldblum, reprising his role as chaos theory expert Dr. Ian Malcolm, says that nature is correcting the unnatural course life took when John Hammond recreated dinosaurs and should be left to die. Others like Claire Dearing (Howard, the Twilight movies), JW\u2019s former ops manager, thinks they should be saved. She now runs a non-profit organization for that very cause. It appears as though she\u2019ll get her chance to do something about it after she\u2019s invited to join a mission to move the creatures to a new island sanctuary.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The man behind the mission is Benjamin Lockwood (Cromwell, Babe), Hammond\u2019s former partner and friend. His aide Eli Mills (Spall, Prometheus) briefs Claire on the mission and asks her to enlist the help of trainer Owen Grady (Pratt, Guardians of the Galaxy) with whom she had a bad break-up. They\u2019re joined by Zia (Pineda, The Detour), a paleoveterinarian, and nerdy tech guy Franklin (Smith, Paper Towns). They\u2019re met on Isla Nublar by a group of mercenaries headed by Wheatley (Levine, The Silence of the Lambs), supposedly there to help and protect them. Since when have you known mercenaries to be good guys? Since when has Levine ever played a good guy? Of course, there\u2019s a double cross. After barely escaping the island before it\u2019s covered in lava, they all head back to the States on a ship with several of the creatures stashed on board.<\/p>\n

\u00a0This is when Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom<\/strong> shifts gears and becomes something of a thriller set in a big isolated mansion. Eli plans to do something bad with the creatures. Come on, you had to have figured out he was a bad guy. His evil plan is threatened by Lockwood\u2019s dinosaur-loving granddaughter Maisie (newcomer Sermon) who overhears things she shouldn\u2019t and finds something she shouldn\u2019t. She\u2019s a bright but mysterious little girl.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019ll get right to the point. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom<\/strong> is a decent summer movie. It delivers the goods. It has the expected thrills with the chases, fights, stalking, hiding, jump-scares and dinosaur attacks. The effects, a combination of CGI and animatronics, are actually quite good. It\u2019s structured nicely. The opening pre-title sequence has a couple of guys in an underwater pod looking for a specific bone. They end up being swallowed by a gigantic creature with lots of teeth. Shades of Jaws, perhaps? The first half consists of the characters running from (or with depending on which type) dinosaurs on an island about to be destroyed by an erupting volcano. I\u2019ve already described the second half. The final 30 minutes ROCKS! Once the dinosaurs get loose in the mansion, it\u2019s chaos.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Directed by J.A. Bayona (A Monster Calls), Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom<\/strong> moves along at a nice clip. I\u2019m especially happy they didn\u2019t spend too much time on the island, one of the biggest problems with the second Jurassic Park movie (The Lost World). Bayona keeps the thrills and suspense at a respectable level. Pratt is quite good as Owen. I couldn\u2019t help but notice how much he reminds me of a young Harrison Ford. He delivers his lines with the same kind of deadpan sarcasm. I can actually see him taking over the role of Indiana Jones someday. He\u2019d be really good. Howard, on the other hand, is still somewhat stiff. She loosens up a bit trading in her high heels for more sensible combat boots but still doesn\u2019t seem quite at ease in a big action blockbuster. Pineda is a riot as the tough-talking, no-BS vet expected to care (at gunpoint) for Blue (Owen\u2019s favorite Velociraptor) after he\u2019s shot by one of the mercenaries. There are big plans for that one. Smith also contributes comic relief as the worrisome tech guy who sees danger everywhere. Spall makes a sufficiently hateful villain. Sermon makes a great debut as Maisie.<\/p>\n

\u00a0There\u2019s fun to be had with Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom<\/strong> as long as you don\u2019t dissect it too much or analyze it too deeply. Unlike its 1993 predecessor, there\u2019s no underlying message about humans playing God. I mean, the question of whether or not we should be creating new life because we can is always there. It\u2019s only touched upon briefly here with Goldblum\u2019s two scenes before a Senate committee. No, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom<\/strong> is all about thrills and in that respect, it delivers. Although hollow, it is an entertaining flick.<\/p>\n

\u00a0By the way, be sure to stick around through the end credits for a bonus scene.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Sci-Fi-Action-Adventure\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 128 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (intense sequences of sci-fi violence and peril)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: J.A. Bayona\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Michael Giacchino\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Oscar Faura\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 22, 2018 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Rafe Spall, Justice Smith, Daniella Pineda, James Cromwell, Toby Jones, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12249,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sci-fi-fantasy","category-sequels-remakes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Jurassic-World-2-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12229"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12251,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12229\/revisions\/12251"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}