"With Fallen Kingdom, he is able to master suspense and intricate scares in an upscale bombastic blockbuster that when these scenes hit, they hit good"

Dinosaurs.



That’s all we come for with Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, isn’t it? Dinosaurs romping around on the big screen, jumping out of foliage, and gobbling up the villains as if they were chicken popcorn. Jurassic Park had set a great president 15 years ago and now we’re frothing at the mouth to see some dinosaurs. Which is why they’ve forced out yet another Jurassic sequel…



This time we’re fighting to save the dinosaurs as a volcano on the Isle of Nubular is threatening to explode. Yelp. As Claire, Owen, and a couple of conservationists race to save the creatures, they come across a sketchy and evil plan that could change the world as we know it.



Director J. A. Bayona is mostly famous for his emotive horror film The Orphanage and last year’s equally tragic fantasy drama A Monster Call. Here, he takes his keen Gothic eye to create an eerie ghostly movie that simply has dinosaurs in it. After watching Bayona’s direction and visuals, there has never been a thought so clear in my mind: “get him to direct a Batman movie.” With Fallen Kingdom, he is able to master suspense and intricate scares in an upscale bombastic blockbuster that when these scenes hit, they hit good. 



But the plotting and story of Fallen Kingdom is absurd; it’s a ridiculous nonsensical farce that makes little to no sense. Characters are added to the lore as though they’ve been there this whole time whilst the premise is stretched so thin, Claire could’ve fashioned them into heels to romp away from creatures. It is bizarre and absolutely bad in this sense, echoing the sentiment that countless sequels to our favourite films are starting to wear thin again. 



Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard have never been hammier and are enjoying this new reptilian sequel, particularly Pratt who gets to gower at the screen and make quips that make pretty much every audience member swoon. There are other additions such as geeky guy and girl, money-scheming villain, and gruff army villain that have populated movies such as this since the dawn of time. There’s also Jeff Goldblum whose top billing is merely a one scene cameo. It's definitely worth seeing on the biggest IMAX screen. Dino special effects have never been so roar-some!

Fallen Kingdom is, by a lot of measures, a pretty terrible film but it’s also a lot of fun. Particularly if you are hankering for some mindless action.