Movie review of "Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom" by Stephen Signor

Run time: 128 min.

Like most everyone, I became addicted to the hype surrounding the opening of “Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom”. And as in the past, I walked away with a somewhat empty feeling and disappointment.

While there was an impressive increase in prehistoric creatures over the preceding films, and even though all of them expressed themselves more often and in greater volume, I still felt there was something missing.

Three years after the destruction of the Jurassic World theme park, Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) and Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) return to the island of Isla Nublar to save the remaining dinosaurs from a volcano that's about to erupt. They soon encounter terrifying new breeds of gigantic dinosaurs, while uncovering a conspiracy that threatens the entire planet.

Flashbacks of a now defunct, vacated and rundown Jurassic Park proves nostalgic but not necessarily noteworthy in the plot. Not known for work on other Jurassic films, director J.A. Bayona (“A Monster Calls”) did his best and deserves credit for at least making it believable as well as the challenge of this being first in the franchise to be shot digitally as well as in wide-screen format.

Jeff Goldblum reprises his role as Ian Malcolm after 21 years since his last appearance. Although he only appeared in two, relatively short cameo spots, the message he delivered to politicians and the world spoke volumes.

This brings me to the positive aspect I did acquire from watching this movie. This was not your average sequel. There was a subliminal message throughout about the real issue of mistreatment of animals in today's society. This film focuses more on the responsibility for these animals that were originally made as a result of greed. It’s about the darkness and worst instincts.

Screen-writer Colin Trevorrow indicated that “the dinosaurs are a parable of the treatment animals receive today: the abuse, medical experimentation, pets, having wild animals in zoos like prisons, the use the military has made of them, animals as weapons."  I think that ultimately, when people are able to watch this film and where this franchise is going, it really is about the ethical treatment of animals in the world and our responsibility to the living creatures that we share the planet with, alongside our responsibilities to the planet itself.

This being said, the overall entertainment value of “Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom”, while exceeding its predecessors, was short lived.