Why are the Jurassic Park movies so popular? The first one is fine, but the ones that came after it aren’t all that good for one reason or another. If anything, the Jurassic World set are even less impressive in many ways. They’re big, expensive, and repetitive. They don’t tend to get much in the way of good reviews. The characters aren’t all that interesting. The dinosaurs are usually top notch special effects, but the Big Bad one at the end is always some variation of the Tyrannosaurus Rex. And yet, people still keep going to them.
I mean, I did.
It’s been a few years since the end of the previous movie, and despite the fact there were maybe 30 or so dinosaurs that got loose from that movie, the world is now swarming with dinosaurs. Sort of. It’s more or less under control with the bigger and more carnivorous ones being transported to a remote Italian valley for care and study. That care and study is under the auspices of Biosyn Genetics, led by minor character from the first movie Lewis Dodgson (Campbell Scott doing some kinda Steve Jobs impression). However, the cloned granddaughter Maisie (Isabella Sermon) of one of the founders of the original park, the same character that let the dinosaurs loose at the end of the previous movie and now a really obnoxious fourteen year old, is in hiding and hating every second of it with former raptor trainer Owen (Chris Pratt) and dino activist Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) along with velociraptor Blue and Blue’s new offspring.
Also, there are locusts eating whole farms bare, and that brings in Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) and Alan Grant (Sam Neill) to look into where these prehistoric monstrosities came from with all signs pointing towards Biosyn. Ellie has an in because Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) is working there for some reason. Seriously, I have no idea why he’s there. However, when poachers kidnap both Maisie and Blue’s baby, that puts Owen and Claire on the same route to the valley where Ellie, Alan, and Ian already are. What is going on? And can they defeat the locusts before they ruin the food chain?
OK, credit where it’s due: the dinosaurs look pretty impressive. These are some top notch effects, and this one may have had more variety in the dinosaurs than any of the previous movies, bringing back “old favorites” and brand new dinosaurs for the series. However, that is all I can say positively about this movie.
The problem with the Jurassic Park series as a whole is basically the characters. When they aren’t being stupid, they aren’t particularly distinctive as people. Does anyone remember the names of the characters that Pratt or Howard plays without looking them up? I generally don’t. The best characters in this series basically come down to how much of an on-screen persona the individual actors have built up over time, and I don’t know that Pratt or Howard has achieved that yet. Neill, Dern, and especially Goldblum have, but Goldblum alone was the only one to put a real stamp on his character, and it’s basically Jeff Goldblum’s general public persona anyway. Regardless, Jurassic World Dominion is asking the audience to care about these people, and I don’t feel like they are distinctive enough as characters to really care about. If anything, this movie shows why the series is so bad at this. BD Wong’s Henry Wu was played as a sinister villain sort in the previous two movies, but here he’s a well-meaning man just trying to help for some reason.
In fact, I think I have a new name for this situation: Wade Watts Syndrome. Wade Watts is the lead character in the Ready Player One books and movies, and he’s not that memorable. I’ll admit I did read and more or less enjoy the first book, but it all came out of the author mixing and matching pop culture from the 80s, and the only personal characteristic Wade has is he loves the 80s. He’s a forgettable character beyond that. He isn’t interesting. His problem is, but it could be any character in that situation. There’s not much to Wade as a person. The same is more or less true of the Jurassic Park/World characters, especially the Jurassic World characters. They aren’t particularly deep or memorable. The only reason to see these movies is to see the dinosaurs.
Furthermore, the Jurassic World trilogy is clearly shooting for…something. There are hints of some deeper themes going on, scattered with some effective shots, that suggest the movie might be looking into the effect that dinosaurs have on the modern world or something involving climate change or invasive species or something about corporate greed. The Park trilogy made some feints in the direction of mass marketing, but were mostly just popcorn flicks. The World movies are playing like they have something deep to say, but any hope for dinosaurs in the modern world are short-lived as the movie makes it clear that, once again, most of the dinosaurs are off in a remote location that might as well be another tropical island. With all kinds of poor editing in the final act as the movie has far too many characters running around in a dark and stormy night, the movie tries to tack some kind of environmental message into a speech at the end, but it’s as effective as one of those “COEXIST” bumper stickers. There just isn’t really much here worth seeing.
And yet, so many people already have…
Grade: D
0 Comments