The formula is tried and true, and this sci-fi thriller is a heckuva rollercoaster ride for those who’ve never seen more than one or two previous franchise entries.
(During one well-staged moment of peril, at Monday evening’s Sacramento preview screening, I feared the woman seated in front of us would have a heart attack. I’ve never heard anybody shriek so loud, or for so long, in a movie theater.)
As I noted, when reviewing 2018’s Fallen Kingdom, the essential elements never change:
Stalwart heroes: check. Well-meaning scientist(s) with ideals shattered: check. A soulless corporate villain: check. One (and only one) comic relief character: check. A child — or children — in peril: check.
Plenty of unexpected appearances and jump-attacks by swiftly moving dinosaurs: check-check-check.
All that said...
I have seen all six previous entries, and the formula has become trite to the point of cliché. Scripter David Koepp, generally a solid and skilled writer, took the paycheck and phoned this one in. Every step of this film feels like an inferior remake of 1993’s franchise-spawning first film, which had the strong benefit of having been adapted from Michael Crichton’s page-turning novel.
Alas, several of the characters here are wafer-thin, to the point where it’s easy to predict who will become dino chow, and who will survive. Indeed, given the amount of initial screen time, personality and back-story granted each of the 11 key players, I also nailed the order in which they’d perish. That’s just sloppy writing.
Half the time I was rooting for the dinosaurs...
In fairness, though, director Gareth Edwards, editor Jabez Olssen and the amazing special-effects team do a masterful job of generating the most excitement possible. The primary cast members, and their likable performances, make it easier to forgive the script’s shortcomings.
To cases:
A brief prologue reveals that a new crop of bunny-suited InGen scientists and genetic engineers, having learned nothing from previous catastrophes, continues to stubbornly develop ever-more-dangerous hybrid dinosaurs. Big surprise: Something goes awry.
Flash-forward 18 years, five years after the events of 2022’s Jurassic World: Dominion. Earth’s ecology has proven largely inhospitable to the many dinosaur species let loose during that film and its two predecessors. The remaining creatures exist in isolated equatorial environments with climates resembling the one in which their ancestors once thrived.
Researchers at the pharmaceutical giant ParkerGenix have determined that the three most colossal creatures on land, sea and air, within that tropical biosphere, hold — in their DNA — the key to a drug that will bring miraculous, life-saving benefits to humanity.
(How could anybody possibly know that??? Only because the script says so.)
ParkerGenix corporate rep Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend) therefore dangles a seven-figure bounty in front of Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson), a former special-forces operative and seasoned “extraction expert.” It’s still a dodgy commission, because travel within the “dinosaur zone” — and particularly to Ile Saint-Hubert, site of the now long-abandoned InGen facility — is strictly prohibited by all of the world’s governments.
(All of them? That also seems highly unlikely.)
Zora assembles a team that includes Suriname-based soldier of fortune — and former colleague — Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali), who skippers a camouflaged, stripped-down military patrol craft dubbed The Essex. They’re joined by hard-charging “security chief” Bobby Atwater (Ed Skrein), armed with tranquilizing darts (supposedly) strong enough to stop the largest dinosaur in its tracks.
Duncan’s crew is comprised of co-pilot LeClerc (Bechir Sylvain), and deckhand Nina (Philippine Velge).
Their group is completed by an essential civilian: paleontologist Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) — a former student of Sam Neill’s franchise hero, Dr. Alan Grant — who is enticed by the chance to finally see dinosaurs under conditions resembling their ancient habitat.
And, so, the good ship Essex sets off, on a three-hour tour... (Ah, sorry. Wrong franchise.)
Meanwhile...
Reuben Delgado (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) is taking a “family bonding” sailing trip on his restored 1954 teak Bermudan sloop, La Mariposa; their group includes adolescent daughter Isabella (Audrina Miranda), her 18-year-old sister Teresa (Luna Blaise) and the latter’s lazy, no-account boyfriend, Xavier (David Iacono).
Now, unless Reuben has been living under a rock for the past two decades, it seems foolishly reckless to be sailing anywhere near the “dinosaur zone,” particularly when the massive, ocean-bound Mosasaurus and amphibious, spiny-finned Spinosaurus can stray outside the aforementioned zone.
Big surprise: Disaster strikes.
Fortunately, Reuben and his clan are rescued when Duncan picks up their mayday signal. But as the unknowing Delgados and Xavier quickly discover, they’ve gone from the frying pan into a much larger fire.
Garcia-Rulfo, beloved as television’s Lincoln Lawyer, brings the same blend of dignity, intelligence and emotional angst to his role here. Reuben is a dedicated father to the quickly overwhelmed Isabella, who threatens to become catatonic at one point; and the impatient Teresa, defiantly chasing adulthood, who wishes her dad would be more patient with Xavier.
This quartet gets the strongest bid on our hearts and minds, particularly during a series of nasty encounters: none better than an unexpected run-in with a Tyrannosaurus Rex. The resulting lengthy sequence is a masterpiece of suspense and escalating peril, involving the world’s most durable rubber raft. This set-piece definitely recaptures the excitement of the 1993 film.
Zora and Dr. Loomis are the story’s other strong characters. Johansson grants Zora distinct layers, her resourcefulness balanced by lingering PTSD trauma over a close colleague who was killed during her previous assignment. Bailey, in turn, makes Loomis giddy and excitable, like a kid getting to meet Santa Claus.
Bailey’s up-close-and-personal encounter with the Titanosaurus — a massive, land-based herbivore — also echoes the sense of wonder we all felt, during a similar scene with Neill and Laura Dern, in the 1993 film.
Ali’s Duncan is a man of grace, dignity and honor. Like Zora, he’s nursing pain from a recent loss: all the more reason he immediately feels responsible for the family suddenly thrust into this increasingly dire situation.
Friend, alas, may as well have the word “villain” tattooed on his forehead; Krebs is an oily, one-dimensional bastard who clearly will betray everyone at first opportunity: a stereotype that dates back to Paul Reiser’s similarly opportunistic creep in 1986’s Aliens, and has grown tiresome with time.
It’s also unfortunate when much-beloved dinosaur predators — we get a great velociraptor sequence, of course — are overshadowed by ungainly, wholly fictitious and much less interesting monsters such as the Mutadon and ludicrously named Distortus Rex. Ferocity aside, they just look dumb.
Composer Alexandre Desplat deserves credit for a score that frequently references John Williams’ iconic series theme, heard at all the right moments.
All things considered, this film likely will annoy only longtime fans who lament that familiarity breeds contempt. I’m sure the rest of the world will have a great time.
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