Dinosaurs, excitement in short supply in Fallen Kingdom

Chris Pratt in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Image courtesy Universal Pictures.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is not a good movie. It is, in fact, a remarkably bad movie whose sole enjoyment comes from its lack of quality. Fallen Kingdom is mind-numbingly awful, a disgrace to the legacy established 25 years ago. This movie serves as yet another reminder of mankind’s hubris, a testament to the dangers of recapturing an extinct past.

Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Pratt are back a few years after watching an entire island of dinosaurs attempt to eat its guests. This time around, they want to save those dinosaurs from an impending volcano eruption on Isla Nublar. They're joined by a pair of dinosaur fanatics (Justice Smith and Daniella Pineda), and a collection of soldiers to save as many dinosaurs as possible. At least, that is the idea, although those plans go to pot once some of the pool of Toby Jones, Rafe Spall, James Cromwell, and Ted Levine, try to once again profit off the poor creatures. Jeff Goldblum makes a brief return as Ian Malcolm, although his shirts remain fully buttoned. And there are the dinosaurs, with a few standbys (the T-Rex and the Velociraptor named Blue) and a new dinosaur that will make for a mediocre toy.

Essentially, the thrill of seeing a dinosaur has gone away. The previous Jurassic Park franchise entries possessed at least a modicum of wonder for the dinosaurs, using John Williams' brilliant score to convey their inherent majesty. With Fallen Kingdom, the dinosaurs serve as pets or menaces, in both scenarios representing a step toward humankind's eventual self destruction. But they aren’t magical anymore, the brilliant impossibility of the premise has become lost and nearly forgotten. The one moment Fallen Kingdom takes to absorb the spectacle of it all is ultimately lackluster and marred by an incredibly stupid decision by one of the main characters. Even after a decade-plus siesta to recharge and come up with new and better ideas, this franchise is so tired the minds behind it can't make the classics work anymore. 

 

The beats in Fallen Kingdom belong to the franchise's previous entries. The looming threats of menace, the dinosaurs lurking right behind characters waiting to bite, the T-Rex that comes out of nowhere to wantonly save the protagonists or punish a villain at the exact right moment. All have been done before in earlier Jurassic Park movies. And, frankly, all of those movies did it leagues better than Fallen Kingdom. It's gotten to the point where the beats are so obvious, so telegraphed and silly, the series has become a parody of itself. Fear has transformed into camp, the dinosaurs devolving from the things that go bump in the night into comedic prompts with fantastical timing. Camp could work in a series like Jurassic Park, taking a little bite off of the seriousness and just letting the dinosaurs frolic and eat people because people are more filling than small critters. Fallen Kingdom has a lesson to teach about valuing life in all of its forms, a fairly important message that is both poorly conveyed and very much inappropriate in camp. Camp works because the point doesn't ultimately matter; a sincere message is the death of good camp.

Fallen Kingdom is bogged down by incompetence. The movie is rife with bad dialog and worst exposition, a premise that effectively makes the characters from Jurassic World look like idiots, and awkward plotting that leaves many a dangerous plot hole to fall into. But it's the characters themselves that make the best worst decisions, constantly engaging in activities whose repercussions greatly outweigh the benefits. Even the intelligent characters make some really, really bad choices, decisions that are asinine even before a dinosaur or two starts chomping on them. Yet the dumbest decision of all is the continued push by characters to monetize the dinosaurs for nefarious reasons. From the first film until through this one, there is always at least one character who decides they can make more money off the dinosaurs by being shady. Despite a whole universe in which the dangers of Jurassic Park were publicized and repeated, this one basic lesson has still not been absorbed. This lack of additional motivation is a clear failing for a franchise it has not found a way to create new, interesting motivations for their characters. Given a real world in which cloning is an ethical issue and the existence of dinosaurs conflicts with some religious philosophies, the screenwriters have ample material to build from. And yet they don’t pursue something new, instead relying on old tricks that can’t succeed with uninteresting filmmakers driving them.

Review: One and a half out of Five Stars

Rating: PG-13

Run time: 128 minutes

Genre: Action

tl;dr

What Worked: Some of the dinosaurs, James Cromwell, Geraldine Chaplin, Chris Pratt’s physical comedy skills.

What Sucked: Plotting, dialog, tone, directing, screenwriting, the score, uninteresting CGI.

Watch Instead: Jurassic Park

Ragnarok finds humor at the world's end

Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) in Thor: Ragnarok. Image courtesy Disney.

Thor: Ragnarok is a weird movie. It's weird because it's a movie about Norse mythology that focuses more on technological marvels than the mythology inherent to its title. It's weird because of the dramatic tonal shift from the other Thor movies. And it's super weird because Jeff Goldblum shows up with shockingly blue facial hair and literally melts a man with a stick. Ragnarok is a trip, but it is one heck of a journey to a place more bizarre than other Marvel movies have ventured.

What's so hard to reconcile about Ragnarok is how lightly the movie takes the end of a world. Superhero movies are all about saving planets from destruction while making sure the people are safe and the damage is minimal. A few jokes are sprinkled in to ensure the story doesn't get too dark, but for the most part the superhero as savior concept is a foundation for a lion's share of comic book-related lore. Except for Ragnarok, in which the threat of the destruction of Asgard starts as a gag between Thor (Chris Hemsworth reprising his role) and a skeleton just above a pit of fire. It sets the rhythm for the rest of the movie, with the comedy taking a precedence over the gravity of the situation the characters face. Everyone cracks a few jokes, from the naturally talkative Loki (Tom Hiddleston), to the goddess of death/destroyer of world Hela (Cate Blanchett), to the otherwise stern Heimdall (Idris Elba), to the fallen Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson). Even the Hulk, the Incredible Hulk and not Bruce Banner (both of whom are versions of Mark Ruffalo) showcases something resembling a sense of humor.

And you know what? It's actually kind of glorious in its own way. The sense of humor is akin to what’s found in the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but Ragnarok makes it unique by changing the context to make the jokes a greater joke itself. Ragnarok is a slightly different family tree as Dr. Strangelove, in which the biggest laugh is earned by the insanity of the movie mocking the inherent somber nature of earth's destruction. The story Ragnarok tells is just as dark as Dr. Strangelove, but with brighter colors and Disney's stamp of approval. That also means the Thor movie can't be as nihilistic as Dr. Strangelove is; it is still a blockbuster first and foremost. But director Taika Waititi and the screenwriters push Ragnarok further than the other Thor films to do what the best MCU movies have done; make a movie with their own imprint on it. There are, again, limits to how far creatively the filmmakers can get with the Marvel movies – an entire cinematic universe is at stake – but Waititi and company turned a Thor movie into a comedy. Like the excellent Captain America: The Winter Soldier and the very good to great Guardians of the Galaxy movies, Ragnarok stands on its own as a piece of cinema.

Still, there remains a bit lacking with Ragnarok that pushes it a step or two down from the aforementioned Marvel movies and puts it more on par with the fun Spider-Man: Homecoming and Iron Man 3. There is what should amount to a great story arc involving Thor and the uncovering of his father Odin's (Anthony Hopkins) past, something that should force the mighty god of thunder to confront his own background and the demons his father has wrought upon his people. It's a Shakespearean bit in line with the first Thor movie, with the evil Odin committed living far beyond the good he brought in. Ragnarok barely touches the surface of this story, having Thor just sort of go with the news that his father was a monster for a very long time. That could be marked as a sign of character growth, but Thor does drop a few tears for Odin early on, and the amount of time the movie spends reconciling Odin's history is disappointingly minimal.

But the baseline for a quality superhero movie – good action, likable characters, expansive world building – remains intact, and the goofy nature and general oddness of the situation only add to those key elements. To repurpose another classic literary line, Ragnarok opts to end the world not with a whimper but with a bang and a lot of laughs along the way toward doom.

Review: Four out of Five Stars

Click here to see the trailer.

Rating: PG-13

Run time: 130 minutes

Genre: Action

Ask Away

Target audience: As with every Marvel film, everyone who has ever watched a movie from the MCU and wants to keep up with the ongoing story.

Take the whole family?: Really depends on how OK the parents are with a lot of violence but little blood to show for it. A couple years under the PG-13 mark should be fine.

Theater or Netflix?: It's fun for a trip to the theater, although the 3D isn't really worth it though.

How has 2017 been for the MCU?: Pretty great. Despite releasing three movies, two of which were a second and a third installment to long-running series, this is the first time in a while that Marvel fatigue hasn't hit that hard. It helps that the three movies released were good and different enough to offer some separation to the weary viewers. It also offers some hope for 2018, with the release of Ryan Coogler's Black Panther and the probably stupidly stuffed Avengers: Infinity War.

Watch this as well?: Along with the other MCU entries, comedian/author John Hodgman has a comedy special devoted to the impending Ragnarok, called John Hodgman: Ragnarok, that is quirky and hilarious, highlighted by his decision to send a kid out in the cold to wait for doom to come