There’s a grim double meaning to the famous “Life Finds A Way” tagline in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. One does wish, though, the movie is more vigorous with the explanations.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom Synopsis
An imminent volcano eruption threatens all dinosaur life in the abandoned Jurassic World theme park on Isla Nublar. Adopting the advice of Dr. Ian Malcolm, who views the revival of dinosaurs as a gross mistake, the US Senate opts to allow the eruption to wipe out the immense creatures. Elsewhere, billionaire Benjamin Lockwood, former partner of John Hammond, recruits the help of Claire Dearing to capture and transport eleven dinosaur species to a new sanctuary. To locate Blue, the highly intelligent Velociraptor from the first movie, Claire then enlists the help of trainer Owen Grady. Once on Isle Nublar, the couple quickly discovers the ugly real reason for the massive rescue operation.
Snappy Review
Right before the movie, while I was slouching on my seat gobbling popcorn, Facebook notifications prompted me to a lengthy discussion on the story of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.
Many comments lambasted the plot and among these, several highlighted how exemplary visual effects and action sequences do not necessarily salvage a poor movie. Much as I’m inclined to disagree, I have to say there is some truth in this, especially in today’s world of ready CGI magic as long as one has the budget.
Action flick, or not, I suppose there’s no excuse nowadays for weak storytelling. There’s no excuse, if only because there are so many resources worldwide to draw from when crafting a plot.
Highlighting the above to summarise my overall take on Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, which by the way, indeed runs on a story that is lazy and full of holes and conveniences. The plot adopts a sensible direction as far as continuing the trilogy is concerned. A rather logical direction too, if I might add. That said, most if not all of the philosophical and ethical musings are superficial, a classic case of told but never expanded. There’s also no encouragement of empathy. Neither are main characters grown or developed, for that matter.
In addition, there’s the rather needling fact that the story ultimately ended where it began. To give away mild spoilers, “Life,” as in human inclination, already found a way before the movie starts. This, in turn, renders all the events portrayed as, well, irrelevant.
In other words, the outcome would have been the same with or without these events. To be clear, it’s all still exciting and popcorn-munching fun to watch. However, you will leave the cinema wondering, hey, that didn’t really grow the saga, did it? It was all but a reminder of the obvious.
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A Jurassic World pop-up café in Singapore!
