Having just seen Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018, dir. JA Bayona), I have one specific problem that I think gets in the way of it being a decent Jurassic follow-up. There are so many issues though, at one stage a character makes a comment about fortune cookie platitudes, well the whole script feels like it’s pieced together by fortune cookie stock phrases. Chris Pratt is generally unengaging, and I can’t see beyond his mega-movie-stock-character, which seems interchangeable. Whatever about these flaws, though, I did enjoy the film for what it was.

BUT, the main problem is the dinosaurs. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom really doesn’t care about the dinosaurs. It cares about monsters. One of the nuances of Jurassic Park is that these creatures are wild animals, who may tear us limb from limb, but do so without evil intent. The Jurassic World franchise continues the strange habit of

a) creating fake new dinosaurs, and

b) making them intentionally and deliberately malicious!

A scene towards the finale which plays out in a child’s bedroom depicts the Indoraptor (a new abomination) more as a considered and sinister criminal ‘Other’ than as a dangerous animal. The scene evokes a template of the dangers children face from adults much more than it does an experience with an (animal) predator. The dinosaurs have become irrelevant stand-ins for ‘monsters’. The human characters – the baddies – may be the evil plot drivers, but these fabricated dinosaurs are their creation, and their mirror.

Every generation gets the dinosaurs it deserves maybe, but not the dinosaurs it needs.

This is all deeply depressing. It’s a lacklustre blockbuster of a beloved franchise, and I fear things are not getting any better. Go watch the original if you’re feeling in the mood.

1/5