Summary: Here’s all you need to help you decide whether or not see Fallen Kingdom. Plus, for those of you who like spoilers, you will see the unmentioned hidden meaning to the film.
This is the fifth Jurassic film and the second installment in a trilogy. That’s great news for people who like thrilling films. The director (J.A. Bayona), cinematographer (Oscar Faura), editor (Bernat Vilaplana), and the visual effects team did a wonderful job at making this a spectacle. Also wonderful is music by Michael Giacchino, nicely melding with the imagery. The acting is excellent (especially Bryce Dallas Howard as Claire Dearing). Hollywood consistently does these well.
As usual these days, the plot is idiotic. I do not know why. Writers are the cheapest part of the production. (If you know why the writing is so often bad in Hollywood these days, please explain in the comments.)
As in most horror films, the characters ignore obvious clues and make inexplicable bad decisions. But this is a kids’ film about dinosaurs chasing and eating people. One might as well analyze the themes in a carnival’s haunted house or the lights on its roller coaster. These things are either fun or not, depending on your taste.
But critics are right to look deeply at these films. The b-grade sci fi and filmed adaptations of comic books are almost all that remains of adult drama today (other than minor works for small, often weird, niche audiences). They deserve attention. It has taken critics many years to take the measure of these products of the new Hollywood, but with Fallen Kingdom they have finally understood this new art. Here are some excerpts from reviews to help adults decide if they would enjoy watching it.
At the end you will find my big spoiler. It reveals the true theme of this film, oddly unseen by the critics.
Speaking of kids, I agree with Nahaar. The increased violence and gore in American children’s films cannot be good for them. Each generation gets exposed to more.
“But there’s shocking cruelty on display here, way too much, in my opinion, for a film that will be seen by children. Images of dinosaurs drowning, being engulfed by flames, shot at with guns and tortured with cattle prods, have no place in a kids’ movie.”
— Rohan Naahar in the Hindustan Times.
As for the film, adults who enjoy films as visual carnivals – empty but fun excitement – can skip the rest. Buy your tickets. You will love it. For the rest of you, these excerpts from review might help.
“Now we have an Indoraptor. It should be scary to think of a dinosaur that attacks on command and can track you easily, but barring a few cheap scares, it wasn’t. …What happens next at Lockwood’s estate is a massive pile of easy scares …All of this hinders any real character development. Claire’s ditched her heels and can run faster now …”
— Sharareh Drury at Fansider.
“All of us who have watched Downton Abbey, and wondered how it might have looked with the addition of a hungry theropod, finally have our question answered.”
— Tom Holland at The Spectator.
“This sequel to Jurassic World takes what goodwill we had, douses it in kerosene, lights a match, and laughs as the flames burn higher and higher. It gets off on the wrong foot and limps all the way to the finish line.”
— Courtney Howard at Fresh Fiction.
“This narrative chaos is presented entirely straight, with Act One representing a survivalist wilderness adventure with the volcano acting as a ticking clock, Act Two shifting into a screed against animal poaching and weaponization, and Act Three turning full monster-in-the-house horror movie with the new genetic cocktail of the Indoraptor, which gets out for… reasons. This causes the film’s tone to bounce all over the place, at times expecting us to fear the dinosaurs and their horrific majesty, while at other times treating them as a tortured allegory for animal rights and environmentalism that falls apart under the barest scrutiny.
“Any of these premises might not have made for a smart film, but they would have at least made for a more consistent one if explored for an entire feature runtime; instead Fallen Kingdom feels like a highlight reel of films that might have been, trading on minutiae of Jurassic Park iconography that has been milked so severely at this point that there’s no nostalgia left in the udder.”
— Leigh Monson at Birth-Movies-Death.
Here is the bottom line about Hollywood today. It has a rotten business model and is ripe for disruption.
“All I really took from Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is proof – again – that all the money, on-screen talent and CGI wizardry in Hollywood doesn’t add up to a hill of beans without a decent story to tell and a reason to exist.”
— Graeme Tuckett at Stuff.
The horror of high heels!
Jurassic World violated feminist canon by having the leading lady wear heels in action scenes. Modern heroines always dress appropriately for the upcoming scene, swapping skirts and heels for pants and sneakers/boots before unexpected action (that’s the rule in modern films and TV shows). In a story of dinosaurs recreated for a theme part, a women wearing heels shatters these women’s enjoyment of the film, and sparks their always hot sense of outrage. The leading actress in Jurassic World, Bruce Dallas Howard, had to explain the obvious to her mad critics (women do wear heels; they don’t dress to be chased by dinos).
Yet Hollywood’s evil-doers did it again. See a photo of Howard at the right from the offensive 30 second scene in Fallen Kingdom. Feminists swung into action again to save women from heels, willing or unwilling. Taking options away from women is their core business.
First, they answer questions no sane person would ask – “Why the heels are back in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.” “Why Bryce Dallas Howard is still in heels for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.”
Then they subject this issue to deeper analysis – “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom Is Still Using Bryce Dallas Howard’s Heels to Hide Lazy Filmmaking.” “Bryce Dallas Howard actually insisted on wearing heels for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom – but don’t worry, her ankles are okay” (good to know she’s a multi-millionaire with OK ankles).
For those who want to learn more about the role of high heels in Fallen Kingdom, and their significance, Google will bring you hundreds of additional articles.
For those outlaws among our readers, here is this ideologically meaningful scene from Fallen Kingdom.
————- Spoiler ahead ————- Spoiler ahead ————- Spoiler ahead ————-
The big meaning of Fallen Kingdom
At the end, the bad guys are eaten and the dinosaurs released into America. We lack the will to recapture them, so they spread destruction across the world. Just as the X-Men films were a parable about gay rights, Fallen World is a parable about open borders (these are metaphors: gays are not mutants, poor migrants from third world nations are not dinosaurs).
This is worth some thought. It seems increasingly likely that in 2020 the Democrats will run a presidential candidate advocating open borders. The new president of Mexico has promised to send hordes of illegal migrants into America. This combination would mark an irreversible moment in American history. We will be committed to the latest of the Left’s experiments. If so, we can only hope that this one ends better than their previous one, communism.
For More Information
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Trailer for Fallen Kingdom
Other big films in the series
