It all feels very familiar, but a change of scene is just enough to keep Fallen Kingdom fresh – and there’s comfort in familiarity, writes Pippa Bailey
Fallen Kingdom sees Owen and Claire make an ill-fated return to Isla Nublar
Undergrowth rustling ominously on black, rainy nights; shaking ground signalling the arrival of stampeding herbivores; grisly T-rex jaws looming from around the side of vehicles: Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is very much what we have come to expect from the franchise – only with added lava.
We return to Isla Nublar four years after the end of Jurassic World to find that the long-dormant volcano is now very much active, and the world is in conflict over whether to intervene to conserve the dinosaurs or to allow nature to once again leave them extinct (an ethical dilemma that gives Fallen Kingdom more weight than its predecessor). In the absence of John Hammond, his business partner Benjamin Lockwood – retroactively inserted for the purposes of this film – takes the role of the dying patriarch putting his dollars behind a trip to the island to round up the dinosaurs and relocate them to the safety of a new island paradise. Slicked-back estate executor Eli (Rafe Spall), however, has other, more shifty plans – as Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard), now a dinosaur rights activist, and Owen (Chris Pratt), who has spent the intervening years drinking beer and building a cabin, discover when they agree to join the ‘rescue’ mission.
The relationship between Owen and his raptor-child Blue is the romantic heart of the film
The tranquilliser-wielding leader of the expedition takes on extra villainous weight for fans of The Silence of the Lambs who will recognise the actor, Ted Levine, as the man behind the Oscar-winner’s serial killer. Otherwise, the cast of characters is all rather familiar. Jeff Goldblum’s cameo is excellent, of course, but far too short. ‘Beefcake’ velociraptor whisperer Owen is up to his usual day-saving, one-liner antics, while his now ex-girlfriend Claire is given slightly more to do, and more sensible shoes, than last time round.
Owen – and his outstretched hand – are relieved to find that his blue steel still works on Blue, and several almost laughably rose-tinted ‘family’ videos of man and his raptor-child bonding make their pairing the romantic heart of the film. The Jurassic trope of the child in need of saving is initially filled by twitchy techie Franklin (Justice Smith) – whose slightly grey pallor throughout is surely the most realistic performance of the lot – until it is taken over by an actual child, in the form of Maisie (Isabelle Sermon), the curious, corridor-wandering ‘orphan’. The secret behind her identity is Fallen Kingdom‘s strangest twist.
Hedge-fund villain Eli and his genetically modified Indoraptor
If the plot feels like a box-checking exercise – bad guys hunting dinosaurs to turn a profit and breed them as weapons, geneticists modifying the creatures to make them even more deadly (this time it’s the Indoraptor, Jurassic World’s Indominus Rex crossed with a raptor) – director J A Bayona makes up for it by moving the second half of the film to a new setting: a creaky gothic mansion. This provides a whole new set of thrills: dinosaurs thrashing about in too-narrow corridors, sending roof tiles clattering and lurking in the shadows of the skeletons of their ancestors, and it’s enough of a refresh to keep you glued.
From its opening with an old-fashioned, skin-of-your-teeth set piece, the film keeps up the pace and there are plenty of jumps. The overriding feeling, topped off by the return of Dr Henry Wu and his genetic tomfoolery, is one of ‘Will they never learn?’ –never more so than when Claire and Owen attempt to take a blood sample from a T-rex. Yes, it’s camp, it’s formulaic and it pushes the boundaries of incredulity, but, oh boy, is it watchable.
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