Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

For decades, movie dinosaurs were realised either by some form of puppetry or stop motion animation. Then, in 1993, Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park proved to be a game changer, amazing audiences with realistic prehistoric monsters created inside a computer. The problem since then has been in delivering that 'wow factor' - how can Hollywood keep on thrilling audiences when Spielberg's original set the bar so high? To be honest, I don't think they've found the answer yet.

The special effects in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom are technically brilliant, but the film doesn't really do anything that we haven't seen before, making the film as a whole yet another underwhelming experience. In desperation, the film-makers have resorted to more outrageous set-pieces, as well as inventing bigger and badder dinosaurs that never actually existed, all of which requires way too much suspension of disbelief.

And talking of pushing the boundaries of believability too far, the notion that velociraptors were intelligent enough to be trained is quite preposterous: they had pea brains, experts rating their intelligence on a par with a rabbit. Anyone stupid enough to try and become a veloci-whisperer would wind up as a meal for the ravenous lizard (except, of course, for the fact that velociraptors were, in reality, only the size of a large chicken!).

Other things that had me rolling my eyes: Chris Pratt becoming an MMA fighter to plough his way through countless bad guys; a dinosaur that pretends to be asleep to catch someone off-guard; velociraptor Blue knowing only to attack the villains; the transportation of numerous ginormous dinosaurs to a mansion in the US without the knowledge of the authorities; and obligatory child Maisie (Isabella Sermon) ultimately releasing the captured beasts into the wild because she feels sorry for them. Duh!

5.5/10 for the special effects, rounded down to 5 for annoying comedy-relief tech-geek Franklin Webb (Justice Smith) and for Toby Jones. There's never an excuse for Toby Jones.

Loved the movie although some dinosaurs are way too big, especially the famous Tyrannosaurus rex or T-rex.

This really is an entertaining movie. Not my favorite in the franchise, but solid all around and entertaining throughout. Dont listen to all the hateful reviews.

Bottom line: This is one of the best action adventure films of 2018. And I have to be careful not to be writing a rant against ignorant revievers instead of an actual review. So, to get it out of the way: It's interesting to note that most negative reviews on this film circle around unrealistic premises and plot points - even the eloquent reviews, and eloquence should be a sign of wisdom. Seems it isn't. People, how many times over do we have to state it: Films like these do only EXIST because realism is not core of the story. These films need to be plausible - or at least probable -, but not realistic. That's at the core of the genre. If they'd left out everything unrealistic in the film, there would be no film. And no, the first Jurassic Park movie was in no way more realistic. There are no more dinosaurs walking the earth, and there will not be any for a long time to come (if any). And it's absolutely OK for such a film to stretch suspension of disbelief from time to time, to show stupid behaviour of people and technical inaccuracies. I really don't care that the wailing Brachiosaurus is probably too heavy for the dock he's standing on. Seeing it being left behind and facing its death breaks my heart, and what kind of person do you have to be to rather be facepalming yourself during that scene instead of immersing yourself into the story? The little technicality with the presumably weak dock is by no means distractive to the story, and it is very clear why people need to point it out, along with a scathing sneer: It is more important to have a reason to join the nitpicking contest with narcisisstically motivated ranting than approving of obiously very good overall work. The story is so old: Someone took a long time to build a beautiful sand castle, so let's destroy it with one quick blow. And why do those haters keep complaining about sloppy and unimaginative writing? In a world with 8 billion people and after a long storytelling history, there is only a finite number of very intelligent, surprising and new plots left to be written (if any at all). So what do actually want? Films like this not being made anymore? I have another suggestion: Just stay away from film genres you don't like. Yes, there are expensive yet stupid and wholly uninventive and sloppily written blockbuster films out there, but JWFK is by no means one of them!

And now straight to the point: JWFK is one big surprise. It ups the ante of the series significantly, and I found myself being surprised that this is my second favorite of the Jurassic Park films (right after the first one). And that credit goes primarily to director J. A. Bayona. His vision and the capability to bring it on screen is just remarkable - and that's not easy to achieve. It's not a surprise that NOT everyone is a director these days, despite contradicting claims. The staging, framing and lighting of the dinosaurs (the auction and the confrontation on the glass roof in particular), Bayona's timing, his work with actors and imaginary creatures is just great. At no point of the film I felt left cheated, bored or even insulted, as some other people say. It was just one impressing, thrilling, aesthetic rollercoaster ride. And it's also the first time in the series (which I have been an avid fan of since 1993) that I really feel with the dinosaurs. Despite earlier tries to make them (in part) the victim, the previous films where centered more on the people being the victims of dinosaur-related mayhem. But this one made me think for the first time that it was maybe wrong to un-extinct the dinosars for their own sake (yeah, yeah, you guys figured that out long before, I know), and the character of Maisie Lockwood plays a pivotal role in that realization.

I could go on and on with positive traits of the film, but there are other reviews here to find them. I have turned 46 recently and seen too many action-adventure, sci-fi, mystery and thriller films. I am bit bored by my own inability to find impressing films anymore and would love being able to start over. But I vividly remember, JWFK made my cinematic 2018. It it the best action-adventure I have seen this year. J. A. Bayona and his team have built one very beautiful sand castle. If you think you can relate to my self-characterization: Watch it. You won't be disappointed. By the way, if you are interested: I' am one of the people who loved 2017's KONG - SKULL ISLAND. I'm confident that if you liked that one, you will like this one, too - or the other way round.

I have to say usually back in the days sequels are never as good as the first but Hollywood is doing pretty good making sequels and this one I can say was good enough for me. The first half of the movie explains what's gonna happen to the dinosaurs after the fall of Jurassic world and the second half is basically a dinosaur chase with terror. Somewhere in the middle you feel sad for the dinosaurs and what's gonna happen to them and you wish you could do something about it. And there is a focus on blue the velociraptor that plays an essential part to the story plot and why it's happening . It Was fully entertaining, wasn't boring at all. And it was action packed