Much like the scientists who want to make a Jurassic theme park work, the filmmakers of the Jurassic World franchise have scoured to keep it alive. Nothing has worked entirely since the very first Jurassic Park movie. Every further attempt to milk this cash cow has struggled, stumbled, and failed to keep it afloat. There has been enough interest within movie audiences to warrant six sequels, but every attempt since the first installment has fallen short.
The trend continues with the latest entry in the franchise. With the latest chapter, the filmmakers hoped to reinvigorate the saga with a standalone new movie that abandons most of that which has preceded it. I appreciate the fact that the studio tasked Jurassic newcomer, director Gareth Edwards and original Jurassic Park screenwriter David Koepp. Still, their efforts prove that this Universal IP is better left extinct.
Several years after the events of the previous Jurassic World movie, the world’s environment and a lack of interest in dinosaurs have proven disastrous for the dinosaurs attempting to survive in our world. Still, a large pharmaceutical company sees the financial value in utilizing existing dinosaurs to develop advanced medications that would both benefit humanity and fill the wallets of its investors. Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend) tasks a group of mercenaries, led by Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson) and Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali), and a paleontologist named Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) to travel to an island where experimentation has been performed (unsuccessfully) on dinosaurs inhabiting there. Their objective is to acquire samples from various dinosaurs for use in the manufacture of the medicine. As usual, this mission proves to be very harrowing and risky, as the dinosaurs may not take too kindly to being robbed of their blood. To make things even more challenging, the team rescues a family sailing the seas near their destination.
While I acknowledge that Edwards and Koepp tried to do something different with this story, the result is a hodgepodge of portions from other, better monster and adventure movies that have been cobbled together in a very messy manner. The film plays out like a shameless rehash of Jaws, King Kong, and Indiana Jones, but the fact that this is supposed to be a Jurassic movie is barely recognizable here.
The writing is the main problem here. Weak character development, a ridiculous plot, and an assortment of characters that mostly deserve no empathy make this another example of poor storytelling. To be fair to Gareth Edwards, he does a solid job of building tension and suspense in the more intense sequences. However, this alone is not enough. Although the movie looks gorgeous, sounds fantastic, and features good visual effects, the foundation for this film is so utterly weak.
Although the actors perform solidly, I cannot say that any of the cast members make a definitive case for their characters. On top of that, the movie runs more lengthy than necessary, and the characters make all the wrong choices. The filmmakers behind Jurassic World Rebirth are also guilty of making poor choices. This installment is a film I would not recommend for cinematic viewing. Though it looks pretty and sounds incredible, the concept of this story is utterly bad. Much like the dinosaurs de-extincted for this franchise, it is time for this saga to come to an end.