Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (Dir. JA Bayona, 2h 15m)

The first film I can ever remember scaring me is Jurassic Park. I should point out that that fear quickly subsided-I was one of those kids who was charmingly obsessed with dinosaurs, and probably still am to a certain extent-though there's still a certain thrill, nearly 20 years later, in watching and rewatching the moment when T-Rex, the franchise's undeniable poster girl, makes her iconic appearance, a perfectly cut masterclass in character introduction. Now, 25 years, and four films later, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom proves the franchise still has teeth, and a boatload full of thrills.

Set three years after the fall of Jurassic World, the successor to John Hammond's illfated park, and with the remaining dinosaurs on Isla Nublar now threatened by a volcanic eruption, so a rescue operation, funded by Hammond's former colleague, Benjamin Lockwood, (James Cromwell) sends a team helmed by Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard), and Owen (Chris Pratt)-whose involvement seems driven by the possibility of reuniting with Blue, the one surviving velociraptor he trained from hatching- to rescue the dinosaurs and move them to a habitat where they can live out their lives in peace. However, Lockwood's assistant, Eli Mills (Rafe Spall) has far more nefarious plans for the surviving dinosaurs.

Among the human characters, there is clearly greater chemistry between Owen and Claire, together with a greater sense of understanding between the two characters-it is also refreshing to see, even when compared to the previous film, that Claire is given just as much to do in terms of action scenes as Owen, whilst Chris Pratt continues to be a likable, and warm-hearted protagonist, with several touching scenes of him bonding with the hatching Blue paced throughout the movie. The bickering duo of computer engineer, Franklin Webb (Justice Smith) and Zia Rodriguez (Daniella Pineda) round out the quartet as a capable duo of their own, with Franklin's growth from a scared bystander to a dependable figure under pressure a good bit of character development.

By far the breakaway member of the human cast, though, is Lockwood's grand-daughter, Maisie (Isabella Sermon), who is not only involved in both of the film standout sequences, but who clearly acts as a reflection of the dinosaur's fate-the twist in the tail of the film is far too good to spoil here-she's a likable, and excellently portrayed character, and just as resourceful as many of the adults around her.
Pitted against our heroes are the duo of Rafe Spall, and Toby Jones, who is an enjoyably odious auctioneer involved in Eli's plot, and who meets a suitably sticky end-both of them are an altogether more modern form of villain than we're used to in Jurassic Park, more interested in money than the creatures themselves.




This film, however, as with the rest of the series, truly belongs to its saurian co-stars, chief among them the Indoraptor, which, for my money, is one of the single most frightening non-human villains in modern cinema history. In its standout sequence, an elongated chase/hunt where the Indoraptor stalks Owen, Maisie and Claire through the Lockwood estate, there are some smartly placed nods to classic horror cinema, with the standout show being a decidedly Nosferatu-esque shot of a long, creeping claw stretching out to attack the terrified Maisie. Another shot, undoubtedly the film's most frightening moment, is the Indoraptor's first appearance, that claw reaching out of the darkness to strike, a creeping moment of utter horror that winds itself it to a perfect climax.

Elsewhere, Blue is another key dinosaur, her interactions with Owen tender, her intelligence, and empathy seen in one standout sequence, whilst Rexy returns in a couple of well-timed dino-ex-machina, chomping through two of the film's minor villains-there's also a surprisingly comedic sequence invovling a blood transfusion from a six and a bit tonne T-Rex.

Certainly, Jurassic World deals with a far more adult fear in places than has previously been explored in the series so far-what do you do once you have long extinct predators back in your midst? What is the impact likely to be upon the current ecosystem of the world? What would the world do with the dinosaurs? Whilst the second question, given the ending of Fallen Kingdom, seems destined to be explored in the third film, the third is explored in some detail-the idea of dinosaurs becoming weaponised, something that drives both Jones' auctioneer, and the returning Dr Henry Wu, is a truly disturbing thought, and the Indoraptor is the culmination of this, a perfect killer that stalks the house, plays possum to kill one of the dinosaur hunters, a tooth collector, played by Ted Levine, and even deactivates a lift to kill one of the minor villains; Fallen Kingdom not only plays into the imagery that made the first Jurassic Park film memorable, but into far older, and deeper ideas of horror, from the creeping claw, to the truly frightening shot where the creature opens the door.

Bayona has always been a director who melts the fantastical with real fears and worries (look no further than his previous film, A Monster Calls, wherein a monstrous treeman symbolises a boy's fear about his mother's death from cancer), and here, he brings fears about genetic technology, human damage to the world's ecosystem, and the age-old idea of creating our own downfall, intertwines it with some memorable visuals, a roller coaster of action sequences inter spaced with well-written character development, and lets it loose into the world. If  
Jurassic World welcomed us back to the park, then Fallen Kingdom brings the fences crashing down, and steps free to stalk our imaginations. As Jeff Goldblum, in his bookending cameo declaims:Life cannot be contained. Life breaks free. Life... finds a way.

Rating: Highly Recommended.