JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM Reviews Are In And It Sounds Like Critics Are Already Sick Of The Franchise

The first reviews for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom are in and it doesn't sound as if critics are particularly enjoying the franchise's resurrection because these are decidedly mixed. Check them out...

By JoshWilding - Jun 05, 2018 01:06 PM EST

Filed Under: Jurassic Park

Well, this might not be good news for the summer box office! Reviews for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom are in and it seems as if critics have already soured on the franchise because there's a lot of negativity here. There are some positive reviews to be fair and I'd say they're more mixed than downright negative but that Rotten Tomatoes score is unlikely to be particularly high based on this.

It seems the main problem is Colin Trevorrow's script because even though new director J.A. Bayona attempts to bring something new to the table, it sounds like it's mostly the same old, same old.

Middling reviews didn't hurt the first instalment as that broke a number of box office records so there's a very good chance the Jurassic World franchise is immune to reviews just like Transformers was once upon the time. Anyway, to check out this first batch of reviews, click on the "View List" button below.

Howard, thankfully, gets more to do than the last go round (and in combat boots, no less!), Pratt busts out his signature Indiana Jones cocktail of can-do heroism and deadpan sarcasm, and Bayona and his screenwriters (Trevorrow and Derek Connolly) test the laws of incredulity with varying degrees of success. At least, until the final half hour when forehead-slapping hooey finally win out. Up until then, Fallen Kingdom is exactly the kind of escapist summer behemoth you want it to be. [B+]

SOURCE: Entertainment Weekly

I can’t say I’m all that eager to see what becomes of our prehistoric pals next, but at least their latest adventure gives them proper consideration. There’s a scene in Fallen Kingdom that will stay with me for a little while: a lone brontosaurus, standing on a shore nearly engulfed in ash and flame, stretching its long neck up to the sky and braying out a mournful plaint. In the context of the film, it’s supposed to be saying “Come back, save me.” But I don’t know; I think it’s possible that, having had enough, this behemoth is actually saying goodbye. Watching it grandly fade into nothing, I found myself wishing that, for once, someone would honor those wishes.

SOURCE: Vanity Fair

It’s a brave choice to literally blow up everything that’s come before but one that definitely pays off in Fallen Kingdom. While Jurassic World gave us a lovely self-contained story, Fallen Kingdom leaves us wondering just where the series will go for its third act - as long as Stiggy plays an extensive pivotal role, I’ll be absolutely fine with it. [8.7/10]

SOURCE: IGN

Fallen Kingdom ends with an act that is just about impossible to believe outside the context of a fiction that, like DNA, is driven solely by the need to replicate itself. This is said to be the second film in a trilogy. But Kingdom's closing scenes seem intent on something far bigger, like a Planet of the Apes-style saga that has barely begun. You don't remake reality in a film's final frames without intending to milk things for as long as the public will keep buying tickets. If future installments are this rich and exciting, that's probably going to be a while.

SOURCE: The Hollywood Reporter

At the end, Goldblum returns to sell us on the idea of a “Jurassic World,” but this very dull entry in the series doesn’t make this sound like an enticing prospect.

SOURCE: The Wrap

The first “Jurassic World” was, quite simply, not a good ride. “Fallen Kingdom” is an improvement, but it’s the first “Jurassic” film to come close to pretending it isn’t a ride at all, and as a result it ends up being just a passable ride. I hope the next one is an all-out ride — but that for the first time since Spielberg’s 1993 original, it’s actually a great one. The audience for this series has proved that it will turn out in mega-droves. But it deserves more than a decent rerun taking itself too seriously.

SOURCE: Variety

“Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” packs a lot into its two-hour running time and moves at such a terrific clip that we barely have time to register just how potentially dire things are getting. Fortunately Goldblum’s Malcolm is here to explain it to us, and to drive home just how ominous this movie’s title really is.

SOURCE: Newsday

The new movie ends on a cliffhanger, anticipating the next installment already in the works, and winds up as an example of the very thing it’s designed to indict: Mediocrity produced on a grand scale, and the means of getting away with it. [C-]

SOURCE: IndieWire

There is a little bit of the wonder and joy that made the original so special embedded deep within Fallen Kingdom, which I credit to Bayona, whose primary drive, even in genre fare like this, has always been to sprinkle just enough emotion into the stories he tells. The plot of this feels less forced, and overall less cynical, than Jurassic World, though I don’t think I could ever believe that in the reality of these movies dinosaurs are treated like a boring commodity, bought and sold and updated and improved upon in order to still be interesting — much like how Universal has treated this whole franchise, forcing it to evolve without considering whether or not it can, or should, survive.

SOURCE: Uproxx

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is a high-class summer blockbuster, with some unexpected emotions, a heap of the action that one would expect from such a film, and a dash of surprisingly dark moments that folks have been waiting for since Michael Crichton's book first hit shelves. This movie needs to be enjoyed in a setting that is as big and as loud as you can get it, simply because it deserves to loom larger-than-life over its audience. It's a shame that J.A. Bayona isn't returning for the third film, as his direction is a breath of fresh air in a series that seems to be setting up for a killer continuation and/or finale in the third planned film. In the here and now, this is the sort of dinosaur romp that makes the Jurassic World saga something to pay attention to. [4/5]

SOURCE: Cinema Blend

Late in the picture, Spall’s weaselly Eli sneers to Claire that “you can’t put them back in the box.” He very well could be speaking about beloved films too, which like the dinosaurs seem destined to be exploited and rebranded into new patents by their oh, so human creators. [2/5]

SOURCE: Den of Geek

The soul of these movies has been extinguished. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom gives us no heroes worth rooting for. No action sequences that will stick with us the way Spielberg’s did. What it offers are lazy re-creations, lazier screenwriting, and sneering disrespect for our love of the original. I did not think I could hate a Jurassic Park movie more than I hated the last. But here we are. Trevorrow found away.

SOURCE: Pajiba

Overfamiliarity also means the expected horror uptick doesn't pay off – particularly given the high number of last-minute reprieves. The initial joy of Fallen Kingdom's action extravaganza is tempered by the smaller-scale feel of its second half, even as a strong ending suggests another evolution in this storyline. All of which balances out into a perfectly enjoyable franchise entry – just one that lacks the bite of previous outings.

SOURCE: Digital Spy

What really sets Fallen Kingdom apart is the fascinating decision to allow Bayona, director of the spooky The Orphanage, to turn the last act into a variation on the haunted house movie. The meshing of genres doesn’t entirely work, but the sight of a dinosaur, like a reptilian vampire, entering a French window through billowing drapes is reason enough to buy a ticket. The wonder has long gone. But there is, in such sequences, still some fun to be had. That is enough to be going on with.

SOURCE: Irish Times

There are missed opportunities all over Fallen Kingdom. At one point, I began to get excited that this might prove to be an angrier film than its predecessor, more pointed: There’s a whole bit with arms dealers and slimy financiers at the end that seems to be aiming at something – there are even some vague platitudes expressed about man’s hunger for destruction and weaponry and our inability to handle the power we’ve harnessed – but it all just hangs there like so much else in this movie, undeveloped concepts that could one day be turned into a genuinely exciting, surprising film. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is, sadly, not it.

SOURCE: Village Voice

Howard and Pratt are genre-solid in the leads. In other roles, Toby Jones breaks the film’s family film mould as a greedy broker and auctioneer of the trapped animals. It doesn’t hurt that he resembles Donald Trump’s former press secretary, Sean Spicer. BD Wong could use more juice in his reprise of Dr. Wu, a Frankenstein-ish geneticist who concocts the nasty creatures. Jeff Goldblum hits the right notes, playing to well-worn type as he bookends the film with a doomsday scenario of dinosaurs roaming free.

SOURCE: Screen Daily

Every Jurassic Park sequel has had an uncomfortable relationship with logic, but even by this franchise’s standards, Fallen Kingdom is particularly ridiculous. All of the characters — even the heroes we’re supposed to root for — make baffling, indefensible choices. They put their trust in obviously evil people; they suggest solutions to problems that are infinitely more dangerous than the problems themselves. They build underground laboratories for secret dinosaur experiments with laxer security than my daughter’s daycare. The only characters who behave rationally in Fallen Kingdom, in fact, are the dinosaurs. At one point, someone refers to Blue as the “second smartest animal” on Earth. Based on the evidence in this film, I think it’s time for a recount. [3/10]

SOURCE: Screen Crush

When this is Bayona's movie, it flies. When it feels like Trevorrow's movie, it crashes and burns. Either way, it is definitely worth a look, if for no reason than to watch a tried-and-tested, hugely successful formula get thrown out the window for something far riskier.
SOURCE: Joe.ie

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