This is the first movie I ever watched after (OK, long after) checking out the Nostalgia Critic's synopsis thereof. He made it sound bad except for two great sequences, ultimately declining to recommend seeing or skipping it, but at least he put it ahead of The Lost World: Jurassic Park. What finally persuaded me? A warning that it would stop streaming on Netflix at the end of the month.
In Costa Rica, a successor to the failed zoo of revived dinosaurs has actually done rather well, but the novelty is wearing off, so the profits don't satisfy stockholders. Operations manager Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) and CEO Simon Masrani (Irrfan Khan) give the go-ahead for the team of Dr. Henry Wu (returning BD Wong) to engineer a whole new multispecies specimen, the Indominus rex, projected to be fifty feet tall someday. I hardly need to tell you they've created a monster and not prepared adequately. The clever girl's escape kicks off a whole host of catastrophes, with other big reptiles chipping in.
In terms of accomplishments, the main hero is Owen Grady (Chris Pratt), Velociraptor semi-trainer. He and Claire used to date. Nothing like a crisis to bring them back together, right?
About equal focus goes to Claire's visiting nephews, preteen Gray (Ty Simpkins) and teen Zach (Nick Robinson). She would rather work than spend much time with them, so assistant Zara (Katie McGrath) tries to fill in. Gray's dino nerd enthusiasm helps distract him from his parents' likely imminent divorce. Zach seeks more stimulation, sometimes by breaking rules. They both get more than they bargain for, leading to yet more unity.
The predictable basic rule of this movie is, if you have a known loved one, you'll survive. That leaves plenty of room for human and dino casualties, including some I kinda pitied. At least this time the one notable Black guy, Owen's assistant Barry Sembène (Omar Sy), isn't among them.
I doubt it's possible for a Jurassic Park sequel to be all that smart. After the first fatal disaster, what sane person would want anything more to do with live dinosaurs? Of course, even the first movie included jerks blinded by greed, almost fit for the Weyland-Yutani Corporation in Alien. Perhaps the worst offender herein is security chief Vic Hoskins (Vincent D'Onofrio), who favors the idea of militarizing raptors.
Thankfully, I was willing to avoid rolling my eyes long enough to keep them on the spectacles. Director Colin Trevorrow is no Steven Spielberg (now just the executive producer), but he knows pretty well how to fill the screen, and he has a good sense of pacing for 124 minutes. I think the Critic sold him short.
JW isn't highly quotable, nor does it boast as much of a money shot as JP. But it will excite you if you let it.
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