Director: J.A. Bayona
Cast: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Rafe Spall, Jeff Goldblum.
Have I Seen It Before?: Yes…
Did I like it?: But it’s memory had pretty thoroughly faded by the time I came back around to watch it again. Quite specifically, I couldn’t remember in which of the World sub-series did they come upon the wrecked electric Ford Explorer that Sam Neill and Joseph Mazzello escaped from in Jurassic Park (1993)* until the scene that featured it came started in this film.
My lack of memory cannot bode well for my feelings about the film. It also is telling that I spent far more time wondering during this film than I did with the original Jurassic World (2015) why the vestiges of the old park from the original film weren’t completely cleared out by the time the 21st century version of the park opened.
I also can’t help feeling that this movie is really two ideas for two separate movies, neither of which were enough to prop up their own single feature. I’m fairly interested in the idea of a ticking timebomb movie, trying to save as many dinosaurs—even if they are trying to eat the people—as possible before a long dormant volcano takes everyone and everything out. I’m far less interested in yet another cat-and-mouse scenario with raptors, all held together by the tenuous glue of greedy heirs to the legacy of John Hammond.
In my review of Jurassic World, I praised it for not feeling the need to hinge any part of its appeal on a returning original cast member. This film sees fit to fall pressure to the legacy sequel formula, but in its surrender is frustratingly stingy with what they’re prepared to bring us. We get a brief scene of Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) testifying before Congress, and then another scene of him doing the same thing at the end. I was promised a measure of Goldblum and I feel cheated by the amount I received. Even Independence Day: Resurgence (2016) knew its own weakness and attempted to compensate by turning the Goldblum meter up to 11.