Review: JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM

JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM 
(ACTION-ADVENTURE/SCI-FI-THRILLER) 
★★1/2
Directed by J.A. Bayona
Screenplay by Derek Connolly & Colin Trevorrow
Based on characters created by Michael Crichton
Starring: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Rafe Spall, Justice Smith, Daniella Pineda, James Cromwell, Toby Jones, Ted Levine, Jeff Goldblum, BD Wong, Geraldine Chaplin, Isabella Sermon, Robert Emms, Peter Jason, Kevin Layne, John Schwab, Charles Rawes
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of science-fiction violence and peril.
128 minutes
Verdict: With improved direction by J.A. Bayona but an increasingly absurd overview from Colin Trevorrow, FALLEN KINGDOM is more entertaining than expected, but about as dumb.

In spite of consistently strong, even stellar, box office returns, the Jurassic Park franchise has been creatively running on fumes since Steven Spielberg's 1993 original.  Back in 2015, I gave a negative review to JURASSIC WORLD in which I called it the best since the original anyway, although I wouldn't say that now.  The thing is, I wouldn't confidently say that it isn't the best of the Jurassic Park sequels either, because THE LOST WORLD and JURASSIC PARK III aren't good either.  They're all just different kinds of bad.  JURASSIC WORLD was mean-spirited and generic, and having rewatched it recently, I was also surprised to discover it's also pretty campy.  The idea of actually opening the theme park and seeing the day-to-day operations of that kind of thing (as much as we do see, anyway) is exciting, but you have this goofy subplot with training velociraptors and Vincent D'Onofrio wanting to use dinosaurs for military operations, and D'Onofrio's performance is weirdly hammy.  As the two leads, Chris Pratt didn't work as a steely Clint Eastwood/Harrison Ford dinosaur wrangler (who sexually harasses his co-workers, by the way), and Bryce Dallas Howard was painful to watch at times as the utterly incompetent park manager.  These were the kinds of characters who would've been eaten off the toilet by a T. rex in the original.  Colin Trevorrow, the writer and director of JURASSIC WORLD returns with the new JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM, but this time only in the capacity of screenwriter, and Guillermo del Toro's Spanish protégé J.A. Bayona takes his turn in the director's chair.  Bayona's previous work has included the 2012 disaster drama THE IMPOSSIBLE and the 2016 fantasy tearjerker A MONSTER CALLS, both movies that, based on the material, could have been disasters, and while they both had their problems, Bayona's direction brought out their best qualities with emotional weight and visceral chills.  In the end, FALLEN KINGDOM is largely a push-and-pull affair between Bayona's direction and Trevorrow's story (co-written with his regular collaborator, Derek Connolly), and the result is entertaining, campy and absurd.

The movie is set three years after JURASSIC WORLD, with the theme park, the island, and the dinosaur attractions abandoned.  An impending volcanic eruption on the island threatens all its inhabitants however, spurring on a movement to save the dinosaurs and transport them to another island.  To be fair, people get behind a lot of political movements and demonstrate passionately for things that are a little funny when you think about it, but my God; the dinosaurs in this franchise are genetic hybrids created by a private business venture combining dinosaur and other DNAs.  They're not authentic dinosaurs, they're not naturally occurring, plus, they consistently eat people.  But dumb Millennial types from the Dinosaur Protection Group, led by former Jurassic World park operations manager who really should know better, Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard), are petitioning for public support to rescue them.  Dearing is contacted by the estate of Benjamin Lockwood (James Cromwell), the late John Hammond's estranged business partner in creating Jurassic Park, who wants her and her associate Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) to return to the island with a team to help locate and rescue some of the dinosaurs before it's too late, including "Blue," the velociraptor Owen raised and trained.  Owen and Claire soon realize though that they've been used as patsies in an operation to capture the dinosaurs for a secret auction, and Blue, in particular, is to be used to create a sinister experimental new creature.

Perhaps the most pleasant surprise compared to JURASSIC WORLD is that Owen and Claire are a lot more likable this time around.  The idea that Claire wants to save the dinosaurs from the volcano is still absurd, but at least she's competent, more intuitive, and she no longer has that godawful haircut.  Owen is a bit more laidback, less smug, and a little more self-aware.  Their flirtation and "witty repartee" is still groan-inducing, but while trying less to define them or develop them, and instead letting them react to the situations around them as the thin characters they are, it flows better.  New characters like the nerdy IT guy Franklin (Justice Smith) and stock strong woman "paleoveterinarian" Zia (Daniella Pineda)  who tag along to the island are okay and add some diversity but not a lot else.  Ted Levine though, who I haven't seen in a mainstream movie for a while now, is a treat as one Ken Wheatley, the asshole mercenary in charge of the team capturing the dinosaurs, played with a wonderfully oddball twang.

The action and thrills are very good much of the time, and it occurs to me that there just aren't enough movies with action sequences set within a catastrophic volcanic eruption.  There are a few of them, but not enough.  For the first time in a while in a Jurassic Park movie, there are some really good, scary scenes, kicking off with a very intense chase with predictable results in the opening scene, and the final act allows Bayona to really put to use his experience in Gothic horror in some spectacular ways.  Spielberg managed to make a really solid blockbuster adventure movie that plays in an area similar to JAWS with the 1993 original JURASSIC PARK, filled with thrills, but also a sense of wonder and significance.  At this point, however, this kind of thing works best as a goofy, stylish monster movie thriller, and whenever it starts veering into other areas, it feels lost.  There are some late revelations about characters that the movie treats as though they should have more impact than they really do, and I'm not even sure what to think about where this movie suggests future sequels should go.  I haven't seen THE BOOK OF HENRY, but from what I've heard, and looking at Trevorrow's influence on these last two Jurassic World movies, his sensibilities now strike me as campy.  As with other Bayona films, his skilled direction acts in spite of the tendencies of the material, and it reminds me BLADE II, where Guillermo del Toro was directing a screenplay by David S. Goyer.  In terms of the action and aesthetics, the results are typically entertaining, but the writing is clearly holding it back.

The main point of these movies, I suppose, is the dinosaurs though, and while it's pretty much more of the thing we've seen in previous franchise installments, they're a substantial improvement on the creatures of JURASSIC WORLD.  There are more major scenes involving the traditional full-size animatronic puppets, and unlike the one practical scene of a dying sauropod in the previous film, these ones actually look pretty good.  There are shots that look like slightly sub-par CGI, but there are few other times when I wasn't positive whether the dinosaur onscreen was on-set or created in the computer, which should really be the goal when blending practical and digital effects.  The headlining new dinosaur, the "Indoraptor" is uninspired, basically a better-looking version of the Indominus Rex from the last movie, darker, with teethier teeth and longer claws.  Its role in the movie works a lot better than the Indominus though, keeping things simple and purely menacing.  That's where the movie works best all the time, when it keeps things simple.

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Review: INCREDIBLES 2

INCREDIBLES 2 
(ACTION-COMEDY/ANIMATION) 
★★★★
Directed by Brad Bird
Screenplay by Brad Bird
Featuring the Voices of: Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Sarah Vowell, Huckleberry Milner, Catherine Keener, Eli Fucile, Bob Odenkirk, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Bird, Sophia Bush, Brad Bird, Phil LeMarr, Isabella Rossellini, Adam Gates, Jonathan Banks, John Ratzenberger, Bill Wise
Rated PG for action sequences and some brief mild language.
118 minutes
Verdict: With humor and ferocity, INCREDIBLES 2 subverts expectations to be Pixar's best and most interesting movie in at least a few years, and a potent return to form for Brad Bird.

After 14 years since the classic original THE INCREDIBLES first arrived, it was disappointing that filmmaker Brad Bird was finally returning to deliver a sequel only after the disaster that was TOMORROWLAND, as though it would be an act of penance rather than a project of passion.  Fortunately, what it seemed is not the case.  INCREDIBLES 2 is very much a Brad Bird film, more than it is a Pixar film, really, and that's a great thing right now.  It's not perfect, and it stumbles a bit toward the finish line, but it would be wrong to let that overshadow how strongly it plays as long as it does, especially considering the lofty expectations the sequel has to live up to after all this time.  It's hard to compare the sequel to the original, considering that we've had 14 years to live with and love the original.  The original is a fact of life at this point, and a lot grown adults actually grew up with it, and it's a really great movie besides, so even the idea of a sequel is a huge uphill battle from the start.

The story, written by Bird, picks up with where the original's memorable coda left off, as the super-powered Parr family; physically super strong father and husband Bob (aka Mr. Incredible; voice of Craig T. Nelson), the extremely stretchy and malleable mother and wife Helen (aka Elastigirl; voice of Holly Hunter), the force field-wielding daughter who can also become invisible at will, Violet (voice of Sarah Vowell), the super speedy son Dash (voice of Huckleberry Milner), and the polymorphic baby Jack-Jack; suit up to confront the burrowing supervillain Underminer (voice of John Ratzenberger), but the subsequent battle results in significant property damage and the ending of the "Super Relocation" government program that had been creating and maintaining the secret identities of superheroes like the Parr family.  Despite their success in defending the city only months before, alongside their ice-wielding family friend Lucius Best (aka Frozone; voice of Samuel L. Jackson), superheroics are still technically illegal, but telecommunications tycoon and superhero enthusiast Winston Deavor (voice of Bob Odenkirk) and his sister Evelyn (voice of Catherine Keener) come to Mr. Incredible, Elastigirl and Frozone with an idea to boost public support for the re-legalization of superheroes.  Because of her less destructive track record, the Deavors want Elastigirl to be the face of their campaign by openly fighting fighting crime again, which leaves Bob doing his darnedest to keep things running smoothly at home between Violet's boy troubles, Dash's homework and Jack-Jack, whose newly emerging powers are increasingly out of control.

Being a sequel, the story isn't as inventive as the original, and it isn't as streamlined either, as it heads off in a number of different directions that aren't all that tightly unified, but the paths it goes down are often interesting and fun.  Mostly, it's just great getting to spend more time with these characters, seeing the ways they react to new dilemmas, like Bob's well-meaning and relatable attempts to be a good father, that often result in disaster before he finally finds a way that works, and Helen's own reliving of the glory days.  They still feel like the same characters.  Helen, though, is never as insecure a character as Bob, so her transition back to superheroing is smoother than Bob's ever was and is inherently less interesting, but her powers provide the opportunity for some more unique and exciting action sequences that are occasionally surprising in their ferocity, as well some great high-speed chasing on her two-piece "Elasticycle."  

Like the original, INCREDIBLES 2 is a deceitfully adult-friendly Pixar production dealing with adult insecurities, politics (but not in an obnoxious way) and threats, and it doesn't pull it's punches just because it's a cartoon.  Parents of small children may be surprised at how creepy the villainous Screenslaver (whose broadcasts hypnotize viewers to do his will) is, and the movie earns its PG rating with fisticuffs, gunplay and Pixar's first legitimate profanities (mild though they may be), but it's not that people shouldn't bring their kids.  It's just that, rather than the kind of kids movie that adults can enjoy too, INCREDIBLES 2 is the kind of adults movie that (slightly older) kids can enjoy.  It feels like an anomaly from other, especially recent, Pixar fare, and more like something else entirely that's passed through a light Pixar filter.  But Pixar has been a bit stale lately, visually sumptuous and going for the emotional throat like a coke addict goes for line, a little too reliably.  INCREDIBLES 2 shakes that up, and it's refreshing, yet it's not lacking in feeling just because it's not as blunt about it as something like FINDING DORY.

In the moment, at least up until the last 10 or 15 minutes, I was nothing if not entertained, and only after post-viewing consideration did it occur that INCREDIBLES 2 wasn't quite as brilliant as the original THE INCREDIBLES, but that 'in the moment' joy has to count for a lot, I think.  It doesn't stick the landing as well as it could or as well as its predecessor, and it's constantly subject to those unfair comparisons, but it deserves credit for coming as close to that level as it does.  It's possible that the ending would play better on a rewatch, and it's not that its bad.  It just doesn't come to as clean a point as the bulk of it deserves.  Before all that though, there was little doubt in my mind that this was one of the best movies I'd seen in a while, and while my comparisons point toward a 3.5 out of 4 rating, my heart says 4 out of 4.  Maybe a soft 4, but a 4-banger regardless.  It was just immensely fun and the best time I've had at a Pixar movie since INSIDE OUT.  It's easily their best sequel since TOY STORY 3.  It's not clear if it's as good as the original yet, and we may not be able to tell for another 14 years, but it's playing around the same level, which is a feat in itself.

                                                                                                                                                                          Images via Disney