Capsule Summary (minimal spoilers):

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is the latest film in the franchise.  The Jurassic World theme park has been abandoned after the disastrous events of the events during the Jurassic World movie.  There’s a mountain on the island that has become an active volcano, leading to a governmental discussion of “let nature take its course” or “save as many dinosaurs as you can”. After all, they’re endangered species, once again.

It wouldn’t be much of a movie if they chose option 1, so they go with option 2.  The co-founder and financier of the original park, Benjamin Lockwood (James Cromwell), implores Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) to help with the rescue mission, already under way. She convinces Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) to return as well. They arrive, and that’s where the fun begins.

Overall, I liked this one better than Jurassic World. In general, people do behave smarter and make fewer stupid choices, so it plays better. There are more tense moments, and I let myself enjoy this one. There are some predictable moments and a couple of unexpected moments, but those were infrequent.

Fallen Kingdom is rated PG-13, as there is the typical dinosaur-based violence. They stop short of the on screen gore being too graphic, but they certainly imply it when they don’t show it. Runtime is 2 hours 8 minutes, but it didn’t feel that long. There is an extremely brief post-credits scene, and the trailers you’ve seen only give up part of the story.

I give this one a half-hearted recommendation, as there are so many films currently running to choose from.

 

Standard Review (with minor plot spoilers):

They never learn.  Containment, containment,  containment,  containment, containment . Single layer containment is NEVER enough, and this goes back to the original movie. They got better  with the computer and data security, but screw the rest!

Now that that’s out of my system, I’ll comment on a few things.

• Chris Pratt is his usual self onscreen, albeit less snarky than his turns at Star Lord.
• They bring in another mercenary leader and jokingly call him Great White Hunter in one scene
• Bryce Dallas Howard wears sensible boots
• There are too many callbacks to the previous movies, including specific plotlines. I wish they’d stop that.
• Some secondary characters serve as the plucky comic relief, and thankfully, some are more properly clever and resourceful.

Not much else to say, so go if you think you’ll like it, but not because you have to. It’s summer fluff, so treat it like that.