Remakes and Franchises make movie watching boring these days. Same ol’ this and with a sprinkle of that thing already imagined. Jurassic World and Ocean’s 8 are two examples of films this summer that failed to deviate from the original plot and character development. The final product that hit all the marks of fanfare but lacked originality.
Franchises, every studio want one but they are bad for movie-goers.
Franchises are at fault. Everyone wants one. A franchise product can ensure a studio a sellable product for many years to come. The only problem is there are no original produced works worthy of that franchise tag, or could there be?
Possibly, a Sicaro universe to add to the Jurassic Park remakequels? Maybe a Star Wars indulgence no one desires. Or a gender reassigned Ocean’s film franchise? Sure — great— that’s all fine and dandy, but what remains is this problem of repetitiveness: telling stories for the sake of saving a franchise.
The stories are not organic. What happens to the characters are simulated. Rather than allow a character arc to play out naturally, dumb situations are created to ensure the franchise title lives on.
Jurassic World: The Fallen Kingdom is weighed down heavily by a story that went way off the grid of believability, but conforms to the beloved moments of the first film, Jurassic Park.
This is the same story over and over again without the risks of adding something new and different to the formula. If it worked twenty years ago, it’s sure to work again on a younger more ignorant audience. But how about us older Gen-Xers and older non conforming millennials? We loved the first Jurassic Park (and likely read the books), but don’t want to see the same story schtick replayed every other year?
This cockamamy tale about the ethical responsibilities humans assume when they play God is trite and full of redundant innuendos. The Fallen Kingdom serves no other purpose–in this saga– than to add fluff to an already confusing storyline. Dinosaurs are no longer on the island. Got it. The purpose was to get the dinosaurs off the island all along. However, there had to be a better, more interesting, way than to sell them on the black market. A volcanic eruption is a great motivator but the use of “poachers” was lazy and sardonic. The dinosaurs needed rescuing. The Fallen Kingdom needed more heart.
The many moments Jurassic World: Kingdom frustrated me with redundant nostalgia.
Are we that oblivious as an audience not to notice the similarities?
- Byrce and Chris having an awkward first meeting after the love affair from the first film sizzled and died.
- J-World has scientists in the form of volunteers who work at an environmental protectionist agency run by Dallas Howard. Two of her most skilled volunteers accompany her to the island for what’s to be a routine job to saving the dinosaurs from an erupting volcano.
- There’s the medic; a person who loves and knows an awful lot about dinosaurs. When she finally sees one in person, the majesty of the dinosaur brings Laura Dern to tears. However, this is not Jurassic Park and Laura Dern died in the Last Jedi.
- Then there’s this kid, fresh out of college; a paperweight version of Jeff Goldblum. He’s Ian Malcolm without the charisma, masculinity, and Ph.D. who kept dropping these horrible one-liners.
- The Dinosaurs Stampede is the go-to cinematic throwback, but this time there’s a volcanic eruption along with the peril of dinosaurs racing away from death.
- Dinosaurs-in-the-Hizzie
I hope they use the final movie in this trilogy to show us how to exactly remove a velociraptor from my backyard— and don’t say “it’s on Youtube.” I looked and only found a crappy version of Jurassic Park: Lost World.
