Dino Flicks/Franchises: Jurassic Park. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)

After being moribund for nearly fifteen years, Jurassic World not only revived the Jurassic Park franchise in 2015, but revived it with a bang. While I'm sure the production team figured it would likely be successful, given how strong the brand had been in the past (even Jurassic Park III, the series' lowest-grossing entry, still did pretty well, considering), I don't think they were expecting it to make $1 billion, something even the original Jurassic Park fell just short of during its original release. It also got pretty good reviews from critics overall, but the general public were the ones who absolutely loved it. And if you've seen my review , you know that I'm definitely among those who adored it. I do have some issues with it, but the good outweighs the bad enough to where I think it's better than both The Lost World and Jurassic Park III (and I don't exactly hate those movies, either). So, not only was it not a surprise that there would be more to come, but I was all for it. However, as much as I did enjoy Jurassic World, I was hoping that, with the next one, they would finally get away from the island setting, as I felt that showing the actual park up and running was the last fresh thing they could do with it. And when I saw one of the first trailers for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom near the end of 2017, it was as if they'd read my mind. Not only did the trailer depict Isla Nublar being destroyed by a volcanic eruption, but the title and the strained version of the main theme that played at the end made it feel apocalyptic, suggesting that the dinosaurs were on the verge of going extinct all over again. Thus, I thought to myself, "Okay, we're on the right track here." And then, in the lead up to its release, I heard that the island being destroyed was only the first act, and the rest of the movie was wildly different from anything that had been done in the past. While that can still be bad, of course, I was intrigued to see where this was going to go. And when its release came around (which was just four days after my birthday that year), I went and checked it out at a late screening (as in around 8:00), in Chattanooga that Saturday.

Unfortunately, while I'd lucked out when I saw Jurassic World, I had to watch Fallen Kingdom with a really annoying crowd. I had some dumb preteen girls behind me who wouldn't stop talking and, in some instances, repeating the dialogue that had just been spoken, and people who kept going up and down the aisle, distracting me. (I had a similar experience with Dominion, but we'll get to that.) Regardless, that tagline, "THE PARK IS GONE," which I saw on a stand in the theater lobby, proved very apt as, by the time we got to the halfway point, Isla Nublar had been completely destroyed. I was quite surprised by the route the movie took afterward, which was a claustrophobic, virtual haunted house movie, but with dinosaurs. I thought, "Okay, good. We're doing something different," and the setting made for a great environment for the Indoraptor to prowl around in. And not only was it nice to see Chris Pratt back as Owen Grady, but I felt Bryce Dallas Howard was much better here as Claire Dearing. In the end, I thought it was good, and my dad also liked it when he and I watched it on Blu-Ray a few years later (though, it doesn't take a lot to entertain him). But, like with The Lost World, I felt that history had repeated itself and ir didn't measure up to its predecessor. Now, as I've said before, I don't flat-out despise any Jurassic Park movie, and that includes Fallen Kingdom (at the time I'm writing this, the jury's still out on Rebirth, as it hasn't been released yet). Like with the immediate sequels to the original, there is a lot to like here. It's very well-shot and directed; the visual effects are, as per usual, great, and there are some more animatronics this time around; the first half is a real adrenaline rush; the music score is, once again, superb; and I not only applaud the filmmakers for taking chances but also going with a darker tone.

Where the movie runs into problems is mostly in the characters and writing. Aside from Owen, Claire, and a few others, everyone else is either one-dimensional and flat, or annoying, and there are some really good actors who are rather wasted here. As for the writing, it often comes off as overwrought and pretentious, especially in the themes it's trying to engage with, and it's not nearly as smart as it thinks it is. And while I like the change in setting halfway through, the movie feels like it shifts back into first gear for a while, as it's really slow up until the Indoraptor gets loose, and even more so than The Lost World's climax, it's a major and sudden transition between genres. And finally, Fallen Kingdom falls into the same trap as most middle chapters in trilogies, in that it functions as a two-hour stepping stone to what you really want to see, which you'll have to wait until next time to get. (Of course, Dominion really subverted expectations in that regard, and not in the best of ways either, but again, we'll get to that soon enough.)

Following the disaster at Jurassic World in 2015, Isla Nublar is now abandoned and overrun by the dinosaurs. However, a small mercenary team arrives one night during a storm and collects a DNA sample from the remains of the Indominous Rex at the bottom of the park's lagoon. Though several of them fall prey to both the T-Rex and the Mosasaurus, the sample is recovered and taken away. Three years after the disaster, the dinosaurs face potential extinction all over again when Mt. Sibo, the island's long dormant volcano, becomes active and threatens to erupt. At the U.S. Senate, the question of whether mankind should save these creatures that they themselves created or, as Dr. Ian Malcolm suggests at the meeting, let nature correct their mistake, is debated. Among those hoping to save the dinosaurs is Claire Dearing, Jurassic World's former head of operations and now the founder of the Dinosaur Protection Group. Much to their chagrin, the Senate decides to take no action. Just as it seems hopeless, Claire gets a phone call from the estate of Sir Benjamin Lockwood, a former partner of the late John Hammond. Traveling to his home in Northern California, she meets Eli Mills, who runs his businesses. He and Lockwood tell her of a plan to extract the dinosaurs and transport them to a new sanctuary. To capture them, they need Claire to accompany the team and reactivate the park's tracking system, as her handprint is required to access it. Mills also tells her that capturing Blue, the last remaining Velociraptor, is of the utmost importance, and that they need her former trainer, Owen Grady's, assistance. Tracking Owen down, she finds he's unwilling to help... at first. He does, in the end, show up at the chartered flight to Isla Nublar, accompanying Claire, paleo-veterinarian Zia Rodriguez, and systems analyst Franklin Webb. Upon arriving, they meet Ken Wheatley, the head of a mercenary group overseeing the operation. After Claire and Franklin get the tracking system up and running, and pinpoint Blue's location, Owen, Zia, and Wheatley's team head out to capture her. However, things soon go south, with Blue being gravely injured, and Wheatley and his men turning on Owen. Unbeknownst to Claire, Mills has ulterior motives for rescuing the dinosaurs, and with Nublar's destruction imminent, she and her friends must escape and save them from being further exploited.

According to Colin Trevorrow, early on in Jurassic World's development, he and Steven Spielberg had discussed the possibilities of there being more movies afterward, but its enormous success made it a guarantee, with a follow-up officially announced just six weeks into its release. While Trevorrow had decided not to direct the immediate sequel, as he wanted to see what other filmmakers could do with it, and he also had other prospects on the horizon, like The Book of Henry and Star Wars Episode IX, he did agree to write the screenplay, again with Derek Connolly. What's more, while he still had the final say, Spielberg wasn't as heavily involved in its development, instead allowing the two of them to do whatever they wanted. They came up with the basic storyline during an eight-day road trip from Los Angeles to Trevorrow's home state of Vermont, deciding first and foremost, as I had felt, that they needed to leave the island setting behind and get the dinosaurs into the modern world. In fact, they initially planned to have the film focus much more on that latter concept, but as they'd already decided at this point that it was going to be a

trilogy, they realized they needed to save something for the third one. Following the road trip, Connolly began writing the actual screenplay in the fall of 2015, while Trevorrow went off to make The Book of Henry, and then traveled to England to begin pre-production on Episode IX at Pinewood Studios. Connolly himself flew out to Pinewood as well, where he and Trevorrow went back and forth developing both Fallen Kingdom and Episode IX. Conveniently, Fallen Kingdom itself would be shot primarily in the UK and at Pinewood, which allowed Trevorrow to be involved with its production as much as he could. Just as Spielberg and producer Frank Marshall had really helped him out when directed his first major movie with Jurassic World, he wanted to be able to do the same for Fallen Kingdom's director. (He was able to fulfill that promise much more so than he originally expected, as by the time the movie entered post-production, he'd officially stepped down as Episode IX's director.)

Speaking of said director, it seems like both Trevorrow and Marshall had the same person in mind: Juan Antonio, or J.A., Bayona, whose first feature film was the 2007 horror film, The Orphanage (I'm ashamed to admit that, when I reviewed that movie back in 2022, it wasn't until I was doing research on Bayona that I realized he'd done Fallen Kingdom). He'd since followed that up with 2012's The Impossible, with Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor, and, in his film debut, Tom Holland, and 2016's A Monster Calls, which featured Sigourney Weaver and Liam Neeson, and had also done some episodes of Penny Dreadful. Not only did Trevorrow and Marshall, as well as Spielberg, admire his work, but Marshall had a personal relationship with Bayona, who also happened to be a huge fan of the original Jurassic Park. In fact, he'd been considered for the previous film before they went with Trevorrow but, at the time, he turned them down because of how rushed that movie's development was turning out. At this point, Bayona was next considering doing a sequel to World War Z, but after Marshall told him they wanted him for Fallen Kingdom, he decided to do it instead. Upon receiving Trevorrow and Connolly's screenplay, Bayona was really enthused about the second half being essentially a haunted house movie with dinosaurs, and his horror background is likely one of the reasons why they felt he would mesh well with this film's darker tone. And sure enough, you can see him bringing those sensibilities, especially during the Indoraptor's rampage in the house during the third act.

To prepare for the film, Bayona not only re-watched all of the previous movies but also read both of Michael Crichton's novels. In the summer of 2016, he worked with Trevorrow and Connolly to incorporate his own ideas into the screenplay, which mainly consisted of expanding the existing action sequences and adding some more. Also, to make the movie more his own, he was allowed to bring onboard a number of his past collaborators: producer Belen Atienza, cinematographer Oscar Faura, editor Bernat Vilaplana, post-production supervisor Jaume Marti, and sound designer Oriol Tarrago. Fallen Kingdom was not only Bayona's biggest movie to date (its budget was a massive $432 million, far more than twice that of Jurassic World) but also his biggest hit as, like the previous one, it made over $1 billion worldwide. Since then, he's directed the first two episodes of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, and the 2023 film, Society of the Snow, which was nominated for Best International Feature Film at the 2024 Academy Awards.

Although I started with Owen when talking about the previous movie, I'm going to start with Claire this time, as she is the protagonist who gets the plot rolling. In an about face from the very corporate and rather cold woman from Jurassic World, who only saw the dinosaurs as "assets," Bryce Dallas Howard this time portrays Claire as someone who is firmly on their side. Likely because she was a party to their creation in the first place, she's founded the Dinosaur Protection Group and is determined to save them from potential extinction; also, at the beginning, she's trying to secure funding to create a safe haven for them. When the U.S. Senate decides not to take any action about Isla Nublar's impending eruption, she's despondent, lamenting, "They're all gonna die, and no one cares." But then, salvation seems to come when she gets a call from the Lockwood Estate and learns of the plan to transport the dinosaurs to a safe sanctuary before it's too late. She's also told that the plan would work best if she actually went to the island, not just because they need her palm-print to reactivate the tracking system, but also because of her familiarity with the place. Moreover, she's asked to coerce Owen into going so he can help them capture Blue. Even though their post-Jurassic World relationship panned out about as well as their initial date in the first movie, and despite his initially dismissive attitude about the situation, including Blue, Claire does get him to come along. Once on the island, she and her group's systems analyst, Franklin Webb, succeed in getting the tracking system up and running again, and Owen goes to find Blue. But they soon realize that all is not as it seems, as Claire and Franklin are left to die in the operations bunker, as the island begins to erupt. They manage to escape and reunite with Owen, learning about how Ken Wheatley and his men double-crossed him. Claire is enraged that Eli Mills lied to him, but when they see them loading the dinosaurs onto the ship called the Arcadia, they manage to get aboard as well. Hiding in the cargo bay, they, along with paleo-veterinarian Zia Rodriguez, arrive with them back on the mainland and end up at the Lockwood Estate. However, Claire and Owen are captured, and learn of Mills' plan to sell the dinosaurs off to the highest bidders at an auction. They do manage to escape and work to stop him, but by the end of the movie, despite a big moral dilemma they're faced with, it's clear that it's already too late and the world has most definitely been changed.

Unlike Claire, Owen starts out as someone who's completely put Jurassic World behind him. Living in solitude in Northern California, where he's building himself a cabin, and having broken up with Claire because they're personalities and lifestyles are virtually incompatible (he's still more than a little bitter about it, too), he knows that her suddenly showing back up can't be a good thing. In fact, he already knows what she wants, having gotten a call from Eli Mills himself, and he initially tells her that he's more than willing to move on with his life and let the dinosaurs go extinct. He also tries to convince her not to go, saying she does have a choice about what direction her life will take. Even when she mentions Blue, and he seems offended that Claire would use her to manipulate him into going, Owen stands his ground. But that night, when he looks at the video logs of his raising and training the raptors when they were young, he decides he has to save her and joins the expedition. Upon arriving on the island and traveling through the ruins of the park, both Owen and Claire are obviously hit hard by the memories they conjure up, although he admits that some of them were good. When they get the tracking system running and are able to pinpoint Blue's location, Owen heads out with Wheatley's team and Zia to find her. When they get close, he opts to go by himself, figuring the large vehicle they're in and a bunch of other people would scare her off. He does find her but it's not exactly a happy reunion, as Blue acts very defensive and feral, having apparently forgotten him. But, as Owen works with her, she starts to come around, only for Wheatley and his team to interfere. They severely injure Blue, take both her and Zia, tranquilize Owen, and leave him to die in the eruption. Despite the effects of the drug basically paralyzing him when he regains consciousness, Owen does manage to escape, reuniting with and then saving both Claire and Franklin when they get caught up in both the eruption and a stampede of frightened dinosaurs. Upon seeing the dinosaurs being loaded onto the Arcadia, they have to rush to get onboard it themselves in order to escape, as the island is completely destroyed.

This film gives Chris Pratt a bit more to play with as Owen, as we get more of his closeness and affinity for Blue, with the video logs showing how they bonded when she was a hatchling and he came to see what a special creature she is. One of the most effective dramatic moments is when some of these v-logs are inter-cut with Zia operating to save Blue's life on the ship, as Owen and the others look on, and with Owen comforting her through it. There's also the suggestion that, their intentions aside, both he and Claire are

responsible for what's now happening. Mills notes how Claire was not only the operations manager of a park that exploited the dinosaurs for money but also authorized the creation of the Indominus Rex, while Owen's work with the raptors got the attention of those willing to pay for creatures that are both deadly and trained. And sure enough, in one of the v-logs, Owen says right to the camera, "Blue is the key. You have Blue, you can get these raptors to do anything." Later, as they're sitting in their cell, they've both taken

what Mills said to heart. Owen, in particular, tells Claire that it's not her fault, adding, "This one's on me. I showed 'em the way." Still, he's not willing to just sit around and do nothing, and devises both a way for them to escape and disrupt the dinosaur auction. Pratt also gets to show off both his knack for physical comedy, like in the scene where he limply flails around to escape the lava approaching him, and his action hero potential in the underwater scenes during the island destruction sequence, the fight scenes during the third act, and his working to protect the

others from the Indoraptor. At the end of the movie, when a gas leak threatens to kill the dinosaurs, who are now trapped in the estate's sub-basement, Claire goes to press the button that will let them out. However, Owen tells her to think hard about what she's going to do, that once she lets them loose into the world, there's no going back. In the end, Claire can't bring herself to do it, but someone else whom they've recently met feels very differently. And by the end of the movie, she and Owen do, in a way, end up becoming, "The parents of the new world," as Mills called them earlier.

Save for Dr. Wu, Claire and Owen are the only characters from the previous movie who return here. The character of Lowery was initially considered to be in this film, and Jake Johnson was up for it, but ultimately, the character of systems analyst Franklin Webb (Justice Smith) serves what would've been his role here. However, I wish Lowery had come back, as this guy is so damn annoying, especially during the section on Isla Nublar. As idealistic and up for Claire's cause as he is, and while he does prove valuable to the group, using his hacking skills to get them into the operations bunker and then pinpoints Blue's location, Franklin is a wuss and scaredy-cat to the extreme. He already kind of rubbed me the wrong way when he's introduced at the Dinosaur Protection Group's offices, coming off as a bit smarmy and one of those young punks who thinks he knows everything, but, before the group even leaves, he's complaining about the small Cessna they have to fly. Then, when they arrive, he complains about it being hot, lays on the bug spray, and is terrified at their running into the T-Rex. Okay, an understandable fear, but when he thinks every loud sound or movement is the T-Rex, it gets annoying fast. And, to top it off, he screams like a girl, and does it quite a few times during the action sequences here. Franklin does get less annoying once they're onboard the Arcadia, although there's one bit of humor with him here that makes me roll my eyes. Zia has to order him to come over and apply pressure to Blue's hemorrhaging wound, as he whines that he doesn't want to, and when he does, he gets sprayed in the face with blood. He then continuously asks Owen if any got in his mouth (which it did), and Owen, naturally, says he's good. After that, Franklin gets roped into working with the villains at the Lockwood Estate, as Zia has to make it seem like he's a member of the ship's deck crew to save him from being captured. He later shows up in Dr. Wu's lab, being ordered around by him, but there, he finally mans up and knocks Wu out, before freeing Zia. During the climax, as the two of them try to stem the toxic gas leak that's threatening to kill the dinosaurs, Franklin reboots the system, which almost causes the others to get killed by the Indoraptor, as they'd turned the lights off in the main hall to avoid him. When they're unable to stop the gas leak, it leads to the fateful decision that closes out the movie.

Zia Rodriguez (Daniella Pineda), the "paleo-veterinarian," on the other hand, is awesome. A tough former Marine who takes no shit from anyone (in her introductory scene, she comes dangerously close to hurling insults at a Congresswoman, before Claire takes the phone), especially Franklin, whom she's constantly putting in his place and calling out on his crap, Zia's first truly awesome moments come during the first act. When she opts to accompany Owen in his search for Blue, Ken Wheatley tells her, "Miss, things could get hairy out there," and Zia, in response, marches up to him, takes one of the tranquilizer darts out of his strap vest, and tells him, "These are powerful sedatives. One too many, and she could have respiratory failure." Putting it back in, she adds, "Also, I'm not as soft and witless as your comment implies." Later, when Wheatley and his team have turned on Owen and seriously injured Blue, Zia pulls a gun on them. They, in turn, aim back at her, but Zia, knowing that Blue is important to them for whatever reason, says, "You shoot me, and that animal dies." Wheatley, knowing she has a point, reluctantly has his men lower their weapons and she's taken back to camp and then onto the Arcadia, where she works desperately to save Blue. 

Zia not only proves invaluable in saving Blue, tasking Claire and Owen with getting some blood from the T-Rex so they can do a transfusion, and then successfully removes the bullet, but unlike Franklin, who's terrified of them, she has a real reverence for the dinosaurs in general. Back on Isla Nublar, when they arrive at the old park's main street area and encounter a gentle Brachiosaurus, Zia is nearly moved to tears, commenting, "Look at that. Never thought I'd see one in real life. She's beautiful." And

she's just as concerned for Blue and intent on saving her life as Owen and anyone else. Throughout it all, she continues giving the villains, particularly Wheatley, shit. One exchange between the two of them that I like is this, when he asks about Blue: "You got a heartbeat?" "Yeah. Do you?" "I need blood samples." "I'm not here to help you reset the food chain, so... take your own damn samples." When they reach the Lockwood Estate, Zia ends up in Dr. Wu's lab, cuffed to Blue's cage. When Wu demands some blood samples from Blue, Zia is not only defiant and

uncooperative, but breaks it to him that Blue's blood is now contaminated. After Wu goes on about how he knows that Blue's blood is pure, she says, "Yeah, but I did an intravenous blood transfusion with a T-Rex, so, it's a sock drawer in there." That's when Franklin violently subdues Wu, much to Zia's shock, as it seems like he kills him, but when he unlocks her handcuff, she grips his face tightly and excitedly yells, "Yes!" Then, when some guards come in, she lets Blue out of her cage and she goes to town on them, while Zia and Franklin escape. But then, they have to deal with the gas leak that results from this skirmish, leading to the ending.

One of the awesome actors who I feel is rather wasted in the role they give him is James Cromwell as Sir Benjamin Lockwood. John Hammond's former partner, who aided him in extracting the first bit of dinosaur DNA from amber in the very basement of his home, he and Hammond eventually fell out, which he deeply regrets. As he fondles Hammond's amber-tipped cane, he laments, "When we were young, we both shared this passion, John and I. What fools we were, trying to run before we'd learned to walk. As all young men do, I suppose. But, we learned. Unfortunately, in the end, it droves us apart." Now, as Hammond himself was in The Lost World, Lockwood is old, deathly ill, needing a wheelchair to get around, and is often bedridden and hooked up to a respirator, and seeking to redeem himself before it's too late. He puts together the plan to save the dinosaurs, intending to then take them to a sanctuary where, as Hammond himself wanted, they can live out the rest of their lives in peace. He's confident that Claire, whom he's met before, and his young assistant, Eli Mills, will succeed, but unbeknownst to him, Mills has other plans. The reason why I say Cromwell is wasted in this role is because, one, after his introductory scene, he has little to do other than sit in bed, looking at an old photo album, and two, Lockwood comes off as kind of an idiot. First, Mills somehow was able to rebuild and staff the massive facility in the estate's sub-basement without his ever finding out about it. I know the guy's old but you'd have to be completely deaf to not hear all the noise that operation must've caused. Second, when his "granddaughter," Maisie, tries to warn him about what Mills is planning, having overheard him and Mr. Eversoll talking about it, Lockwood dismisses it as her having misheard him and tells her to go to bed. And third, even though he does confront Mills and learns that Maisie was right (you never learn what changed his mind), Lockwood not only orders Mills to call the police and explain everything himself, but has the phone sitting on a pillow across from his bed. Granted, he may not have expected Mills to flat-out murder him, but you'd think he'd have enough foresight to not give him a potential weapon. But, he does, and Mills smothers him to death with the pillow.

Speaking of Maisie (Isabella Sermon), she initially seems like the token child character whom you have to have in every Jurassic Park movie. Fortunately, she's one of the more likable ones, coming off as energetic, mischievous, and someone who adores dinosaurs. When we first actually meet her, she's hiding in the estate's library, which houses models and displays of dinosaurs, and jumps out and scares Iris, the housekeeper, who also acts as her nanny. Afterward, Maisie goes up to see her beloved "grandfather," and tells him, "I was on safari, all the way through the Cretaceous to the Jurassic in one day." Lockwood asks her what she saw and she says, "Mostly herbivores. There was one T-Rex, though. Casualties, of course. Iris included. She jumped out of her skin." Naturally, she's very eager to know what's going on with the operation to save the dinosaurs, and this leads her to be the first to learn of Eli Mills' true nature, as he shouts at her when she interrupts him while he's on the phone with Ken Wheatley. When her attempt to warn Lockwood of what Mills is planning fails, she manages to sneak into the facility in the sub-basement, having seen Mills go down there with Mr. Eversoll, and finds her way into Dr. Wu's lab. Looking around, she comes upon a computer monitor and watches Owen's v-logs of his training the Velociraptors, really liking the footage of him interacting with Blue. But then, Maisie overhears Mills talking with Wu about the Indoraptor, whom she meets down below when she unknowingly gets too close to his containment cell. Horrified when he grabs at her, she's captured by Mills, who locks her up in her room. However, she manages to escape and, like before, tries to warn Lockwood, only to find he's been murdered. Traumatized, she uses the dumbwaiter to escape the room without being detected by Mills, and later meets up with Claire and Owen. Though initially scared, she realizes she can trust them and opts to escape with them. But, when the Indoraptor gets loose and begins prowling the estate, he comes to target her specifically.

However, Maisie turns out to be much more than just another kid character in this franchise. Said to be Lockwood's granddaughter, whom he adopted after his daughter was killed in a car accident, it's clear that he's keeping something from her, given how he always seems to be a bit protective this photo album he's always looking through when she's around. At one point, when Lockwood is asleep, Maisie tries to look at a photo that's sticking out of the album, but he wakes up and she plays innocent about it. After

finding him dead later, she takes the album and hides in the dumbwaiter. She overhears Mills and Iris talking about her, with Mills intending to get rid of Iris, saying he's now Maisie's guardian and that he understands "her value." At the same time, Maisie looks at the picture, which is of a much younger Iris and Maisie's mother when she was a kid, and sees that she looks identical to her. During the climax, amid a standoff with Owen, Claire, and Maisie against Mills, he confirms what you've likely come to suspect: she's a clone of Lockwood's daughter, whom he was

desperate to bring back to life. This is also what drove Lockwood and Hammond apart. But just as this is sinking in, the Indoraptor goes on the attack, and he stalks the three of them, specifically Maisie, throughout the mansion. After the Indoraptor is killed, Maisie is the one who, at the end of the movie, sets the dinosaurs free, feeling a certain kinship with them, saying, "They're alive, like me." It then ends with her, Claire, and Owen now making up a family themselves and heading up to Owen's cabin, which leads into Jurassic World: Dominion.

Geraldine Chaplin, who appeared in all of J.A. Bayona's previous movies, appears here in the role of Iris. Like I said, though she tends to get annoyed by Maisie's antics, and tries to force her to be all prim and proper, including in how she speaks (she makes her say "bawth" instead of "bath,"), she clearly cares for her. In fact, you later learn that she raised her mother as well, and is devastated both by Lockwood's death and Mills' dismissing her. Despite how upset she is, and protests about being forced to leave Maisie, she's never seen again afterward, nor does she return in Dominion, so I felt that she wasn't utilized as well as she could've been.

Human antagonists in the Jurassic Park franchise have always been portrayed in an over-the-top, sometimes caricatured manner, with Hoskins in the previous movie being the most overt one yet... that is, until Fallen Kingdom came along. Not only does this one have no less than three main human villains, but they're so utterly despicable, with virtually no nuances to them, that it feels like Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly thought they were writing either a low-rent comic book or an adventure cartoon meant for really young kids. Case in point, Eli Mills (Rafe Spall), Lockwood's assistant who runs his business, and the mastermind behind transporting the dinosaurs off Isla Nublar. When he meets Claire at the Lockwood Estate and gives her a history lesson about how it all started right there, then the details of the plan and what he needs her for, and also talks about how important the dinosaurs' survival, especially Blue, is, you're likely to get really suspicious and wonder if he's being sincere. And, sure enough, he's not, as you learn when Ken Wheatley calls him after they've double-crossed Owen and captured Blue. As if what he says to Wheatley about their being a day behind schedule isn't enough of a clue, the way he yells at Maisie when she interrupts his call, then puts on that fake smile and patronizes her, telling her to go up to the library, makes it clear. The next time you see him, he's meeting with Mr. Eversoll, showing him the underground facility, and talking about his plan to sell the dinosaurs off to ensure that the company is fully financed for many years to come. Moreover, when he says, "If the entire run of our sorry history has taught us one irrevocable lesson, it's that man is inevitably drawn to war and is willing to use any means necessary to win it," you learn that Mills, like Hoskins before him, is intent on weaponizing dinosaurs, and he then tells Eversoll of the Indoraptor. Speaking of which, despite Henry Wu having warned him that, in its current state, the Indoraptor is a dangerously unstable prototype and he needs Blue in order to create one that will obey commands, Mills allows the creature to be sold at the auction. Again, he blows off Wu's concerns, telling them they'll just make another.

According to Rafe Spall himself, Mills believes he's doing the right thing, that he's ensuring Lockwood's fortune and company will live on after he's dead, but he's gotten wrapped up in ambition and doesn't realize the harmful repercussions of what he's doing. And there is a sense about him where he feels that, since they can't close this Pandora's box, they might as well make use of it. Personally, though, I think Mills is mostly out for personal gain, given how happy he is when the numbers start coming in during the auction.

Plus, he's just so damn cruel, intending to get rid of Iris so he can exploit Maisie, citing her "importance," and later tries to get Claire and Owen to abandon her by telling them what she is. Let's also not forget that he coldly murders Lockwood, reminding him of how Hammond referred to his cloning his daughter as "unholy" and saying he's also guilty in order to excuse it, and also intended for Claire, Owen, and their group to be left behind on Isla Nublar to die. When he confronts Claire and Owen after they've been 

captured, Mills claims, "I saved these animals," and tells the former, "I admire your idealism, but we both exploited these animals. But at least I have the integrity to admit it... You authorized the creation of the Indominus Rex. You exploited a living thing in a cage for money. How is that different? Huh?" He then turns to Owen and says, "And you, the man who proved raptors can follow orders. You never thought about the applications of your research, Owen? How many millions a trained predator might be worth?" While not exactly wrong in what he says, Mills still 

deserves Owen nearly breaking his arm and Claire socking him in the gut instead. He disappears amid the chaos of the Indoraptor's escape and rampage, and almost manages to escape with the Indominous DNA sample. But Maisie letting the dinosaurs loose leads to his justified demise at the hands of both the T-Rex and a Carnotaurus, with the former also destroying the sample.

While it's nice that he got to be in a major movie that a lot of people saw, Ted Levine is another great actor who I feel isn't utilized as best as he could be here. That said, even though his character of Ken Wheatley is more obviously a villain from the get-go than even Mills, and it doesn't take long for him to show his true colors, he still manages to be the most entertaining baddie. Wheatley meets Claire, Owen, and their team as soon as they arrive on Isla Nublar, introducing himself as "the expedition facilitator." He comes off as friendly and gregarious enough, but his overly-chummy manner is off-putting, especially when he tells Owen, "Load out, look alive, stay alive. We got your back, brother." And there's also the moment when he acts like Zia is a helpless female when she elects to join them in the search for Blue. Speaking of which, as soon as Owen finds Blue and comes close to getting her to submit, Wheatley and his men move in without waiting for his signal. They shoot Blue with tranquilizer darts, only for one of them to shoot her with an actual bullet. And when Owen charges at him in anger, Wheatley sedates him and is about ready to shoot Zia when she pulls a gun on them. Reluctantly, he brings her along, as he knows he needs her to keep Blue from dying, but threatens to kill Zia herself if the raptor does die. They head to the beach where the Arcadia is waiting, calling Mills on the way and telling him that he better deliver on his promised bonus. As they're loading the dinosaurs onto the boat, Wheatley shows that he also has a really cruel way of collecting his own personal trophies, when he rips a poor, sedated Stegosaurus' tooth out, telling her, "You're gonna feel that when you wake up." As noted earlier, he continues butting heads with Zia during the trip, and also personally apprehends Claire and Owen when they reach the mainland. However, his tooth collecting is what does Wheatley in, as after the auction has gone sideways, he walks into the now empty garage to find the Indoraptor in his cage. Not knowing what this dinosaur is, Wheatley shoots him with two darts and, when he passes out, goes into the cage to remove a tooth. However, the Indoraptor is just feigning unconsciousness, and proceeds to bite off Wheatley's arm, before mauling him to death.

The most neutral of the villains is Mr. Eversoll (Toby Jones), whom Mills arranges to oversee the dinosaur auction. Initially unimpressed with Mills and the set-up, especially when he arrives at the estate ahead of the dinosaurs, he's just about to call up his buyers and tell them not to come. He also doesn't bat an eyelash when Mills tells him that he estimates they'll get $4 million for each of the eleven species that are being brought in, telling him, "Four million is a slow Tuesday where I'm from." Mills asks if he's ever made $100 million on a Tuesday, which Eversoll laughs at, but he does agree to give him ten minutes to convince him. He agrees after Mills shows him the facility, as well as tells him of the Indoraptor. When the buyers arrive, Eversoll tells Mills what each of them represents: pharmaceuticals, oil companies (according to Eversoll, said oil magnate is interested because his kid wants a baby Triceratops), arms dealers, and a man who is likely Russian mafia and is only interested in carnivores. This whole time, Eversoll is unaware that Mills is doing this behind Lockwood's back, as well as that Mills murdered him, but it's unlikely he would care if he did know. Toby Jones himself said that he's, "Totally morally neutral about whatever he is selling. He is only interested in whether or not it will make him a profit." During the auction, when the Indoraptor is unveiled, people begin bidding on him, despite Eversoll telling them that he's just a prototype that isn't for sale. But Mills then gives him the okay to allow the bids and he happily goes along with it. However, after the Indoraptor kills Wheatley, he sets his sights on Eversoll and several of the buyers when they hide in the elevator across from his cage. Initially, Eversoll is able to close the door by punching in some random codes, but the Indoraptor unintentionally destroys the mechanism, leaving them open to becoming lunch.

I hesitated to lump Dr. Henry Wu in with the villains, even though B.D. Wong's performance this time is much less composed and makes Wu come off as more of a typical mad scientist. While he's now working for Mills, and continuing to create monsters like the Indominous Rex and the Indoraptor because he, in so many words, considers himself an artist, he does seem to have some scruples. In his first scene, he's trying to explain to Mills why he needs Blue alive, as the current Indoraptor is unstable and doesn't obey human commands. To correct this, he needs to use both Blue's DNA and her own unique traits to make the next Indoraptor more prone to listening to her and, by proxy, humans; in other words, he's trying not to make the same mistake he did with the Indominous Rex. However, much to his aggravation, Mills sees this as time-consuming and expensive, though he allows Wu to go through with it. Wu is also completely against selling the current Indoraptor at the auction, reiterating to Mills that he's a prototype. Mills assures him, "We'll make some more," and Wu retorts, "So will they," and storms out of the room. He's last seen preparing to remove everything from the lab, including the Indominous DNA sample, and demands that Zia help him get a sample of Blue's blood. When she's unwilling, Wu all but threatens her, saying it'd be in her best interest to cooperate, and she tells him about the transfusion she made with Blue and the T-Rex's blood. Before he can fully process this, Franklin, who was blundering about, disguised as a technician and was getting shouted at by Wu, sedates him... right in the neck. Unconscious, Wu is carried away by some guards, and like before, would escape to return in the next film.

I knew going into the movie that Jeff Goldblum was going to have some kind of reappearance here as Dr. Ian Malcolm, especially since he was part of the marketing. And while it is just a cameo, as I kind of figured it would be, it's still nice to see him in this role again. He appears at the Senate hearing at the beginning about whether the U.S. government should save the dinosaurs and, not surprisingly, he's staunchly against it. He bluntly says, " I think that we should allow our, uh, magnificent, glorious dinosaurs to be taken out by the volcano." Among the muttering that this prompts, someone in the crowd says, "Murderer," and Malcolm, hearing this, adds, "As deeply sad as that would be, we altered the course of natural history. This is a correction... What I mean is that, in the last century, we amassed a landmark technological power, and we've consistently proven ourselves incapable of handling that power. Eighty years ago, who could've predicted nuclear proliferation? But then, there it was. And now we've got genetic power, so, how long is it gonna take for that to spread around the globe, and what's going to be done with it? It ain't gonna stop with the de-extinction of the dinosaurs." He reappears at the end of the movie, providing a fairly impactful final statement about what the future holds now that the dinosaurs have been set free into the world, played over a montage of the impact it's already having. He ends with the really awesome line, "We've entered a new era. Welcome to Jurassic World."

Like its predecessor, Fallen Kingdom is very visually striking and well-shot, but in a different manner. Unlike Colin Trevorrow, J.A. Bayona opted to shoot on digital, as well as in the 2.40:1 aspect ratio, both of which were firsts for the franchise. According to Bayona, the reason for the wider aspect ratio was to make the movie feel more epic than the previous ones, which it certainly does during the first act on Isla Nublar, and it also helps the interiors of the Lockwood Estate during the latter half feel massive. The color palette is more muted than it was before,

with the scenes on Nublar often feeling less bright and sunny due to the smoke billowing from the volcano and, later, the effects of the actual eruption. And then, when we switch to the Arcadia and the Lockwood Estate for the second half, the latter of which is set almost entirely at night, it literally becomes much, much darker. The exception to this blandness are the scenes in Dr. Wu's laboratory, which are bathed in a deep blue. The auction scene is especially strikingly shot, with the room being 

almost entirely dark, but when each dinosaur is rolled in while contained inside a cage, there's a bright spotlight illuminating them from behind. And during the climax, when the group is being stalked from the shadows by the Indoraptor, Bayona really taps into his horror movie experience, using the sheer darkness and the sounds the creature's claws make on the floor as he moves around to hint at his presence and maximize the suspense. In fact, Bayona very much treats the Indoraptor like a horror movie villain. Like 

with the Indominous Rex, our first good glimpse of him is held off until the last possible moment. Some time after we see a holographic diagram of him, Maisie nearly becomes his first victim when she backs up towards his barred cell and his clawed hand reaches through the bars to grab at her. Also, in the lead-up to his being unveiled at the auction, we only see glimpses of him, in silhouette and in shadow, dragging the anticipation out even further. And the way he's shot as he climbs into Maisie's bedroom and stalks around it before closing in on her, as she quivers under the sheets, is very much out of a horror movie (it's actually quite Gothic).

Bayona may not have made a big blockbuster before, and he has said that this was the most challenging film he'd ever done at that point, but I think he handles himself well with the spectacle. The eruption on Isla Nublar looks spectacular, as do the sequences of the humans and dinosaurs running for their lives. One really well done sequence is when Claire and Franklin get caught up in an old gyrosphere that rolls off the edge of a cliff and falls into the ocean. As they try to escape the ball as it begins to sink, with dinosaurs flailing in the water around them and Owen

trying to help, we get a shot from inside the sphere that's sustained for about four full minutes (it's actually five takes combined to look like one but it still makes for an awesome setpiece). The same goes for the sequences in and around the Lockwood Estate, and there's another excellent sustained shot during the climax. It starts with the Indoraptor on the roof, crawling across it and sniffing the shingles, before he reaches the edge above Maisie's bedroom window. The camera then goes past him and towards the

French window, turning itself back around as he claws at it (Bayona has said this was inspired by a scene in the 1979 Dracula, where Frank Langella's Dracula climbs down towards someone's bedroom window in a similar manner). And, again, in his quest to make the Indoraptor feel like a horror movie monster, you have a shot of him screeching atop the roof with the full moon in the stormy sky behind him, followed by his shadow on the walls of Maisie's bedroom, created by the rotating beam of a nearby lighthouse, both before and after he enters through the window.

There's a real sense of sadness about the setting of Isla Nublar this time around, given how, throughout the first act, you see that both the island and the dinosaurs are on borrowed time, as Mt. Sibo is on the verge of erupting. The smoke billowing out of its top, which then hangs in the air above, serves as a constant reminder that the end is coming and, sure enough, before we reach the end of the first hour, Nublar has been wiped from the face of the Earth, along with any dinosaurs that weren't rounded up. 

This feeling of impending loss is compounded by how, when Owen, Claire, and their team first arrive, we get more shots of the island's beautiful, green landscape, lovely beaches and fields, and lush jungles. And that's to say nothing of the remains of the actual Jurassic World park, like its monorail and big gate, the abandoned ruins of the main street area, with broken furniture, discarded toys, and other such objects laying about (even though that set was built in Louisiana in the last movie, they partially recreated it 

at Police Beach in Oahu), and the one gyrosphere they come upon in the field during the eruption. Both during this sequence and the opening, we also see the remains of the Mosasaurus lagoon, and see that the bridge spanning across it is broken at the end. One location that we didn't get to see before is a control bunker that the group enter in order to get the tracking system up and running again. It also nearly proves to be a deathtrap for Claire and Franklin, both thanks to the eruption and a Baryonx that manages to get in

through a tunnel that leads to the outside. And we also finally get a scene at the island's shipping dock, which we only saw on the antiquated video feed on Nedry's computer in the original Jurassic Park. Here, the dinosaurs are loaded onto the Arcadia by the mercenaries, and Claire, Owen, and Franklin manage to get onboard as well. While shots of the Arcadia's exterior were all digital, the interiors of its cargo bay, housing the many vehicles used to transport and house the dinosaurs, were done on a big set at 

Pinewood Studios (fittingly, it was the Richard Attenborough Stage). Despite its size, this place actually feels quite claustrophobic, due to how close the vehicles are to each other, and with many of the scenes taking place in the back of the covered truck where Blue is housed. Thus, it kind of serves as a preview for the movie's second half at the Lockwood Estate.

Another first for the franchise was that the majority of the film was shot in England, mainly at Pinewood Studios, as well as some other locations. Notably, they digitally combined a facade that they built at Hawley Common in Hampshire, with footage of the outside and surrounding countryside of the Craigside house in Northumberland, to create the Lockwood Estate, which is set in Northern California. The immediate interior has an old-fashioned feel to its foyer, with some oil paintings along the wall leading up the stairs and to the right of the front door,

including one of John Hammond. Just beyond the foyer is an enormous, two-level library, the bottom of which is filled with impressive dinosaur skeletons and models lining the interior walls, while the books are kept on the upper level, along with some nice sofas and floor lamps. As beautiful and spectacular a room as it is, it later becomes terrifying when the Indoraptor stalks Owen, Claire, and Maisie through it in the dark. Also on this floor is Eli Mills' office, which is notable for a high-tech, touch-screen table 

with a digital map of Isla Nublar and all the dinosaurs to be found there. Upstairs, we see both Lockwood's own bedroom on the second floor, where he's often hooked up to a ventilator, and which also has a model of the original Jurassic Park complex, and Maisie's bedroom on the third, which is in a bit of disarray and actually has a stained glass window, as well as a French window leading out to a balcony. Maisie also sometimes makes use of the dumbwaiter in order to safely get from one level to the other, and there's quite a bit of action that takes place on the house's exterior and roof, with the final confrontation with the Indoraptor occurring on the glass dome above the library.

The library also houses the large elevator that descends down into the facility in the estate's sub-basement, which is another two-level chamber. The upper level, which has walkways running from one side to the other, houses various rooms that make up Dr. Wu's laboratory, which has that deep blue look to it. When Maisie finds her way down there, she sees various bits of equipment, an x-ray of a dinosaur skull, an incubator filled with eggs, and a room with computer monitors where she watches the v-logs of Owen working with the baby raptors. Down below is 

where the dinosaurs, including the Indoraptor, are housed in big barred cells, and with a large, main door that opens to a tunnel which leads out onto the grounds, and which is how the dinosaurs escape at the end. Elsewhere on this level is the estate's enormous garage, where the dinosaur auction takes place (this is actually the library set, just redressed). Other scenes shot at Pinewood include the scenes with Dr. Malcolm at the U.S. Senate, while the Langley Business Center in Slough served as the the offices 

of the Dinosaur Protection Group, which is years away from the high-tech facility where Claire worked at Jurassic World, with a fairly cramped and cluttered office space and an elevator whose doors tend to get stuck while opening. And even though it's supposed to be in California, the scenes at the site where Owen is building his cabin and the little airfield where they set off for Isla Nublar were also shot in the UK. In fact, the only shooting location within the continental United States was Monument Valley, used for some of the movie's closing shots.

When he was laying out the trilogy, Colin Trevorrow had intended for each film to have its own unique title, with this one being Jurassic Earth and the third Jurassic Kingdom. But Universal said they didn't like the idea of him constantly changing the series' title, having already allowed him to do it once (if they were worried about people being confused, I think the use of the world "Jurassic" would've been enough to let them know this is still the same series), so he instead came up with the title we now have. Personally, I think Fallen Kingdom fits better with

this story and tone, given how apocalyptic the first half feels with the destruction of Isla Nublar and the feeling of impending doom leading up to it. The moment that really drives the title home, for me, is that incredibly sad one where that poor Brachiosaurus that got left behind is engulfed in the volcanic eruption. Not only is it tear-jerking in and of itself, but since that was the first dinosaur we saw in the original movie, as confirmed by J.A. Bayona himself, it makes this one's tagline, "The park is gone," feel 

all the more concrete. Going back to the tone, this is definitely the darkest entry so far, with everything the dinosaurs are put through, and the lingering question of whether or not they should even be allowed to live, along with the sheer cruelty of the villains, the revelation that human cloning has taken place in this universe but we didn't know about it until now, the horror influences, especially in the latter half, and the nightmarish monster that is the Indoraptor. And finally, it ends on an uncertain note as to what the dinosaurs' escape into the rest of the world means for the planet and mankind going forward.

There are, again, some notable callbacks to the previous films, with one of the most blatant being how Owen and Blue's reunion occurs around an overturned Ford Explorer, i.e. one of the tour cars from the original, and likely meant to be the one that ended up in the tree with Tim inside. Also, when Owen approaches the vehicle, there's a close-up of its upside down rear-view mirror, with the, "OBJECTS IN MIRROR ARE CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR," writing, even if you can't actually read it. The scene with Claire and Owen at that bar early on is

a bit reminiscent of the scene in Jurassic Park III where Dr. Grant and Billy meet the Kirbys at one. Like with Blue in her introductory scene in the previous movie, the Indoraptor tends to tap his toe talons (although at this point, I think that little callback from the original is starting to wear out its welcome, as is the shot of a dinosaur's eye looking right at a human in a vehicle), and a moment during the climax, where the Indoraptor charges down a hallway at Maisie as she's struggling to close the dumbwaiter, brings to mind the moment with Lex in 

the kitchen cupboard. In fact, the scene where the Indoraptor is stalking the group in the library, amid the dinosaur skeletons and models, is like an extension of the moment in the original where Lex and Tim see the Velociraptor's shadow behind the dinosaur mural in the cafeteria. And there's a moment where Maisie sees the Indoraptor reflected in the glass she's looking at, which is like a callback to Zach and Gray's first encounter with the Indominous Rex while in the gyrosphere. However, if Fallen 

Kingdom is likely to remind you of any past Jurassic Park, it's The Lost World. You have a greedy businessman initiating an operation to remove the dinosaurs from the island and bring them to the mainland, going against a seriously ill billionaire's desire to save them; the head of the on-site operation is a much more overtly villainous version of Roland Tembo; and the movie's latter act and climax involve the dinosaurs being loose in the modern world. The difference is that here, the operation is successful, and it ends on a manner where you can't simply just send the dinosaurs back, like at the end of The Lost World.

Unfortunately, something else the film has in common with The Lost World are some issues with its story structure, mainly in how it drastically switches gears. Granted, the transition here isn't nearly as choppy, and it does have a build-up, but still, again, it suddenly feels like you're watching a completely different movie than the one you started with. It's much more overt here, as we're talking about the first and second halves, more or less, of a 128-minute movie, rather than just a quarter of the third act of a similarly long movie. And while The Lost World

merely switched between two different types of sci-fi adventure, going from an actual "lost world" expedition to a monster-on-the-loose flick, Fallen Kingdom's first hour feels like a disaster flick with dinosaurs and then, it gradually transitions into a Gothic-style horror movie set inside an "old dark house" type of setting. While both of these halves are well done on both a technical and aesthetic level, it makes you wish could've instead had two separate movies that each took one of these approaches and

explored them to their fullest potential, rather than smooshing them together. The transition also hurts the pacing, as the movie starts with a nicely suspenseful opening, and the entire sequence on the island is action-packed and goes at a mile-a-minute, but then, it's like we're back in first gear, as we're now having to establish Eli Mills' plans for the dinosaurs, the enormous facility beneath the Lockwood Estate, have our heroes end up there as well, and introduce the Indoraptor. It's like in Godzilla 2014, where you have

that great build-up to Godzilla's first appearance in Honolulu, only for the movie to considerably slow back down afterward (fortunately, it's not as anti-climactic as that was). And while there are some good moments during that slower middle portion, namely the operation to save Blue's life, which is inter-cut with the v-logs, you could get kind of antsy waiting for the film to pick back up again.

And while we're still on the topic of The Lost World, I have to say that, up until Dominion, these Jurassic World movies didn't do a good job of addressing the big pink elephant in the ocean that is Isla Sorna. For a long time, I, and probably others, assumed these movies ignored the events of both The Lost World and Jurassic Park III, as it felt like neither Sorna nor the events of those movies, especially the latter's ending, were brought up, and the Isla Nublar dinosaurs are clearly said to be the last of their kind here. However, while Sorna wasn't mentioned at all 

in the previous movie (which is understandable, since it wasn't necessary for that story), here, Eli Mills does briefly mention it, but it goes by so quickly that you'll miss it if you're not really paying attention. And if you do catch it, you'll then probably be wondering why Lockwood didn't plan to relocate the Nublar dinosaurs there or why it's never even brought up as an option. There was some supplementary material, namely a promotional website for Fallen Kingdom, that said Sorna's ecosystem completely broke down 

as a result of "illegally cloned animals" being introduced there, and the surviving dinosaurs were transported to Nublar, but it would've been nice if they said that in the actual movie, since a number of us don't pay attention to stuff like that. (A similar source for the previous movie said Hoskins got his job at InGen Security at Jurassic World because he supervised shooting down the Pteranodons that escaped Sorna.) It wouldn't be until Dominion that those middle movies would be confirmed to still be canon, as it's stated that both the Nublar and Sorna dinosaurs have been relocated to Biosyn's sanctuary.

In my review of Jurassic World, I acknowledged that one of my issues with it is that the discussion of some of its key themes was really heavy-handed, and the writing sometimes came across as pretentious; Fallen Kingdom often falls into that same trap. This mostly comes from Eli Mills' dialogue, like when he's telling Mr. Eversoll of his plans for the dinosaurs, saying, "Genetic power power is an uncharted frontier. The potential for growth is more than you can fathom," then talks about mankind being drawn to war, thus making it necessary, and lucrative, to weaponize

dinosaurs. Later, he pretentiously guilt-trips Claire and Owen about their part in what's happening, and when he confronts them again during the climax, he asks, "What, are you gonna go back in time to before Hammond decided to play God?! You can't put it back in the box!" I also feel the same way about Lockwood's lamenting how he and Hammond rushed into what they were doing before they were ready for it, and that saving the dinosaurs is a chance for redemption. Hammond himself said virtually the 

same thing in The Lost World without it coming off as so overdone. You could also say the same thing about Malcolm's speeches at both the beginning and end of the movie but, besides Jeff Goldblum being someone who can make that stuff work, it's not unlike his warning to Hammond about what he was doing during that lunch scene in the first movie. But going back to the recurring theme in these films of weaponization (something that J.A. Bayona wasn't too interested in but, like before, Steven Spielberg 

insisted on it), it's undone due to Mills' stupidity, as he promises a perfect killing machine that follows human command when, like the Indominous Rex, the Indoraptor is actually another uncontrollable, sadistic monster. Plus, the way he's conditioned to attack, with someone focusing a special rifle's laser on the target and then using a signal that triggers him, makes him feel like an even less efficient of a weapon than what Hoskins had planned for the Velociraptors. Not only does it require someone to always be on hand with this weapon, but if that's Mills' idea of a creature that obeys human commands, he needs watch footage of animals who do actually listen to humans.

More disappointing than the pretentiousness is how the movie tends to introduce interesting ideas and themes, but then doesn't do much with them. The one that had the most potential is the question of, now that we've gone and brought dinosaurs back to life, does mankind have a responsibility to save them from going extinct again, or should we just let nature take its course? This forms the crux of the movie's entire first half, as you see animal rights groups protesting outside the U.S. Capitol at the beginning, holding up signs that say things like, "THEY HAVE RIGHTS 

TOO," and BBC News anchor Philippa Thomas says that this is happening across the world, calling it, "The flashpoint animal rights issue of our time." And it's the very reason why Claire founded the Dinosaur Protection Group and is desperately trying to raise money to save them. The discussion continues at the Senate meeting with Malcolm, and also between Claire and Owen when the latter is initially reluctant to help in the mission. This could've been explored so much more, though, like discussing if the dinosaurs not only deserve the same protection as "other"

endangered species but also if they even count as such. But once we get to the island and it starts erupting, that discussion is basically forgotten. That said, while it's made clear that the Indoraptor is a dangerous, bloodthirsty monster and can't be allowed to leave the grounds of the Lockwood Estate, the movie is very much on the dinosaurs' side. Not only would that's done to them be considered morally wrong if it were any other kinds of animals, but when she and Owen are imprisoned in the sub-basement, 

Claire, while watching a mother Triceratops and her baby in a cell across from them, notes how wondrous they still are: "First time you see them, it's like... a miracle. You read about them in books, you see the bones in museums, but you don't really... believe it. They're like myths. And then you see... the first one alive." (I know that doesn't jive at all with how she was characterized in the previous movie but let's just ignore that for argument's sake.) Then, the issue of whether or not they should be allowed to live comes

back around at the end, when they're again on the verge of death and the only way to save them is to let them loose into the world. While it's a great moral dilemma for Claire, in my opinion, it's wrapped up too easily. I get why Maisie opts to free them but, again, more could've been done with it, like maybe having Claire and Maisie argue about it when the former decides not to press the button. Or, for that matter, the dinosaurs could've escaped on their own, 

showing that, once they were on the mainland, there was no way to keep them contained (especially since the dilemma is rendered a bit moot during the ending montage, where you see the dinosaurs that were bought at the auction being transported across the country and world at large, and other groups creating their own embryos).

Another idea is that Blue is a very special Velociraptor, as, when she was a hatchling, she showed not only the species' extreme intelligence but emotions such as empathy, concern for and interest in others, and cognitive bonding. Again, interesting concept, and the issue with the Indoraptor explains why Mills needed her specifically, as well as why Dr. Wu wants her alive, but little is done with it (though, as I'll get into when we talk about Blue herself, I'm personally not too big on it). And then, there's the 

notion that Maisie is actually a clone of Lockwood's deceased daughter. Like the Indominous Rex turning out to be part raptor, it's not that shocking, as there were plenty of clues throughout the film, and the picture of a young Iris with Lockwood's daughter as a child, who looks exactly like Maisie, and the conversation she overhears between Mills and Iris while looking at it all but confirms it. However, it's still quite an earth-shaking revelation, that a partner of Hammond's was able to perfect human cloning, as is 

the notion that it drove him and Lockwood apart, that Hammond felt it was a bridge too far, much more so than cloning dinosaurs. And it also creates more of a kinship between them and Maisie, which is why she makes the decision to set them free. But, it's forgotten about almost as soon as it's brought up, and even though Maisie is in Dominion, not much is done with it there, either. Like I said in my Jurassic World review, I appreciate that the filmmakers try to make these movies feel like more than just dumb summer blockbusters, but you can't just scratch the surface on these ideas and think that's enough.

Fallen Kingdom's biggest narrative weakness is that it is the middle chapter of a planned trilogy. With few exceptions, middle chapters always end up being something of a drag, because they function as little more than a lot of set-up for the grand finale. Here, it's not as egregious in that respect as something like Star Wars Episode II, as it has some great story moments all its own, but still, while it's heading in the direction that I and many other fans wanted the series to go, it takes over two hours to finally get to that point, and even then, you still have to wait for the

next movie to see it come to fruition (which, in this case, was a four-year wait instead of three, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and it also turned out to not go the direction people were expecting or, in many cases, actually wanted).

Like the previous film, Fallen Kingdom increases the number of different types of dinosaurs that appear onscreen. Most of them have small roles and are seen either fleeing the eruption, being transported onto the Arcadia, or being contained and auctioned at the Lockwood Estate. Among these that we've seen before include some Apatosaurs, Ankylosaurs (one of which is sold at the auction), Gallimimus, Parasaurolophus, Stegosaurs (one of which gets her tooth cruelly ripped out by Ken Wheatley), Triceratops, and Pteranodons, who get a little bit of

payback on some of their captors when they're let loose at the end, and there's also a post-credits scene of them nesting at the Eiffel Tower on the Las Vegas Strip. The Mosasaurus from the previous movie reappears in the opening scene, where she destroys the submersible that gathers and sends up the DNA sample of the Indominous Rex, and then jumps up out of the water and kills a member of the group when he's hanging from a helicopter's rope ladder after evading the T-Rex. While she doesn't have another major appearance afterward, she escapes into the

open ocean, and the ending montage shows her silhouette appear in a wave, as she prepares to munch on some surfers. Some of the newcomers include the Allosaurus, one of which appears during the dinosaur stampede, running alongside Claire and Franklin's gyrosphere and roaring at them, before getting killed by a falling chunk of magma; another one, a juvenile, is sold at the auction. A Carnotaurus appears when Owen, Claire, and Franklin first come upon the gyrosphere and threatens them, but is killed by the

T-Rex when she comes thundering in. At the end of the movie, another Carnotaurus, with a broken horn and a scarred face, stalks Eli Mills, only to lose him to the T-Rex. Regardless, the Carnotaurus runs in and tears one of Mills' legs off while he's hanging out of the T-Rex's mouth, but she makes it clear that she's not sharing and knocks the Carnotaurus on the ground, sending her running. The Sinoceratops also makes its first appearance in the franchise, with one coming upon Owen while he's paralyzed from

Wheatley's tranquilizer dart. She bends down and licks his face out of curiosity, but then almost crushes him when the approaches lava flow frightens and sends her into retreat. Another one gets into a skirmish with the Carnotaurus that threatens the group during the eruption.

Among the natural newcomers, there are two who feature in some major scenes. One is the Baryonyx, which attacks Claire and Franklin after they've been locked in the control bunker. Managing to get in through a tunnel that leads outside, she makes for an another threat to the lava that's pouring in through the ceiling, though they manage to climb out and lock her down in there. Another Baryonyx is seen being loaded onto the Arcadia via helicopter. Then, there's the Stygimoloch, which is basically a

Pachycephalosaurus with spikes lining the back of its domed head. Some are seen in the stampede sequence but one in particular, who's been nicknamed "Stiggy" by the fanbase, plays a significant part during the third act. Imprisoned in the cell next to Owen and Claire, Owen uses the dinosaur's naturally temperamental nature to help them escape. He whistles at Stiggy, which provokes her into head-butting the wall, and she eventually manages to break through it and into their cell. Owen then gets her to head-butt open the cell-door, and later uses her to 

disrupt the auction by sending her down the elevator and into the garage where it's taking place. She wreaks havoc down there and chases most of the buyers outside. She even manages to kill at least one of them. As far as the "veteran" dinosaurs are concerned, there are also two in particular that have some significant moments. One is the Brachiosaurus, which not only provides Zia with her first time seeing a dinosaur up close, but is also the center of what is, by far, the series' most poignant scene, when that one 

is left behind and dies in the eruption. Then, of course, there's the T-Rex, or Rexy, who, as usual, has her fair share of noteworthy moments here. She appears during the opening, attacking the one member of the team who's working on the lagoon's shore, and she, again, ends up unintentionally saving one of the protagonists, when she comes in and kills the Carnotaurus that's about to kill Owen. After she's loaded onboard the Arcadia and sedated, Owen and Claire have to take a blood sample in order to give

Blue a transfusion. The scene is already tense enough as it is, but then, they get locked in the back of the large truck she's contained in with her... and she wakes up. She gets fed another goat when she's brought to the Lockwood Estate, and at the end, after the dinosaurs are released, she's the one who kills Eli Mills. Finally, during the closing montage, the T-Rex wanders into a zoo and roars at a lion in his exhibit area.

While she did stand out in the previous movie as the lead Velociraptor and one whom Owen was especially close to, Blue really comes into her own here. Capturing her is of the utmost priority to the expedition, supposedly because she's the last of her kind. But, after she is caught and transported to the Lockwood Estate, it turns out that the reason why she's so "valuable" is because they intend to use her to perfect the Indoraptor. In any case, after living by herself on Isla Nublar for three years, without her pack or Owen to socialize with, Blue comes off quite feral and vicious when Owen finds her. Snarling and hissing, she doesn't even respond to a treat he tosses to her. But, as he works with her and she sniffs the air around him, picking up his scent, she seems to realize who he is. Unfortunately, just as they're about to make a connection, Wheatley shoots her with a tranquilizer dart, and then he and his men move in and surround her. Seeing a man behind Owen raise his gun, Blue, either feeling personally threatened or thinking he's going to hurt Owen, leaps at him, pins him to the ground, and brutalizes him. As he's being mauled, he pulls a revolver and shoots her, much to Wheatley's chagrin and Owen's fury. Fortunately for her, Zia is not only there but is taken along by Wheatley and his team to save Blue's life. It takes a lot of effort, including a transfusion from the T-Rex, but with Owen, Claire, and Franklin's help, Blue pulls through. She's kept in a cage in Dr. Wu's lab upon reaching the Lockwood Estate, with Zia handcuffed to it. But after Franklin manages to incapacitate Wu, Zia lets Blue loose to take care of some guards who come in to apprehend them. And though she is injured when the fight leads to some canisters of toxic gas exploding, she comes back during the climax to battle and ultimately defeat the Indoraptor.

Here and there, we see these old video diaries of Owen's training and bonding with Blue and the other raptors when they were young, and it establishes that Blue was special from the get-go. In the first, Blue is shown getting the other three to fall in line when Owen tells them to, which amazed both him and the person holding the camera. In a later one, she's shown to be unusually empathetic and curious. While the other raptors, like Delta, take advantage of Owen appearing weak and sad and go to attack him, Blue shows concern and nuzzles up to him, while also

purring and chirping in an affectionate manner. These specific traits, as well as her genetics, are what make her so valuable to Eli Mills and Dr. Wu, as they hope to instill them into the next Indoraptor. For me, though, while those v-logs are certainly cute and sweet, I feel this humanizes Blue too much. I know some people didn't like the idea of the raptors being trained in the first place, but I was able to go along with it because it reinforced their inherent intelligence; this, however, takes away from the notion that Blue is still a wild, dangerous animal. It

doesn't even amount to anything, as Blue didn't show these traits in the previous movie, even when around Owen, and here, while she does come off as protective towards him, that feels more like the result of his having imprinted on her when she was a baby than anything else. And it's definitely not there in the next movie, either. Still, I do like Owen and Blue's dynamic, with their bond coming through when he's comforting her during the operation. And I also like how, at the end, when he offers to take her somewhere safe, the two of them glance at a cage and Blue's reaction clearly says, "You're not putting me in that." She then runs off into the wilderness and is last seen heading towards a desert town.

Ostensibly, the Indoraptor is a "smaller" (by smaller, I mean around 10-feet tall and 23-feet long) version of the Indominous Rex, having been created from the sample of her DNA retrieved at the start of the movie. His body structure and some of the details are very similar to her, like the long arms with big, clawed hands (in fact, his arms are longer and more human-like, which Bayona has said was inspired by Count Orlok in Nosferatu), which allow him to get down on all fours, a long, narrow snout full of crooked teeth, and spikes going down his back, along with some quills on the back of his head. His vocalizations and growls are quite similar as well. And, also like the Indominous, he was created with the intention of being used as a weapon and thus, has a very bloodthirsty nature. The difference, however, is that, while the Indominous' rampage was motivated by confusion and rage brought on by her isolated existence, the Indoraptor seems to take genuine, sadistic pleasure in what he does. When he feigns being sedated while Wheatley goes into his cage and tries to extract a tooth from him, you can see him smile when Wheatley isn't looking, waiting for the opportunity to pounce. And he appears to enjoy terrorizing his prey, as he prolongs Wheatley's doom and slowly stalks through Maisie's bedroom before leaning towards her and slowly going in for the kill. In fact, he does seem to be kind of fixated on her after he nearly gets her when she backs up towards his cell early. Additionally, not only does the Indoraptor have a very heightened sense of smell but his black coloring allows him to easily hide in the darkness and shadows (he also has yellow stripes going down either of his sides, akin to Blue's stripes). His skin is also very tough, as he's shot not only with tranquilizer darts but also real bullets a number of times and is not even fazed.

As cool as he is, the downside to the Indoraptor, though, is how, due to the movie's structure, he isn't formally introduced until about 84 or so minutes in, while the Indominous got to be the antagonist for a whole movie. Of course, in the original Jurassic Park, the Velociraptors didn't finally enter the movie until well into the third act, but they had much more of a build-up than the Indoraptor does. And while he certainly does leave an impression, with his nightmarish design and how it truly becomes a horror

movie when he's let loose, he's killed just over twenty minutes after we get our first full look at him. In other words, he's another concept with a lot of potential that the movie introduces but then proceeds to all but squander.

While the CGI used to create the dinosaurs is as awesome and impressive as always, what I really appreciate is that, while Jurassic World had only one moment where an animatronic was used, Fallen Kingdom, though still mostly relying on digital, makes more use of practical effects. Unfortunately, since these scenes were to be shot in England, it meant that Legacy Effects, the company created following Stan Winston's death and the closure of his studio, couldn't work on the movie, making this the first Jurassic Park to have no input from either

Winston himself or those who worked with him. Neal Scanlon and his studio were certainly no slouches, as they did the effects for Babe, which got them an Oscar, and had recently provided creature effects for The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. And make no mistake, what they did for Fallen Kingdom was good work, but that's still a sad notion to ponder. In any case, the best bit of animatronic work is the sedated T-Rex, used when Owen and Claire have to take a blood sample from her. They created a full-size

head and shoulders for her, and then used a combination of both that and CGI for the entire scene, and it came out looking so great. A full-on animatronic of Blue was created for the section in the movie where she's lying down, injured, and like with the T-Rex, they used a combination of it and CGI, which I can't tell the difference between. Various parts of the Indoraptor, like his head, neck, shoulders, arms, and feet, were also used for close-ups, though they were often augmented digitally. And while they're fully CG in the final movie, the baby raptors in the v-logs were initially created through rod puppets and such so Chris Pratt had something to interact with.

This time, ILM and the other VFX houses they worked with had a lot more to do than simply create the digital dinosaurs. They also had to do the volcanic eruption and destruction of Isla Nublar, and I think they did really well in creating the lava, the pyroclastic flows, the shots of the ground ripping apart, and such. In addition, the exteriors of the Arcadia were fully digital, and I really like that shot of it when it's out at sea, heading into a storm. And finally, they had to do some digital augmenting of the 

shooting locations, not only to make the landscape shot in Hawaii look as though it's being destroyed, but also to recreate the parts of the abandoned Jurassic World park that they couldn't rebuild there and add onto the footage of the Craigside country house. While some of the shots of the latter do, admittedly, look digital, I think the work on the park ruins came off really well.

Fallen Kingdom's opening is the most subtly atmospheric of the franchise so far, with very low, eerie sounds playing in the background behind the Universal Pictures, Amblin Entertainment, and Legendary Pictures logos. It then begins on what is slowly revealed to be an underwater shot of a two-man submersible heading towards the camera, before then on to an underwater gate. On the surface, this is revealed to be the opening to the Jurassic World lagoon on Isla Nublar, where a nighttime storm is

raging. Inside the sub, one of the pilots tells his visibly nervous partner that anything that was living in the lagoon would be dead by this point. They head down to the bottom, where they illuminate the skeletal remains of the Indominous Rex with their spotlight. They then deploy a pair of robotic arms, one with a claw at the end which grips one of the bones, and the other a saw that cuts through it. Once it's been severed, they send it up to the surface with a beacon attached to it. However, as it heads up there, a 

very large, ominous silhouette appears just below the surface. Jack, a man working on the shore, and who opened the gate, is told of the oncoming sample and he gives a helicopter permission to lift off and collect it. As he waits in the rain, he's startled at the sound of something rustling in the foliage behind him. Meanwhile, the helicopter collects the specimen, and Jack tells the sub, Marine-1, to get out of there. But as they prepare to move away from the skeleton, an enormous, toothy shape appears directly behind them. Within seconds, their light disappears and Jack loses

contact with them. He tries to regain the signal, and the helicopter lands behind him, trying to do the same, when one of the pilots sees something enormous moving in the jungle around Jack. He goes ahead and closes the gate, when he hears the pilots behind him. He turns around and, seeing them frantically yelling in the chopper's cockpit, tells them that he can't reach Marine-1. He's unable to hear that they're warning him to look behind him, and when he follows their gestures, he doesn't see anything in the dark. He turns back around to face them, asking

what's going on. However, the flashes of lightning illuminate the large creature stalking towards him, and when he turns around to look again, he screams at the sight of the T-Rex, who's standing just a few feet away, roaring right at him.

Jack runs for the helicopter as it lifts off the ground, with the T-Rex right behind him. In his scramble to escape, he drops the electronic tablet he was using to close the lagoon's gate, which the T-Rex crushes beneath her foot. The pilots drop the rope ladder down to Jack and he runs as fast as he can to get to it. He has to dodge some overturned vehicles and other obstacles, while the T-Rex is able to easily knock them out of her way. Reaching the edge of the lagoon, Jack jumps and grabs onto the ladder. The T-Rex

stops at the edge and roars in anger, but manages to grab the bottom of the ladder in her mouth. She pulls back with it, wrenching it back and forth, while up in the cockpit, one of the pilots says they're going to stall if this keeps up. He orders the others to cut the rope ladder loose, which they go to do. After some more pulling and tugging, the T-Rex rips off the bottom part of the ladder. The helicopter pulls away and she roars in frustration at having lost her prey, while Jack whoops and hollers excitedly on the ladder. Unfortunately, both he and those onboard the

helicopter celebrate too soon, as the Mosasaurus explodes out of the water beneath him and chomps on the section of the ladder he's hanging on. Diving back down into the water with her small snack, she turns and swims towards the partially open lagoon gate. Up in the air, despite their shock over this, those in the helicopter head for home with the DNA sample, while the Mosasaurus swims out into the open ocean. After that, we get the most elaborate title we've ever had in these movies, with lava rushing in around rock and the camera pulling back to reveal it. And, for the first time in the series' history, the iconic Jurassic Park logo is used as part of the in-movie title.

Following quite a bit of exposition about the growing crisis on Isla Nublar, the U.S. Senate ultimately deciding not to take action, the set-up of Claire and the Dinosaur Protection Group, and her learning of Sir Benjamin Lockwood and Eli Mills' plan to save the dinosaurs, the next significant scene comes after Claire attempts to get Owen to come with them to save Blue. Despite initially seeming content to let her die, that night, in the trailer next to where he's building his cabin, he watches v-logs of his training

the Velociraptors when they were babies. Specifically, he watches footage of the raptors being very rowdy, when Blue suddenly gets them to shape up and listen to him, much to Owen's shock. Thus, he shows up the next day at the small airfield where the chartered plane is waiting for the group (in fact, he was there before any of them, waiting in the back of the plane). Following a brief moment between Lockwood and Maisie at the estate, we cut back to the plane as it arrives at Nublar, where Mt. Sibo expelling lots of

smoke into the sky above it. The plane does a flyby, passing over the remains of Jurassic World's big gate, and then come down to land on a small airfield, where Ken Wheatley and his men are waiting for them. Everyone disembarks, with Franklin complaining about how hot it is; Owen looks over at the volcano and comments, "It's about to get a whole lot hotter." Everyone heads into the depths of the island, passing through some security gates, and drive to the ruins of the main street area. They park near the visitor's center, in front of a smashed store window with

several dinosaur toys in a display, as well as a real Compsognathus standing amid them. As soon as they stop, they hear a rumbling approaching them. Franklin, naturally, is afraid it might be the T-Rex, but when Zia looks out the window, she excitedly gets out of the vehicle and runs around to the front. Wheatley chases after her, telling her that the area isn't secure, but they then stop as an enormous foot hits the ground in front of them. It turns out to be a big, graceful Brachiosaurus, who walks in front of the visitor's center and munches on some palm leaves. While Zia

is in awe at the sight of her, when she walks away, Franklin asks if they can get on with what they're there for. They promptly drive to the communications bunker, which Franklin manages to hack into and opens the main door (a nod to Hudson hacking into the colony's main door in Aliens). Once they're inside, Franklin gets everything up and running, Claire activates the tracking system, and they manage to pinpoint Blue's location. With that, Owen, Zia, Wheatley, and his team head out to capture her.

As they drive into the jungle, Owen realizes that his best chance to get close to Blue is to go out on foot. Wheatley has the vehicle stop and Owen disembarks, telling Claire back at the bunker to keep an eye on the display of Blue's position. Moving through the rainforest, Owen sees some Pterosaurs flying above the canopy, then comes upon a fresh track of Blue's. He tells Wheatley to wait for his signal and continues on, coming upon a clearing with an upside down Ford Explorer lying there. Slowly approaching the vehicle,

he sees some rustling in the bushes behind it and continues on, believing he's found Blue. When he gets close, a pair of Compies come running out of the vehicle... and then, Blue jumps out and lands atop it. She screeches and snarls at Owen, then hops down and approaches him. He gestures towards her in a manner that keeps her from attacking, and while she doesn't respond to the treat he tries to give her, as she circles around him, he keeps his cool. Using his old clicker, a sound she seems to recognize, he manages

to calm her. She then sniffs at him and approaches, clearly recognizing his scent. She cautiously goes in as he holds his hand out, but just as they're about to touch, she's hit in the side of the neck with a tranquilizer dart. She swings around, accidentally swiping Owen out from under his feet with her tail, and flails about in anger. Wheatley and his men come in and surround them, while Owen tries to regain control of the situation. Blue, seeing a man behind Owen raise his firearm, screeches defensively and leaps at him. He pins him to the ground and tears into

him, despite being shot with another dart. The man pulls out a handgun and, while Wheatley tells him not to, aims and fires, hitting Blue in the side. She collapses to the ground and Owen angrily charges at Wheatley, calling him a son of a bitch. Wheatley shoots Owen in the chest with a dart, and as the drug starts to take effect, blows at him before he falls over. Zia comes running in, checks Owen, and removes the dart before the entire drug is injected into him. She then takes Owen's handgun and points it at Wheatley and his men. They, in turn, point their weapons back at her, but when Zia makes him realize that, without her, their prized catch won't make it back to camp, Wheatley has them lower their weapons.

The eruption begins, shaking the bunker, and frightening Claire and Franklin. Then, they find themselves locked inside, while outside, lava begins bursting through the side of Mt. Sibo and the ground around its base. On his way back, Wheatley calls Mills and tells him that they have Blue, and Mills says that they need to bring her to him immediately. Back with Owen, before he begins to regain consciousness, he attracts the attention of a curious Sinoceratops. Looming over him, she licks his face,

awakening him, and he starts to regain feeling in his limbs, when the dinosaur almost crushes him when she rears up and brings her huge feet down on either side of him. She then moves off, as Owen sees a lava flow slowly but surely heading right for him. Getting some feeling back in his legs, he swings one over a log behind him and uses the other to push his body up over it, as the lava destroys both the Ford Explorer and a dinosaur skeleton in its path. When he regains the feeling in his left arm, he pulls the right one up

out of the lava's way and shifts himself completely over the log. Once on the other side, he forces himself to his feet, as the lava continues approaching. Meanwhile, Claire tries to contact anyone on the team, while Franklin tries to hack into the door controls. They then hear a proximity alert, and see on the screen that something is coming down a tunnel that leads to the outside. The two of them stand at the mouth of the tunnel, with Franklin fretting that it's the T-Rex. Lava starts seeping in through the ceiling from

above, and as the creature in the tunnel approaches, they put more space between them and it. It reveals itself to be a Baryonyx, snarling at them from the mouth of the tunnel. Franklin screams in terror, as the dinosaur enters the bunker and lunges for them, only to get burned on her head by the lava. As she recoils and screeches in pain, Claire runs for a nearby ladder leading up to a hatch in the ceiling. She tries to pull it down the rest of the way, but it's stuck. She yells for Franklin to grab a nearby rolling chair, as the Baryonyx snaps at him. He grabs the chair, only for

the dinosaur to grab the top of it with her jaws. Franklin pulls against her, ripping the top of the chair off, and rolls the rest of it over to Claire. She uses it to grab and climb up the ladder towards the hatch, with Franklin following. Just as they reach the hatch and Franklin starts to celebrate, the ladder's lower half decides at that point to slide all the way back down. Franklin goes with it, and then has to quickly climb back up when the Baryonyx roars at him. She tries to climb up through the shaft after them, snapping at Franklin's feet. Claire struggles to open the hatch, 

with the Baryonyx continuing to lunge up at them, but she does get it open, and she and Franklin climb up to the outside. Before the Baryonyx can climb after them, and just as she sticks her head out through the opening, they close the hatch back down on her and lock it.

However, when they see what's happening, they realize they're anything but safe. The top of Mt. Sibo explodes, sending chunks of flaming debris flying through the air and landing in the jungle behind them. Owen (in a moment similar to Indiana Jones in the opening of Raiders of the Lost Ark) comes rushing down a hill, yelling for them to run, as a stampede of panicking dinosaurs appears out of the smoke behind him. The two of them go and he quickly catches up to them, as the dinosaurs run past and destroy the foliage

around them in their panic. More chunks of flaming debris rain down around them, and they come upon a fallen log, with an abandoned gyrosphere on the other side of it. Getting around the log, they use the sphere as a shield, letting the dinosaurs run past them. However, they gradually destroy the log, knocking the sphere free, and they decide to take cover within it. Claire and Franklin climb into its seats, but before Owen can join them, a Carnotaurus appears and roars threateningly at him. She stalks him around the

sphere, placing her huge head to Franklin's left, but then roars and charges at a Sinoceratops that she spots nearby. The two dinosaurs get into a brutal fight, shoving and flinging each other around, when the Carnotaurus nudges the gyrosphere with her head. It begins to roll downhill, and as the Sinoceratops flips the Carnotaurus over and quickly escapes, Owen grabs the sphere to stop it from rolling. However, the Carnotaurus turns her attention back to him and prepares to charge. Then, out of nowhere, the T-Rex comes charging in, grabs the Carnotaurus' neck with

her jaws, and slams her to the ground. She lets out a victorious roar, as the ground explodes behind her, and runs off (I can't blame them for using a variation of that shot in the marketing). Unfortunately, Owen accidentally knocks the back of the gyrosphere, sending it rolling again. Even worse, the eruption increases in intensity, sending more dinosaurs running right at them. Owen runs alongside the sphere, avoiding both the dinosaurs and the burning debris; an Allosaurus that gets alongside the sphere and snarls at Claire isn't so lucky, as a flaming chunk of

rock hits it right in the head. The enormous pyroclastic flow, which is almost on top of Owen, chases all of them to the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean. It envelops the gyrosphere just as it goes over the edge and falls into the water below. The sphere dunks down below the surface, amid dinosaurs that go down with it, and then rises back up.

Water begins seeping in through the sphere at various points around Claire and Franklin. Even worse, a small, flaming chunk hits the top of the glass and burns a hole through it, allowing the water to pour in quicker. As they struggle in their seats and begin sinking, Owen swims in around to Claire's side and draws his handgun. He attempts to shoot the glass out but, instead, it only creates two more holes for the water to come in. Frustrated at this, Owen swims back up to get some air, while inside, the water is all the

way up to Claire and Franklin's heads. They take a deep breath and drive down under it, as more debris drifts down past the sphere. Owen swims back to them and, this time, whips out a knife and uses it to pry the side pane of glass loose. It takes some doing but it pops open and the three of them quickly swim to the surface, as the sphere sinks down to the bottom. Once on the surface, they swim to a section of beach that the eruption hasn't reached yet. There, Owen tells Claire and Franklin about Wheatley's double-cross 

and how he took Zia and Blue. Just as they're about to give up hope, they see the T-Rex being airlifted away by a Boeing, taking her to the dock where numerous other dinosaurs are being loaded onto the Arcadia, with Wheatley supervising the operation. Having made their way from the beach, Owen, Claire, and Franklin watch the operation from a nearby ridge; among the activity, Wheatley stops a vehicle transporting a Stegosaurus and removes one of her teeth for his personal collection. They also see Zia 

being detained, as well as the critically injured Blue laying nearby. The eruption worsens, and Owen says they need to get on the Arcadia. He and Claire make a run for it, while Franklin, who wants to stay on the rocks, has to be made to realize that nowhere on the island is safe anymore.

Down below, as burning rocks rain down on them, everyone is scrambling to get onboard the Arcadia, with one man driving a four-wheeler onto it. Straggling, Owen, Claire, and Franklin run for a covered truck that was left behind on the dock. A chunk of burning rock hits some oil drums to their right, causing a huge explosion that sends Franklin tumbling forward. Seeing this, Owen has Claire run to the truck and get it started, while he runs to Franklin and gets him to his feet. Claire starts the engine and

they run to catch the truck, with Owen grabbing onto the edge of its back, then taking Franklin's hand and pulling them both up into it. Looking ahead, Claire sees that the Arcadia is pulling away from the dock. With only one chance to make it, she floors the gas pedal, causing the truck to rear up at the edge and jump through the air. The truck's rear tires get caught on the edge of the Arcadia's ramp and Claire continues pushing the gas, before popping the gear shift. This causes the truck to spring forward and into

the ship's cargo bay, skidding to a halt. Everyone collects themselves, and Claire grabs a cap she finds up in the driver's seat to disguise herself, while many of the crew hands run down to the cargo bay. And that's when everyone sees the Brachiosaurus who was left behind on the dock, calling out to them. As Owen, Franklin, and Claire watch, the doomed dinosaur pitifully wails, then rears up on her hind legs, as she's enveloped by the clouds of smoke and the glow of the fire. (I remember thinking in the theater, "No, don't do this to me!" And even those girls behind me who

wouldn't stop talking were affected by this, with one saying, "Oh, I feel bad for that dinosaur." J.A. Bayona said that this was meant to truly signify the destruction of the island and where it all began, and also said he wanted a scene that would make people cry. Well, mission accomplished, sir.) The door to the cargo bay slowly closes on this sad sight, and there's an equally powerful shot afterward where Isla Nublar is completely engulfed in flames and lava, and black smoke passes over the camera, transitioning to the next scene.

Following Mills' first scene with Mr. Eversoll, and Maisie attempting to warn Lockwood about what she overheard, we cut to the Arcadia, where Owen, Claire, and Franklin make their way through the cargo bay. They find the covered truck where Zia is attending to the injured Blue, and once inside, she tells them that Blue is hemorrhaging and she doesn't have the equipment that she really needs. Owen's presence and his stroking the back of Blue's neck and head seem to calm her, and Zia has Claire put 

pressure on the wound to stop the bleeding. This causes Blue to screech in pain, and Zia says she needs to perform a transfusion in order to safely remove the bullet. Claire says she once did a blood drive for the Red Cross and thus, knows how to find a vein. With that, Zia has Franklin take over for her, and he gets a spray of blood in his face. Giving Claire a blood-bag, Zia tells her to look for a carnivore with no more than three fingers, then adds, "I think there is one onboard." 

That turns out to be the T-Rex, whom they find snoozing away in the back of a large container truck. With no other recourse, the two of them climb in there with her. Owen taps her nose to make sure she is sedated and, fortunately, she doesn't wake up. He then moves over to her right side and, feeling around the side of her neck, manages to find the vein. Claire, very carefully, moves to join Owen, when the T-Rex moves her head to the right, knocking him against the wall. After a beat, he gives a thumbs up from the

other side, showing that he's fine. Claire moves over to the T-Rex's left and tries to hand Owen the bag so he can get the blood. However, he says that her skin is too thick and he needs both of his hands to keep pressure on the vein. To reach the vein, Claire has to climb up on top of the T-Rex, which she, understandably, is not anxious to do. Owen warns her that the T-Rex could wake up at any time and with that, she reluctantly jumps on the nape of the dinosaur's neck. At that moment, she moves her head 

to the opposite wall, hitting it hard. Though her eyes flicker slightly, they remain closed. Claire goes to get the blood, but has to jam the needle in to get through the thick skin. When she does, the T-Rex moans loudly in her sleep, then moves her head back to the right, slamming into Owen again. He pulls back, with some saliva sticking to his face from her mouth, while Claire manages to get the blood. Just when it seems like they're home free, they hear some men laughing outside the rear of the container. One of them notices that the double-doors are ajar and closes them, then

drops the latch, trapping Owen and Claire in there. And then, the T-Rex's eyes open up and the right one focuses on Owen. She roars angrily, rears her head up, and bangs it from side to side. Seeing that the roof is open with bars running across it, Claire climbs up through it. Owen tries to follow, but the T-Rex rips loose one of her chained feet and slams it against the wall in front of him. Claire jumps down to the floor, runs back around to the back of the truck, and opens the doors. She tells Owen to jump, but the T-Rex has him pinned against the wall as she flails around,

roaring and dragging her toenails down the container's wall. When she opens her mouth again to roar, Owen dives through it, just barely avoid getting bitten in half. He tumbles out the back, and Claire closes and latches the doors. As they try to compose themselves, Owen asks Claire if she got the blood and she holds up the bag, much to his relief.

Back at the Lockwood Estate, Maisie makes her way down to the sub-basement and the facility it houses. She wanders into Dr. Wu's laboratory, looking at the equipment in there, when she goes over to a desktop and plays the paused video on the screen. This happens to be Owen's v-logs with the baby raptors, leading into the montage that inter-cuts between his realizing how special Blue was early on, to the operation on the Arcadia to save her life (something that editor Bernat Vilaplana and Bayona came up 

with during post-production). Zia makes the incision to remove the bullet, which causes Blue pain, and in a close-up of her eye, if you look, you can see a tear run out of the left corner. Zia manages to remove the bullet and proclaims that Blue is out of danger. At that moment, Maisie has to hide when Mills and Wu walk in, having a heated argument about the importance of Blue's survival. She then has to crawl out of the lab and make her way downstairs to continue avoiding detection. She heads down a corridor to the right of the stairs, and when Mills stops at the mouth of it, 

Maisie backs further down, into the shadows. But, when she gets close to a barred cell at the end of the corridor, we get our first glimpse of the Indoraptor when he reaches his long arm out through the bars and tries to grab her. One of his claws brushes through her ponytail, and she swings around and screams in terror when he screeches at her from within his dark cell. Panicked, she runs out of the corridor and right into Mills. She asks him what the Indoraptor is but Mills, feeling she's seen too much, takes her up to her room and locks her in. He orders Iris to keep her in there, when she tells him that Lockwood wants to see him.

That night, the Arcadia puts into port, and the group awakens in the back of the truck. Realizing that Wheatley's team is about to move out, Owen, Claire, and Franklin disembark. The latter, however, gets caught by a watchman but Zia saves him from being apprehended by making it seem like he's part of the crew. The man makes Franklin come with him, as Owen and Claire watch from beneath the vehicle. Owen goes to try to help him, but the vehicle starts up and they have to scramble out from under it. They

quickly find an unmanned truck and climb into the front. When given a signal, they join the convoy of trucks departing from the Arcadia and heading into the countryside, towards the Lockwood Estate. On the way, Blue awakens and is fully recovered, struggling in her bonds and the muzzle on her snout. When they pass through the gates heading to the estate, the guard, unbeknownst to them, seemingly recognizes Owen and Claire. Up ahead, the dinosaurs are unloaded and lowered down into the sub-basement, with the T-Rex being placed in a container with a goat

for her to munch on. When she reaches the bottom, she walks into her cell, bangs her head against the bars in front, and roars angrily. Upstairs, when Lockwood confronts Mills with what he's done and tries to force him to call the police, Mills murders him by smothering him to death with a pillow. Back outside, Owen and Claire, seeing an alternate road with a sign pointing towards a town, decide to head down there and get the police. But before they can, Wheatley pops up alongside them, putting a gun to Owen's head. They're promptly apprehended and taken prisoner at the estate.

Maisie manages to unlock the door to her room but, when she opens it, she hears people talking downstairs. Closing the door, she opens her window and looks out to see a long line of cars coming towards the estate. Down below, Mills and Eversoll welcome the buyers as they arrive. Maisie very carefully steps out onto the ledge and makes her way around the face of the building. She climbs onto a section of the roof and enters Lockwood's bedroom through the window. She tries to wake her grandfather up, but quickly realizes he's dead, seeing the flat-line

on the monitor. Hearing Mills coming, she grabs the album lying atop Lockwood and quickly hides in the dumbwaiter. She hears Mills enter the room, yell for Iris, and reveal to her that Lockwood is dead, as well as that he's terminating her employment. As they talk, Maisie looks at the picture in the album, of Iris and her mother when she was a child. Once Iris is dismissed, Mills hears some creaking coming from the dumbwaiter. He walks over to it and opens it, only to find that it's not there. Down in the sub-basement, Owen looks for a way for him and Claire to escape

their cell, when he hears a loud thump next door, followed by some growling. Walking over to a small, barred window up on the wall, he pulls himself up to it and looks to see a half-awake and very grumpy Stygimoloch pacing around. He whistles at her and she angrily head-butts the wall, causing the cell's door to shudder. He then realizes she's their ticket out. Elsewhere, the auction begins, with the first dinosaur up being an Ankylosaurus. Owen continues provoking Stiggy with his whistling, and as she 

continually slams into the wall from the other side, it begins to bulge. While the Ankylosaurus is sold for $10 million, and they next begin auctioning an irritable juvenile Allosaurus, Stiggy keeps smashing into the wall. Once the Allosaurus has been sold, bringing the profits up to $128 million, and both her and the Ankylosaurus are shipped off, Stiggy finally bursts through the wall. Entering the cage with Claire and Owen, she acts aggressively, when the latter gets her attention. Then, standing in front of the cell door, 

he whistles again and she charges. He jumps up to get out of the way, as she rams through the door, smashing it open, then bangs her head on a metal beam outside. After shrugging it off, she walks away. Once they're out of their cell, Owen and Claire come upon Maisie, whom they convince to come with them.

The three of them make their way down towards the garage, and get to a vantage point where they see the auction in progress. They arrive when Eversoll gives the audience a look at the Indoraptor, as his cage is pushed into the middle of the room, with men on either side provoking him by zapping him with cattle-prods. Maisie tells Owen and Claire that they created the Indoraptor, pointing out Dr. Wu, who's sitting at the edge of one side of the audience. They then demonstrate how the Indoraptor is to be used as a weapon, with one guard targeting a random man in

the audience with a laser, getting the creature's attention. Then, he activates the acoustic signal that prompts the Indoraptor to attack, and he angrily slams against the side of the cage, trying to get at the man. Following that demonstration, the buyers begin making bids, even though Eversoll has told them the Indoraptor is a prototype and isn't for sale. But Mills allows it and he begins taking bids; from their hiding spot, Owen says they can't let the Indoraptor leave the grounds. He starts looking for a way to disrupt the auction, when the large elevator that leads down to

the garage comes up by itself across from him. At that moment, Stiggy comes barreling in at the other end of the room, Looking at her, and then the elevator, Owen gets an idea. Then, as soon as the Indoraptor is sold, the elevator opens to reveal a rather confused Stiggy. She turns around and, seeing a guard standing nearby, charges into the garage and head-butts him hard enough to send him flying across the floor. This throws the room into a panic, and amid the chaos, Owen hops down into the elevator through a hatch in

its roof. One guard goes to shoot Stiggy with his assault rifle, but Owen runs in and grabs his gun, causing him to shoot up at the ceiling. This causes even more panic, as Owen knees the guard in the gut and throws him over his shoulder. Another guard comes at him with a cattle-prod but Owen avoids getting zapped, then grabs the prod and forces it around to the front of the guard's neck. Stiggy is still barreling through people, while Owen, again, has

to dodge getting zapped when the guard breaks loose from his grip. He punches the guy in the stomach, and the guy, in turn, charges at him and slams against a door. Owen manages to smash him in the back with his elbow.

Mills watches as Stiggy continues sending people flying around the Indoraptor's cage, and when she comes around to the right, she chases a man towards him. Mills actually grabs the man when he runs at him, then turns him around just as Stiggy reaches him. She impales him on her horns and flips him backwards, onto some chairs behind her. Owen finally defeats the man he's fighting with and Mills, seeing him, tells his men to get the Indoraptor out and to the man who bought him. They start pulling the cage back through the garage, and Owen charges at Mills,

who runs for it. Owen knocks one guy out of his way and, in an extended shot, grabs a chair and knocks one guard's legs out from under him when he charges at him, blocks another's punch and kicks him in the gut, dodges a third guard's swing and whacks him across the face, full-on floors a fourth one with a smash to the face with his arm, and grabs and slams the last one up against the wall. He pulls the lever back, stopping the cage from moving across the track on the floor, and after he and the Indoraptor stare each other down, he rips the cables out of the mechanism.

Nearly everyone else pours outside, running in a panic, and passing Wheatley, who stands there, wondering what's going on. He sees Stiggy chase some people and throw them up into the air, and heads inside, looking for Mills. He calls for him, demanding his bonus, but all he finds is the Indoraptor, snarling and growling inside his cage. Surprised at the sight of the dinosaur, as he wasn't on the island, Wheatley decides to add one of his teeth to his collection. He takes out his tranquilizer rifle and 

shoots him across the neck with two darts. This only seems to enrage the Indoraptor, but when Wheatley goes for another shot, the creature collapses in the cage. Opening the door and walking in, Wheatley approaches the snoring Indoraptor, admiring him, and then pulls out his pliers. He goes to rip out one of the teeth, when behind him, the Indoraptor's tail rises up. Sensing something, Wheatley turns and looks. The Indoraptor lowers his tail, opens his eyes and actually smiles at how he's fooling him. He quickly closes his 

eyes when Wheatley turns back around, and after hesitating, Wheatley goes to remove a tooth again. Again, the tail rises up, and Wheatley turns and looks, this time keeping his hand within biting range. Smiling again, the Indoraptor lunges his head to the side and grabs Wheatley's right arm in his mouth. He stands up, lifting Wheatley with him, and then bites down, severing his arm completely. Wheatley falls to the cage and backs up against the bars, as the Indoraptor swallows his hand whole. He moves in towards Wheatley, who's now crying like a sissy, and after putting his snout up to his face and sniffing him, roars and mauls him to death.

Eversoll, who was hiding nearby, takes the opportunity to run past the cage and into the elevator. He finds several other people hiding in there as well, and seeing that one woman is standing in front of the control panel, he rushes to it and flings her aside. Unfortunately, she stupidly screams at the sight of the Indoraptor killing Wheatley. This gets his attention, and as Eversoll presses random buttons to try to work the elevator, the Indoraptor walks out of the cage and makes his way around the cage, before charging at the elevator. The doors slowly close and shut completely

just as he reaches them. Inside, Eversoll breathes a sigh of relief and chuckles, when the Indoraptor swings around and his tough tail strikes the control panel. It's promptly shorted out and the doors open back up. Turning around and seeing his prey, the Indoraptor approaches, roaring at Eversoll hard enough to almost blow his Donald Trump-like hairpiece off (that is how they meant for Eversoll's hair to look). The lights go out and what's next heard is Eversoll screaming. Elsewhere, Owen, Claire, and

Maisie are running and reach a door, when Mills and a couple of armed guards stop them. During the ensuing standoff, Mills reveals that Maisie is a clone of Lockwood's daughter, but just as this is setting in for everyone, including her, the Indoraptor charges through and grabs both of the guards. Mills runs back the other way, while Owen, Claire, and Maisie run through the door. The adults put a large filing cabinet in front of the door and then run on, having to pull Maisie along because she's so traumatized. 

Meanwhile, in Dr. Wu's lab, everything is being packed up, when Wu walks over to Blue's cage, which Zia is handcuffed to, and demands that she help him take a blood sample. Franklin, who's dressed as a technician, grabs a syringe, comes up behind Wu, and injects him right in the neck. After Wu collapses to the floor, Franklin grabs the keys that fall from his hand and unlocks Zia's cuffs. They're about to run, when they're cut off by two guards, one of whom drags the unconscious Wu away. The other tells them to step away from the cage, and Zia promptly

removes the latch and opens its side door. Blue steps out and faces off with the guard, who actually tries to use one of Owen's hand signals to stop her from attacking. He then threatens her with his cattle prod, but she jumps on him and proceeds to rind him to bits, sliding him across the floor as she does. Zia and Franklin run for it, when another guard comes running in and goes to shoot Blue. She knocks his legs out from under him with her tail, causing him to unintentionally shoot and hit some canisters of toxic

gas in the back of the room. Blue finishes the guard off, while Zia and Franklin, seeing that a damaged fuse-box next to the canisters is sparking, run out of the room. Blue, turning and sniffing the gas, realizes the danger and runs for the opening as well, when it explodes. She leaps out of the lab and is knocked off her feet by the blast, but continues on across a walkway and gets clear. However, the gas begins spreading throughout the facility.

With a storm raging outside, Owen, Claire, and Maisie sneak into the library. Spotting a partially hidden corpse holding an assault rifle behind the pedestal that a dinosaur skeleton is standing on, Owen creeps towards it to grab the weapon. Suddenly, the body is pulled behind the pedestal, and the three of them run and take cover on the opposite side. After gulping down what was left of the corpse, the Indoraptor sniffs the floor around the pedestal, smelling their scent. He looks around the back of it, but finds nothing, as the group has now moved to the 

opposite side. He moves around the corner behind them, and Owen reaches for the rifle, but Claire yanks him back. The Indoraptor climbs up onto the skeleton, scanning the room, when the dead man's discarded walkie-talkie crackles with someone trying to contact him. Hearing this, the Indoraptor looks down and sees those hiding from him. They run for it, as he jumps down and chases them to a spiral staircase leading to the second floor. He leaps and grabs onto the side of the staircase, snapping at them through the vertical bars that surround it. He bends them as he slips 

down, with Owen having to use one of them to keep from getting clawed, as the Indoraptor falls back to the floor. The others run up to the second floor, as he ferociously claws his way through the bars and railing, then climbs up there as well. Looking around the landing, he sees no sign of them, and gets down on all fours and sniffs the floor, trying to pick up their scent. They're hiding behind a door that leads down into the back of one of the dinosaur model displays, and when the Indoraptor becomes frustrated at not 

being able to find them, Owen opens a fuse-box he finds. He switches off the lighting system, plunging the whole library into darkness. Elsewhere, Franklin and Zia sees what's happening in the lab and realize that if the gas makes its way down into the containment level, it will kill all of the dinosaurs. Franklin attempts to reactivate the ventilation system, while Owen, Claire, and Maisie sneak through the library. They hear the Indoraptor's claws tapping on the wooden floor, giving them some idea of his location, but it doesn't make trying to get through there any less nerve-wracking. Franklin then decides that he needs to reboot the entire system, while Owen finds and tries to open a door.

At that moment, Franklin initiates the reboot, which turns the lights back on in the library. It doesn't take long for the Indoraptor to find his prey, and he crashes through the glass of the exhibit they're hiding inside. Both Owen and Claire get pinned beneath a fake tree in there, and as the Indoraptor clamors to get after them, Claire makes Maisie run. She runs out of the exhibit and the Indoraptor, after stabbing into Claire's leg with one of his huge claws, pulls out of it and chases after Maisie. He chases her into the foyer and up the stairs, and momentarily gets stuck in the mouth

of a hallway she runs down, but manages to push through and continue after her. He rushes after her down the hallway, as she climbs into the dumbwaiter and manages to close it just as he's almost on top of her. He slams into its door, then angrily claws at both it and the wall, before screeching angrily. But then, the beam from a nearby lighthouse catches his attention, while downstairs, Claire sends Owen to save Maisie. He grabs the assault rifle on his way up, while Maisie makes her way up the dumbwaiter, then gets out on the third floor, runs into her bedroom, and 

crawls into bed. However, the Indoraptor has made his way up onto the roof, and after roaring ferociously, climbs along in the rain until he comes upon the spot right above Maisie's bedroom window. As he leans down and claws at the French window, Maisie is horrified to see his shadow on the wall across from her. He claws at the latch, then gently opens the door and steps inside, his toe talon clicking on the floor. As his shadow runs along the wall from the lighthouse beam's rotation, he walks around to 

the foot of Maisie's bed and approaches. He reaches towards her with his claws and moves in for the kill, drool coming out of his mouth, as she becomes hysterical. Before he can kill her, Owen bursts through the door, yells for Maisie to stay down, and shoots the Indoraptor three times. But, even though he appears injured and slumps down to the floor, he gets back up and stands on his hind legs, towering over Owen. Owen realizes he's out of bullets, and the Indoraptor backs him against the wall, preparing to 

kill him. But then, Blue shows up in the doorway and jumps at the Indoraptor, managing to climb up onto his back and bite into it. He flings her violently to the floor, but she gets back up and jumps back on him. They tear apart the bed's canopy in their fight, and Owen has to quiet Maisie, whose screaming could make her a target again. The Indoraptor does, at one point, lunge for them, but Blue manages to keep him away from them with her repeated attacks. She gets smashed into a bookshelf decorated with colorful lights, and is then flung right at the bed. Owen and Maisie dodge her and run for the window. The Indoraptor, again, lunges for them but Blue stops his attack by jumping at him.

Maisie leads Owen out onto the balcony and on the ledge across the outside of the house, as the two dinosaurs continue fighting inside. At one point, as they're crossing in front of it, Blue gets flung through a stained glass window. Owen and Maisie fall down to an angled section of roof that leads to the library's glass dome ceiling. Blue then gets flung through the window and crashes down next to the dome. Owen and Maisie climb up onto the dome, but the Indoraptor comes down and climbs up it as well. Finding nothing but a sheer drop at the other end, they

realize they're trapped, as the he starts across towards them. His front feet, however, go through the glass when he puts too much pressure on it, and he roars at them. Maisie slips and nearly falls over the edge, taking Owen with him. Owen grabs part of the architecture and holds Maisie's hand with his other arm. The Indoraptor slowly makes his way towards them, and Owen's grip begins to crack, when the Indoraptor is distracted by a clanging sound behind him. He turns to find Claire there, banging the glass with the butt of the rifle. Owen and Maisie climb back

onto the dome, as Claire activates the rifle's laser targeting. She points it at Owen, and as the Indoraptor focuses on him, he holds his arms out, while Maisie holds onto something behind him. Claire activates the acoustic signal, triggering the attack, and both Owen and the Indoraptor rush at each other. When the Indoraptor jumps, Owen gets down and slides, falling off the dome and against the edge of the roof, while the Indoraptor crashes through the glass. However, while he almost falls completely, he grabs onto the 

steel beams within the glass and pulls himself up. Getting back up onto the dome, he snarls at Owen, and is about to attack, when Blue climbs up on a bit of rooftop behind the Indoraptor. She snarls at him, and when he turns and looks, jumps at him. She grabs onto him, and the additional weight causes the beam to give way beneath them. They both fall into the library, with the Indoraptor landing on the horns of a Triceratops skeleton, which impale and kill him instantly. Blue, however, lands safely on top of him,

and after letting out a victorious screech, jumps down to the floor, screeches again, and runs off. Back on the roof, Owen, Claire, and Maisie reunite, while down below, Franklin and Zia enter the library. Just when it seems everyone can finally relax, Zia tells them there's a problem downstairs.

The gas is now seeping down into the containment level, threatening to kill the dinosaurs. Franklin and Zia lead the others back down to the control room, where Claire sees what's happening and Zia explains why. She begins opening the gates, but Owen warns her that they're not on an island anymore. All of the dinosaurs leave their cells and head towards the main door leading to the outside, as the gas builds up in the chamber. Claire goes to press the button that will let them out, but Owen, again, warns her, saying, "You press that button, there is no goin' back." Claire insists

that she can't let them die, but hesitates, her hand hovering just about the button. She places the plastic covering back over the button and regretfully watches as the dinosaurs crowd around the door, desperately trying to escape from the suffocating gas. But just when it seems as if they're about to go extinct yet again, the door suddenly lifts up and the lights above it go from red to green. Owen and Claire then see that Maisie pushed the button, and they watch as the dinosaurs escape to freedom down a tunnel leading to outside. In the estate's driveway, Mills is loading the

Indominous Rex DNA sample into a vehicle, when he hears a rumbling that starts out in the distance but increases in intensity. Two of his men stand at the mouth of the tunnel leading from the building, looking down into it, when a Pteranodon comes flying out, grabs one of them, and attempts to fly off with him, only to drop him right on top of Mills' vehicle. More dinosaurs emerge from the tunnel, starting out small but soon giving way to the bigger ones. The other man is trampled to death, while Mills, with no

recourse, crawls under his car and is nearly crushed to death. At one point, the car's front gets mashed down and the back rises up, before coming back down on top of Mills. The stampede leaves as quickly as it arrived, and Mills crawls out from under the car, basically unharmed. With some Compies jumping off the car's roof, he moves to grab his DNA sample nearby, unaware that a Carnotaurus is watching him in the background. Just as he bends down to pick the sample up, the T-Rex grabs him by the head and

wrenches him back in forth in her mouth. She uses her foot to rip one of his legs off, and the Carnotaurus comes in and manages to get a little bit of him, before the T-Rex slams her to the ground and chases her off. The T-Rex then roars again and heads into the wilderness, crushing the sample beneath her foot.

The group emerges from the building, when Blue shows up. Owen cautiously walks down the steps and approaches her, while she sniffs him. She allows him to pet her, and promises to take her somewhere safe. But then, Blue makes it clear that she won't be caged again, and runs off into the wilderness. She does stop to look back at them, but continues on. The movie then wraps up with a montage of the consequences of everything that's happened: the dinosaurs that were auctioned off are transported across the U.S. and around the world, others begin creating their own 

embryos, and the escaped dinosaurs begin finding their way into populated areas. We see the Mosasaurus preparing to devour some surfers, the T-Rex wanders into a zoo and roars at a lion, some Pterosaurs fly into the sunset, and Blue heads towards a small desert town. During this, Owen, Claire, and Maisie are driving together, likely heading for Owen's cabin. And all the while, at another Senate meeting, Ian Malcolm lays everything on the line: "How many times do you have to see the evidence? How many times must the point be made? We're causing our 

own extinction. Too many red lines have been crossed. And our home has, in fundamental ways, been polluted by avarice and political megalomania. Genetic power has now been unleashed and, of course, that's gonna be catastrophic. This change was inevitable from the moment we brought the first dinosaur back from extinction. We convince ourselves that sudden change is somethin' that happens outside the normal order of things, like a car crash, or that it's beyond our control, like a fatal illness. We don't 

conceive of sudden, radical, irrational change as woven into the very fabric of existence. Yet, I can assure you, it most assuredly is. And it's happening now. Humans and dinosaurs are now gonna be forced to coexist. These creatures were here before us. And if we're not careful, they're gonna be here after. We're gonna have to adjust to new threats that we can't imagine." He then ends the movie with the line, "Welcome to Jurassic World," which now has a more literal meaning. Finally, there's that post-credits scene where you see some Pteranodons preparing to nest in Las Vegas' Eiffel Tower (which I think could've been left out).

Like before, Michael Giacchino absolutely kills it with the score. As he did with Jurassic World, he makes very sparing use of John Williams' original themes, using only a very soft, solemn piano version of the "wondrous" main theme for the scene where Claire and Owen are in their cell, lamenting their parts in what's happened, while the adventurous theme is heard near the end, when the T-Rex crushes the Indominous DNA sample. There is a full-on reprise of the latter during the first part of the ending credits, though. At the same time, Giacchino doesn't really repeat the music he came up with for the previous movie, either. You hear distant, sad versions of his themes for the park itself when they see its ruins during the first act, as well as a brief reprise for when the T-Rex kills the Carnotaurus during the eruption, and you also hear the Indominous' leitmotif when her remains are seen at the bottom of the lagoon, but that's about it. Otherwise, the score, fittingly, often compliments the darker, more apocalyptic, and just plain somber tone that this film takes. It does so right from the opening title, with a big, bombastic sound and singing voices that accompany the lava that flows across the rock and form it. While the action sequences that take place during Isla Nublar's destruction are often scored to fast-paced and exciting, the music also occasionally reinforces the idea that this is a tragic cataclysm that's happening to the dinosaurs, as their home is destroyed around them. It culminates in the scene where the stranded Brachiosaurus dies, which is scored in a quiet, sad manner, with vocalizing female voices, and transitions into a tragic-sounding version of that theme heard when the original cast first encountered her. After she's been incinerated, the shots of what's left of Nublar engulfed in flames hit you with an even more tragic and apocalyptic sound. A similarly subtle and poignant theme is played for the montage of Blue's operation and the v-logs, and it's likely to get you in the feels as well. Giacchino also really delves into the horror side of things, giving the Indoraptor an orchestral leitmotif that's big, threatening, and monstrous, very much like something you would hear in a grand-scale Gothic horror movie. And a similar theme is used for the movie's ending montage, depicting that now, humans and dinosaurs will have to coexist.

At its best, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is another very entertaining sci-fi/adventure flick, like its brethren. The story does take some chances; it's very well-made and has numerous great action setpieces and spectacle, especially during the first act; Chris Pratt is not only great to see again as Owen but Bryce Dallas Howard makes Claire much more likable this time around, and Zia Rodriguez is a great character as well; Blue really comes into her own; the effects work for the dinosaurs, both digitally and practically, is still on point; it has some genuinely touching and poignant moments; the Indoraptor is another effectively monstrous antagonist and pushes the third act's horror angle; the music score is killer once again; and this entry steers the franchise in the direction I think most of us wanted it to go by this point. However, it's still very problematic. Many of the other characters are either blandly-written or even annoying, and there are some good actors here who are given roles that are something of a waste of their talents (Ted Levine at least has fun, though); the switch between approaches halfway through can not only be hard for some to deal with but the movie slows down for a while afterward; the structure causes the Indoraptor to not live up to his potential; the writing still suffers from being overdone and, while it puts forth some great ideas, the movie doesn't do much with them; and, like some many others, it suffers from being the middle chapter in a trilogy. I still think it's worthy of this series, but it could've been a lot better.