Attention all, there are spoilers below so please make sure to stop reading if you don't want to know some major plot details to the new Jurassic World sequel.
When I first heard about the sequel I was less than stellar to learn about the volcano explosion concept and the evacuation of dinosaurs... wait... haven't we seen that last part before? That's because this film is sort of what should have happened in The Lost World. This film is set three years after the original incident of Jurassic World in the first remake. It's interesting to see the hearing with Jeff Goldblum in the start and I think it's a sort of way to say that this film is an homage to the series and also bringing it a bit to a close. (even though we know they'll probably make a slew of new films moving forward.)
Without going into too much detail, Claire is asked to go on a mission to save the dinosaurs and relocate them to another island by none other than the secret business partner of John Hammond! Now let me just say that any movie in the JP Universe will excite me, but the ones that make sure they revolve it around the actual John Hammond character seem to be much better in quality. Obviously the first JP is perfect, Lost World has its moments and did something realistic and unique. JP3 was lets face it, the one we wish we could forget (aside from Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler getting to reprise a scene together.),
Though I do enjoy Jurassic World, it is still lacking that genuineness quality to it that the others have. It could be that Masrani just didn't hold a candle to the passion of Hammond. Ultimately, what I believe makes up a strong quality of what a good Jurassic Park movie is the relationship man has with nature, and defining where man made creatures fall on our radar of being of value. Hammond in all films has been the driving force for opening the park for the world to see dinosaurs not only through his eyes of wonder and excitement but in real life because of what he has done with modern day science. He's a giddy kid with a shiny new toy, but his love and admiration for these creatures is above and beyond (spare no expense.) In the Lost World, Hammond, after realizing his mistakes from the first film, tries to create a team to document the dinosaurs in order to win support for funding to preserve the island and let them evolve on their own without human involvement, this obviously goes awry as Ingen tries to extract dinosaurs for personal gain.
This is the essence of what the Jurassic Universe has been focused on, the battle of if these are creatures that should be treated with respect and as if they were any other creature in this world, or if they are genetically modified experiments and considered property of a company. It's similar to saying if I make a clone of you, should it live in peace on its own, or do I technically own its life. This is where Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom actually did something really well. Not only do we learn that Hammond's old partner loves these dinosaurs as much as Hammond did, but that he wants to save them and preserve them as endangered species on an island.
And to top it all off, Bryce Dallas Howard gives a great performance with Claire having not only an obsession with saving the creatures she helped to create, she even runs a non-profit in order to try and help save them before the volcanic destruction of Isla Nublar. It's really the love that entire team of protagonists have for these creatures (aside from when the carnivores are trying to kill them.) that are their drive in the story. Even Owen, who is adamant about not going back decides it was worth going in order to have the chance to rescue Blue out of love. It's an interesting commentary of values with nature and preservation that separate the good and bad in a majority of the films, especially in the remakes.
One should also mention (and I won't go through every scene in the film here) but I do think that the director and writer of the new film should get a head nod from fans for his attempts at subtly giving you some amazing moments we've loved from previous films. From the portrait of John Hammond in his partner's home, to the dumb waiter scene with Maisey and the Indoraptor, the claw opening the bedroom door like in the kitchen scene of the first film, even when Claire is injured and looks to Owen to help Maisey she utters the word "run" in a fashion that can only be in reference to Laura Dern's iconic moment for me in the first film after nearly being mauled by a raptor and finding Samuel L. Jackson's chewed off arm in the generator outpost.
As much as we may consider the T-Rex to be the icon of the JP world, the most significant scenes in the film, in my opinion, were with the brachiosaurus. Upon arriving to the island, the team mounts into armored vehicles and drives through the deserted rubble that was Jurassic World. Of course we get a tiny drive by shot of the Margaritaville sign, that I'm sure was a tongue in joke from the first Jurassic World... (unless Jimmy Buffet has some advertising funds in the JP franchise.) As they reach the main street of the park, Claire's colleague Zia insists on getting out of the vehicle to see something that is rather large and making a lot of noise, only to be revealed as a passing brachiosaurus. The entire team takes in the sight much like the jaw dropping moment in the first film when our team of paleontologists, a chaos-tician, and a blood sucking lawyer lay their eyes on the creature in the first film as well. Its a reminder of the series we know and love, and those subtle moments really do make us recall why we love the series in the first place, and that this is the Island where that happened and it's about to be destroyed.
The brachiosaurus is actually a sort of metaphor in this film in my opinion, that is rather strong for fans of the series. Upon the capture of the dinosaurs and the rampant running from waves of lava, ash, and falling debris, we see so many creatures being evacuated, falling into the sea and drowning, or being hit by flaming debris from the sky in a panic. Even our main characters bolt for the boat and nearly get trapped on the island to die in a fast paced action scene with a massive truck nearly plummeting into the ocean, but they survive.
However, one the the strongest scenes in the series was with several of the people on the boat looking out as the docks of the island begin to be engulfed in ash and smoke, the lava and flames slowly drifting closer and the cry of a lone brachiosaurus cries out, almost begging for the boat to come back for it. The first creature we have ever encountered in a Jurassic Park history, that marveled fascination, that were described as an innocent cow when Dr. Grant and the children are communicating with it in the trees, desperate for survival, we slowly watch as it suffocates before our characters eyes, lurching into the air as it did in the first film as well before we see the plume of lava lighting it's silhouette on the island and dying helplessly. A very emotional scene in my opinion.
Ultimately, I won't get into too many details of the plot on the mainland but what I will say was that if we had this storyline of the auction in the second part of The Lost World, it would have been much better in my opinion. It was interesting to have Maisie as a subplot because it explains a very unique reason as to why John and Ben are no longer partners due to the fact that Lockwood wanted to clone is own daughter and John thought the process to be something he did not want to be party to. Maisie, who has never been shown an image of her mother, but being told she looks exactly like her was something that I found interesting. The original thought was that Lockwood's daughter was someone we knew in the JP Universe to give us a shock value, but what was interesting is after Lockwood's death we see Maisie getting the photo from his journal but all we see is a photo of her with Iris. The big reveal comes in an outburst from Mills when the Indoraptor is on the loose, though jarring, it does have a certain intrigue to the JP world of what people have done with this technology.
Our film ends on an exciting note, and probably one I've dreamed about for too long. Aside from us knowing the Mosasaurus had escaped the enclosure in the start of the movie (By the way, terrifying part of the film for me was the first 5 minutes because there is no way in hell I would be in a tiny ass submarine that would be doing that mission in the dead of night underwater. HELL NO!)...
We also have a moment where the dinosaurs are trapped in the basement levels and there is a toxic gas that is leaking and could kill them. With Claire being so compassionate for these creatures she opens the cages but Owen reminds her of the decision she is making to open the doors to the outside. This is an interesting moment as she can't make the call and decides to let these creatures die after everything they have done to try and save them. As they stare down at the animals suffocating we see the door open and look down to find Maisie has made the decision for them, releasing them into the wild on the continental US, and making the argument that just because they were created in a lab doesn't prohibit them from being able to survive in a personal moment for her character realizing what she is as well. They also use Maisie to start something new with the series, they bring the dinosaurs to us!
The way we had a taste of it in The Lost World's last fifteen minutes, but we release it in an epic level of dinosaurs being sold to private investors, a mosasaurus freely roaming the ocean, a raptor coming upon a town much like the setting for Spielberg's E.T. and if you stayed through the credits (which I might add is respectful to the filmmakers in general), we got to see some of the flying dinosaurs chilling out on the top of the Eiffle Tower restaurant in Las Vegas. This would seem to be the start of a new series that expands the universe of characters surviving and seeing how life, did in fact, find a way.
