Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is released later this month, and the reviews are in. The movie is the sequel to 2015’s hugely successful Jurassic World, which rebooted the classic dinosaur thriller franchise. It stars Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas-Howard once again, plus BD Wong, Toby Jones, Jeff Goldblum, and James Cromwell.
The movie is directed by Spanish filmmaker JA Bayona, who previously helmed the acclaimed drama A Monster Calls, plus the horror films Mama and The Orphanage. It was Bayona’s horror experience that co-writer/producer Colin Trevorrow spoke about ahead of production, describing the movie as a “Spanish horror thriller with dinosaurs in it.”
So what do the critics make of the finished movie, which hits US theaters on June 22, but can already be seen in the UK and other territories? The film currently has a 65% on Rotten Tomatoes, which is below Jurassic World’s 71% and is definitely an indicator of some pretty mixed reactions. Let’s take a look at the reviews…
GameSpot — no score
“Like many a sophomore film, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom serves most of all as set-up for a third, potentially very exciting dinosaur movie. From its opening scene, the movie gets one thing across with extreme effectiveness: There’s always a bigger dinosaur. And given Fallen Kingdom‘s success–despite its faults–we’re going to keep paying to watch those dinosaurs eat people for the foreseeable future.” — Michael Rougeau [Full review]
Time Out — 3/5
“This fun, pacy addition to the dino disaster franchise doesn’t do much that’s particularly new–though what it does, it does with a fair whack of panache. That’s largely thanks to gifted Spanish director JA Bayona, who brings to bear the macabre touches that made The Orphanage such a spooky treat.” — Phil De Semylen [Full review]
Empire — 4/5
“Bayona doesn’t just pull off the carefully crafted white-knuckle frights you expect of him–he also goes bigger than any other Jurassic film. Despite some familiar echoes of The Lost World, Fallen Kingdom also takes big, ballsy, irreversible strides, deriving tantalising logical conclusions from Michael Crichton’s original premise and setting up a brave new World for this trilogy’s final chapter.” — Ben Travis [Full review]
The Guardian — 2/5
“There are some reasonably entertaining scenes and set pieces, but the whole concept feels tired and contrived, and crucially the dinosaurs themselves are starting to look samey, without inspiring much of the awe or terror they used to. It could be that a meteor of tedium is heading towards these CGI creatures, despatching them to extinction.” — Peter Bradshaw [Full review]
Screenrant — no score
“Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom provides the fun and adventure moviegoers have come to expect from the Jurassic Park franchise, while providing a great deal of horror and perhaps even more heart than viewers may be expecting. Further, the concepts and ideas explored in Fallen Kingdom also weave in a little more to think about in terms of the real impact de-extinct dinosaurs would have on humankind’s existence on Earth. Ultimately, Fallen Kingdom is a more mature and fully realized vision than Jurassic World, offering plenty of entertainment for diehard Jurassic Park fans and casual summer moviegoers alike.” — Molly Freeman [Full review]
Den of Geek — 2/5
“There really isn’t a story, just a series of set-pieces with varying degrees of impressiveness. Thus enters the fifth Jurassic Park movie, a film aware that the nostalgia keg which gave plentifully to the last several entries in the franchise runs the risk of tapping out—so it preemptively scrapes the bottom of the barrel for narrative ideas that include exploding volcanoes and velociraptors rummaging around a haunted house like they’re Christopher Lee.” — David Crow [Full review]
Entertainment Weekly — B+
“Howard, thankfully, gets more to do than the last go round (and in combat boots, no less!), Pratt busts out his signature Indiana Jones cocktail of can-do heroism and deadpan sarcasm, and Bayona and his screenwriters (Trevorrow and Derek Connolly) test the laws of incredulity with varying degrees of success. At least, until the final half hour when forehead-slapping hooey finally win out. Up until then, Fallen Kingdom is exactly the kind of escapist summer behemoth you want it to be” — Chris Nashawaty [Full review]
Uproxx — no score
“There is a little bit of the wonder and joy that made the original so special embedded deep within Fallen Kingdom, which I credit to Bayona, whose primary drive, even in genre fare like this, has always been to sprinkle just enough emotion into the stories he tells. The plot of this feels less forced, and overall less cynical, than Jurassic World.” — Emma Stefansky [Full review]