Picking up right after the first "Jurassic World", Chris Pratt and Bryce Howard reprise their roles and try to save the remaining dinosaurs on Isla Nublar. This new film follows the "Jurassic formula" pretty closely but moves the action in the second half to a new location. Menacing dinos, heroic dinos, children in danger and evil greedy humans give us plenty of what we've all seen before.
By switching the action in the second half, the writers and director, J. A. Bayona try their best to infuse something new into the series but despite their best efforts (and there quite a few good moments), ultimately the film just rehashes it's formula. You can almost feel Steven Spielberg (who's an executive producer) sitting on Mr. Bayona's shoulder whispering "cool idea but let's not stray to far from what works".
What really doesn't work is the music. Michael Giacchino's bombastic orchestral score envelopes and overpowers every scene. I found it extremely distracting and a typical "Spielberg" move. While I admire Mr. Spielberg very much, I have always found his music overpowering and manipulative and here, Mr. Bayona makes the same mistake.
Visually the film is terrific. The dinosaurs, through CGI and puppetry, look amazing and truly appear real in every scene. Mr. Pratt and Ms. Howard act and react accordingly, although Mr. Pratt is less snarky here than the previous film. It's good to see Jeff Goldblum in a too brief cameo. Isabella Sermon is the requisite youngster who screams very well. Rafe Spall is appropriately oily and Ted Levine makes sadistic soldier of fortune look easy.
The first half of the film is exciting with it's own terrific climax. I found the second half silly and disappointing (save for those few good moments I alluded to earlier). The pace is fast and despite its faults, the film gives it's fan base what it wants, dinosaurs behaving badly. And of course, the ending lends itself to the inevitable third film in this planned trilogy.
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