Movies

The Final ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ Trailer Shows That Corporate America is the Real Monster

The latest sequel also promises lots of dinosaur action.
Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom Image
By  · Published on April 18th, 2018

The latest sequel also promises lots of dinosaur action.

No matter how dangerous colossal creatures can be, there’s nothing more problematic than human beings who use the giant beasts for their own nefarious agendas. In King Kong, the gargantuan gorilla was kidnapped from his home and brought to New York to entertain crowds of paying crowds like he was some sort of exhibition. In Carnosaur, an evil geneticist uses dinosaurs in a bid to wipe out humanity and usher in a new prehistoric age. Meanwhile, this summer’s Rampage features a money-hungry corporation with a serum that enables wild animals to become humongous, more aggressive versions of themselves. A couple of movies that Chris and I recently recommended also explore this idea.

Long story short: If creatures can be used as weapons or money-makers, some bad people will seek to take advantage of them. But it never turns out as well as they originally planned. Moral of the story: Don’t mess with nature.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom continues this trend. What starts out as a seemingly noble rescue mission to save dinosaurs from a volcanic eruption turns out to be something else entirely. You see, the organization who order the mission are deceptive. Their intention is to sell the dinosaurs to the highest bidders and use the DNA to create weaponized carnivores. But when Owen (Chris Pratt) and Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) realize what’s up, they set out to throw a grenade in their plans. Then there’s the problem of dinosaurs on the loose as well… Uh oh.

Check out the trailer below.

The trailer offers glimpses of the B-movie absurdity that this franchise delivers on a blockbuster scale, but tonally it’s a little darker than its predecessor. Director J.A. Bayona has a background in emotionally-weighty genre fare (The Orphanage, A Monster Calls), and it looks like he’s brought those sensibilities to his first Hollywood franchise caper. That said, Fallen Kingdom is under absolutely no illusions about what kind of movie it is either — just look at that scene with the surfers riding the giant tidal wave and tell me that didn’t leave you grinning like a kid. I can’t wait to see what’s causing the impending destruction beneath the water.

But there’s a message to this madness. According to Colin Trevorrow, who served as a writer-only for the installment, he hopes that the movie raises some awareness towards the mistreatment of animals. As he told the Sitges Film Festival last year (per EW), “The dinosaurs will be a parable of the treatment animals receive today: the abuse, medical experimentation, pets, having wild animals in zoos like prisons, the use the military has made of them, animals as weapons.”

In addition to Pratt and Bryce, franchise stalwart Jeff Goldblum returns as Dr. Ian Malcolm. Ted Levine, Rafe Spall, Toby Jones, Geraldine Chaplin, Daniella Pineda, and Jeff Cromwell are also on board for the action.

If this trailer and that cast don’t have you hyped for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom then maybe this isn’t the movie for you. But for the rest of us, it’s yet another reminder that 2018 is spoiling us with big creature epics. I don’t know about you guys, but it’s a great time to be a fan of these movies right now. Keep ’em coming.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom opens in the US on June 22. We’ll see you in the theatre opening night.

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Kieran is a Contributor to the website you're currently reading. He also loves the movie Varsity Blues.