Directed by JA Bayona (2018)
Starring Jeff Goldblum, Toby Jones
Running time 2 hours 8 minutes (!!!)
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of science-fiction violence and peril

by Francis Friel, The Projectionist

The biggest difference between the Jurassic Park / World sequels and the 1993 original is stated right up front here. We open on Isla Nublar, with a team of vaguely sinister scientists looking for… something, and worrying about running into some big nasty dino-threats. One assures the other, “Don’t worry. They’re long dead by now.” To which, obviously, we get an almost immediate refutation, as the gang is stalked and hunted and picked off by a very angry (and probably very hungry) T Rex. The scene plays out like a mishmash of other sequences from previous films, but mostly it sticks to recreating the opening and first T Rex scene from Jurassic Park. Where the Spool’s first (and still best) film in the series showed a very definite hint of danger, exposing only snorts and a quick shot of a talon amidst all the mayhem of that famous prologue, Bayona just throws a big-ass T Rex at the audience with no build-up or even reason to be afraid of it in the first place. It’s not a terrible scene but it illustrates just how much an eye for detail and a sense of space and timing can help elevate even the most dire summer blockbusters, and how that is not the case with this one.