I remember the original Jurassic World being a bit of a dud, but it still tried to reboot the Jurassic Park franchise in a new way that seemed fitting to the previous ones: the mistakes of man to play God and bring back something that naturally died off. The human attempts to control nature only for it to literally bite them back. The Jurassic Park franchise itself was something that stuck around a bit too much itself, and ironically much like this sequel to the reboot, it probably should've been left dead. I tried to enjoy this, but it felt incredibly soulless. Still even lacking in the things that Jurassic World tried to do.
Primarily in the story here, the problem being it's painfully unimaginative: no park this time, but dinosaurs may yet again die out on the island due to a volcanic eruption. Should we play God again and save them or let them die out? I think the problem sat in how the film attempted to be a bit more than what it is, but while attempting this, it also ignored a large part of that story and instead showed a cartoonish perspective on the dinosaurs and the relationships people had with them. Rather than them being these huge threatening monsters that roam the lands, they're often seen as these gentle little misunderstood puppies that have feelings. Attempting to balance this human connection to the dinosaur was just strange. But with flat characters that only exist to make the odd joke here and there, I guess the studio felt audiences needed something to connect with, an emotional attachment rather than the chaos of gigantic dinosaurs of all sorts roaming the land freely.
Instead the film pushes that narrative that harmony can happen, the dinosaurs are left free into the world and naturally cause havoc, but at least they're alive because Chris Pratt's velociraptors can be cute? This entire setup, mixed with evil corporations doing evil corporation things, sets up a narrative that becomes painfully dull and strings you along for a relatively boring ride, all while feeling like it's just another version of the previous with a few sprinkled differences. I suppose it's hard to create such a narrative when it has largely been done, what more can one do when money is wanted to be made? I do wish the films could be better, I do wish they'd find a way to add some charm back and find a fresh way to tell its story. It does have potential, but I guess Jurassic World's characters were already lacking depth and this one was just set to fail.
Ultimately I can't help but think the best direction is not trying to find sympathy for dinosaurs but realising playing God is a stupid idea in many scenarios, but perhaps dinosaurs are something that mankind simply can't fully comprehend and coexist with simply due to nature itself, and the millions of years of evolution that took place between. Also, a fresh cast would've been better.
