‘Bigfoot in the Park’

‘‘These creatures don’t need our protection, they need our absence”. This would probably be true for all non-humans but in the film its referred to the extinct dinosaurs which inhabited the earth aeons ago and which were ‘revived’ a quarter century ago by the brilliant filmmaker Steven Spielberg. It’s the fifth in the ‘Jurassic’ instalment, and the second in what could end up in a possible trilogy – with the next one expected in June 2021.

Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard), a former Jurassic Park executive and now an animal activist, along with Owen (Chris Pratt), a raptor trainer, are contracted by invalid billionaire Benjamin Lockwood (James Cromwell) to help relocate the cloned dinosaurs from the former park site of Isla Nubar, a volcano prone island, to a sanctuary. The villainous angle is provided by the billionaire’s major domo and financial advisor Elli Mills (Rafe Spall), who has a not-so-philanthropic disposition.

The film (set three years after ‘Jurassic Park’), which begins with some brilliant underwater camerawork, held enough promise initially to be a thrill-a-minute one. We are shown the US government holding hearings via Dr. Ian Malcolm’s (Jeff Goldblum) testimony on whether they should interfere in the creatures’ protection.

So far, so good. But it’s when the villainy is stretched too thin, e.g. Gunnar Eversol (Toby Jones) auctioning off – to a roomful of assorted international hoodlums – the gargantuan reptiles at equally monstrous prices, that the script cannot sustain itself. Spanish director JA Bayona’s previous works of destruction (The Impossible) and horror (The Orphanage) hold him in good stead this time around as he judiciously interweaves the two elements.

But even at 128 minutes, it feels a bit too long. The writers seem to have taken the essence of the script a little too seriously – every few seconds a different species of dinosaur descends upon the viewer (at one point I was left wondering whether that many of those deadly reptiles did roam the earth!). The acting is unobjectionable and the loyal followers of the franchise would find the film the same too.