6.8 | / 10 |
Users | 4.5 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.8 |
When the island's dormant volcano begins roaring to life, Owen and Claire mount a campaign to rescue the remaining dinosaurs from this extinction-level event.
Starring: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Rafe Spall, Justice Smith, Daniella PinedaAction | 100% |
Adventure | 97% |
Sci-Fi | 75% |
Thriller | 14% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 MVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS:X
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: DTS-HD HR 7.1
Spanish: DTS-HD HR 7.1
English SDH, French, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (2 BDs)
Digital copy
Blu-ray 3D
Slipcover in original pressing
Region free
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
If there’s one lesson to be learned from what is now more than two decades of Jurassic Park unwritten rules and regulations, it’s to never return to the park, no matter the reason, no matter the possibilities for profits, no matter the stakes, no matter the morality of the action. “How many times must the point be made?” Ian Malcolm asks at film’s end. Until revenues begin to dry up, Ian. True for the profiteers in the movies and true in the board room at movie studios. Indeed, the franchise, which began with Steven Spielberg’s groundbreaking Jurassic Park, was rebooted in 2015, and is now on the fifth film in the series, the second in the World trilogy, and has never been shy about telling stories featuring characters making relatively poor decisions, albeit usually with good intensions, that lead to disastrous results. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is every bit the spectacle it should be, but whether it’s a worthwhile film is another matter entirely. The film explores good ideas on life and death and the existence of the species -- man and dinosaur alike -- but the red meat within the movie rings a bit hollow, playing with familiar beats that most closely resemble the storyline from the first sequel, The Lost World: Jurassic Park.
The film begins with a dark, murky underwater sequence, not exactly an ideal landscape for the 3D lens. Yet it's a little worrisome when there's not any
kind of feel for even modest screen extension of various debris floating out front of a submersible. Inside the underwater vessel, with a spherical
capsule cockpit that holds two men, there's a decent sense of volume and spacing to be seen, but nothing to become overly excited over. Likewise
underwater, with more visibility by way of the ship's floodlights, general spacing is decent but not dynamic. Shapes are obvious but they are not
visually stimulating and tangible. What should be one neat moment minutes later as two particularly large dinosaurs open their jaws as wide as
possible really don't offer much in the way of 3D visual stimulation, either, and neither does any front-on dinosaur scream in the film, for that matter,
even away
from the water. Take a shot at the 39:15 mark when a dinosaur emerges from an elongated circular tube and opens its mouth wide. There's just not
much visual excitement in terms of long stretch depth or into the creature's mouth.
There are some good 3D moments to be found scattered about. The mansion's establishing shot reveals a fair sense of distance from camera lens
across a gravelly driveway and to the luxurious home. Inside, the 3D presentation creates a fair sense of scale to the place, with distances from a
railing to the walls along a staircase, for example, clearly defined, a small but enjoyable visual delight. Little things like that pop in throughout the film
-- small,
appreciable wonders -- but the image never wows. It would be easy to just continue on, scene-by-scene, as the action shifts to the island and rounds
back to the mansion and share little one-off anecdotal evidences of the 3D's ability to occasionally find a decent sense of depth or volume or
space amongst objects but the truth of the mater is that it establishes fairly pedestrian 3D from the outset and never really gains any traction. There
are some good moments, but Fallen Kingdom's best are largely standard fare visuals for better 3D ventures.
There is at least no significant loss to detailing, color vibrance, or black level depth compared to the Blu-ray. The image maintains more than agreeable
clarity and sharpness, even when practical and digital share the screen in quick moving scenes; the 3D can always keep up in that regard. There was
occasionally slight, but never particularly egregious or bothersome, crosstalk visible on the playback monitor (Sony XBR65Z9D). One of those early
underwater scenes revealed a burst of banding at about the 1:45 mark, but other compression or source maladies are essentially nonexistent.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom chomps onto Blu-ray 3D with a prodigious DTS:X soundtrack. The film begins with an underwater sequence that produces some impressive sounds of intense depth, including an overhead component, that puts the aquatic pressure right in the middle of the home theater. Large and heavy doors push open through the stage, which transitions to a raging surface storm that punishes the listening area with sonic intensity, and sonic bliss, from all directions. As the action shifts to the dry but dangerous land, volcanic eruptions spew not only hot lava but intense bass and stage-saturating goodness. Helicopter rotors slice through, and above, in some scenes. Dinosaur vocalizations range from shrieking to intensely deep and dominant. Action scenes are never wanting for more perfectly harmonious stage chaos, with every speaker and the low end engaged for the duration. On the other end of the spectrum, Claire's introduction is met with bustling office space din, which is very clearly defined and very prominent, but balanced, throughout the stage. Buzzing flies in chapter 10 encircle the listener. Every example of small environmental support effects present with perfectly tuned positioning and sonic detail. Music is triumphantly large and fully enveloping, supported by expert low end accompaniments. Dialogue is clear, center-focused, and well prioritized throughout.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom's Blu-ray release contains a number of featurettes, all of which can be found on the bundled 2D Blu-ray disc;
the 3D disc contains no extra content. A DVD copy of the film and a Movies Anywhere digital code
are included with purchase. The release ships with an embossed slipcover.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom sees the franchise teetering on fatigue, though this film's ending does at least show the promise for what might in store for the coming 2021 sequel. Fallen Kingdom is the most idea-driven film since the original. The trade-off is that it's not as purely fun as Jurassic World. The first half delivers classic franchise thrills while the second half takes on a darker tone as characters wrestle with a number of ethical questions and surprise revelations, of course still with the trademark dinosaur violence and action scenes in full bloom, not to mention a fairly healthy dose of horror cues mixed in as well. Universal's Blu-ray 3D release of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is disappointing, offering 3D visuals that barely ascend to "average." A few decent little moments can't improve on a 3D image that rarely takes advantage of anything the format has to offer beyond the most cursory scene extensions. The audio is terrific (kudos to Universal for carrying over the best soundtrack to the 3D release) and the supplements are fine. Pick up the 2D-only or UHD disc instead.
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