member (in a blink and you’ll
miss it cameo) informs us that
we’re now living in a “Jurassic
World.” It’s the sort of cringe-
worthy moment that would nor-
mally cause me to groan, but I
was so broken down by the lazi-
ness and ineptitude of this fifth
installment in the franchise that
I couldn’t even muster a sigh by
that late point.
Owen and Claire, the one-
dimensional heroes played
by Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas
Howard, return for this followup
to the 2015 reboot, but they’ve
been stripped of that singular
dimension and now resemble
husks of the non-characters
they once were. All Pratt’s Owen
had going for him in Jurassic
World was his cheeky chauvin-
ism, but fearing a backlash from
the sort of people who get of-
fended by one-note characters in
monster movies, the filmmakers
have decided to excise his sex-
ism, leaving a wax dummy in his
place. At one point Owen is shot
by a tranquilizer dart and a bad-
Watch the trailer for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
NJ STAGE - ISSUE 48
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