Reviews

So Chase gets pulled from the sim exonerated after her near death experience in the last ep.

We learn the Warden tried to sabotage the i-land experiment & sent in two rogue Marshall's (Bonnie & Clyde).

The confusing bit was why Chase was in there "voluntarily" despite thinking she was on Death Row along with other "irredeemable" prisoners like Brody , Donovan (psychotic murderer), Mason (not a soldier but shot up a Mall), Blair (the angel of death nurse), Moses (manslaughter?) & the others like KC, Taylor (alive & living with a cannibal), & the rest of the group who, to me, may have had cases which could've been deemed less cut & dried.

The two agents, Bonnie & Clyde refuse to pin the blame on The Warden. The Warden then arranges for Chase to have a lethal injection & is saved in the nick of time by Dr Wyss.

Chase then finds out that she was actually an avatar on the i-land & that she's actually older than she appeared on it. She's released back into a world she doesn't recoginise, a futuristic world changed by rising tidal waters,

The final shot sees the Warden in a familiar setting.

Long story short - average fare that is probably ok if you're stuck at home & can't get out. For the most, & especially early on, the viewer will likely find all the main characters highly unlikeable (sadly that includes the main protagonist). There were a few moments that struck a chord (the 1% of society who operate financially & socially in a different world to the rest of us; how climate change may affect our future which will likely be caused by the continuous accumulation of wealth at the cost of the planets resources; how the elite influence society at large including through technology; how we perceive what the truth is). Go out & enjoy life now.

Chase & Blair recall they were in the military together & were in a relationship; nurse Blair treats soldier Mason's leg cut making over-obsessive Donovan jealous; while Mason & KC bond closer together with more details of their real lives coming back to them.

There's a showdown between Chase/Blair, KC/Mason & Bonnie/Clyde.

In this ep we learn that KC was married with two kids (three if you count her no good husband), that she had a one night stand, & that she attempted to kill her boys & herself in her real life.

Moses appears to be an eco type warrior who is angry at the elite & regrets his actions which cause the deaths of eight innocent people.

We discover that Donovan is over needy & has murdered a girl he proposed to who rejected him.

We also learn that Taylor was involved in robberies, & when she attempts to leave the i-land she pays the price.

Long story short - the rest of the groups back stories. Probably the best episode so far.

Chase wakes up from her knock out blow from KC & tells the other islanders that the i-land is a sim, a jail & a test.

Two strangers show up on the beach called Bonnie & Clyde who threaten the group & kill Hayden (who has killed in real life & killed Brody). Chase is then ostracised & is separated from the group by the newcomers.

The remainder of the group split into two teams. KC, Cooper & Moses go off in search of The Village on the other beach, whilst the others decide to remain on the original beach.

A few flashback scenes shows us Mason in soldier uniform, & another with KC in a car by a rainy beach. Blair has a memory of a patient in a hospital where the Do Not Resuscitate paperwork goes missing,

Meanwhile Chase seems to arrive at a deserted tropical style hotel & has a vision of a woman who claims to be the mother she killed, but is it a flashback or a simulation test?

Long story short - we learn little snippets of the groups past (which might have been more interesting in earlier episodes), get two new menacing characters & we're halfway to the end of the season... possibly the entire series. I still don't know if I care about any of them enough for a second series.

Anyhoo... you've made it to Ep3 & Chase wakes up in a prison/lab. The Warden tells her the island is a simulation & it's all a test, but despite being a simulation people can get hurt (so does that mean Donovan's shark injuries are real?), & die in there.

A bunch of 4 Doctors question Chase about her time in the simulation. Chase tells them she "doesn't get it" (a bit like this viewer), whilst the Warden tells her the whole thing is about rehabilitation & is government funded. He also tells her Brody is dead both in real life & the sim. Chase is sent back into the simulation, but not before she makes an attempt to escape the institution. One of the Doctors gives her more information to help her before Chase is sent back into the i-land but not before seeing her fellow islanders in vat chambers in a basement lab.

Long story short - we seem to be in Lost/Matrix/Maze Runner/(even) Coma type territory.

The lead character having smashed a shell that contains a seemingly big clue, cuts her foot, sees an inflatable raft, out swims a shark, finds a bunch of useful items on the raft, & paddles back to shore. I'm not sure why as she seems to dislike pretty much everyone back on the island.

The dialogue doesn't get any better between the characters & they still mostly act like petulant teenagers. So they're still pretty much unlikeable folk that don't deserve your company or attention.

Yet another female character, KC, throws herself at the alpha male, Brody who was labelled.

A storm hits the island & in a moment of generosity Chase & some others take shelter in the inflatable raft which she's hidden with palm leaves (seriously - nobody noticed this?) until the storm passes.

Next day Chase finds what looks like a remote close to the shell she broke (but still fails to see the "property of" sign stamped in it). She finds the combination to open a box she found on the inflatable which contains a gun. She hides the box with another palm leaf.

KC confides in another female islander that something did happen between her & Brody, but she doesn't hate him as he only did "what men always try to do", & that she was trying to prove that he liked her more than he liked Chase. If this conversation was to elicit sympathy from the viewer then I'm afraid she lost my vote. Her character comes off as a spoilt brat.

Brody & another male islander catch some fish with a spear he made, as Chase & the token black dude come back with the news that they found some old buildings that might've been a hotel. Yet again Chase verbally antagonises Brody & the group wonder which side to take.

Shortly afterwards we cut to a scene with Brody lying on the beach with a knife in his back. The group believe this was Chase's doing & a fight ensues. Despite knocking out a couple of the guys she's brought to the deck by KC with a knock out blow from a pole.

Chase wakes up in what appears to be a lab.

Long story short - these are still pretty unlikeable people that don't deserve the viewers time. I'm not sure why the writers thought we'd like them either. For the most they're shallow, hollow, uninteresting characters.

Save yourself the bother. Go do something else like read a book, take a walk outside, go spend time with folk you like... because there's nothing about these characters you would want to spend time with, either in the real world or on the (fake) "i-land".

This is my first review of any movie on IMDb, so hold onto your butts. Let me preface this by saying I've enjoyed all the Jurassic movies, some more/some less, & this was no different, I'll admit I wasn't excited about the idea of a new Jurassic series, even though friends went to the cinema & gave JW a 10/10. I waited until it was on TV & kicked myself for being such a cynic. So this time I was determined to see JW: Fallen Kingdom in IMAX 3D at the local cinema complex. How was it? It does what it says on the tin. Owen & Clair are back with the addition of brief cameos from the original JW movie (as a little icing on the cake). It also pays homage to JP2/Lost World by being much darker in tone than JP/JW too. Is it just another rehash of JW? No, not in this viewers book. For starters it starts a lot darker than it's predecessor even if the opening is slightly reminiscent of the original JP movie. The main characters are a little different too in that Clair is the one who has the respect for the dinosaurs, whilst Owen wants nothing to do with them & has chosen a more solitary lifestyle building his cabin in the woods. Then there's a raft of new characters. Some to root for, some to boo & his at. There's some nice little touches with connections back to Hammond (& Attenborough) with the inclusion of Hammond's partner thus developing the past storylines of the original movie, & Iris (played by Geraldine Chaplin) that made me smile remembering Sir Richard's body of work. Of course there's a key inclusion of the kid, which the franchise should have just to remind us of that sense of wonder most of us have about dinosaurs. Another box ticked. SPOILER ALERT (ish): Isla Nublar goes "kablooie" reasonably quickly in a first act packed with great SFX, plot twists, & more nods of the hat to the originals. Again, box ticked (though sufficiently different to keep me engaged & give this viewer a warm glow). So how are the production team going to further this storyline? Well, without giving too much away... they just do. With some nice character development, a bit of social commentary (on modern day avarice & even some political questioning) the plot carries us along taking the viewer to a darker, more claustrophobic final act where the tension ratchets up in the face off between the good guys vs the bad guys. By now in the series we've come to side with most of the dinosaurs more than some of the humans, so it'll be no surprise that the bad guys get solidly dispatched in a climactic showdown, much to appreciation of the audience. There's even a couple of characters make it out alive that at the beginning I was convinced were destined to be dinosaur fodder. Now... is it as good as either JP or JW? That's for you to decide in the fullness of time, but for me it ticked the boxes, took the story in a forward momentum & satisfied my appetite for more dino films. I've given it 9/10 & not the 10/10 of either JP or JW - let's face it, we all expect sequels to be less satisfying than the originals (cough "Star Wars"). Would I watch it again? Absolutely I will. So if you like the Jurassic franchise I'd recommend going to catch it, especially in IMAX 3D. Just ignore the naysayers & make up your own mind if this one takes the series forward or tanks like a "Last Jedi" gasping for air.