One of the worst things you could say about a sequel is that it takes everything that was unique from the original film and it turns it into a listless formula which leads to a mediocre follow up. This has been true many a times during the expansion of the Jurassic Park franchise, but with Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, which opened nationwide today in the United States, the folks at Universal Pictures seem keen in getting props for making a movie that is completely different to what we've seen before. If the first Jurassic World was an uninspired but effective exercise in nostalgia for the first Jurassic Park, Fallen Kingdom is pushed off the rails in the search of giving audiences a new thrill involving dinosaurs and the way that they can chomp down humans.

To be fair, there are many times in this movie where J.A. Bayona's deft direction and visual aesthetic make the lunacy cooked up by the film's script truly thrilling. But there are many more times where the screenplay by Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly blatantly throws logic out the window in service of a climax that is more horror movie than the Jurassic Park adventures we are used to. The writers would get points for originality but certain scenes are so ridiculous and absurd that the originality becomes besides the point. In addition to that, the writers several times take aim at trying to be topical within a sociopolitical context, which is the equivalent of trying to get spiritual guidance from a Friday the 13th movie. And by the way, if it weren't for Bayona's indisputable talent behind the camera, Fallen Kingdom would totally be the Jason Takes Manhattan of this franchise.

There are certain sequences during the last section of the film where you can feel the screenwriter's giddiness at the possibility of being able to come up with almost any scenario where a dinosaur can terrorize a human. What Trevorrow and Connolly have come up with should be titled Jurassic Mansion in which all the supporting characters are meaner variations of the greedy lawyer that gets eaten by the T-Rex in the original film that became another Spielberg classic 25 years ago.

There are other moments where Bayona tries to reach for the visual magic of the first film, but the social commentary filters it through a much darker and cynical tone that completely blocks that possibility. Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard try their best to amp up their charisma and their chemistry, and succeed for the most part. But the mindless fun squashes their efforts. If the movie sounds like a hot mess its because it is. It never ceases to be entertaining but it's totally bonkers from start to finish.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom in theaters June 22, 2018.