Released: June 2022
Director: Colin Trevorrow
Run Time: 146 Minutes
Rated PG-13
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Genre: Action/Science Fiction
Cast:
Chris Pratt: Owen Brady
Bryce Dallas Howard: Claire Dearing
Laura Dern: Ellie Sattler
Sam Neill: Alan Grant
Jeff Goldblum: Ian Malcolm
DeWanda Wise: Kayla Watts
Isabella Sermon: Maise Lockwood
BD Wong: Dr. Henry Wu
I was ten years old when I first saw Jurassic Park. It blew my mind. The moment Sam Neill’s Alan Grant sees a live brachiosaur, I was in a state of awe. I had never seen anything like that before. The special effects of the original film brought dinosaurs back to life in a way that had never been done before. Dinosaurs were always awesome, but Jurassic Park made them even more so, because it looked like you could reach out and touch them. Steven Spielberg’s dinosaur opus was a landmark film in so many ways. What he did with visual effects revolutionized the industry in the same way that James Cameron did with Terminator 2, which had come out two years prior. The movie was a box office smash, as it was loved by both audiences and critics. So, I was genuinely excited when Steven Spielberg would direct the sequel, The Lost World: Jurassic Park. At the time, I enjoyed it, but over time, I saw the cracks start to form. It wasn’t anywhere as good as the original. Two of the original cast members didn’t return, and it focused more on corporate greed. Jurassic Park III embraced the silliness of its concept to its benefit and detriment. It was a lot of fun, but not very good. Jurassic World was supposed to be a triumphant return of the Jurassic Park franchise. In a way, it was. It wasn’t as good as the original, and it did feel like it borrowed too much from the original, but it was still a lot of fun. Then we got Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Personally, I enjoyed it, but it’s not a good movie, and a lot of people hated it. So, is Jurassic World: Dominion the epic conclusion to the franchise that Universal was hoping for? No. No, it isn’t. Not even close.
So this is it. THIS is how the Jurassic Park franchise comes to a close. At the end of Fallen Kingdom, the dinosaurs that were captured to be sold on the black market were released by young Maise Lockwood. 4 years later, the world has basically come to accept that humans are now forced to co-exist with previously extinct animals. Former velociraptor wrangler Owen Grady is living off the grid with his girlfriend Claire and young Maise. They discover that one of the raptors that Owen trained, Blue, had a baby of her own. Meanwhile, Dr. Ellie Sattler investigates a farm that was ravaged by what appears to be mutated locusts. She seeks out her old friend, Alan Grant to help her infiltrate Biosyn, the company they believe to be responsible for those locusts. At the same time, the head of Biosyn, Lewis Dodgson(Dodgson! Dodgson! We’ve got Dodgson here!) has a group of mercenaries track down and capture Maise as well as Blue’s offspring. This leads Owen and Claire on a globe-trotting hunt to find Maise and the little raptor, while Grant and Sattler infiltrate Biosyn to meet with Ian Malcolm and discover what’s going on. One of the reasons why the original Jurassic Park was so damn good was because the story was straight-forward. It was simple when it had to be and complex when it called for it. But at no point was it hard to follow. Even the youngsters could have an easy time following this movie, but that was also because there was a lot of dinosaur stuff going on. Dominion is simply convoluted. It’s hard to follow what’s going on. Mutated locusts? In a dinosaur movie? Why? If you’re going to have a subplot about the effects of a potential cataclysmic shift in Earth’s ecosystem, all you had to do was leave it at the dinosaurs. This unfortunate focus on corporate greed has been a problem with the franchise since The Lost World. In the original film, which was about dinosaurs, was also about human greed and the dangers of scientific hubris. Also, part of what made the original movie believable was the science. It wasn’t overly realistic, but it was plausible, and you can thank the late author Michael Crichton for that. Honestly, I couldn’t tell you what Dominion is all about because it’s a jumbled mess.
The acting is pretty solid across the board. Honestly, I really did love seeing Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum work together again. It was great. The chemistry between the three was still there and they all had really important things to do in this movie, which I’m grateful for. BD Wong also returns as Henry Wu, one of the scientists from the original movie. I like the actor, but the way the character is written in this movie is very different from the previous two. The previous two movies made Wu out to be some kind of greedy villain. Here, he’s got some kind of redemption arc that just doesn’t sit right with me. It feels unearned. Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard are decent enough, but it feels like they’ve been pushed to the background in favor of the OG crew. You’ve got a bunch of these no-name mercs that just happened to be employed by Dodgson and they’re disposed of quickly enough. The only new character that managed to gain some traction was pilot Kayla Watts, played by DeWanda Wise. I thought she was great. Her comebacks were just as snappy as everybody else’s and I think she fit in pretty well.
“Um…you ARE going to have dinosaur action in a movie about dinosaurs, right? Uh…hello? Yes?” My god, this movie was dull. For a movie that was supposed to be about dinosaurs, it sure went out of its way to avoid having them in the movie. They’re all over the place, but they’re not doing ANYTHING. There is a chase through Malta which was really good, and there are some moments here and there that are exciting a little bit, but the movie focuses way too much on stuff that’s just not interesting. There’s a lot of running, talking, running, talking, posturing, a gun fight here and there, but not a lot of people getting devoured by dinosaurs. How do you fuck that up? There’s no real carnage here, and most importantly, there are no real stakes. It just doesn’t feel like anybody’s in danger. That’s boring, and the last thing a movie about dinosaurs should be is boring. As bad as the last movie was, it delivered on the carnage and dinosaur action. The previous 4 sequels were still fairly fun to watch. This isn’t. This is the least entertaining movie in the franchise, and that shouldn’t have happened.
Maybe it was the theater I was in, but the movies was LOUD. I was literally cringing in my seat during some of the action sequences. It was literally painful. Again, I don’t know if the audio in my theater wasn’t calibrated right or whatever, but I almost ended up leaving because it was so loud. It got better towards the end of the first half of the movie, but man, that was an awful experience. It gave me a headache. The last movie to do that to me was Michael Bay’s Armageddon from 1998. Having a good sound system is key, but it doesn’t need to make you deaf. The visual effects here are all over the place. There are clearly moments when animatronics are used, and that’s great, but the CGI wasn’t very good for a lot of sequences. It felt very video-gamey to me. Not only that, there was a good amount of shaky-cam that I noticed. Nobody learns, do they? Shaky-cam is bad. Steady-cam is good. Also, a good chunk of this movie takes place at night, which makes things even harder to see, and for a movie about dinosaurs, YOU WANT TO BE ABLE TO SEE THE DINOSAURS!!!
I don’t actually hate this movie. At least not in the way that I hated Morbius. No, I’m very disappointed in how this movie turned out. This could’ve been one of the most epic conclusions to a franchise ever. The title of the film even implies it: Jurassic World: Dominion. Sounds pretty damned epic, right? It’s not. There are a number of things in this movie that I really do like. The original cast mixing it up with the new was pretty cool. The chase in Malta was incredibly fun, and some of the newer dinosaurs looked amazing. But it’s all hampered by pedestrian writing, lousy camera-work, bad decision-making, and being too bloated. There’s too much going on for people to pay attention to. Also, at two and a half-hours, this movie is 20 minutes too long. I’ll give it another shot when it hits Peacock next month, but as it stands, I can’t recommend it. If you enjoyed it more than I did, great. I’m happy for you. I wish I felt the same way, but I don’t. Honestly, stick with the original movie. It doesn’t get old, despite BEING almost 30 years old.