Jurassic World: Dominion
Starring: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Laura Dern, Sam Neil, Jeff Goldblum
Directed By: Collin Treverrow
Rated: PG-13
Have you noticed a major lack of dinosaur-related disaster movies at the theater the last few years? Well, don’t fret…the time has come for another entry in the Jurassic Park franchise. You may remember in the events of the previous movie Jurassic Park: Fallen Kingdom, all of the dinosaurs escaped off of the island and now live amongst humans wreaking havoc. You also may not remember that because it was a terrible movie and you’d like to block it from your memory. Totally understandable response.
Strangely, the events of Fallen Kingdom are quickly breezed past here. Jurassic World: Dominion doesn’t focus on the dinosaurs wreaking havoc in society and instead takes us right back to another island to investigate…locusts? That’s right…when mutated locusts begin threatening the worlds food supply, Jurassic Park veterans Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern), Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neil), and Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) team up with Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) and Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) to find the source at a mysterious island owned by the genetics company Biosyn. It’s all the Jurassic casts of past and present coming together kind of like the Avengers: Endgame of dinosaur movies. Can the group band together to successfully take down Biosyn and avoid a dinosaur attack in the process?
Directed by Colin Treverrow, Jurassic World: Dominion doesn’t improve much from its predecessor, Fallen Kingdom. It’s a bloated blockbuster that suffers from way too many plot points. There’s the engineered locusts’ plot, the cloned teenaged girl plot point, the team reuniting, the journey to Biosyn, and of course, the battle with dinosaurs. There are far too many things going on here and they aren’t exactly done super well. At some moments, Dominion feels like it wants to be a Mission: Impossible movie complete with a motorcycle chase through the streets, and at others, it’s your standard Jurassic Park feature. Let me tell you, there are few things quite as committed to a formula than the Jurassic Park franchise is to the “trapped on an island with dinosaurs” bit. I actually thought this time around might be different considering the events of the last film meant dinosaurs were released into the world. NOPE. They’re taking us right back onto an island. They cannot resist the opportunity of putting everyone on an island! I wonder if they’d ever consider a Love Island/Bachelor in Paradise-inspired spin-off? Contestants could try to find love while dodging dinosaur attacks? That could have real potential for the next Jurassic Park movie. Just to mix it up a little.
The cast does fine with the material they have to work with. It’s nothing groundbreaking but I will say it is nice to see the original Jurassic Park trio of Sam Neil, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum reprise their roles. However, their material doesn’t come close to the original film. Newcomer Dewanda Wise is an entertaining addition to the cast as pilot Kayla Watts. Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard reprise their roles as Owen Grady and Claire Dearing, the main characters of the trilogy. The two have their own family unit now and have toned down the intense bickering. They carry the leading roles well, but Pratt does the same “holding off a raptor” pose that has begun to overstay its welcome after 3 movies. If you’ve seen one Jurassic World movie, then you know what I’m talking about. Mark me down as skeptical that a raptor would suddenly not attack if Chris Pratt held his hand out signaling to “stop.”
The raptor is cowering with fear right now
Jurassic World: Dominion is a bloated blockbuster full of missed opportunities. What could have been a fresh ending to the Jurassic World trilogy instead feels like a monotonous rehashing of every other Jurassic movie. There’s nothing new brought to the table here and, unfortunately, this isn’t a particularly fun summer blockbuster.
My Rating: 4/10