Jurassic World: Dominion – Film Review

We’ve come a long way since Steven Spielberg‘s classic dinosaur spectacle. Five sequels later, we’ve arrived at what looks to be the final chapter in this second trilogy. The original gang is back in this legacyquel, joining forces with the Jurassic World stars.

Jurassic World: Dominion picks up a couple of years after the events of “Fallen Kingdom“, but don’t worry if you don’t remember what exactly happened, because a quick recap is shown as some sort of amateur documentary. We were forced to adapt to dinosaurs living amongst us, which causes for a ton of problems, but amidst all of this chaos, Biosyn, a newly developed lab-company lead by a second rate Steve Jobs (played by a robotic Campbell Scott) is trying to find a way to use dino-DNA for groundbreaking medical use.

As a dino-fanatic, I’m very grateful for this franchise, but like Ian Malcolm once said: “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.“. I’m starting to think we should’ve left Jurassic Park alone, since none of the sequels has been able to top the cinema-experience that first one left on all of us. First of all, Dominion takes itself way too serious while Emily Carmichael, Colin Trevorrow (who also directs) & Derek Connolly‘s writing is the worst this franchise has seen. This movie is an extension of Fallen Kingdom’s third act reveal regarding Maisie, and basically makes everything that happens revolve around her, pushing aside everything that made Jurassic Park/World so exciting – DINOSAURS.

One exhilarating chase scene through the streets of Malta is a standout action sequence that keeps you on the edge of your seat, giving you a sense of real stakes at play. Other than that, there’s glimpses of exciting ideas that are over before they’ve really started. It’s an unhinged series of cool moments and bad plotting that becomes more frustrating the further we go. And then we haven’t even discussed the genetically modified locusts wreaking havoc on crops, and Blue’s child’s rescue mission, which you completely forget about until the final fifteen minutes.

It’s nice to see Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum back together and in top-form, but in more than one way them being here feels forced and uncomfortable as soon as the new and old generation “join forces”. Friendly faces from previous Jurassic World films barely get any screen time, and others get introduced to then just disappear without any trace of them. Luckily, Goldblum and newcomer DeWanda Wise are here to keep us awake and put the “fun” back into this franchise.

The major problem with Jurassic World: Dominion, is that it has zero rewatchability factor and tries so hard to be topical that it gets lost in the grand scheme of things. The dinosaurs are memorable, the movie itself — not so much.

Reviewed June 2, 2022 (watched at Kinepolis Antwerpen) Rating: PG-13. Running time: 146 min. 

PRODUCTION: A Universal Pictures release of an Amblin Entertainment, Latina Pictures, Perfect World Pictures & Universal Pictures production. Producers: Patrick Crowley (p.g.a.) & Frank Marshall (p.g.a.). Executive producers: Alexandra Ferguson-Derbyshire, Steven Spielberg & Colin Trevorrow.

CREW: Director: Colin Trevorrow. Writers: Emily Carmichael, Colin Trevorrow & Derek Connolly (based on characters by Michael Crichton). Editing: Mark Sanger. Cinematography: John Schwartzman. Music: Michael Giacchino.

CAST: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Laura Dern, Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum, DeWanda Wise, Mamoudou Athie, Isabella Sermon, Campbell Scott & BD Wong.