Jurassic World Dominion Review: What Happens in the Real Dino?

Jurassic World Dominion – released in cinemas around the world on Friday – is a bad movie. There’s no getting around it, so might as well tackle it head on. It disconcertingly dismisses the two main intriguing ideas that emerged from its predecessor: human cloning and dinosaurs are now among us. The former is retcon-erased, in an attempt to make Jurassic World Dominion about parenthood and the love of a mother, rather than its ethical implications. Notice that this is not a case of a writer-director going against what the previous guy had set up, as happened between Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Star Wars : The Rise of Skywalker. Jurassic World Dominion writer-director Colin Trevorrow goes against himself here, as he also wrote the previous one, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.

But the much more serious crime that Jurassic World Dominion commits is to abandon (largely) the potential of the latter. Rather than taking place in our world and focusing on what it might be like for humans to co-exist with dinosaurs, something that was teased and seemingly promised by the two in-between shorts – the 10-minute Battle at Big Rock and the Untitled a five-minute “prologue” that’s no longer part of the movie – most of Jurassic World Dominion again takes place in a remote dinosaur sanctuary run by a multinational corporation solely for profit. What’s the point of calling it Jurassic World if your (terribly not good) trilogy were to end without showing us how the world and its many cultures treat dinosaurs in different ways?

The stupidity of this writing decision – Emily Carmichael (Pacific Rim: Uprising) is Trevorrow’s co-writer here – is all the more apparent given that the best part of Jurassic World Dominion takes place in the real world. Malta, to be precise. It finds the protagonists venturing into a dinosaur black market that sells give dino kebabs, and where chained raptors are forced to fight for sport. It’s an impeccable setting.

There to find a kidnapped girl and velociraptor, they must then deal with a dinosaur smuggler and his pack of trained allosaurs. The narrow streets of Malta contribute to compelling chase sequences, one of which features imitations of memorable action beats from The Shining and The Bourne Ultimatum. The influence of the latter is much greater on Jurassic World Dominion, I would say, with Malta’s heart-pounding action engrossing if not entirely consistent, thanks to Bourne-style cinematography (from jurassic worldby John Schwartzman).

Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom Review: Goes Dark With Dinosaurs

But for the most part, Jurassic World Dominion is inconsistent, predictable, poorly executed, overly serious, and unnecessarily long (at 146 minutes with credits). Given that Steven Spielberg remains the only director to deliver a good movie in the franchise, Dominion got me thinking, “What makes a good Jurassic movie?” The answer for Trevorrow and Co. seems to be to launch new types of dinosaurs at humans. He talked about “saving” Giganotosaurus for the third movie, like collecting Pokémon cards. Although to be fair, that’s what the dinosaurs were reduced to at this point. They are like playthings for filmmakers and minions for villains. The magic that jurassic park conjured has long since evaporated. Now it’s all about the pure VFX spectacle you can throw at the audience.

Mild Jurassic World Dominion narrative spoilers for the next two paragraphs.

Ditching the tonally tailored “prologue,” Jurassic World Dominion is now surrounded by two explanatory, impersonal news segments. Imagine starting your $165 million movie with a news program. After that, as it reintroduces us to the protagonists – old, new, and all-new – Jurassic World Dominion splits into two parallel narratives. Former raptor trainer and dinosaur breeder Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) and former park manager and dinosaur rights activist Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) set out to rescue their adopted daughter Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon) – the human clone who was Fallen Kingdom’s big surprise – after he was abducted by BioSyn, a genetic giant who created a sanctuary for dinosaurs in the Italian Dolomites range.

BioSyn CEO Dr. Lewis Dodgson (Campbell Scott, taking over from Cameron Thor 30 years later) is the new villain here, and he considers Maisie “the most valuable intellectual property in the world.” (They allow us to draw parallels too easily between Universal Pictures and its take on Jurassic World.) BioSyn is also the source of genetically engineered locusts that cause impending famine, which draws the team OG of Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) and Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) as they investigate BioSyn with the help of Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum). They need no introduction; they were part of jurassic park. All-new characters include DeWanda Wise as pilot for hire Kayla Watts whose path crosses Owen and Claire, and Mamoudou Athie as BioSyn communications chief Ramsay Cole whose loyalty is questionable.

Top Gun Maverick Review: Tom Cruise’s Movie Soars, With Caveats

Laura Dern and Sam Neill in Jurassic World Dominion
Photo credit: Universal Pictures

As you can see, Jurassic World Dominion – much like Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore – rejects previously important characters or relegates them to the sidelines. Even Owen’s rapacious friend Blue has been forgotten, and his baby Beta is used more as a MacGuffin than anything else. In a last-minute tug to the heart, Jurassic World Dominion tries to put an arc on the connection between Owen and Blue – but it feels out of place because the film doesn’t say much about them. If the Jurassic World series itself can’t begin to care about its main faces, how is it going to get us to care?

The biggest problem at the end of the day is that the previous films – jurassic world and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom – sucked at developing the new human characters for us to take care of. And now that it’s too late to make amends, Trevorrow has simply chosen to tap into our nostalgia surrounding the original trio, one of whom made an appearance last time out. But his understanding of these characters is frustrating, as if they haven’t grown in the decades they’ve been absent. Still, Dern exudes a more natural charisma than Pratt managed in three movies.

Pratt, in my opinion, was never the right anchor for this franchise. I don’t think he has the presence to play the role of a serious badass, no matter how much Hollywood keeps throwing it at him. It’s much better deployed in a pleasant, self-devoid manner than James Gunn did with guardians of the galaxy, which is inspired by Pratt’s Parks & Recreation experience. And on some level, I think Trevorrow has come to recognize that. Which would explain why, unlike the first two films, he is rarely left alone here. On Jurassic World Dominion, Pratt shares the screen with Howard, Wise, Sermon, Neill, Omar Sy, and eventually the entire gang.

Jurassic World Dominion leaked on torrents ahead of its cinema release

DeWanda Wise and Chris Pratt in Jurassic World Dominion
Photo credit: Universal Pictures

Pratt’s success as a bland action hero mirrors Trevorrow’s success as a bland hit action director. Although he missed the second film as director – and possibly the third too, if he wasn’t fired from Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – Trevorrow co-wrote the screenplay for each entry. from the Jurassic World trilogy. But despite his slow growth as a writer and the ever-diminishing criticism of his work, Universal Pictures gave him his second biggest cash cow. (jurassic world the movies have already grossed nearly $3 billion.)

And while Jurassic World Dominion may be the third and final entry, I give Hollywood less than a decade before it decides to add to the canon again, one way or another. For now though, Trevorrow, Pratt and Co. are leaving us with a trilogy that we’d love to forget ever existed. The first chapter tried to mimic the original in some ways, throwing us back to the park but bigger. The second was an outright disaster, and I’m not talking about what the story was about. As for the third, I’ll let Dr. Ian Malcolm’s words from the film conclude: “Jurassic World? Not a fan.” I couldn’t agree more.

Jurassic World Dominion hits theaters worldwide on Friday, June 10. Paid previews began on the afternoon of Thursday, June 9 in India and elsewhere. In India, Jurassic World Dominion is available in English, Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu.

Full cover image caption: Jeff Goldblum, Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Pratt, Isabella Sermon and DeWanda Wise in Jurassic World Dominion