Jurassic World Dominion — Movie Review
by KJ Proulx
While I, like the majority of film lovers, absolutely love the original Jurassic Park, I’ve basically felt like I’ve given the majority of the franchise pass, rather than genuinely believing they’re great films. The only other film I genuinely think is a solid entry is the first Jurassic World (which in itself isn’t original at all). I’ve felt that the sense of awe and wonder has been missing since the original film and with the release of the “final” installment with Jurassic World Dominion, I was eager to see how they would put a bow on the franchise at least. Sadly, I have to be honest and say this is probably my least favourite of the entire franchise. Let’s dive into why I think fans should still see this movie, but with incredibly lowered expectations.
Picking up about four years after the events of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, dinosaurs are now free in our world and living amongst humans and other species. From here, there are multiple storylines that pick up that are not explored in the marketing for this film, so I’ll keep it brief. Maisie Lockwood, the young girl from the previous film has been living with Owen and Claire in protective custody, but she is kidnapped and a rescue mission for her begins. Not only that, but the offspring of Owen’s companion Blue is also with her. We then meet the original cast, who are on their own mission. Eventually these two missions collide, but overall, I think this entire film was a missed opportunity.
I felt as though this film spent next to zero time explaining what happened in between the events of the previous film and this final installment. This isn’t even me getting my hopes up, because we’ve already seen dinosaurs on land before, so I truly believe a portion of this film should’ve been dedicated to people trying to survive or figuring out how to. With that said, there are still many unique ideas presented here that I thought were clever story developments, but I also found that the film failed to deliver on them, especially since they didn’t work for a Jurassic Park film. That’s also one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to massive franchises. When you present cool ideas, but they don’t actually work in the context of the franchise, that just feels wildly disappointing.
On a more positive note, I’m a fan of Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Laura Dern, Sam Neill, and Jeff Goldblum, so seeing them, all come together here was a lot of fun and some of their banter got some genuine laughs out of me. With that said, I actually believe newcomer DeWanda Wise as Kayla was the biggest standout here. Her witty dialogue and back and forth with Pratt throughout a lot of the film was terrific and I will gladly watch her performances in the future. It’s always nice to have a new character added to a franchise that surprises you. If for nothing else, this was a great cast of characters to see together.
Now for the dinosaurs, which were severely lacking in this film. This franchise, even in its weaker installments, has never had a shortage of Dinosaur action. Yes, this film has plenty of action involving Dinosuars, some of which are genuinely fun, but I have to admit that the core story of this film really came out of left field for me, and not in a good way. I’m not about to dive into the details, because these details aren’t even explored in the marketing, but I’ll say that the main storyline focusses very little on Dinosaurs. For the end of a Dinosaur franchise, this rubbed me the wrong way. I couldn’t comprehend why this story element was even being explored. It was basically what made me dislike this film overall, even though I enjoyed moments of it.
In the end, Jurassic World Dominion isn’t going to gain any new fans for the franchise, but at least the entire cast is here, having a good time, and it shows. I was excited to see Colin Trevorrow returning to direct, after working on the first Jurassic World, but even his touch didn’t work here. The score didn’t stand out to me either and the climax was very forgettable, especially being the “finale” of a franchise. I wish I had more positive things to say about a franchise that I have enjoyed until this point, but I honestly don’t. Jurrasic Park fans will absolutely get a kick out of certain scenes so I recommend that fans still see it, but as a movie on its own, it’s just not good.
Rating: 2/5
Check out the trailer below:
