Jurassic World: Dominion Review
The third and seemingly final film in the trilogy, Jurassic World: Dominion seemingly ties up any and all loose ends in the Jurassic franchise dating back to 1993.
The Plot — Jurassic World: Dominion
Environmental Impact
Dominion picks up four years after the events of 2018’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. The dinosaurs released at the end of the film by a science-experiment-gone-wrong human clone have wrought countless environmental and human safety catastrophes.
The film opens with a crab fishing boat nearly destroyed by the Mosasaurus that swallowed the Indominus Rex whole at the end of 2015’s Jurassic World. We see scenes from around the world of dinosaurs wreaking dino-havoc on the world’s food chains as the mother of all invasive species.
Old Vs. New
Claire Dearing, played by Bryce Dallas Howard, returns with her Fallen Kingdom co-stars, Franklin Webb and Dr. Zia Rodriguez, played by Justice Smith and Daniella Pineda. The trio form the tip of the spearhead of an environmental activist/terrorist group looking to destroy dinosaur breeding facilities.
The result of the group’s terrorist-related destruction of company facilites even results in the theft of a baby dinosaur they decide to keep for themselves. Add Robbery and Grand-Theft-Dinosaur to the “activist’s” rap sheet.
Owen Grady also returns, this time playing Father figure to the human clone he illegally adopted/kidnapped at the end of Fallen Kingdom. Maisie Lockwood, again played by Isabella Sermon, has hit the rebellious-teen portion of her soulless human existence.
Alan Grant, again played by Sam Neill, un-surprisingly returns right where you’d think he’d be — leading a dig to find fossilized dinosaur bones, and worrying about how to pay the bills. Along comes old flame Ellie Sattler, again played by Laura Dern, and minutes later, Grant follows his old flame on another adventure.
Sattler and Grant head off to meet the third member of their OG-Jurassic triumvirate, Ian Malcolm, who now works for Biosyn. Campbell Scott takes over the role of Dodgson, not seen since the opening scenes of 1993’s Jurassic Park; the Billionaire CEO of Biosyn, and operator of a Dinosaur reserve located halfway around the world.
The Good — Jurassic World: Dominion
The Setup
The setup for Jurassic World: Dominion might take longer than most of the previous films to get going, but the time investment is well worth it.
The return of so many characters, and the introduction of several more, necessitates a longer introduction that we typically see in the Jurassic franchise. And, considering our characters are largely divided up into two separate storylines for the majority of the film, the time investment pays even further dividends the farther we go into the story.
Balancing the on-going storyline of the World trilogy, and the updates to characters not seen in two decades might seem overly ambitious for one movie. However, Director Colin Trevorrow correctly doesn’t short shrift the characters’ individual stories, so we can actually care about the characters while they are being chased by the dinosaurs.
The CGI
Anyone who’s read my reviews or seen my videos knows how much I loathe Computer Generated Imagery. The general quality of CGI and the laziness of filmmakers in turning over so many key shots to digital ‘artists’ usually spells disaster for the final product.
Needless to say, I am NOT a fan.
However, the care taken this time around seems to have raised the quality of the CGI to its highest level since the original film in 1993.
The eyelids, especially, in previous Jurassic Park/World films have had that artificial look while trying to replicate reptile style inner eyelids movement and quality.
Even Blue, the velociraptor’s, eyes/snout/markings seem to have taken a giant step up over previous films — not yet reaching ‘photo real’ results, but not being distractingly bad as in previous films.
The Bad — Jurassic World: Dominion
The Preachy
The first third of Jurassic World: Dominion is preachy. It goes beyond simply making a statement or having a point of view, to being full-on advocate and activist in its storytelling.
Admittedly, this is a complaint about tone, rather than subject matter. I don’t have a problem with a pro-environmental point of view, but I have a major, major issue with the glorification of environmental terrorism being portrayed in such a positive light.
It’s not WHAT they’re saying, but HOW they’re saying it. What should be a simple point of view issue instead comes across as heavy handed — like you’ve been dragged against your will to a rally that you have no desire to attend.
Even worse, the bleeding heart desperation of the activists’ plight causes even more eye rolling and annoyance from the audience, as the cause for which they fight doesn’t even exist in real life. Why are we being exposed to such heavy handed preaching and whining in a SciFi Action movie about pretend dinosaurs??!!
The heavy handedness was so bad in the first 30 minutes of the film, I was almost ready to walk out before the real action started. Thankfully, most of the preachy fades into the background once the Jason Bourne-style segment of the movie starts.
Dr. Wu
For some reason, BD Wong’s Dr. Henry Wu is back… AGAIN.
A miracle worker scientist in the first Jurassic Park, turned secret villain in Jurassic World, turned full Bond Villain in Fallen Kingdom; Henry Wu returns yet again.
Without going into spoilers, Wu’s role changes yet again, and not at all in a satisfying or logical way. He’s not the villain this time around, but they don’t really answer the question of why he is here at all.
For being such a minor character in Jurassic Park, I am shocked he has played such a huge role in the sequel trilogy. And even more shocked that the role he’s playing gets more strange and out of step with the franchise as a whole as the films progress.
This is not a critique of BD Wong’s acting ability, but rather Directors Colin Trevorrow and A.J. Bayona not knowing what to do with his character in all three of the ‘World’ films.
Review — Jurassic World: Dominion
Similar to Spider-Man: No Way Home bringing back beloved characters we haven’t seen in a long while and giving them satisfying conclusions; Jurassic World: Dominion lays heavy into fan service for our classic legacy characters, but any and all feelings of nostalgia are earned and fully justified for being in the film.
Sam Neill’s Dr. Alan Grant may have gone almost completely gray in the 21 years since Jurassic Park III, but the gravitas and surprisingly spry presence he brings to the film feels like almost no time has passed. The 74 year old actor may never have been known for his Action movie chops the first time around, but Neill fully keeps up with Chris Pratt’s Owen Grady when running from the T-Rex.
Subordinate characters from previous films add a ton in little screen time. Omar Sy, Justice Smith, and Daniella Pineda’s characters bring a sense of continuity and familiarity, without hogging the camera, or being central to the story.
Briefly played by Cameron Thor in 1993’s Jurassic Park, Campbell Scott takes over the ‘Dodgson’ role, and face of avarice, hubrice, and arrogance in Dominion. Far from being a mustache twirling villain, Campbell brings a quiet stillness to the character, which makes his role even more frightening.
Probably the LEAST ‘Jurassic Park clone’ of any of the sequels, Dominion breaks the mold of the previous four followup films, and tells a story uniquely its own.
Each of the previous four sequels struggled to recapture the magic of the first film, regurgitating the same story over and over again.
Dominion is truly the first film in the series since the original film that brings an original story to the franchise, unencumbered by the formula from the classic film.
By shedding the formula and creating something entirely new, Dominion frees itself from the shadows of ‘Park’, while also allowing us to revisit and pay homage to so many of the characters that we love.
VERY preachy at the beginning, but an original story that refreshes the franchise; Dominion is a fun watch once you get past the eye rolling of the first 30 minutes.
Strong visuals/effects and huge scale make Jurassic World: Dominion worth watching in theaters.
Three and a half stars out of five.
