Jurassic World: Dominion (2022) Review
“You made a promise to a dinosaur.”
Ironic that, just a couple weeks after the release of one of the best legacy sequels ever made, we get one that reminds us why audiences should be skeptical of them in the first place. Jurassic World Dominion has no reason to exist; it’s strayed so far away from what made the original work in the first place and has no intent on evolving the series in an entertaining manner either. Fallen Kingdom left the series with dinosaurs now roaming free; leading Dr. Malcolm to proclaim the birth of a “neo-Jurassic” age. And, as messy as the last film was, it left the franchise with an exciting place to explore. In turn, Jurassic World Dominion crushes that interesting premise and replaces the pivotal threat of the entire JURASSIC franchise with that of…genetically modified locusts. So even though the film features some of the best CGI I’ve ever seen and a handful of truly exciting action sequences – none of it is enough to justify this outing in the first place.
The film opens four years after the events of the predecessor – with Owen (Chris Pratt) and Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) in isolation, attempting to protect the cloned daughter of one of the park’s “silent founders”, Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon). Biosyn, a tech company using dinosaur DNA to further human medical advancements, captures Maisie with intent to study her – leading our “Sequel Cast” to take on a rescue mission. On the other side of the plot, Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) reunites with Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neil) to study the genetically modified locusts responsible for wiping out crops all over the world; which is also Biosyn’s suspected doing. And though a velociraptor baby also gets kidnapped along with Maisie – none of these narrative threads have anything to do with the threat of dinosaurs in our modern world; the essential premise that even the last two films in the franchise managed to at least, somewhat, get right.
At this point, I’m all for evolving the franchise in a manner that favors blockbuster spectacle over thought-provoking narrative but Trevorrow seems keen on taking the least interesting route with these movies. Seemingly, the franchise had built up to this grandiose moment; dinosaurs truly roaming around the world and the inevitable threat that would cause. And, other than a five minute introduction framed as a Now This News story, the film isn’t really about the dinosaurs at all. There’s an espionage mission here that feels more akin to something that would belong in a Mission Impossible or James Bond movie – though without the proper execution. However, when the plot does take a backseat to the action, it’s hard not to be swept away by the brilliant CGI work and surprising amount of practical effects. There’s a scene in which Owen is being chased on a motorcycle in the narrow alleys of Malta by a pack of velociraptors; the music takes a break and we hear all the incredible sound design that goes into such hefty projects as this. As that scene ends, my immersion breaks as well because now our heroes are back to the plot; revolving around saving a cloned girl from a Bio-Genetics company…in a Jurassic Park movie.
Bringing in the “Legacy Cast” feels like a needless cash-grab as well; even creating some sort of romance between Grant and Stattler that, not only feels too late, but doesn’t feel like it’s really catering to anyone either. And even though the “Legacy Cast” don’t have much inspired character beats here, they still surprisingly feel more vibrant than that of the newer one. I guess that just goes to show how powerful the original film still is. Watching this on the big screen may provide moments of enjoyment purely for the blockbuster spectacle alone but, other than that, this may be the biggest franchise dud since The Rise of Skywalker.
