Film Review: Jurassic World Dominion

I don’t mean to jump the gun in terms of my feelings on the new Jurassic World movie, but man, what a waste this trilogy has been. A waste of a cast, a waste of some potentially interesting story points, and considering the budget, a waste of money. Though, considering the first two of these have grossed over a billion dollars, I guess that particular point is moot. But the thing is, as much as I may not have liked the previous films, I was cautiously optimistic for this one, after all, it was finally fulfilling the promise of a “Jurassic World,” and not some silly tacked on sequence like the San Diego finale in The Lost World.

The basic setup for Jurassic World Dominion is surprisingly complex, or at least has more moving parts than you’d expect for a movie whose appeal is so basic. Taking place four years after the events of the last film, dinosaurs are out and about. Maisie (Isabella Sermon) is being hidden away by Owen (Chris Pratt) and Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) from people trying to hunt her down. Meanwhile, the couple are also working, in their own particular ways to keep dinosaurs safe, be it taking them to safe zones or exposing corporate breeding farms. Things are made complicated when Maisie is found and taken, along with Blue the velociraptor’s offspring.

Meanwhile, a large species of locusts are discovered, and they’re eating up crops across the mid-west. Ellie (Laura Dern) learns that the locusts only seem to be destroying crops that aren’t grown from seeds from the Biosyn company. She recruits the help of an old friend, Alan (Sam Neill), to seek evidence of this so they can expose Biosyn, which is made easier with the assistance of Ian (Jeff Goldblum), who is doing consultation work with Biosyn, and invites the two over.

The paths of these two sets of characters do eventually cross, but not after a long series of events and set-pieces and plot threads that seemingly never ends. This film is nearly two-and-a-half hours, and you feel every second of it. Despite the setup of having all these dinosaurs around the world, and humanity trying to cope with this new set of circumstances, the film’s attention is placed mostly within the confines of a Biosyn lab, which is contained within a small jungle area. We get a couple brief moments in the American midwest, some snowy mountains, and one set-piece set in Malta, and that’s it. Otherwise, it’s the same stuff we’ve seen before. And the set-piece in Malta takes so long to get to the dino action, it almost comes across as a bad Mission: Impossible or Bourne knockoff. However, the dino chase that closes this whole sequence is genuinely fun, wacky, and tense.

One of the more entertaining aspects of a film like this is seeing how the filmmakers explore a world in which humanity tries to cope with having dinosaurs, how we adjust things, how the black market changes, the major and minor inconveniences. A short video early on shows this off with a series of small clips, and it’s really funny and I wish there was more of that energy here. So much of this is familiar, and devoid of any interesting or new ideas. The corporate espionage element that has always been a part of these movies are pushed to the forefront, and frankly, it’s a chore to sit through.

I would have hoped that Colin Trevorrow, who returns as director and shares screenwriting credit with Emily Carmichael, would have learned something new after the response he got from the first film and The Book Of Henry. However, his filmmaking here is lifeless, and in some respects, I feel like it’s gotten worse. It mostly sticks out in the Malta sequence, but there’s a lot of weird staging and wildly incoherent editing choices, characters appearing in one place, and suddenly showing up in another, scenes edited in a way to which is seems like people within the same location aren’t aware of their surroundings, just a lot of really odd stuff.

The meta commentary that the first Jurassic World relied heavily on has some presence here, but it’s approach to it feels so indifferent and half-hearted. It doesn’t commit to any of the interesting ideas and questions that it brings up. I believe I mentioned it with Fallen Kingdom, I think there’s a genuinely fascinating and compelling story that can be told about a character like Maisie, a girl who finds out she’s a clone, and the implications of that, and I think this film takes her story to an even more interesting place. But it’s so stuffed with plot and action that it doesn’t let those themes really breathe.

There are a couple highlights. Aside from that chase scene in Malta, there are some fun performances here. DeWanda Wise stole the show for me as Kayla, an air force vet turned smuggler who helped Owen and Claire on their mission. She’s got a cool attitude, she’s got a great look, and I’m so happy they resisted the temptation to make her related to some other character from the previous films. Mamoudou Athie and Campbell Scott do their best with what little they have, and Scott in particular gets to imbue some genuinely strange quirks and line readings to his character that kinda rivals that of Goldblum. Can’t say his character made for an interesting villain, but his performance was certainly memorable.

If Jurassic World Dominion is meant to be the end of this franchise, or at least this specific branch of the Jurassic franchise, it’s not a very good one, but then again, none of these movies have been very good to begin with, so that’s about as on brand as it could get. I won’t say there isn’t anything to appreciate about this, but all the good stuff in this film is crushed under the weight of a blockbuster that has little wit, imagination, and ambition. The ideas are all there, but so little effort is put into realizing them in an interesting and compelling way, and it doesn’t even bother to deliver on just pure dinosaur action. I was so bored throughout most of this film, especially in the sluggish and tiresome third act, where things should be reaching a peak as our two stories and sets of characters intertwine. The film tries to capitalize on your nostalgia for the original by bringing back its main cast, and it’s very apparent and blunt about its intentions. They couldn’t even come up with a fun dynamic between the new and old characters, they’re just kinda there. Like, “hey, I read your book.” Everyone seems to read everyone’s book in this franchise, what’s up with that? Anyway, I’m just glad I don’t have to think about this series ever again. At least, until they decide to reboot it again after a few years. Get ready for Jurassic Universe, I guess.

Jurassic World Dominion is now out in theaters.