Review: Jurassic World: Dominion

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***SPOILER ALERT***

Jurassic World: Dominion has been released into the home video world and the folks at Universal were kind enough to send me a copy for review. There seems to be a trend of meh in the movies of late. Where the movies aren’t offensive or terrible but there’s nothing special or exciting about them either. Bland, thrill-less “thrill rides”. Unfortunately, that trend continues with Jurassic World: Dominion. Where the two Jurassic franchises meet and don’t know what to do with each other. Gone are the days when cgi dino mayhem was sufficient enough to sustain interest in a film. Part of what made the original Jurassic Park film was also marveling at the technological advancements. Today’s viewer is not impressed by cgi as we know what is capable and expect no less. I, honestly, thought this movie was going to be good based on some of the viral marketing campaigns leading up to it.

Directed by Colin Trevorrow, Dominion sees Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard reprise their ‘World’ roles while joined by franchise originals Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum reprising their ‘Park’ roles. After decades of teasing us this movie finally explores dinosaurs being out in the open world. Set four years after Fallen Kingdom Owen Grady (Pratt) and Claire Dearing (Howard) are hiding and raising clone child, now 14 year old, Maisie up in the mountains. I guess, naturally, the cloning process would evolve to humans but I couldn’t be less interested in Maisie’s storyline. The plot involves dino DNA locusts wreaking havoc on crops and the kidnapping of Maisie and Blue’s baby raptor, Beta, by Biosyn thugs with Owen heading out promising to get them back. Why focus on dinosaurs in the big finale when you can bring locusts in, right?

While all of that is going on Ellie Sattler (Dern) is investigating the crop munchkin’ locusts and turns to Alan Grant (Neill) for assistance on how to stop them. There’s a moment during Grant’s introduction when the Jurassic Park theme is heard momentarily and I felt the 12 year old in me, who was wowed in theaters by the original, resurfacing. I began to form a tear and had the filmmakers just let the music swell and stayed on Grant for a moment I would’ve cried but they quickly cut away and kneecapped themselves from a great moment. Eventually the two are off to Biosyn for their own answers and cross paths with Ian Malcolm (Goldblum) thus finally reuniting the original three. It was a joy to see these three together again even though they’re wasted in the film.

Each subsequent Jurassic entry has a biggest baddest dinosaur ever with a ridiculous name as the film’s “villain”. Let’s see we’ve had Spinosaurus, Indonymous Rex, Indoraptor, the mega awesomeasaurus (super deep cut), and now we are given the Giganotosaurus. Which is the “biggest carnivore the world has ever seen” but for real this time. And what’s the only way to stop a big bad park crushing, children eating, death lizard? The trusty (and rusty) ole T-Rex of course. Stomping on the ground. Shaking uncovered beverages. Another franchise exercise that has become tiring. And how annoyed must old Rexy be at his point? “These assholes again?!” They escape being a meal and now Rexy is reduced to life long servitude of third act main event service of how many movies now? We’ve seen it before. Just take a load off and them die Rexy, let them die.

With no disrespect to the actors themselves, seeing Justice Smith and Daniella Pineda’s characters from Fallen Kingdom just give me PTSD from the last film. I get why they were given small cameos as they’re part of the franchise now but they’re on the lesser end of supporting characters for me. Along the way Owen finds help from rogue pilot Kayla Watts played by DeWanda Wise who I did find enjoyable. And even after the credits rolled I still didn’t trust Mamoudou Athie’s as Biosyn employee Ramsay Cole.

The visuals and audio on the disc Universal sent me made for a nice presentation as they “spared no expense” in the cgi but unfortunately it’s not enough to salvage the film. There are many missed opportunities. Bringing the two casts together should’ve been something special. There are a few shots of characters paired together but really I can’t think of a special recountable moment featuring the interactions. Alan asking Owen about training raptors could’ve been a wonderful scene or exchange that could’ve been explored in further detail based on our knowledge of both character’s very different experiences with the dinosaurs. An action sequence featuring a female henchman and laser targeted raptors was corny and cringe inducing. When a scene feels like it exists to fill runtime or just to be an action sequence rather than serve the story I begin to check out. Using Beta and Maisie’s DNA the locusts are eventually stopped by Henry Wu played by original and returning cast member BD Wong who was responsible for their creation, while working for Biosyn, in the first place. Making us wonder what the purpose of the entire story was. Owen and Claire go public to expose Biosyn for their hand in the locusts. Not sure when the franchise shifted from dinosaurs to bugs and clone kids but here we are. It makes me sad to see once juggernauts franchises go out on such lows. Jurassic, Terminator, and Star Wars alike deserved better.

I really enjoyed the first Jurassic World film but the others have been major disappointments for me. I’m not sure they know what to do with this franchise. I hate to compare the two but the flaws of Jurassic are similar to those of Transformers. The filmmakers believe they can put cgi spectacle on the screen and audiences will gobble it up and praise the film as a success. As long as the T Rex fights another big dinosaur at the end everyone is happy, right? That may work for the first in a series of films demonstrating technological breakthroughs but it’s no longer special once it has become the norm. Jurassic Park sequels, King Kong, Godzilla, Pacific Rim, and even rides at theme parks have brilliantly displayed big monster fights. We’ve seen it before. While fans may smile at seeing old faces human and dinosaur alike those faces fall flat if you don’t give them something interesting to do. I still find Fallen Kingdom to be the franchise low but Dominion is not far behind. Nothin’ more to see here folks. Move along.