"Jurassic World: Dominion" Review

[tuttle]

This is gonna be long. TL/DR version: Mixed bag of good and bad. Sunk by poorly thought out storylines and bad writing, uplifted by a good cast, cool dinosaurs, and nostalgia.



I'm still hoping that the old forum will at some point let us access all our old threads. My previous Jurassic World film reviews are on there and I can't recall if I made any predictions or anything regarding this latest JW film. That said, on to the review!

Since we don't have any cool spoiler buttons, and because the movie has been out for nearly a month...


WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD








I finally watched what might be the last installment of a movie franchise that I've been following since I was 11. With the old cast from JP coming back I assumed the movie would contain some nostalgia references and it would likely have a send-off, let's wrap it up, kind of tone, rather than throw any curve-balls at the audience. And for the most part I was right. It was an easy softball down the middle. At no time did I really think any of the stars were in danger of being eaten.

On the whole, I liked the film. I liked that it wrapped things up and I liked the visual effects and the nostalgia kicks. The story wasn't bad, but it certainly wasn't great. That is to say I think it was loaded with potential and they didn't really execute. The timing of everything felt a bit off. It felt unnecessarily slow early on and unnecessarily rushed later on. But that's a complaint I've been having more and more with movies so I think it's pointing to a systemic problem in Hollywood. It felt like there were too many good ideas on the table and by cramming them all in it failed to be a good idea.

So I'll break this up in Story / Characters / Dinosaurs / Some Bad / Some Good

Story
As we learned from the last film, Dinosaurs have been released in the wild and are spreading throughout the world. We also learn that Maisie is a clone of Benjamin Lockwood's daughter (Lockwood is John Hammond's old partner).

So we have essentially three storylines:
1) The New Cast storyline: Owen and Claire and Maisie are living in hiding. People know about Maisie being a clone (somehow) and she's wanted by people for reasons. Maisie is a rebellious teenager just because and get's kidnapped along with Blue the Velociraptor's baby (just run with it). Newly adoptive parents Owen and Claire must find them and save the world.

2) The Old Cast storyline: This could also be called the Grasshopper storyline. Giant cat sized locusts are eating crops at an alarming rate. Dr. Sadler (from JP) is on the case. She finds (in two seconds) that the bugs are eating everything but the crops that are genetically altered by a company called Biosyn. For some reason and because the writers were forced to put them together, Sadler pays Dr. Alan Grant a visit at one of his dino digs in order to convince him to go with her to Biosyn to get evidence that Biosyn created the nefarious grasshoppers. How do they get in? Turns out Dr. Ian Malcolm is on staff there and can get them in. Thus getting the gang back together to solve the grasshopper caper and save the world.

3) The Dinosaur storyline: Oh yeah. There are dinosaurs in this human clone/grasshoppper movie? Well yes, but they really do just sort of fade into the background of the other storylines. Which...is crazy weird to me. If I was writing the movie, it'd be Dino storyline 1st and prominent. So Dinosaurs have spread through the earth even though it's been just 4 years since they were released. Somehow dinosaurs that weren't released in the wild are also now wild? I could have missed a two second explanation (lots of exposition was rushed) but it doesn't matter really because we're just supposed to accept it. Whatever. We're told at some point that most of the dinosaurs that are caught have been transferred to Biosyn's lab in a valley in the Italian Alps. One running theme we're reminded of by characters every time is that by bringing the T-Rex to the valley an Apex predator must prevail. Will it be T-Rex or the new Giganotosaurus? Outside of that, it really is hard not to say that the dinosaurs just serve as a backdrop and eye-candy.

The storylines converge at the Biosyn lab. Owen and Claire, through ties in the CIA, track the kidnappers to Milan, and from there to Biosyn. (More on the Milan Scene later). Old Cast is already at Biosyn and we hear funny quips from Dr. Malcolm and Grant and Sadler sneak around for grasshopper evidence. They run into Maisie and try to help her escape. Meanwhile Owen and Claire along with help from a girl power pilot, crash land in the valley and run from dinosaurs. The Old Cast's plans are discovered, Malcolm is fired and the escapees find themselves on foot in a cave of dinosaurs (why? stupid reasons, but the dino cave was cool). Malcolm helps them get out. They take off through the valley. Crash (because of FLYING FIRE BUGS...more on that in a moment) and run into Team New Cast. Now they join forces and run from dinos to save the world.

How, might you ask, will they save the world? And what are they saving it from? Grasshoppers. Giant grasshoppers are eating too much of the worlds crops and threatening to devastate the food chain. Dr. Henry Wu (who was a lowly scientist in JP, turned evil genius in the two previous JW movies) believes he can stop them, but only if he can obtain blood samples from Maisie and Blue's baby. They gave a reason why. Something about healing genetic defects and Maisie's mom/clone being an uber genius who can create life and cure all genetic issues. No explanation's given. Just old videos telling us. I know, dumb, but we have to roll with it.

FLYING FIRE BUGS - so Biosyn's boss is Lewis Dodgson, the guy who paid off Nedry in JP to steal embryos. More on him later, but he's trying to destroy evidence and lights his lab of giant grasshoppers on fire. They break out and fly across the valley in a whirl of flames and fall from the sky like giant fireballs, setting the forest ablaze and causing Biosyn to evacuate the facility while also neuroshockingly call the dinos in the valley to an enclosure at the facility. This sounds ridiculous. And it is. But it was pretty cool. Even if the grasshoppers were overused, this was still a cool idea.

So the ever increasing group is back at Biosyn labs where they have to split up to re-activate an aerial protection shield to prevent flying dinos from attacking their escape helicopter (no one says why flying dinos wouldn't also be a part of the previous neuroshock call for all dinos to go to the enclosure, but whatever). One team rescues baby raptor, one team converts power, one team uses walkie talkies nostalgically to talk them through it. Shields get working. Raptor gets rescued. Helicopter leaves in the middle of a giant dino fight. But not before saving one Dr Henry Wu who explains how he can save the world via Maisie's DNA.

And that's that. I might have made it seem like I didn't like it, but on the whole, I enjoyed it, even though I think it could have been much better. The best I can say though is that it was a mixed bag. It had some fantastic scenes, characters, writing, and dinosaurs, mixed with rushed plots, dumb storytelling, bad writing, bad characters, and lack of dinosaurs.

Characters

Claire - It seems like they have been trying to make Claire the main character of the entire JW franchise and each movie they fail, not just as the main character, but as a character in general. And it's because they don't know what they want her to be. In JW she was an uptight successful business woman, pragmatic, cold to both dinosaurs or people. In JW2 she was suddenly a freedom fighter, animal lover. Here she's a mother. It seems like an interesting arc, but they can't decide whether they want her to be the damsel in distress or the hero. So they make her both, and it works against the story arc. She's a muddled character to say the least. I like her and don't like her.

Owen - He really is the best of the new cast. Great lines. Great action. Wish they would have put him with the new cast earlier. Pratt and Goldblum seemed to have good chemistry in the too few scenes they're in together. Motorcycles and dinosaurs doesn't seem like it should work, but he makes it work.

Maisie - I was willing to play along with her being a clone in the last movie, but to make her the center of the story in this movie with super DNA was too far of a stretch.

Dr Grant - He was delightful and you could tell he enjoyed playing Grant again. I hate that they put him in the bug storyline, but he was made for the scene in the cave. Gave him a good ending, even if it was rather forced, as the whole Grant/Sadler story felt.

Dr Sadler - Given that her JP character has sort of become a feminist icon over the years, I was anticipating her JW character to fall in line. I'm happy to say it didn't really. She's pretty much the same character, but I don't think she played her as well.

Dr. Malcolm - Another great performance. He really channeled the old JP version of this character to great effect. But the importance of his role in the story was a bit undermined by the addition of a rather unnecessary character.

Tough Lady Pilot - I don't recall her name, but she was a decent addition. You needed a pilot with a shady background. The problem though is that they more or less made her an Owen who can fly. Badass, ex-military, witty humor. And aside from being a copy of a character they already had, her role in the story didn't make sense. Unless I missed it (again, lots of rushed exposition) she somehow knew all about Biosyn, their inner workings, unknown dinosaur names, etc. She was basically a side character Mary Sue. And of course, they finally were able to sneak in some lines and scenes that suggested she's gay. Nothing my 7 or 10 year old could pick up on. Frankly, considering that such stuff is nearly required in Hollywood now, I'm surprised they were able to hold out until the last film to even allude to it.

Unnecessary Assistant Guy - The Old Cast is given a tour of Biosyn by a young black gentleman whose name escapes me. He's some sort of assistant who seemed at first just a higher up lackey, but later on it appeared that he might have even been a possible second in command? I don't know, he worked at the company and did something possibly important. Whatever. Anyway, just as we assume it's all Dr. Malcolm who has figured things out (actually tells Sadler her paper convinced him something was up w/Biosyn) it turns out it's really this guy who told Malcolm about everything and he helps Grant/Sadler escape --but in such a way that makes it seem like he's a bad guy b/c the Boss knows where they are and things are going 'according to plan" and stuff but in reality he's not a bad guy, nor does the Boss know he's double crossed him, making lot's of things confusing as to why the writers deliberately led us down this weird convoluted path. Whatever the case, he's unnecessary. All the things he did could have been done by one of the other 7 or 8 lead actors... As his unnecessary role became apparent to me as I was watching, "Ah," I says to myself. "Here's the unfortunate fellow who will get eaten in some tragic and/or self-sacrificial way!" Nope. Just one more person to keep track of running on screen.

Lewis Dodgson - On paper, this was the exact person to be the bad guy. He's in the first movie, albeit briefly, so there's the hook. And for the most part it works. But throughout the film he acts in extremely weird ways that we're meant to notice (because other characters notice). He acts erratic, distracted, and you're not quite sure the reason why he makes a decision. Because of the way they set it up you feel like they will provide an explanation, some sort of key, but no. I assume they believed they were conveying something but it didn't translate. Just a man baby who maybe has some sort of unexplained mental condition? Anyway, his ending was good. Even if, again, forced.

Henry Wu - This guy was a nobody in the 1st JP movie, became the evil scientist behind everything in the last two, and in this one they tried to make him repentant. I don't like it. Wu needed to be a nice T Rex crunchy treat. He should have tried to overtake Biosyn's leader or something worthy of his evil buildup.


Dinosaurs
I can't help but wonder if the writers are just bored with dinosaurs. In the first two JW films they really leaned upon "hybrid" dinosaurs that were mishmashed with different dino DNAs, as if the other dinos were boring. In this film it really felt like the locusts had more screen time than T Rex and the new Giganotosaurus. And the Giga, while a very cool design, was almost always shown in the dark, and for some reason it seemed to be less terrifying than previous dino bad guys (T rex included), it moved slow and, while big, wasn't as big as the characters kept making it out to be. I wonder if part of the reason it wasn't very scary is because it was mostly chasing the star cast and you felt sure none of them would die... That said, it did scare my 7 year old out of her seat.

Also, they finally did it, they put feathered dinosaurs in the movie. The reason they did it is because evolution nuts have been screaming about it for years that they need sCiEnTiFiCalLy AcCuRaTe dinosaurs. So since everyone knows that dinosaurs in the Jurassic franchise are all genetically designed, this must have been a specific design added to the dinosaurs (just like every other enhancement/flaw from all the past dinosaurs they've designed). No. According to some rando scientist Biosyn has created the first 'genetically pure' dinosaurs rendering them completely genetically accurate (and thus, covered in feathers). There are only two or three that they reveal on screen, one is awesome, a three clawed, unexplainably blind, Therizinosaurus. The other is basically a velociraptor that looks like Elton John that can swim in ice water. The ironic thing is that neither of these dinosaurs have been proven by science that they had feathers. No skin impressions, only assumptions. (T-Rex was assumed, and still is by idiots, to have had feathers until they saw that the skin had no feathers.) So, in reality, they are even further from being 'genetically pure' representation than any other dinosaur on screen.

One more thing that bothered me. Throughout the movie, I think three characters referred to Biosyn introducing two apex predators and that one must prevail. Aside from setting up some unsatisfactory expectations, and exposing some painful writing, it also gave opportunity for a plot hole. As Team Grasshopper is entering the valley, they are told about this apex predator predicament and are told that the T-Rex was just captured and had just arrived. But later in the movie we are shown 3 T-Rexes. No explanations.


Some Bad
I didn't re-read everything I wrote, but I feel like I have more criticism than praise for the movie. I don't think it was a bad movie. I just think they wasted a golden opportunity. This might just be a re-iteration of what I've already mentioned, but here are a couple things that I thought were the worst:

1) Villains - I'm growing convinced that Hollywood doesn't know how to write villains anymore. I mentioned Wu's undeserved turnaround and Dodgson's unexplained erratic behavior. For a movie that in some ways had it's finger on some pure pulp fiction goodness, you'd think a cookie cutter villain would work just fine. In fact the last movie had a room full of them at a dinosaur auction. But I can't help but think they felt they needed to give their villains some sort of layers or relatability and just stop it please.

2) The Cloned Girl & Locust stories / De-emphasis on Dinosaurs - This is a cool storyline, even a Crichton-esqe storyline. Just not a Jurassic Park storyline. And for the last film, it backfilled a lot of information we didn't have from the beginning of the series, which means the payoff was for this movie only, and not the franchise. Any storyline emphasizing dinosaurs would have been better. Make some lunatic warlord with world conquest in mind in charge of a dinosaur army and have Owen and company recruited to train their own dino-squad to sabotage operations. Then in the final act have an enormous dinosaur battle. But no. We get Clone Girl and the Grasshoppers.

3) Editing/Exposition - everything was either way to slow, or way to rushed. Over explained or barely explained or never explained. Rarely was anything properly explained. There were glaring examples all over the place, but one in particular was mind numbing. A character is ejected from a plane, lands in a tree, plane crashes waaaaay the hell far away, across an enormous forest. Ejected character sees the smoke plume from their vantage point. Characters from wrecked plane then go to find ejected character. We see them leave plane site, then the next time we see them they have arrived at the ejection site. A whole movie could have been written about how they had to trek across dino infested valley to find that ejection seat... but zip! they were just there. Whatever.

Some Good
Ok. Even though the storylines were bad, there was still some gold to be found.

1) Nostalgia - Old cast is back, lots of throwbacks

2) Dr. Malcolm - He's the Malcolm from the first JP, down to the glasses and leather jacket. He has the best lines that only Goldblum can do.

3) The dinosaurs are visually amazing. I wanted to see more.

4) The Milan Scene (told you I'd get back to this) - This scene was the best in the movie and struck the exact note I wanted for a movie like this. It also had a great cookie cutter bad guys. The chief of which is an exotic woman who was hired to kidnap the kid and dinosaur and transfer them in Milan. Here Team Owen shows up to try and stop them. They also find themselves in an almost Star Wars-esque hive of scum and villainy. An underground club of criminals from all over the world engaging in illegal dinosaur trading, dino fighting ring, gambling, etc. Of course, things go south, dinosaurs get lose and cause havoc, and of course Team Kidnappers have dinosaurs trained to kill specific targets, which they sick on ya boy Owen who must evade psycho raptors as he rides a motorcycle through Milan and must catch a plane about to take off. Again, this was the highlight of the movie and showed how awesome, zany, things could have gone.

5) The Amber Mine Scene - at some point Drs. Grant, Sadler, and Maisie find themselves in an abandoned amber mine. They must find their way out. Of course it's occupied by dinosaurs...Dimetrodons! A dino we haven't seen in any film yet, and they were used to great effect.

6) Dilophosaurus - our favorite frilly necked, venom spitting dino is back! And with friends.

I'm sure a re-watch will garner more praise and criticism. But now that I've seen them all, here's my ranking of Jurassic films best to worst.

1) Jurassic Park, 1993
2) Jurassic World, 2015
3) The Lost World: Jurassic Park, 1997
4) Jurassic Park: Fallen Kingdom, 2018
5) Jurassic Park: Dominion, 2022
6) Jurassic Park III, 2001

[Del]

Original JP 1993..... Pipeson and Cigarson were 12 and 14. We watched the movie over and over again.

Remember the oily lawyer character who hid in the outhouse and got to be the first character chomped by the T-Rex?

It became a ritual in our family. When Oily Lawyer threatens Hammond over investors' safety concerns ("If I don't like it, I'm shutting you down"), Hammond responds, "In 24 hours, I'll be accepting your apology!"

I would say, "In 24 hours, you'll be dinosaur poop."

[MrPiper]

The whole series is a metaphor for human induced ecological destruction. Humans must be stopped, at all cost, from unleashing their terror on the world and ruining the environment. It's for the children.

Personally, I would like to have a velociraptor head over my fireplace though!

[tuttle]

The whole series is a metaphor for human induced ecological destruction. Humans must be stopped, at all cost, from unleashing their terror on the world and ruining the environment. It's for the children.

I think it's a little more nuanced than that. Jurassic Park is essentially Frankenstein. We have the scientific power (at least in this fictionalized world) to bring something we've created to life, only to watch our beloved creation destroy our lives and everything we love. The "moral" in Frankenstein and JP is that wisdom (and not pragmatism or hubris or money, etc,) should guide our scientific endeavors. The original JP had that message in spades. It was slightly re-kindled in other movies but wasn't as forceful. It certainly was lost in this last movie.