Since 1993 the Jurassic Park franchise has been one of the most popular among movie fans, and here it is, nearly thirty years later, concluding what actors like Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum started on Isla Nublar back in the early 1990’s. Since dinosaurs have now been released into the wild, both they and humans must find a way to coexist, but doing that will prove to be even more difficult than expected. When Biosyn, a biomedical engineering company causes immense changes to the food chain, Owen Grady (Chris Pratt), Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard), and Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon), along with some new and familiar faces, must come together to get nature back on the right track. Their journey will be difficult, but together they have the potential to save the world in Jurassic World Dominion.
Steven Spielberg was (and still is) known for developing a science fiction film in the 1990’s that surpassed nearly everything else visually–even some things that came after. In 2022, fans of the franchise expect things to be as good as the original, if not better in terms of the animatronics, animation, etc. This was the first of many disappointing aspects of Jurassic World Dominion. There are a handful of times when I noticed some choppy animation–and this has something to do with the editing. There are moments when certain dinosaurs appear to glitch from one place to the next, fracturing the reality of the film and causing struggles in the audience’s suspension of disbelief. Furthermore, I found myself in one scene questioning the choices made by Writer-Director Colin Trevorrow. Rather than looking like terrifying dinosaurs ready to attack, one particular species appears to have been placed on a series of rigs that were only able to move forward and backward. The lack of mobility takes away from the intended horror of the film (making it feel something like a ride at a theme park), and moments like this sprinkled throughout Jurassic World Dominion take away from Trevorrow and his crew’s intentions–watering down a potentially scary film.
Jurassic World Dominion introduces Kayla Watts (DeWanda Wise) to the Jurassic Park family. From her first moments on film I struggled to accept this character, not because she lacks talent (because it appears that she possesses great talent), but because the writing for her character is subpar. It seems that they intended to have Kayla be the new Ian Malcolm to a degree, with a series of one-liners and witty remarks as her only form of communication. The writers take this too far, and while her character ultimately plays an integral role in Jurassic World Dominion, Wise is unable to shine as a result of her lack of literary substance.
Choices like this plague Jurassic World Dominion from the beginning, and it becomes difficult to understand why this crew made the choices they did when developing the film. Antagonists and plot lines seem underdeveloped, characters fail to live up to expectations, and multiple storylines attempting to run parallel to one another throughout the course of Jurassic World Dominion appear to step on each others’ toes from beginning to end.
There’s a piece of me that’s conflicted in all of this. I’m a fan of the franchise, and what Universal Studios has done in the past has typically been enjoyable. I’m a person that’s invested what many would consider a significant amount of time into watching the franchise, and for it to end on a note like this is disappointing. However, being as invested as I am, seeing the numerous call backs, familiar faces, and plot points come to be in Jurassic World Dominion makes the film worth it to a degree. There is a lot of fanservice present throughout this film, and it’s inviting to those who have followed the franchise for thirty years–but it’s still not enough to allow Jurassic World Dominion to compete with the ranks of its predecessors.
Jurassic World Dominion presents audiences with a series of things that massive fans of the franchise had been hoping for for years. The previews give just about everything away, and as the film plays out, not much is surprising. The film feels frumpy, underdeveloped, and it fails to live up to anything that these previous dino films have accomplished. Some aspects of Jurassic World will appeal to fans, but the majority of what Trevorrow and his crew bring to life is a massive disappointment–leaving the conclusion of the franchise as the worst of the bunch.
Directed by Colin Trevorrow.
Written by Emily Carmichael, Colin Trevorrow, Derek Connolly, & Michael Crichton.
Starring Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Laura Dern, Dam Neill, Jeff Goldblum, DeWanda Wise, Mamoudou Athie, Isabella Sermon, Campbell Scott, BD Wong, Omar Sy, etc.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐½/10
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