Jurassic World: Dominion review

We are closing fast on the 30th anniversary of the first Jurassic Park. We have now had 5 sequels to that classic, and not one of them has even come close to matching it.

The latest, Jurassic World: Dominion, is billed as the conclusion to the franchise. This is of course total nonsense, because this is one of Universal Pictures premiere franchises. There will always be Jurassic films. 

I sure hope the future films can figure it out. The "World" movies started out pretty well. It has issues, but Jurassic World is to me easily the 2nd best film in the series. Then came Fallen Kingdom, which I thought was okay at the time but I have almost completely forgotten. And most of what I do remember ain't good. Dominion is probably better than Fallen Kingdom, but it is an ungodly mess of a film that has no idea what it even wants to be. It turns into a Bourne film for like 20 minutes at one point. 

The story is all over the place. It is ridiculously overstuffed with story threads and characters.

The big draw for some (including me) this time is that for the first time since the original, all 3 of the original stars are back in the same film: Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum. Yeah this has become a real trend lately to have these "legacy sequels" bringing back older franchise stars for new films. That can go both ways, but most of this film's pleasures are from seeing these 3. Goldblum in particular is just terrific. I loved his "I spent decades trying to convince people to not ruin the world and now I give up" vibe. Very relatable. 

But the old guard only get.part of the story. We also have Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard coming back. We have the little girl from the last movie. We have another eeeeeevil corporation (led by a dreadful Campbell Scott). We have multiple kidnappings. We have underground dinosaur traders. We have swarms of genetically enhanced locusts (really) threatening to wipe out America's food supply. We have a whole backstory about clone girl. There are a couple bit characters from the last 2 films who pop up. And some new characters who take up space. 

There is so much clutter here, like 5 plots smashed together. None of them are even the "dinosaurs living among the real world" we were promised. We only get a few news clips of dinosaur attacks over the globe.

Most of the film takes place at what is basically just another Jurassic Park. It's not a tourist attraction, but it's another contained area were dinosaurs are being kept. And eventually all our main characters wind up there. 

Along the way there are a couple legitimately excellent set pieces. There is an extended chase sequence that's really exciting, and an aerial dino attack that's quite intense (probably not the best idea to eject there though). But like all the Jurassic sequels, the dinosaurs are treated as basically indistinguishable from any other movie monster.

This is a likable cast and they carry the day pretty well. Except Scott, who is one of the worst movie villains of all time.

I exit this film thinking that it's...fine. Nowhere near as despicable as Jurassic Park 3, which for me will likely forever remain the franchise nadir. But in 30 years they just haven't recaptured what made the original so good. Making a cool movie about dinosaurs in the modern world should not be this hard. The closest they got was the first Jurassic World, but even that one was just good, not great.

We will get more films, no doubt. This might be it for both the old cast and the new cast. I would suggest a full reboot. And let the dinosaurs be something to inspire awe again. Stop fucking using them like they are generic monsters.