Written by Elliot Lines
Steven Spielberg's original, Jurassic Park, set us upon a journey. Since 1993 there has been ups and downs in the Jurassic franchise, but this felt like an opportunity to really go out with a bang. Unfortunately, Jurassic World Dominion feels like an opportunity missed with a baffling plot that took away from the main event, the dinosaurs themselves.
After the events of Fallen Kingdom, dinosaurs now roam the earth, living amongst humans. Biosyn is a company that looks to benefit from this, but what is actually going on inside the labs of Biosyn could be catastrophic for the entire planet.
Sounds familiar right? Well you might think that this is once again a plot about a bunch of overzealous scientists doing something they shouldn't (i.e. making dinosaurs, genetically designing dinosaurs), and you'd be right. But this time the main threat, locusts. Genetically modified locusts is the focus here. There is a whole world being roamed by dinosaurs and what we get is a billionaire Lewis Dodgson (Campbell Scott) who has built a sanctuary for dinosaurs but has threatened the world with these locusts. It ultimately lends to a underwhelming feeling, especially when the moments with the dinosaurs were by far the best moments of the film.
Even to this day there is still an awe about these creatures on the screen, and even more so when you're treated to a Fast and Furious type chase through the streets of Malta. And what Jurassic World Dominion didn't do is make the most of them in the plot.
The re-introduction of the legacy characters was a big talking point with the film, but they felt underutilised, at times feeling like the addition of Alan Grant (Sam Niell), Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) and Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) in the plot was just because they could. A couple of notable new characters were introduced in Kayla Watts (DeWanda Wise) and Cole Ramsey (Mamoudou Athie), but Lewis Dodgson was the standout, and not in a good way. This was a baffling performance, one that surely was down to the script he was dealt because i'm pretty sure the laughing in the audience wasn't because he was humorous. There was also a return for Owen Grady (Chris Pratt), Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) and Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon) who are now a family living in isolation until Maisie gets kidnapped, although the family dynamic is never really sold between the three of them.
Jurassic World Dominion almost reminded me of Godzilla King of the Monsters, where the human characters were either pointless or boring. Largely down to this script, it managed to take you out of the moment and question what actually came out their mouths, and it's actually hard to criticise when that is the material they are working with.
An overall runtime of 146 minutes was far too long, with a big chunk consisting of jumping between locations early on mostly to set up new and old characters. Jurassic World Dominion does have its moments, and they are some of the best in the franchise. But for many reasons, unfortunately this was a disappointing end to the Jurassic era.
STAR RATING
