JURASSIC WORLD DOMINION

 

Dinosaurs once ruled the Earth and there's always been a part of me that thinks about what it would be like if both humans and dinosaurs co-existed today. Back in 1993, Steven Spielberg toyed around with that idea when he adapted Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park for the big screen, the idea that dinosaurs were brought back to life to exist as theme park attractions going horribly wrong when they escape and start terrorising the guests. All these years later and with the Jurassic World films, we have seen what a fully functioning dinosaur theme park would have been like as well as a dinosaur auction with ridiculous low-balling from attendees. At the end of Fallen Kingdom the dinosaurs had all been let loose into mainland America and Jurassic World Dominion picks up where things left off, with humans and dinosaurs forced to co-exist.

Four years after the destruction of Isla Nublar, dinosaurs now live, and hunt, alongside humans all over the world. This fragile balance will reshape the future and determine, once and for all, whether human beings are to remain the apex predators on a planet they now share with history's most fearsome creatures in a new era.

The horrible feeling of being majorly underwhelmed is one that couldn't be shaken off for a while after Jurassic World Dominion had finished. The set-up was there and the promise of the "epic conclusion of the Jurassic Era" was one that surely had to be delivered, right? Well, not exactly. Dominion has a major flaw and that is the fact it is far too long a film, stuffed with utter rubbish that no one in the audience is there to see in all honesty. The idea of dinosaurs and humans co-existing is explored however, every time it is, it feels like it's over before it began. It's a real shame, particularly as Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly seem more invested in telling a tale about genetically modified locusts than anything else. In all honesty, who is paying a ticket to see Jurassic World Dominion and expecting a good third of the film to be talking about locusts?!

It's a film so unevenly paced that prolonged segments of mind-numbing exposition start to really test the patience of the audience, the first act of the film actually making a film from this franchise boring which is something I thought I'd never be saying. Trevorrow and Emily Carmichael's screenplay is a far cry from the intelligence of the original Jurassic Park film, the trio of Ian Malcolm, Ellie Sattler and Alan Grant all subjected to juvenile antics, the latter two in particular caught in some young adult level style of romance in the midst of trying to survive many encounters with dinosaurs. 

The saving grace of the film is some of its action sequences and dinosaur set-pieces that are there to remind you that this is a film from the Jurassic Park franchise after all. Trevorrow proves he can handle tenacious action when required and also deliver moments drenched with tension but it's all too sparse as previously mentioned. The highlight of the film is a relentless chase both on foot across the rooftops and on-road through the streets of Malta, pulsating and full of so many death-defying moments it's impossible to take your eyes off. Claire Dearing is involved in that and the two other stand-out dinosaur sequences, her silent escape from a predator that hunts solely through sound and her encounter with a pack of returning favourites, the Dilophosaurus. The former is a sequence that can be seen in full through the trailers released which is a shame yet it's still very much a cool moment, while the latter is the danger and fear these films should all be about. The one thing that brings these all together is the magnificent special effects on display, whether it be the CGI or practical effects utilised with some magnificent animatronics here and there.

Bringing the legacy characters back for this concluding chapter seemed like a smart choice yet it's hard not to think they're massively wasted in Dominion. Sam Neill and Laura Dern are thrust together again on a mission to infiltrate the labs of the villainous Biosyn and it all feels off, the romance mentioned before feeling so forced compared to the sublety it had in the original film. Jeff Goldblum is a man who just knows how to light up a screen and, while it's fun to hear him stating the obvious is such an obnoxious manner, even Goldblum has a hard time selling some of the lines given to him. It's great to see them again in the franchise it's just they deserve so much better than this.

Another returning trio is Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard and Isabella Sermon who are playing the not-so-happy family routine out in the woods together until a kidnapping takes their respective stories elsewhere. Pratt does his usual action hero routine and devotion to Blue the Velociraptor quite well, Howard gives her all when it comes to feeling terrified (as you would in this scenario) while Sermon's performance unfortunately sticks out like a sore thumb as a weak link in the film. She's not the only one mind as Campbell Scott gives a comically bad performance in the villainous role of Lewis Dodgson, a character so bland he might as well not even be there. DeWanda Wise is a welcome new addition as Kayla Watts, a badass pilot who takes no bullshit and proves to be one of the more resourceful of the group.

Jurassic World Dominion has its moments for sure, it's just they are way too few and far between unfortunately. It pains me to say this but what it ends up being is a clunky and underwhelming conclusion to the Jurassic Era.

Verdict: ★★½