FILM REVIEW: JURASSIC WORLD DOMINION

it could have been so much better, but there’s a clear sense that the writers wanted to wrap everything up and chose to stick to a tried and tested formula for the rest of the movie. In some ways that worked brilliantly; in other ways it fell flat on its face

Whether you enjoy the final Jurassic World movie will depend on what you’re hoping to get out of it. 


Do you want to see the old cast reunited and plenty of nods to earlier films? You’re gonna love it.


Are you hoping for a carefully thought-out science fiction plot and believable situations of peril? You’re gonna be disappointed.


Want lots of dinosaurs on the screen with new, real dinosaurs and no silly hybrids? This is the movie for you!


Is character development and relatability important to you? Then you probably want to avoid this movie.


Jurassic World: Dominion has been receiving mixed reviews online, and it’s easy to see why. It’s the final instalment of what turned out to be a run of six movies. Overall, it could have been so much better, but there’s a clear sense that the writers wanted to wrap everything up and chose to stick to a tried and tested formula for the rest of the movie. In some ways that worked brilliantly; in other ways it fell flat on its face.


I saw a lot of reviews that said Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard looked bored in their roles or that their acting was wooden. And while they didn’t sparkle as much as they did in the first Jurassic World film (let’s just pretend that the second didn’t exist), this is partly down to the film itself rather than their acting talents or enthusiasm for the franchise.


One key element is that a lot of Pratt’s appeal in the first two movies was being charming, competent, proactive, and witty. But now those characteristics have been spread out between Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum. In particular, all the comedy relief lines were given to Goldblum. There were some memorable future classics in there like Malcolm’s amazed exclamation: “You made a promise to a dinosaur?” And his attempts at assisting Ellie and Claire over walkie-talkies to shut down the main power (sound familiar?) included the wonderful line: “Do you see a big green button? I can categorically tell you that you mustn’t press the big green button.”


And while I have a great respect for Pratt and Howard as actors (Howard’s performance as Ivy in The Village was one of my particular favourites), it’s got to be said that they just can’t quite measure up when starring opposite the original trio who have between them 148 years of acting experience. The minute Neill, Dern, and Goldblum walk in front of the camera, they owned the scene in a way that none of the other actors did. 


Which leads us onto the good parts of the film: the original cast. The three of them possess such screen presences that it’s a joy to watch them even in a particularly mediocre film. A decision was clearly made that the three of them wouldn’t be doing too much running around. After all, Neill is 74 years old, Goldblum 69 years old, and Dern 55 years old – perhaps not quite of an age to be pelting down a muddy road being chased by velociraptors. So their action scenes focussed more on upturned cars and stealthy dinosaur chases through caves or up ladders, leaving it to Pratt’s character to ride his motorcycle onto a moving plane while being chased by dinosaurs. It works well and strikes a nice balance between action and a more sedate pace.


However, this decision results in another flaw in the film: the lack of character development for Howard and Pratt’s characters. While their roles see the most action in Jurassic World: Dominion, there are very few chances for them to stop for a breather and have some emotional development. They’re cast as the concerned parents chasing after their stolen daughter. The scenario involving prehistoric locusts (which was an interesting plotline and one sign of the writers thinking outside of the franchise box) was left to Neill, Dern, and Goldblum. It was Neill and Dern who took on the thoughtful, investigative roles, who analysed the science and infiltrated the bad guy’s organisation. They saved the world while Howard and Pratt saved their daughter. One plotline had a steady, discreet pace, the other was an action-packed mad dash.


One relief is that the filmmakers abandoned the idea of trying to create super vicious and intelligent hybrid dinosaurs and instead chose to use real life dinosaurs that we haven’t seen before. The one that reminded me Freddy Kruger in bird-dinosaur form was far more terrifying, to my mind, when it went snuffling after Howard than any of the previous genetically modified dinosaurs had been when they chased characters across roofs. 


Ironic, then, that the human villain in Jurassic World: Dominion was so vanilla as to be uninteresting. As a fan of the original books, I really liked that the movie brought back Lewis Dodgson as the owner of a rival company, but the film really did nothing with the character. Campbell Scott played the role with wonderful understatement and would have made an excellent villain in another movie. But the human villains of Jurassic Park have always been big and bold and greedy. They’re larger than life villains to match the larger than life dinosaurs they’re trying to steal or exploit. Dodgson was just not up to it.


A particular element of Dodgson’s character that really irked me was how the director kept shoehorning in Dennis Nedry’s abandoned shaving foam canister. It was an obvious and crude reference, especially when you consider it would be highly unlikely that Dodgson could recover a canister that we last saw being buried by mud. In addition, absolutely no reason was offered as to why Dodgson would want to keep it around and even pack it in his belongings as if it had sentimental value.


For me, the six Jurassic Park films began and ended with a rite of passage. I saw the original Jurassic Park in 1993 with some older friends, my first trip to the cinema without my parents. For Jurassic World: Dominion, I got to take my daughter with me who hadn’t been old enough to see any of the previous films in the cinema. She actually bounced up and down in her seat at the excitement of seeing dinosaurs on a huge movie screen. 


And that’s the main draw of this film: the dinosaurs. There is nothing that can match the roar of a T-rex through cinema speakers; a TV cannot really do justice to the size of a mosasaurus as it zeroes in on an unsuspecting fishing vessel. It was great to see the old cast back again, and while there were plenty of flaws in this movie, there was good stuff too. All the characters got a nice send off, and after seeing BD Wong in every one of the Jurassic World movies so far, I thought the way his plotline was wrapped up was particularly satisfying.


So while I won’t necessarily be rushing to own a copy of this when it comes out on DVD, I enjoyed the film while I was in the cinema. In fact, I enjoyed it enough to tell my excited daughter that if she wanted to see it a second time, I’d take her back for the novelty value. After all, not many other films deliver a good dose of dinosaurs on the big screen, and it’s unlikely we’ll see any more for a while to come.

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