Jurassic World: Dominion

 This review may contain spoilers!

 

Jurassic World: Dominion is the third film in the Jurassic World series and showcases the fallout after dinosaurs escape into mainland America and the greater world. Owen and Claire must go to great lengths to protect their adopted daughter, while Ellie Sattler, Alan Grant and Ian Malcolm reunite to prevent a evil corporate mogul from bringing about the extinction of mankind. What I enjoyed about this film chiefly exists in the back half of the second act and a lot of the third act. This is because this block of the feature gave a number of scenes that showed our main characters hiding, running and attempting to survive dinosaur attacks. These are moments of pure tension and terror, in which prehistoric predators that should never even exist hun. When the film hits those moments I'm reminded of why the Jurassic series has such a massive following that dates right back to the original film in 1993. I liked that each storyline had a silver lining to it as well, a hook for the audience. Owen and Claire's antics were the blockbuster big action moments; with the Malta chase scene being a major favourite for me. Meanwhile Ellie, Alan and Ian had a really intriguing storyline with a nice sprinkling of espionage in the mix. The cinematography really speaks to the scale of this feature; it's impressive to see such expansive SFX vistas or hurtling action shots captured in true Trevorrow blockbuster fashion. The visual effects used to capture each dinosaur design is so varied and unique, in my opinion far and away the best part of the film is the effects. I also felt Giacchino made quite and adventurous and at times foreboding score; it's far from the best heard in the series but it hits all the right cues.

 

Chris Pratt, who played Owen Grady, has led these films well as the death-defying action hero; watching Pratt play a man struggling to be a father is actually a nice and fitting spin for Owen. Bryce Dallas Howard, who played Claire Dearing, is a performance that I've struggled with the past two films but Howard really finds herself this time around; playing a mother going to the ends of the Earth to save her daughter is the brave streak this character really needed. Laura Dern, who played Ellie Sattler, steals the show constantly throughout the film; Dern is immediately charismatic as the rebellious scientist in pursuit of justice. Sam Neill, who played Alan Grant, feels timeless as the stoic dinosaur expert reluctantly thrust into danger; Neill's a more cautious action hero than Pratt and often sees the danger of the scenarios they are in. DeWanda Wise, who played Kayla Watts, is a perfect example of a poorly written character made great by the actor; Wise is a firecracker with her line delivery and is easily one of the coolest new additions to the Jurassic cast. Mamoudou Athie, who played Ramsay Cole, is this charismatic corporate spy that pairs really well with Goldblum's character arc; I found Athie to be a compelling rival to our corporate antagonist.

However, the best performance came from Jeff Goldblum, who played Ian Malcolm. Goldblum just might have found a way to make Malcolm more interesting to watch than the other 3 times he has portrayed the character. In this feature we see Ian Malcolm as an intensely charismatic lecturer, who ponders the ethics around genetic manipulation and bringing extinct species back from the dead. I found Goldblum's passionate speeches around humanity's lack of empathy towards these creatures fascinating and extremely heartfelt. I also loved seeing his immediate chemistry reunited with Dern and Neill, this trio really led Dominion beautifully. Watching goldblum initially portray a beaming corporate stooge to unveilling a more focused spy on the inside was a great hook for his role. More than this I was overjoyed to see him cast off this ruse and stand up to the main antagonist face to face, hurling insults with an incredible amount of dignity. From that point Goldblum gets to turn to more of an adventuring role, with a quick wit and a drifting dialogue delivery that smacked of improvisation. The film even dedicates him a full blown showdown with a major alpha predator that blew me away completely.

Jurassic World: Dominion flourishes when it tries to hook the audiences with the terror of an impending dinosaur attack, but it takes a very long time to get there. This is a long film and the first and second acts spend long stretches of time passing the ball back and forth between the Owen/Claire storyline and the Ellie/Alan/Ian one. The problem with this is an issue much akin to the first Jurassic World film: pacing. The film spends so long explaining and setting things up that it fails to really take the time to hook the audience in, banking on the fact we've sat through five of these films already. The film opens with lengthy exposition bridging the gap between Fallen Kingdom and Dominion so that we can understand how a handful of dinos in an auction house spread globally. The film really wants us to hate big expansive corporations this time around; having the main threat be a prehistoric hybrid locust crafted to attack crops. Not only is this such a strange choice for a world that is normally motivated by dinosaurs but once again the Jurassic World creators seem adamant to craft villainous monster-creatures that are a fusion of different beasts. While I didn't mind the human clone storyline of Fallen Kingdom, it's all too clear they struggled to know how to continue it in this one. Having Maisie Lockwood treated like a plot device hunted for her value diminished her growth as a character. But it's worse than that really; the film reveals Blue the raptor can give birth asexually and so did Maisie's mother (her genetic donor). It's a pretty morally grey area for the film and they skip over it pretty quick but it's a weird arc for this young character and leads us down a genetic subplot that really makes little sense. I felt the CEO antagonist who was clearly meant to be more of a Bezos/Musk archetype to be a little on the nose; he was scripted to be two-dimensional and sinister which took the punch out of him thematically. Overall, the whole film does this quite a lot. The big themes of man vs. nature used to be subtle and interesting; this film has Alan Grant look dead in the camera and say, "this isn't about us", while a T-rex and genetic hybrid alpha predator fight in the background.

Isabella Sermon, who played Maisie Lockwood, lost whatever she had going for her in Fallen Kingdom; seeing Sermon's role boil down to an angsty teen who mimics her adoptive Dad's character by taming raptors felt like a bit of a letdown. Campbell Scott, who played Lewis Dodgson, is all over the show in this feature; I have to wonder if the man had direction at all because he often seemed confused at how best to portray his antagonist role. BD Wong, who played Dr. Henry Wu, is a role that I usually quite enjoy but they missed the mark with this one; seeing Wong portray a shell of his character who had 'seen the light' and wanted to do good felt insincere to the character. Omar Sy, who played Barry Sembène, is a character I don't think anyone really missed from the first Jurassic World; Sy never found a way to make himself known in this series and his brief time in this film is equally forgettable. Justice Smith and Daniella Pineda, who played Franklin Webb and Dr. Zia Rodriguez respectively; feel like they are shuffled out of this film as swiftly as possible after the events of Fallen Kingdom; inexplicably Smith is given the greater screen time of the two despite having the worse screen presence. Dichen Lachman, who played Soyona Santos, is antagonist that really hams up her time on screen; Lachman enjoys playing to the melodrama with her antagonists which works poorly here. Kristoffer Polaha, who played Wyatt Huntley, is a rather boring henchman character; he is there to be present in the action chase scenes more than he is to portray a character. Jasmine Chiu, who played Gemma Zhao, is a geyser of exposition we really didn't need; I feel bad for Chiu because she is our introduction to the film which is a big responsibility to fumble so severely.

There's a line delivered by Jeff Goldblum in which he says, "Jurassic World, not a fan." Which sums up my feelings pretty well. I would give Jurassic World: Dominion a 6/10.