Jurassic World: Dominion

Scott Hardie: “It was ok.”

The Jurassic Park films started with one very entertaining thriller and have been failing to recapture its magic in every sequel since. This one is the same: It lazily stages numerous action scenes where the heroes no longer seem even remotely threatened by dinosaurs after this long in their company, it halfheartedly attempts a message about eco-capitalism run amok (the trailer for Percy says more on the subject in two minutes than this film does in two hours), it raises questions about cloning and humanity's place in the eco-system that it doesn't have any interest in answering, and it also digs up minor characters to make return appearances for no real reason. Oh, and it brazenly ignores apparent plot holes, such as, how did the dinosaurs reproduce asexually if there was only one of each species (this is answered for one species but not the rest), and how did the dinosaurs expand around the world in just four years (animal trafficking is mentioned but come on, there were like 30 escaped dinosaurs at the end of Fallen Kingdom and now there appear to be 30,000 or more)?

It's not all bad. I was entertained by some of the action sequences even if a better director (*cough* Spielberg) would have ratcheted up the tension higher, and the motorcycle chase scene was especially fun. Some critics have complained about the film's ethnic exoticism in the middle act, but I don't know, I want to give the film credit for trying to use new locations in new ways since the series finally escaped from the tropical island for good (and besides, I was impressed by the attention to detail in the production design of the underworld market). The movie casts unusual-looking actors in small parts and gives them even odder costumes, so they stand out amidst the chaos. And I was entertained by some of the quirky performances of the actors, especially Campbell Scott, even if they didn't amount to anything. If the Jurassic series is going to continue, here's hoping that it gets a lot better or a lot more interested in its own ideas, but after this long coasting very profitably, I don't expect any different.

− June 13, 2022 • more by Scott • log in or create an account to reply

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