Jurassic World: Dominion
Year: 2022
Rating: PG-13
Length: 147 minutes / 2.45 hours
It’s amusing to me that Director Colin Trevorrow thinks that there should have only been one Jurassic Park (1993), even after directing two of the sequels in the Jurassic World franchise. I mean, he’s not wrong. Spielberg’s film is a perfect blend of practical effects that helped bring the horror of rampaging dinosaurs to life. I’d forgive any of the sequels if they actually did anything interesting with the concept past what the original did. As it stands, even bringing back three members of the original cast for Jurassic World: Dominion (2022) just highlighted how repetitive this franchise has become.
At the end of Fallen Kingdom (2018), there was a whole wide world of dinosaurs to explore, but the Park and World crews instead team up to go to yet another island filled with resurrected dinosaurs. Sure, some of them have feathers this time around, and we get a few “new” dinosaurs fighting old favorites, but it’s literally the same plot as ever. Even Jeff Goldblum’s character is literally lecturing this fact to the residents of knock-off Apple island. Also, the irony of literal man-eating dinosaurs roaming the world and the human population being more concerned about “rEtUrNiNg tO tHe bEaCh” had such strong Jaws (1975) vibes that echo true today.
Now, in my opinion, Dominion isn’t terrible. It has its fun moments and wraps up some storylines from previous films in the World franchise. The bits in the “real world” were a great way to show some moments of potential peaceful human/dinosaur scenarios—which is rare in this franchise. I also found the new character of Kayla Watts (DeWandaWise) to be an extremely interesting individual, both in her background and in sheer awesome character design. More of her, please.
More of the same, starring more of the same, I give Jurassic World: Dominion 3.0 stars out of 5.
