Review by Jon Donnis
We have another big Hollywood Blockbuster to review, this time it is Jurassic World Dominion, which is seemingly the third in the Jurassic World trilogy and 6th movie in the franchise altogether.
To be brutally honest, I was not a fan of the Jurassic World films, I think the franchise should have been left alone after the first two Jurassic Park films. After them, everything just seemed too obvious, and lacking in originality.
Jurassic World Dominion is set four years after the cataclysmic volcanic eruption on Isla Nublar and the Lockwood Estate incident. Now dinosaurs freely roam the world, and as you can imagine this is causing all manner of problems, causing ecological disasters, as well as native species being attacked and destroyed.
In the Dolomite Mountains in Italy, Biosyn Genetics has established a dinosaur sanctuary where they conduct genetic research on Dinosaurs, using that research for pharmacological and agronomic purposes. Think Pfizer and Bill Gates and you get the idea of the kind of evil you are dealing with.
Claire Dearing, Zia Rodriguez, and Franklin Webb, are still with the Dinosaur Protection Group, and they investigate illegal dinosaur breeding sites. Fan favourite Chris Pratt stars as Owen Grady, who now works as a dino wrangler, helping to relocate stray dinosaurs.
Claire and Owen live together in a remote cabin in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, where they are also raising Benjamin Lockwood's secret cloned granddaughter Maisie. They want to protect her from Biosyn who would study her unique DNA and use that for evil big business type things.
Of course, we need a big disaster, and as it happens giant locusts have re-appeared and are destroying food crops, but coincidentally crops grown by Biosyn are untouched, pointing to a big conspiracy.
And well the rest you can probably guess. Throw in some of the stars of the original Jurassic Park films, Jeff Goldblum as Dr. Ian Malcolm, Sam Neill as Dr. Alan Grant and Laura Dern as Dr. Ellie Sattler, and you have a mixture of new and original characters. The problem is that you are given little reason to really care about any of the characters.
The biggest problem this film faces is that it offers nothing new, previous films went all out, and really left the franchise in a dead end. So, all they could do is rehash some old storylines, bring back some nostalgic characters, and repeat the kind of dino scenes we have all seen before. T-Rex fights Allosaurus, Velociraptors chase people, you know the drill.
The horror elements that made the original films so good are all gone. There is little to any humour. The bad guy is very meh, and the good guys I really felt no emotional connection to at all.
This, like the other Jurassic World films are made for kids, and that doesn't have to be a bad thing, but for fans of the original films, this is just a paint by numbers film. Nothing particularly bad about it, it will do a huge number at the box office, and I am sure kids will love it. But it is not the ending of the series that some of us hoped for. Jurassic Park was a horror film, Jurassic World Dominion is an action film, and I suppose that is my biggest gripe.
The only realistic way this franchise should have finished, is with the human race being hunted down and destroyed by dinosaurs, pointing to extinction for the human race, that is how this franchise should have ended, with the humans being replaced by their own creation. But I guess that would not sell as many toys. Hollywood has gotten so greedy, and I wonder sometimes if it has lost the magic that made the original Jurassic Park such a classic. With the exception of Top Gun Maverick, have Hollywood released a decent Blockbuster in the last 5 years? I mean a real blockbuster, that is an instant classic?
The Good
Perfectly decent story, good acting throughout, special effects are perfect, CGI is excellent.
The Bad
Offers nothing new to the franchise and a totally predictable story.
Overall
Another big money cash in, to keep selling toys to kids, and keep the money rolling in.
I score Jurassic World Dominion a disappointing 5/10
In cinemas now
