Bigger, why do they always have to go bigger: Jurassic World Dominion

 Jurassic World Dominion is the 6th film in the Jurassic Park franchise and it is the culmination of the series that began in 1993. Coming into 2022 this was my most anticipated film for the year. If you have read my reviews, you would also be aware that Jurassic Park is my favourite film of all time and the series, in general, is one of my favourites.

My hype for the idea of the original 3 protagonists was big enough to sustain me for this movie but I in general thought this movie was fantastic and a real fun time. Without spoiling anything I like that this film combines two of the biggest elements of the franchise: cool dinosaur action and corporate espionage as we see teams dealing with both in the film.

Jurassic World Dominion Review

  Of course, we can’t talk about this film without discussing the return of Alan Grant, Ellie Sattler, and Ian Malcolm whose respective actors returned to share scenes for the first time since 1993. Now, yes, they have all three returned in a sequel before this one but the three of them have never interacted since the original Jurassic Park and I was beyond excited for their return to see how they have changed as well as how they would factor into the plot. I would say that I was super happy that their characters were not cameos but they had their own plot lines and growth in this final installment. I am fully aware that their inclusion was to make people nostalgic so that they came to see the film but I thought the characters were well-integrated and important in the story. For Sam Neill and Laura Dern this is their first time back in the franchise since 2001’s Jurassic Park 3 and they stepped right back into these characters with no problem and their chemistry together reminded me of the scenes in the first film. Jeff Goldblum did return for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom in 2018 but that was much more of a cameo role where as here he has a much more important part to play and he provides many comedic moments in his classic Jeff Goldblum way. Their characters really do add this sense that this is the conclusion of the story started in Jurassic Park

The return of the main three does slightly overshadow our returning Jurassic World characters but that doesn’t mean I don’t like these characters quite a lot as well. Chris Pratt is once again great as Owen Grady and I like seeing his evolution as a character and how his parental relationship with Blue helps him develop his relationship with Maisie. Bryce Dallas Howard does a good job as Claire Dearing as we see her continue to try to ease her guilt from the events of the last few movies and I would say she has her most amount of action scenes in her time in the series. Isabella Sermon as Maisie Lockwood is an interesting character as she grapples with her identity after learning she is a clone in the last film. I thought they did some interesting things with her character in this film. 

Dewanda Wise plays a new character named Kayla Watts who is a pilot for hire and I thought her character brought and new dynamic and perspective as an outsider to big dinosaur conflicts, obviously, she’s seen some of them but being attacked by them is different.

The story as I mentioned up top narrows in on both dinosaur action and corporate espionage which are both big parts of the franchise. We basically have two plot lines with our characters and we see the progression of the stories until they intersect and influence one another. I want to be vague at this point because I watched every trailer and trailer breakdown yet I was still unaware of much of the plot and in my opinion that is the best way. On a final note, the action in this film was top notch with so many different dinosaurs and different types of action to the previous Jurassic films. The chase scene in Malta (which is in the trailers) really gave me Mission Impossible vibes which were cool and added a new element to the scenes with more potential collateral damage.  

All in all, this was a fantastic movie and well worth the wait in my opinion. Whether you are a big fan of the franchise or you just really enjoy dinosaurs eating people I am sure you will find enjoyment in this. So head on out to the theatre and check it out!

Spoilers: 

So my thoughts here are a bit all over since I have only seen it once but I thought the inclusion of Biosyn who was the corporate villains in Jurassic Park though they weren’t named was incredibly interesting and I thought that quite cool. With biosyn, we see the return of Lewis Dodgson who of course gives the Barbasol shaving cream can to Dennis Nedry in that original film. I thought the plot line with the locusts make sense as the evolution of what the genetic power presented in these films can do. We see mass locusts with genes from the Cretaceous era flying around and killing crops which could cause the death of humanity. I thought it was interesting how Henry Wu seems to have become maybe a bit guilty in this film as he has seen what this power can do in the wrong hands. 

On the dinosaur side of the things, the introduction of Beta was super cute and I enjoyed seeing Blue in a protective mode. The Giganotosaurus was super cool and I thought the size and scale of the animal gave it a threat level parallel to the Indominus Rex if not more. On a side note, I loved the fact that there were not any hybrids this time around, I much prefer the real dinosaurs. The Atrociraptors were cool and gave me many flashbacks to that original with the Velociraptors. I would say my favourite action scene might be that chase with them in Malta with Owen on the bike.