Jurassic World: Dominion Review
Everyone seems really weary in “Jurassic World: Dominion”, and not just from all the running from dinosaurs they do. Here we see a film franchise that really seems to have run its course. It’s come a long way from its majestic debut in 1993 and doesn’t really even contain much in the way of the excitement of some of its past entries. It now has humans and dinosaurs co-habitating together like something out of “The Flintstones' '. A genetics company is working to solve the problem, but they could also be evil too, especially considering giant locusts have come out of nowhere. So that’s the plot..no wait, there’s more. There was a clone girl (Isabella Sermon) from the last movie, who’s now shacking up with dino-whisperer Owen (Chris Pratt, still doing that dumb Jedi thing) and dino-conservationist Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard), until some poachers working for the film’s true villains show up and kidnap her. This movie also brings back Alan Grant (Sam Neill), Ellie Satler (Laura Dern), and Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), now sadly assigned to the locust storyline, while main characters played by Campbell Scott, DeWanda Wise, Omar Sy, Dichen Lachman, B.D. Wong and more come in only for exposition and to be moved around like pieces on a chessboard. This party has a gigantic guest list but no one seems to be having much fun as Pratt and Howard eventually take part in one of those globe-hopping spy thrillers that predictably lead them right into working with the original three during the last half hour. Other than a decent motorcycle chase sequence, the action is of the near-miss variety, as in people should be eaten, but aren’t because then this very long movie would have to end earlier than expected. It creates some tension but gets old once we catch on that very few of these characters will actually meet a cruel fate and that all this movie has is B-movie thrills on a larger scale budget. There are other let-downs here too. Like when the two sets of heroes spend time bonding together in the film’s last half. These are scenes that cry out for some callback humor from the previous films but true to this movie’s laziness, we really only get casual greetings and some snarky comments from Goldblum. As a whole, this series has gotten so self-serious that the only real humor is in how ridiculous it’s become. And most ridiculous of all is what it’s doing with the dinosaurs. The film seems to alternate between being a preachy human-dino utopia and/or a buffet where humans are the main course. Pretty much the only reason this movie could have been interesting was to see how the co-habitation would work but “Jurassic World” ignores a lot of the deeper questions and still wants to have it both ways, instead creating a story out of more corporate villains, and leaving the dinosaurs to exist on the periphery, sometimes attacking..just because. It hurts to see where this series is taking “Jurassic Park”, the most beautiful and exciting of blockbusters. That movie had logic and spectacular effects. Here, that logic has been replaced by a “do anything for a buck” frivolousness and the effects, once so awe-inspiring, are now mostly used for cheap thrills and to have some stuff in the background to look at. Did I say this series seems tired? Nearly-extinct might be a better word. If you like this review, why not join my facebook group for more. Much appreciated! https://www.facebook.com/groups/15395925860873













