Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)

Jurassic World: Dominion (2022) is exactly the movie you'd expect. If you love dinosaurs and the Jurassic Park franchise, you will love this love letter of a film addressed specifically to you. If you fall more on the critical side of things, valid or otherwise, you will have the usual feeling that beyond the grand spectacle, the 'math ain't mathing' in the film. Either way, the film is the big, bombastic action-horror thriller finale that everyone is expecting.

The [SPOILER-Free] story of Jurassic World: Dominion is that the humans never learned from their mistakes from the previous films, science is still running amok, and the world is paying the price. The dinosaurs released in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) have entered the world's ecosystems, creating an ecological disaster. Biosyn, the shady company that tried to steal embryos in Jurassic Park (1993), is handling the global relocation of the dinosaurs. Apparently, being unilaterally appointed by the U.S. Government. This seems a bit tone-deaf for a 2022 film, but on-brand for the self-importance of American corporations and their fans. Not to be outdone by the mistakes of previous films, Biosyn creates a brand-new ecological disaster. The new ecological disaster on top of the wild dinosaurs for nebulously evil and corporate greed feels unnecessary. From a storytelling perspective, it’s a plot device to get our main cast and the dinosaurs all in one location. After all, that’s what we came to see, dinosaurs chomping down on people. Why the filmmakers felt like the dinosaur relocation and Biosyn’s corruption were not enough, is puzzling, but ultimately inconsequential. The motivation and plot are done well enough for suspension of disbelief.

Bringing the cast to the dinosaurs consumes the first half of the film. Thankfully, there are action sequences to temper the slower beginning. However, there lies another potential flaw in the film. Since the release of the Jurassic Park requel, Jurassic World(2015), the films began integrating more action-thriller tropes, and these have had mixed reactions from fans. The feeling of Jurassic World: Dominion is a big summer action blockbuster, with many sequences following the ‘rule of cool’, rather than realistic outcomes for human-dinosaur combat. There are explosions, gun battles, hand-to-hand combat, motorcycle vs raptor races, and dinosaur-kaiju style battles. These action tropes compete with the horror of wild dinosaurs. These action sequences also blur the line between Chris Pratt’s roles as Owen Grady and Starlord (Guardians of the Galaxy). Even Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) has picked up some action heroine moves that were entertaining to watch. But, your mileage varies on if these action tropes are good or bad for the franchise.