Jurassic World Dominion

By Jonah Naplan

June 10, 2022

“Jurassic World Dominion” is about many, many things, and that’s not exactly a compliment. Sometimes it’s a "Mission Impossible"-type spy movie, with Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) breaking into an establishment where baby herbivores are being kept. Sometimes it’s an action flick, with Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) riding around on a motorcycle through the picturesque cityscapes of Malta, running away from raptors, who really, really want to attack him. Sometimes it’s an allegory for our current world. A massive locust outbreak is running rampant, distracting people from other big problems at hand. And every so often, the movie is about dinosaurs, occasionally returning back to its roots created by the first “Jurassic Park,” a film I admire very much.

Nowadays, studios like Universal have somehow misinterpreted what a modern blockbuster should feel and look like. The average summer movie lives under the belief, or creed, if you will, that it must crank everything up to eleven. The characters, the dialogue, the action sequences, even the frame rate gets pushed so far out of the ordinary, just so audience members can feel that extra rush of adrenaline right before the credits roll. Last year’s “F9” for example, forgot what its source material was all about, and decided to go with the more accessible “dumb fun” direction. The newest entry in the billion dollar “Jurassic” franchise makes the same mistake.

The editing and cinematography choices in “Jurassic World Dominion” inform us early on that it’s trying to be a different kind of franchise movie. But not in a good way. It attempts to be “Fast and Furious with Dinosaurs,” making executive decisions less intelligent than the creatures they involve. And the most unfortunate part is, they try to lure us in with old nostalgia only so iconic characters like Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler can be thrown across a collapsing room, and still look good while doing it, to show off the action stars they currently are not. Putting old characters beside new characters has its moments, but between the varying skill sets and capabilities of certain old and younger characters, acts as the film’s “elephant in the room.” Alan just can’t do the same things Owen can. I’m surprised the film didn’t acknowledge that more.

“Dominion” is truly set in a “Jurassic World.” As explained by news reports early on, the film takes place in a version of Earth where dinosaurs are everywhere, and both animals and humans alike have learned to suck it up, and co-exist with them somewhat peacefully, even if that would realistically never happen. But our efforts have clearly not been enough, these reports establish, as the reel plays footage of several dinosaur attacks in the past years.

If that scene were an entire movie, it would perfectly embody the type of film I would have pitched to execs for “Dominion.” A semi-found footage kind of film, with more news footage and thrills than a worthless plot and mythology. The problem with “Dominion” is that it’s pushed this franchise so deep into an entertainment “hole,” as we’ll call it, that it has forgotten what made the first film so good. The same dinosaurs are all there, but how they’re utilized differs from the olden days.

In “Jurassic Park,” and maybe even some of the sequels for that matter, the dinosaurs are seen as dangerous, but are treated by our leads as majestic and beautiful creatures. It’s not until the park’s security system malfunctions that we realize, “Oh crap! These dinosaurs are terrifying!” That first “Jurassic” film is great, because it feels so much smaller in scale, especially when compared to the newer films. In 1993, the dinosaurs actually felt scary.

But in 2022, things are a bit different. The dinosaurs are treated more like caricatures than anything else; only necessary to get Owen and Claire from point A to point B. These massive creatures can be found every which way you look, but they’re not used for anything more than background noise. As the final entry in a franchise about dinosaurs, the film makes the odd decision to be about locusts. Again, a drawback from the original.

In “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,” we were introduced to a young girl named Maisie Lockwood. She was, as we were told, genetically created by her grandfather. In “Dominion” she’s cared for by Claire and Owen, as they attempt to become her parents of a sort. Maisie is an important part of the film’s story. She drives the plot forward, and keeps things moving accordingly. It wasn’t until I left the theater that I realized the film may have been about a locust epidemic, but those plotlines were only introduced to Claire and Owen in the first place because they were trying to rescue Maisie, who had previously been kidnapped in a disappointingly ineffective scene. 

For the most part, the film follows two different stories. We follow Claire, Owen, and a new character named Kayla, (DeWanda Wise) as they go on the rescue mission I just mentioned, and we follow Alan and Ellie as they attempt to shut down this epidemic from the inside, breaking into the company believed to have created it called BioSyn. Said company is overseen by Lewis Dodgson (Campbell Scott), another villainous role so two-dimensional that it feels like the man’s motivation to be bad, is just, well…

We really don’t know.

But hey, who cares right? Because at least we have more of Owen Grady riding around on his motorcycle through Malta, with raptors right on his heels. Even though scenes like those are wildly entertaining while they last, they can’t save a two-and-a-half hour movie that’s doing way too much with way too little. “Jurassic World Dominion” wants to just go, go, go, not stopping to realize the icons of the original that it’s involving. The diehard Jurassic fans want to see these characters given justice once more, longing for that rejuvenating feeling we get when payoff is satisfying. I wouldn’t be surprised if they walk away disappointed. I know I was.