Jurassic World: Dominion Review – A Fitting Ending to the Series?

“This film has let us down a bit, but at least the other films don’t as much?”
Covid-19 caused quite a few push backs, but finally, Jurassic World: Dominion has been released. The big questions though? Well, was it worth the wait? Does it tie everything up in an epic finale as promised? Let’s deep dive into that in our review.
Set a few years after the events of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, the world is still adapting to life where dinosaurs co-exist freely around the globe. Chris Pratt’s Owen Grady and Bryce Dallas Howard’s Claire Dearing return as they work to keep Maisie Lockwood safe. Elsewhere, OG’s Sam Neill’s Alan Grant, Laura Dern’s Ellie Sattler and Jeff Goldblum’s Ian Malcolm rejoin forces to uncover a conspiracy at Biosyn, a once rival company of InGen.
First off, it’s great to see our original Jurassic characters back. After all of these years, it’s lovely seeing them blend into this new age of the film series and seeing how they’ve evolved especially. Howard’s Claire rounds out a really interesting character arc since her first film. Going from the stone hearted, jobs worth to the caring, bad-ass mother figure in this flick is great to see. Pratt’s Owen however? The character just feels so 2D. He is displayed as just an action hero once again and we don’t get to flesh him out as much as it’s deserved. It’s tough having him as the lead this time around.
Our supporting cast can’t be faulted. For the most part at least. Our young Isabella Sermon holds her own against the older, most established cast. As with Fallen Kingdom, she shows a clear gift for performing and hits her notes perfectly throughout the story. DeWanda Wise’s Kayla is a welcome addition to the line-up. A new face that fits perfectly into the story and has some of the coolest moments throughout the story to be honest. Then we get to Campbell Scott’s villain, who is actually a character from the original Jurassic Park in 1993, just with a new face. It’s a wooden and pitiful villain if truth be told. As much as the character echoes back to the beginning of this film series, it’s just not enough. We needed someone a bit more hard-hitting like Rafe Spall’s previous antagonist. Let down is an understatement here.
When it comes to the plot, the continuation from the ending of Fallen Kingdom is interesting. Overall, it takes us into new territory. A world of pre-historic creatures living among us. Throughout we also get some little nods to the previous films, which is great for any fan. Unfortunately, once again this just isn’t enough. It only really feels like a classic Jurassic Park/World in the third act.
The story may still be based in the universe of the Jurassic saga, but this film takes it’s foot off the pedal in terms of making dinosaurs the main threat. Considering this is supposed to the final film to tie everything together, and the trailer promises some thrilling new dinosaur-shaped threats (which it gives in moments), it feels like they’re more just in the background for most of the time. What was wrong with the dinosaurs being the main villains of the films? It’s something that made these films more fun and unique. This film series has blended into too many franchise tropes sadly. Maisie being central to the story feels like something that, yes is a natural continuation, but should be in a sort of spin-off. We want dinosaurs! Take this traditional take on cloning and follow it down a different path.
When it comes to director Colin Trevorrow, he rounds out his trilogy in a nice way. He directed and wrote Jurassic World as a nostalgic re-introduction. He wrote Fallen Kingdom as a sort of horror story. Here we get an action thriller unlike we’ve seen in this world before. Yes, as a self contained trilogy, this can work. As the finale of the franchise? Not so much. He doesn’t do justice to the ending of this film series. It’s all well and good bringing back original characters, but up the stakes to go with it.
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Moving onto the musical score, Michael Giacchino delivers as usual. Riding high on success off the likes of The Batman and Spider-Man: No Way Home in the last year alone, he returns to score his third Jurassic movie and doesn’t miss a beat with his tone. Maybe not as memorable as his some of his scores, but enjoyable all the same.
It’s perfect blend of those older themes we’re familiar with these new sounds that help to remind us of the new film’s tone and atmosphere. Giacchino is edging himself in as one of the biggest composers of the modern era.
When you step back and look at this film, there’s a lot to think about it. It (supposedly) serves as not only the end of the World trilogy, but the entire saga. It does so by attempting to blend everything from all five previous films and making it work to some extent. Whether it does or not, it is still symbolic of what we’ve gotten from the film series.
All in all, it was good to see two generations of characters collide. There are nice nostalgic beats and sections of the story feel natural from the events of the last instalment, but sadly this won’t go down as one of the best finales of a long-ran film franchise. Some of the characters don’t serve us as well as they should and the plot isn’t big enough for what we were sold. Ironically, this feels like the film with the least focus on actual dinosaurs. Some aspects could have served us better alone in different projects. This film has let us down a bit, but at least the other films don’t as much?
We hate to do this, but got to go with the gut. It’s a disappointing 6.3/10.
Jurassic World: Dominion is currently showing in cinemas.
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