‘Jurassic World: Dominion’ (2022) | Movie Review

The Jurassic World franchise has its conclusion in ‘Jurassic World: Dominion’. Dinosaurs freely (in some cases) roam the earth, and humanity is having to learn to co-exist and share resources with these creatures. But when our beloved Raptor Blue’s child, along with Maisie from the previous film is kidnapped, Owen, Claire, and some returning legacy characters will face off against corporations, new dinosaurs, and the end to the world as we know it.

Yes, if you’ve seen the trailers or the posters you’ll already know we have the return of the original cast of Jurassic Park. Whether it makes sense that they’re back is debatable, but it’s clear this final film is meant to not only be a conclusion to the Jurassic universe, it follows the same over-service to the fans, confused story, and a bloated runtime that undoes the creative and fun choices that could’ve been improved.

Fans will be thrilled to see the variations of dinosaurs on display. There are still the original classics we all know and love, but one thing that these new films have always been able to do is to introduce newer species that are interesting, adorable, or deadly. The use of practical and CGI is woven throughout the action and moments with our human-dino scenes worked great. The sound design for the creatures was great, the thuds and the deep bass of roars and footsteps had an impact on them. But these are now things to be expected at a higher level of quality. Where Jurassic World: Dominion starts to slip is in its story.

This may be a silly thing to say, being that we’re talking about realism with a film about prehistoric animals living today through splicing DNA, but the unrealistic moments never come from the dinosaurs, but through the lengths, Colin Trevorrow chooses to go to bring the new and old cast together. None of it makes sense and chooses to lean into narrative chaos. That being said, I loved the returning cast, I think they all fit well being back in the world, Jeff Goldblum most of all was a scene-stealer like in the original. New characters like the one played by Mamoudou Athie, one of Ian Malcolm’s assistants, were great in his part and I wish had more to do.

But the biggest throwaway for me came with B.D. Wong’s character. No spoilers, but I don’t think they knew how to properly utilize this character, and the setup built from the first film is almost completely ignored when it’s ripe with potential. Some of the characters you can tell Trevorrow does not know what to do with and get sidelined quickly. There are just too many storylines that can’t be properly fleshed out and in the end, feel hollow.

Believe me, I still think there can be fun with this final film, but it’s got its problems. Go in with lower expectations and enjoy the return of our legacy cast, and the great visuals but if you are looking for a satisfying conclusion it may or may not deliver.