Early reactions for Jurassic World Dominion spoke of a divisive film, ranging from those who see it as the perfect way to close off an already unimpressive trilogy to others easily considering it the worse film in the franchise’s history, however, while the movie more accurately falls somewhere in between, Dominion is definitely the kind of experience moviegoers might want to tackle keeping their expectations in check.

Doing that shouldn’t be too difficult as 2018’s Fallen Kingdom was generally disliked, despite earning over 1.3 billion dollars worldwide, but the good news is that for every missed opportunity or repeated mistake from the other two Jurassic World movies, Dominion makes it up with a wholesome blast from the past. That’s because Laura Dern, Sam Neill and Jeff Goldblum all return in their beloved roles, and though their screen time is far from limited to mere nostalgia plays, their presence is a symbol of Dominion’s biggest problem: these dinosaurs are biting on way more than they can chew.

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That is not to say Jurassic World Dominion is not entertaining, far from it, yet despite all the CGI wonders and admittedly good action sequences Colin Trevorrow crams into his return to dinosaur land, the film simply overstays its welcome. Take the movie’s premise for example, which is that four years after Fallen Kingdom, dinosaurs now live among humans — then again it really doesn’t take long for the plot to deviate from that to evil corporation conspiracy, as the Jurassic Park old-timers aren’t directly invested in the dinosaur sector anymore.

Jurassic World Dominion First Reactions

As for Owen (Chris Pratt) and Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard), their story now sees them become foster parents to Masie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon) who behaves exactly like a forcefully recluded teenager would. Claire’s backstory as a rogue activist is particularly short-lived, as Zia (Daniella Pineda) and Franklin (Justice Smith) only seem to be there so that there’s some feeling of continuity between Dominion and Fallen Kingdom, as is the case for semi-domesticated Velociraptor Blue.

Does any of this matter? Not really. Jurassic World’s biggest draw is and always will be its dinosaurs, which is perhaps why the film’s desire to venture into a slightly more complex sci-fi setting that goes past these wonderful creatures feels like an odd choice, so no, adding giant insects into the mix is not the best topping. Fret not, dinosaurs are here and their feathered incarnations now mean Dominion is the most scientifically accurate Jurassic Park movie out there, plus the movie’s 2 hours and 26 minutes runtime means there are plenty of them to go around.

Jurassic World Dominion Sam Neill Laura Dern Jeff Goldblum

Pratt and Howard are solid (not that they spend much time together for that matter), and so are the returning Jurassic Park veterans, with Goldblum being exactly what most fans would want out of him. Nevertheless, there’s only so much these actors can do with a script that tries to go to so many places at once. That last part is not figurative speech as even getting the movie’s protagonists out to the new dinosaur reservoir takes quite a while, and once they arrive the new Giganotosaurus suffers the same fate as the human cast: a largely reduced role and sharing the spotlight with other would-be apex predators.

Two shining beacons that deserve plenty of praise are the film's villain Dr. Lewis Dodgson (Campbell Scott) and newcomer hero Kayla Watts (DeWanda Wise), who both rise to the occasion despite the circumstances of the former’s origin. They're not all-stars but still overachieve in spite of the script. Ironically, Wise’s character perfectly fits the tone of Dominion: she’s there just because and decides to embark on a life-threatening mission out of the goodness of her heart, yet her chemistry with Pratt is great; whereas the Biosyn CEO is the perfect easy-to-hate antagonist whose antics make him more insufferable, thus turning some of Jurassic World Dominion’s payoffs more satisfactory while providing a nice smug face to the corporate greed narrative that drives the plot.

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Beyond that, Trevorrow’s shot selection remains as good as it was in Jurassic World, ensuring action scenes are easy to follow without compromising on the thrills they bring; instead any disappointment comes from the low stakes game the film plays as a whole. There’s some of that Jurassic Park tension going on during some scenes, a bit of horror-like camera trick here and there, plus a few blatant attempts to exploit nostalgia here and there, including one famous shaving cream or the way Dr. Sattler adjusts her glasses — but again, these callbacks hardly bring any substance.

If there's one character that represents all of Dominion's faults it's without a doubt Ramsay (Mamoudou Athie). He's sort of the Tim Cook to this Steve Job-like villain, yet his omnipresence and all-seeing role to ensure the movie goes as expected is a rather lazy attempt to explain why everything goes down the way it does in this Jurassic World, he's the crutch that makes the film stumble to its conclusion.

Ultimately, Dominion is just too predictably similar to its Jurassic World predecessors, so possibly its biggest fault is coming out so close to Top Gun: Maverick, a film that bests the original and more than justifies itself as a sequel. Jurassic World Dominion will probably perform as it should, it will make a ton of money, and provide no reason to hate on Chris Pratt nor any arguments as to why Universal shouldn’t just let these dinosaurs rest in peace once and for all. Unsurprisingly, it’s also moderately fun while doing all of that.

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