Synopsis
Four years after the destruction of Isla Nublar, dinosaurs now live–and hunt–alongside humans all over the world. This fragile balance will reshape the future and determine, once and for all, whether human beings are to remain the apex predators on a planet they now share with history’s most fearsome creatures in a new Era.
In 1993, Steven Spielberg invited audiences to go on an adventure 65 million years in the making with the release of Jurassic Park. A juggernaut at the box office with widespread critical acclaim, it cemented its place as one of the greatest blockbusters ever made. Spawning five sequels (including this latest entry, Dominion) of varying quality, its enduring popularity with audiences shows that they still have a special place in their heart for prehistoric beasts on the big screen.
Dominion is set four years after the events of Fallen Kingdom, where humanity has had to adapt to the idea of living alongside dinosaurs. Owen (played by Chris Pratt) and Claire (played by Bryce Dallas Howard) return and are now living a quiet life in a remote cabin in the Nevada mountains with the cloned granddaughter of Benjamin Lockwood, Maisie (played by Isabella Sermon) for her protection. On their tracks is the nefarious Biosyn corporation, which believes her genetic makeup has the potential to change the face of the world.
For all its faults, the ending of Fallen Kingdom set up a fun premise of having a world where humans and dinosaurs would have to learn to coexist. It is a premise with so many possibilities but director Colin Trevorrow sidelined this idea and replaced it with a convoluted globe-trotting adventure involving genetically modified locusts who are wreaking havoc on the crops across America and beyond.
Herein lies the initial problem of Dominion. They were presented with the opportunity to do something creative with a fun premise but they almost don’t know what to do with it, so they revert to a safer choice that follows some all too familiar thematic beats. Even these themes, which deal with the likes of environmental issues and the dangers of playing God, ring hollow as they’ve been done to death in the series.
Another major issue stems from Trevorrow and Derek Connolly’s script, which lacks any real focus or cohesion with the globe-trotting exploits of Claire and Owen and the legacy characters from the original trilogy investigating the Biosyn corporation to expose their nefarious plans. The two storylines feel completely at odds and it prevents the film from flowing, creating some major pacing issues as every minute of the two and half hour runtime feels twice as long as it should be. This isn’t helped by the choppy editing which creates a jarring effect.
As with the other two previous “World” films, Michael Giacchino returns to score Dominion. Although some of the pieces work nicely at propelling the action sequences to create a sense of excitement, such as the chase through the streets of Malta, at other times it leans too heavily on John Williams’ iconic pieces from the original.
One of the major selling points of the film was the return of Laura Dern, Sam Neill, and Jeff Goldblum sharing the screen for the first time since the original film. Although it is great to see the old gang back together, their presence feels like a cynical cash grab to manipulate the audience’s sense of nostalgia. Even though they perform some awful dialogue, which includes some groan-inducing attempts at humour, their on-screen chemistry gets them through.
Speaking of chemistry (or lack of it), the return of Owen and Claire leads to a return of the most romantically inert couple to be seen in many a blockbuster in recent memory. Even though this is their third film together, on screen you don’t buy for a second that they love each other. Having said that, they are perfectly fine in other aspects of their role but they lack the charisma of the legacy characters to get them through the bad dialogue.
When the original came out in 1993, audiences were left in awe at the groundbreaking special effects utilised to bring dinosaurs to life. These effects were so incredible that they still hold up to this day. They were a perfect marriage of CGI and practical effects, used in just the right amount to be truly breathtaking.
Fast forward almost thirty years later and they seem to have regressed. There is now a sense of overreliance on CGI where more is better, but the difference is that there is absolutely no impact whatsoever. For example, in the original when we see the Brachiosaurus for the first time there is a real sense of scale to the creature, creating a sense of wonder. whereas a similar sequence in Dominion where an Apatosaurus is spotted at a logging site, it doesn’t feel real at all, leaving the audience cold. Taking it further, there is a scene where Owen is trying to round up a herd of Parasaurolophus on horseback and you begin to question whether a real horse was used in the scene.
Verdict
Throughout the Jurassic series the phrase “life will find a way” has popped up but it’s hard to see if there is going to be any life left in it after watching Jurassic World Dominion. It was never going to reach the dizzying heights of the original but it had the potential to be a big, dumb, fun summer blockbuster. J.A. Bayona set the pieces in place for a fun ride with the ending of Fallen Kingdom, and the return of the original cast conjured up a sense of excitement, but Trevorrow casts these hopes aside. He created a bloated farewell to the series that commits the cardinal sin of being incredibly dull,m potentially making Dominion an extinction-level event for the Jurassic series.
Written by Joe McElroy | BanterFlix Contributor & Co-Curator of Crime Scene to Screen