Jurassic World: Dominion Review

So, I wasn’t there on opening day to see Jurassic World: Dominion, but I’m here now and I’ve got thoughts. No worries-they aren’t complicated thoughts, but thoughts none the less. So let’s get into it shall we? Also of quick note: I promise no spoilers in this review but really, there’s not much to spoil here.

The general set up is this, if you saw and remember the last Jurassic World film dinosaurs were set loose upon the world. This means that people have to figure out how to live alongside dinosaurs. This would be complicated if it were real life, but in the movies all the predatory and carnivorous ones have been captured and they’re on some nature preserve living in dino harmony. The “nice” plant eating dinos though, are allowed to roam free.

The film brings us up to speed on what the world is like with dinosaurs in a news story like clip at the beginning of the film. But dinosaurs are the least of our worries, a new-old evil corporation Biosyn is up to their old messing-with-dna tricks again and let loose some pre-historic locusts who are wreaking havoc on crops, posing a massive threat to the world’s food chain. Enter Dr. Sattler, Dr. Grant, and Ian Malcolm to try to get to the bottom of it.

Let’s not forget the heroes from the last film: Claire, Owen, and their cloned adopted daughter Maisie. When word gets out that a scientist (Maisie’s mom) was able to successfully clone a daughter from herself all of the black market is in a tizzy to get their hands on her-which they do-sending Claire and Owen on a chase to get their kidnapped daughter back. These events eventually bring all of our heroes-past and future-together in the same place at the same time for some third act climactic dinosaur evading action.

So, I’d love to be able to tear this film to shreds like a John Hammond sanctioned velociraptor, but instead I walked away with an Owen Grady’s pet/friend velociraptor Blue kind of mindset. What’s that mean? It means I actually found myself enjoying this film. There are several moments in the film where if it were a real life dinosaur chase everyone involved would have be obliterated, but that wouldn’t be much fun to watch right? I mean it’s not a zombie movie for crying out loud-we’re talking dinosaurs. I’m there for dinosaurs slamming into walls because people are just too agile and a velociraptor versus motorcycle chase scene through the streets of Italy. I’m there for Mean Dinosaur A meeting Mean Dinosaur B who is joined by Mean Dinosaur C and sitting back to watch them wrestle.

It was good to see the original three show back up for this film. Laura Dern, Sam Neil, and Jeff Goldblum reprise their roles and I loved every second of screen time we get with them. It’s always nice to see characters you love show back up and just be themselves. There’s some new characters here too. DeWanda Wise is Kayla Watts-hot shot, black market pilot; and Mamoudou Athie is Ramsay Cole, trusted insider of Biosyn who begins to question the ethics of the company he works for. I like both of them in their roles and thought they were really great additions to the cast here. I wish I could have seen more of them.

I really enjoyed the film overall. Jurassic World: Dominion isn’t out to re-invent the dinosaur movie, it’s there to give you more of the same. It’s part Jurassic Park, part Indiana Jones and 100% Summer movie fun.