Director: Colin Trevorrow

Story By: Emily Carmichael, Colin Trevorrow, & Derek Connolly

Cast: Laura Dern, Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Neill, Chris Pratt, Campbell Scott, Mamoudou Athie, DeWanda Wise, Isabella Sermon, Jeff Goldblum, Omar Sy, Justice Smith, & BD Wong

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Yeah… I wasn’t moved… such an underwhelming conclusion. 

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Theme & Story: A-

Pacing: A

Character: B

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Entertainment Factors

General Public: Interesting Enough

Film Enthusiasts: Don’t Watch

Experience Seekers (via Visuals & Score): Don’t Watch

Jurassic Park/Sci-Fi Action Fans: Wait for Streaming

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TAKEAWAYS:

1. Now that dinosaurs have been released across the world after the destruction of the park, the question around how to live with them is at bay; meanwhile, a bio-engineering tech giant looks to use the dinosaurs and one of the most important living human experiments to have a monopoly over the world. 

This is Jurassic World Dominion. 

Thematically, I noticed 2 key topics being unpacked—protection and co-habitation. Personally, I found messaging around protection to be the most streamlined though it seemed that co-habitation was the theme the film wanted to anchor the story around. 

Act One does a solid job of giving images of “different worlds” in a forced co-habitation from the very first 5-7 minutes—dinosaurs intersecting with the daily routines of people, and then 3 of our key characters trying to make “a family” work. Through these images, the implication of protection also came through for me via the rationale behind trying to make this “family” exist, and what co-habitation/existing with dinosaurs means for people via the quick media coverage. 

Act Two brought in another component of protection for me—protection of the earth/ecosystem—via the focus on the bio-engineering tech giant, and his motivations having a negative impact on a link of our supply chain. It also brings together the rest of our key characters in a seamless way. I found it clever of the story to show the necessary technology for the scientists/humans and dinosaurs at this corporation to co-exist in such a loud yet subtle way which helped to thread the co-habitation theme. My issue with Act Two is that it seems to abandon the focus and interest on the dinosaurs that the previous films prioritize, and instead use them as intensity and action sequence props—they were no longer the star in my eyes. 

Act Three was another engaging Act where I felt the film made sure to give us more screen time with the dinosaurs, again for action and intensity, but more screen time nonetheless. However, I felt like thematic followthrough was pushed to the wayside and then quickly brought back in the end to fit a “sort of happily ever after…”—what the film “says” versus what we see in the final visuals are 2 different things. Then again, I guess there were the other dinosaurs still outside of the compound? There still just seemed to be something missing in the continuity department. 🤔

2. Oh, heeeeeey Ramsay. I liked his ol’ skinny ass! 😜😍

3. I don’t know what it was, but something about the baby dinosaurs gave me the 1990 sitcom Dinosaurs… 🥴

4. I really loved the imagery at the end of the film with the elephants. 😩

5. With a runtime of 136 minutes, I actually appreciated how this film moved. Even from the very first few minutes, the film wasted no time giving shock value visuals of the dinosaurs, and just moving the story along. It was definitely the strength of the film for me.👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾

6. Every action sequence and moment of tension with the dinosaurs were engaging and solidly shot. 👍🏾👍🏾

7. What an amazing visual and somewhat re-enactment with the “burning locusts.”👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👍🏾

8. I mean… it was engaging to look at, but this is not Godzilla vs Kong…🤷🏾‍♂️

9. In terms of characters supporting the themes, Owen, Claire, and Maisie as a unit carried the theme of protection quite well. Ellie also was strong with following through on the protection theme for me. When it comes to cohabitation, seeing the relationship amongst Owen, Claire, and Maisie in Act One was strong. 

Now, in terms of followthrough on the theme of cohabitation, it was a struggle. I guess we can use the visual of Owen Grady at the beginning of the film to give an idea of how his character has made sense of dinosaurs roaming the earth, but I think there was a missed opportunity to actually give his character more purpose and depth as one of the only individuals who has had some positive communication experience with dinosaurs. Additionally, I guess we can also use Dr. Lewis Dodgson and his work at BioSyn as a thematic driver, but the film kept his character so static and isolated that he wasn’t able to truly unleash an impact the story for the theme as much as I think he actually could. 

Outside of the thematic followthrough, I wasn’t necessarily drawn to any character—human and otherwise—in this film. I really didn’t care about Maisie, I wasn’t particularly as intrigued by Blue (or her situation), and all the adults were just solid actors but nothing more for me. I just feel like the story didn’t really give any depth to our characters, and especially missed giving more to Maisie. 🥴🤷🏾‍♂️

10. YEESSSS Omar Sy and DeWanada Wise!🙌🏾

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Overall #JurassicWorldDominion is Space Sweepers – meets Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – meets Jurassic Park – meets Peter Isherwell from Don’t Look Up. 

That sounds like such a great mashup, but the team didn’t blend everything up well with this final installment. I mean, is it a bad film? Not at all. It’s digestible; but honestly, this isn’t my favorite film in the Jurassic Park franchise, and I am a little disappointed that it’s the conclusion film. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom could have been the real conclusion to the franchise with some tweaks in my opinion. 

And you know what…I knew the off-vibe this film was going to take when I started seeing them 1990 Dinosaurs sitcom baby dinosaurs (LOL). It just really changed the feel immediately for me.