Jurassic World: Dominion

This weekend, Jurassic World; Dominion roared into theaters to close out the Jurassic World Trilogy while also tying back to the original films. After being set loose at the end of Fallen Kingdom, Dominion shows a world with dinosaurs roaming free. Owen, Clare, and Maisy must now learn how to function in this world as humans and dinosaurs learn their place and attempt to coexist.

In general, this was a fun movie to watch. The basic premise of dinosaurs loose on the mainland is quite interesting. Along with that are a lot of cool dinosaur action sequences that keep the film exciting and never boring. It is a lot of fun to see dinosaurs exist in a "real world" setting and is really interesting to see the different approaches humans take to address this. Whether it be black market dealing, creating a sanctuary, or just letting them roam free, this movie shows all the different approaches groups of people are having with the dinosaurs. From a story level, this film is more of a political spy thriller which is an interesting and fun concept to have with dinosaurs which I think the movie pulls off well. The story itself is fairly straight forward with two main plots occurring at the same time but nothing too convoluted. Finally, it is really cool to see the original three characters, Ian Malcolm, Ellie Satler, and Alan Grant in this film. Ellie and Alan have a pretty significant role in the film as they are the two leads of one of the main plots. Malcolm is more of a side character but he still has a significant role and is in the film quite a bit. It is also really cool to see the old cast interacting with the new characters and all the interesting character dynamics that go along with that. Overall, I had fun with this movie and enjoyed all the connections to the original film.

Unfortunately, there are some significant issues with the film. The main issue is that this is a Jurassic Park movie that isn't about dinosaurs. The main plots have to do with human genetics and locusts, nothing to do with dinosaurs. While the dinosaurs are in it, they are more of a part of the setting and not the actual story. The dinosaurs could be pulled out of the movie and the plot could be the exact same. The last film set up having dinosaurs on the mainland, however, this film does not address it as part of the plot at all. It is more like things happen and dinosaurs just show up as a part of the setting. They are more of a gimmick than a component of the story and I felt that was just a bizarre choice to go in with a franchise that is supposed to be about dinosaurs. The other main issue is that there was really no reason for Alan and Ellie to be in the story. The reason that brings them in and the plot that they are a part of has nothing to do with their skill sets making it so the only reason they were brought into the story was so the movie could have them in it. While it is cool to see their characters, it would have been better to have a valid reason for them to be there.

Overall, this film was fun to watch and never made me bored, however, the issues at the story level as well as the movie not even being about dinosaurs keep it from being good. It is a fun movie but not a good movie.

Grade: B- Score: 6/10 Recommendation: Wait and stream it