Jurassic World: Dominion Review

I had lots of thoughts.

The film was entirely gripping and tense and funny and did all of the things I wanted it to do, as a film I have been obsessively excited about since it was first meant to release 2 years ago. The dinosaurs were bigger and fiercer, the original cast were brought back beautifully, and hearing that music on the big screen was enough to satisfy what I had long wished for.

My main issue? THE PLOT…

The film takes place four years after Ian Malcolm announces at the end of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, that we are ‘entering a new era’ in which humans and dinosaurs will be forced to co-exist. The time jump allows for developments such as underground dinosaur markets to really take off, but other than that we don’t see a whole lot of dinosaurs affecting day-to-day human life.

Lots of subplots are cleverly woven into one another throughout; Owen and Claire fighting for Maisie’s survival as a ‘clone’, Ellie and Alan taking on swarms of freak locusts, the team at Biosyn creating scientific catastrophe as well as Henry Wu undergoing a huge moral transformation.

The mutant locusts being the next scientific disaster to be unleashed on humankind, whilst interesting, took from the whole ‘living with dinosaurs’ plot I was expecting to flesh out the film. Perhaps we missed this new way of life in the four-year interval and we’ve simply jumped in to a newer world threat, but I almost would have preferred it to have picked up from where it left off.

I remained open to whatever the film had to bring, but the one thought that kept returning? How unrealistically bloody strong is Owen Grady?

In his first appearance he manages to lasso a dinosaur whilst riding a horse and tie it down, then continues throughout the film to wrestle dinosaurs a gazillion times bigger than he is, punching them square in the face.

This man is flexing some serious plot armour.

In a gripping chase scene between him and two determined Atrociraptors, he rides a motorbike near flawlessly through the narrow streets of Malta and still manages to land every turn, finally zooming onto the back of an ascending plane. It felt like they were trying to ‘James Bond’ify him. Twinned with Alan Grant’s last-minute grab of the dropped cowboy hat in the midst of a dino-biting match, just gives you an overall sense of the film’s adventurous tone.

Of course, in a film of dinosaur vs human, the whole cast should be dead, but plot armour exists to reassure us that nothing bad will happen to the heroes we love – not even a mere scratch as they disembark a plane that has plummeted into a frozen lake.

Even among the public bystanders, the death rate in Dominion is considerably low and much less gruesome than that of its comparators. Obviously, you can’t take it too far with a 12A, but the jump from a PG certifying the Jurassic Park trilogy does allow for more limb tearing, body burning and, my personal favourite, dinosaur munching someone off of a Voi scooter. Hehe.

Putting the unrealistically low death rate to one side for a moment, something Dominion is very good at is drawing on the newfound comedy that has emerged through the Jurassic World series, which feels like a more modernised Hollywood version of the late 90s more serious science series.

Watching Ian Malcom trying to fit into a younger generation, querying this new reality in which humans make promises to dinosaurs, name them even, creates light comedy of the tensest situations. My only issue with this is the scripts attempts at modernising the original characters, making them say things like ‘oh, he slid into my DM’s’ which feels a little jarring coming from the respectable Ellie Sattler. There is, however, a rather satisfying modern ‘girl-power’ dynamic between Ellie and Claire which is very encouraging to see among these macho-cowboy dinosaur men.

Hilariously, despite trying to blend generations through relatable lingo, I feel I have to comment on the fact that Alan, Ellie and Ian have been wearing the same outfits since 1993. In fact, Owen Grady shares a similar vibe to Alan Grant, perhaps as a mark of admiration for his scientific role model (or, y’know, Gucci brought back red neckerchiefs).

On the topic of clothing, it seems only fitting to point out that Dominion did answer the main question on everyone’s minds after seeing Jurassic World… How the f**k do you outrun a T-Rex in high heels!? The answer? You don’t! It felt the movie crew really honed in on this in a scene that zoomed in on Claire’s practical and comfy boots. Good job Dominion.

Even with its whimsical jokes and awkward scripting, the two-and-a-half-hour film did an amazing job at keeping me hooked the entire time; full of jump scares and tension building that literally had me gripping my seat (VIP, courtesy of Vue cinema). There were dinosaurs with feathers and new breeds to be explored, including a blinded Therizinosaurus with mega talons. It doesn’t get much cooler than that.

I am absolutely obsessed with the Jurassic Park franchise – it has been in my top 10 since I was very young, meaning I will rarely allow people to criticise it as it was such a big part of my childhood. However, sometimes there are holes that just cannot be ignored. As I said, the plot of Dominion was the main issue for me, as it felt we made zero progress on where we left the crew at the end of Fallen Kingdom. There is a near enough repeated monologue ending in which it is decided that humans and dinosaurs must coexist, bringing us right back to where we started – not to mention the storyline that reverses the work in Fallen Kingdom that explains how Maisie Lockwood came to be.

Credit where credit is due, it was the immersive tension that pulled it back from what otherwise felt like an inconclusive outcome the Jurassic World series. This gripping technique has survived all six Jurassic films to keep us hooked, interweaving a multitude of themes amongst the dinosaur universe. The Park trilogy saw dinosaurs as completely animalistic, whereas the World trilogy focuses more on the strengthened connection and level of understanding between human and creature, which I suppose would have to develop if we were to, inevitably, coexist.

So, all-in-all, a bit of a mixed bag, but still an incredibly fun watch. The one thing I will take from this film though, is that in a state of national chaos… I need to know someone who can fly a plane.