Like most boys (and men) I have always loved dinosaurs. I never thought there would be a movie with realistic dinosaurs chasing people around, eating a few random people I wouldn’t love. When Jurassic Park, the book came out, I read it twice. We all remember when we saw the first film in the theater. However, lack of interesting characters, with an insistence to include children in every story, and a lack of credulity in the worlds own logic and the films have become hopelessly predictability and the magic and awe has lost its glow and at 2 hours 27 minutes “Dominion” slugs along to its inevitable conclusion that it becomes, dare I say, a bit boring.
If you remember the end of the last Jurassic Park installment, for some reason it was triumphant to let the dino’s into the world. Which, after a pretty dull film, had me scratching my head. (This is a good thing? Won’t these things kill all of us?) In the Jurassic Universe, somehow humans are now co-existing with Dinosaurs. Whether nesting on top of buildings, knocking over trailers, or just hanging out at the local lake. Not sure that makes sense. Also, somebody has genetically designed a pre-historic locust which are about a foot long. The math on how long it would take locust of that size to destroy the worlds food chain, is, I think underestimated in the film. My guess would be a week. The mad scientific/entrepreneur genius in this film is played by a salty haired Campbell Scott.
However, the locust are a good reason to bring back Laura Dern’s character (Ellie Satter) who is trying to investigate the evil corporation that is now “in control” of all things dinosaur and Jurassic. She suspects that the company that secretly created the locusts may be looking to control the world’s food supply. Ellie convinces Allen Grant (Sam Niel) to help and they connect with the old Chaos Mathematician Dr. Ian Grant (Jeff Goldblum), who for some reason is working the new evil corporation who think they can harness nature. (They explain, but it warrants either an eye roll or shoulder shrug and you just go with it.) They join Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard from the newest Jurassic franchise and the band is all together. However, the band seems pretty tired and playing the hits has become sad and dull. At least Pratt and Howard had a lot of energy in Jurassic World, now they just feel like a bored old couple babysitting a foster child. Which they are.
Another pet peeve in the Jurassic films is the need to have the “kid in Parel” story hook in each and every movie. That being said, Maisie Lockwood, played by Isabballa Sermon, is the most justified story line of all the Jurassic kids, as she is a clone and is a hot commodity in the bio-tech world so she has a legit plot point in the movie. Otherwise, do we really have to have kids in peril. Would “Jaws” have been more interesting if one of Sheriff Brody’s kids were on the boat with Quint and Hooper. (The answer is no. And you can try to watch “Jaws 2” for proof.)
“Ok, ok” you say, but aren’t there really cool dinosaurs that eat people? Yes there are and yes they do. And yes, I enjoyed that. I particularly liked the new dinosaur with razor sharp long pointy fingers. There is a great dinosaur fight at the end, an exciting scene with involving a plane and some beautiful scenes of dinosaurs retreating to the compound to escape fire coming from the sky hauntingly recalling the meteorite that hit the earth theory of the actual dinosaur extension.
So, if you just want to see some cool dinosaurs and not think about the film world’s own logic, then “Jurassic World: Dominion” may be an ok way to pass the time. For me, it is just too long, too repetitive and, dare I say, too dull. I was more than happy going to the concession stand twice for refills of popcorn and pop for my crew. Here is hoping this is the last of the Jurassic Park films, but judging by the grosses, I think we will continue to see dinos at the multi-plex. Sort of paraphrasing Jeff Goldblum’s Ian Malcom’s character in the original: “You got so excited because you could make a 6 part movie series, you never stopped to ask, should you?”