It began in 1990 as a speculative science fiction novel by Michael Crichton about genetically engineered dinosaurs on an isolated island off the coast of Central America. And then in 1993, director Steven Spielberg turned it into a genuinely great and scary sci-fi/suspense thriller. Thus was born JURASSIC PARK. Two sequels-1997's THE LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK (directed by Spielberg), and 2001's JURASSIC PARK 3 (directed by Joe Johnston)-came about, followed by a fourteen-year break. Then in 2015, with Spielberg serving as executive producer but not directing, there came JURASSIC WORLD, directed by Colin Treverrow, followed in 2018 by JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM (directed by J. A. Bayona) in 2018. And in 2022, we have come to what is likely the conclusion of this mega-successful dinosaur franchise, in the form of JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION, with Trevorrow back in the director's chair.
At the end of JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM, a combination of an exploding volcano on Isla Nublar and the usual corporate avarice had allowed the dinosaurs and all manner of genetically engineered prehistoric creatures to break free. As JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION stars, therefore, humans and dinosaurs (and their offspring, needless to say) are co-existing together, with extremely chaotic results, including a plague of what are basically dino-locusts wiping out the world's grain supply. Dern and Neill return as the intrepid pair of paleontologists Ellie Sattler and Alan Grant to find out that those locusts are being fueled via a genetically-modified seed invented by the Biosyn corporation, run by one Lewis Dodgson (Campbell Scott), who seems very much a Steve Jobs type, but with megalomaniacal ambitions that could spell humanity's downfall. Pratt (as Owen Grady) and Howard (as Claire Dearing) are back to join in the race to stop Scott dead in his tracks; and they have a secret weapon of sorts in their adapted daughter (Sermon), who, in an interesting twist of a back story, is the granddaughter of John Hammond, the man responsible for this unleashing of genetic dinosaurs in the first place, and who also has a few dino genes inside her DNA as well. All of them converge at Biosyn's isolated mountain facility in northern Italy where, along with famous chaos theorist Ian Malcolm (Goldblum), whom Scott has basically bribed up to this point, confront Scott and his off-the-wall ambitions; and what ensues is, of course, hair-raising dinosaur terror on an industrial, if not indeed downright apocalyptic scale.
With a length of close to two and a half hours, JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION is obviously the longest of the entire six-film franchise, and, without too much doubt, in many places the most off-the-wall entry as well, mostly due to Scott's kidnapping plot involving Sermon, which contains chases on motorbikes, vans, and planes that wouldn't be out of place in any James Bond film, but arguably are here. As with the previous three films of the Jurassic Park/Jurassic World franchise, Spielberg functions as an executive producer only (having gotten himself in two major directorial undertakings of his own, WEST SIDE STORY and THE FABELMANS), so it is up to Trevorrow to come up with something huge. And this is indeed what happens in JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION. The dinosaurs, particularly the locusts, are more ferocious than they have ever been before, ensuring that the franchise end (if indeed it does end here) on an almost end-of-the-world scale. But to Trevorrow's credit, probably with Spielberg's encouragement, he had the good sense to bring Dern, Neill, and Goldblum back from the original 1993 classic, and combine them with Pratt and Howard, who are (thankfully) no longer a bickering couple as they were in the first two JURASSIC WORLD films, but responsible dinosaur behavioral experts also looking out for Sermon's welfare amidst all the violent, screaming dinosaur terror.
Trevorrow is obviously not the subtlest of directors to begin with (sometimes, even Spielberg isn't either {witness "1941"]), but when it comes to JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION, he delivers the goods without turning towards the way-over-the-top implausibilities of a Michael Bay (the infernal "Transformers" series) or Roland Emmerich (his admittedly good 2009 end-of-the-world opus "2012"); and the six principal actors of the franchise keep much of everything else on an even keel.
If this is indeed the end of this dinosaur franchise, it is one hell of a way to go out on. And this is why I'm giving JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION an '8' rating.
At the end of JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM, a combination of an exploding volcano on Isla Nublar and the usual corporate avarice had allowed the dinosaurs and all manner of genetically engineered prehistoric creatures to break free. As JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION stars, therefore, humans and dinosaurs (and their offspring, needless to say) are co-existing together, with extremely chaotic results, including a plague of what are basically dino-locusts wiping out the world's grain supply. Dern and Neill return as the intrepid pair of paleontologists Ellie Sattler and Alan Grant to find out that those locusts are being fueled via a genetically-modified seed invented by the Biosyn corporation, run by one Lewis Dodgson (Campbell Scott), who seems very much a Steve Jobs type, but with megalomaniacal ambitions that could spell humanity's downfall. Pratt (as Owen Grady) and Howard (as Claire Dearing) are back to join in the race to stop Scott dead in his tracks; and they have a secret weapon of sorts in their adapted daughter (Sermon), who, in an interesting twist of a back story, is the granddaughter of John Hammond, the man responsible for this unleashing of genetic dinosaurs in the first place, and who also has a few dino genes inside her DNA as well. All of them converge at Biosyn's isolated mountain facility in northern Italy where, along with famous chaos theorist Ian Malcolm (Goldblum), whom Scott has basically bribed up to this point, confront Scott and his off-the-wall ambitions; and what ensues is, of course, hair-raising dinosaur terror on an industrial, if not indeed downright apocalyptic scale.
With a length of close to two and a half hours, JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION is obviously the longest of the entire six-film franchise, and, without too much doubt, in many places the most off-the-wall entry as well, mostly due to Scott's kidnapping plot involving Sermon, which contains chases on motorbikes, vans, and planes that wouldn't be out of place in any James Bond film, but arguably are here. As with the previous three films of the Jurassic Park/Jurassic World franchise, Spielberg functions as an executive producer only (having gotten himself in two major directorial undertakings of his own, WEST SIDE STORY and THE FABELMANS), so it is up to Trevorrow to come up with something huge. And this is indeed what happens in JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION. The dinosaurs, particularly the locusts, are more ferocious than they have ever been before, ensuring that the franchise end (if indeed it does end here) on an almost end-of-the-world scale. But to Trevorrow's credit, probably with Spielberg's encouragement, he had the good sense to bring Dern, Neill, and Goldblum back from the original 1993 classic, and combine them with Pratt and Howard, who are (thankfully) no longer a bickering couple as they were in the first two JURASSIC WORLD films, but responsible dinosaur behavioral experts also looking out for Sermon's welfare amidst all the violent, screaming dinosaur terror.
Trevorrow is obviously not the subtlest of directors to begin with (sometimes, even Spielberg isn't either {witness "1941"]), but when it comes to JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION, he delivers the goods without turning towards the way-over-the-top implausibilities of a Michael Bay (the infernal "Transformers" series) or Roland Emmerich (his admittedly good 2009 end-of-the-world opus "2012"); and the six principal actors of the franchise keep much of everything else on an even keel.
If this is indeed the end of this dinosaur franchise, it is one hell of a way to go out on. And this is why I'm giving JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION an '8' rating.