Four years after the events of Fallen Kingdom dinosaurs now walk the Earth. A company called Biosyn have created a dinosaur haven in the Dolomites, Italy where they can continue to do genetic research for the benefit of mankind. Whilst familiar faces from the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World franchises will converge whilst chasing the plot lines in their interest.
Honestly, Jurassic World Dominion is a chaotic mess. There is a lot of fun here and a lot of absolutely dumb stupid stuff as well. Attempting to explain the plot is actually so tricky it is a wonder that Colin Trevorrow and Emily Carmichael’s script is not worse than it is. So I will try to keep it simple…
The first half of the film is not like a Jurassic Park film at all. Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) and Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) are trying to help the dinosaur conservation effort whilst protecting their adopted clone daughter Maisie (Isabella Sermon). They fail and when she is kidnapped they set off in pursuit. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) is worried about a locust plague and thinks Biosyn may be to blame. She enlists Alan Grant (Sam Neil) to help and they set off for proof. Meanwhile Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) is working for the founder of Biosyn, Lewis Dodgson (Campbell Scott). New and old characters eventually converge and the second half of the film essentially plays out exactly like a Jurassic Park film in the substitute park that is the Dolomite haven.
Oh and I have not mentioned all the other characters that pop up from various other films, nor the new addition to the film, the badass pilot Kayla (DeWanda Wise).
The route to getting all of these characters together is clumsy at best and the whole story about locusts and crops seems thoroughly out of place in a franchise that is about dinosaurs. But once everyone is together it really does start to fire in a jumpy and fun action film.
Given all of the above I would really strongly suggest you take some time before watching to reacquaint yourself with the characters and story of the previous films. Something that will also assist you in appreciating the ridiculous amount of franchise callbacks dotted throughout. From Laura Dern taking her sunglasses off in a very particular way to a can of shaving foam there are many moments of familiarity.
Action wise the film peaks in the middle (something Fallen Kingdom also did) with a chase sequence set in Malta and features some effective dinosaur thrills and spills in the latter half.
Character wise it is great fun to see the triumvirate of Dern, Neill and Goldblum back together. Their chemistry is unmatched in the franchise.
But there are so many bizarre plot moments I can not believe that Colin Trevorrow planned it this way. Just how is it possible for the dinosaurs to have spread across the entire planet and exist in such large numbers after four years? Why are people so interested in saving killing machines from extinction? And just how can you have a theme of ecological harmony when you are introducing apex predators into every environment on the Earth? Honestly, just try not to think about it I guess?
For me both Jurassic trilogies have followed the same pattern. The first films were buckets of fun. The second films were the nadirs of the series. Whilst the final films managed to sit somewhere between the two in terms of enjoyment.
If you want to read more of my opinions on Jurassic Park/World check these out:
Phil the Bear's Film Reviews 
8 thoughts on “Jurassic World Dominion”