THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
When you look back at the 90s, I don’t think anyone would have expected Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park to be a monstrous success of a film until it happened. And nobody would have even guessed that Universal would go beyond the books as in more movies that take place after the original follow up The Lost World. As decades progressed, it’s crazy to see how each entry since found a way to be entertaining. And in all honesty, the same can be said with their sixth film, the third of the Jurassic World trilogy, Dominion.
PLOT
The film begins four years after the dinosaurs of Isla Nublar began roaming the Earth freely after a black market auction went awry. In order to prevent ecological disaster, Biosyn Genetics CEO Lewis Dodgson establishes a preserve for the dinosaurs in Italy’s Dolomites and continue conducting genetic research for the sake of pharmacological applications. While Claire Dearing investigates illegal Dino breeding sites, her boyfriend Owen Grady takes involvement in relocating stray dinos. The couple remotely lives in the Sierra Nevada Mountains to secretly raise Maisie Lockwood, clone of the deceased Charlotte (Elba Trill). Tired of living in seclusion, her decision to sneak out leads to her getting abducted by mercenary/poacher Rainn Delacourt (Scott Haze) who also captures Beta, an asexually reproduced hatchling of the Velociraptor Blue. When Claire & Owen find out what happened to their adopted daughter, they reach out to their friend Franklin (Justice Smith) for help. Due to his position of the dangerous species division in the CIA, they narrow down that they’ll be taken to a checkpoint at the Republic of Malta. Despite aided by another of their friends Barry (Omar Sy), now part of French Intelligence, they don’t get to her in time as they search through a Dino black market. The result comes from Biosyn operative Soyona Santos (Dichen Lachman) chasing them off with obedient Atrociraptors. However, they get taken to Biosyn HQ with the aid of cargo pilot Kayla Watts who expresses sympathy for their situation. During this rescue mission, extinct locusts have reappeared and are decimating US crops. When paleobotanist Ellie Sattler looks into it, she deduces that Biosyn is responsible as their seeds are left uneaten. When she reaches out to her ex-boyfriend, paleontologist Alan Grant, he narrows down that the new swarm of locusts are mixed with arthropod DNA. They go to Biosyn HQ, as an invite by chaotician Ian Malcolm who teaches there. When catching up, he shares his suspicion about the activities going on the facility. He gives them a wristband that’ll give them access to other facilities to expose what is going on. The truth is that Dodgson is exploiting the dinosaurs and is coercing geneticist Henry Wu to modify the transgenic locust to control food supply. Aware that the global famine is a possibility, he needs Maisie and Beta’s DNA to create a pathogen that’ll halt the outbreak. When she and the raptor arrive, Wu explains to her that Charlotte was a geneticist like him and used her own DNA to give birth to her asexually, revealing that her grandfather Benjamin never cloned her personally. Since Charlotte altered her daughter’s DNA, it prevented her from inheriting the genetic disorder that killed her. Knowing this, Wu believes she’s the key to the pathogen. When Kayla arrives to Biosyn with Claire & Owen, they get attacked by a giant Quetzalcoatlus that damages their plane. Claire ejects and lands in the preserve, whereas Owen & Kayla survive the crash and an attack by a Pyroraptor. By the time Claire lands into the preserve, she avoids getting attacked by a the clawed herbivore, Therizinosaurus. When Maisie chooses to leave Wu’s lab, she encounters Alan & Ellie who steal a locust sample from a lab to prove the truth of Biosyn. The company’s CEO Ramsay Cole, who blew the whistle to Ian, reveals his intent to expose Dodgson and gives the characters a chance to escape. When Dodgson himself catches up to what’s going on, he stops the monorail and leaves them to fend for themselves in an amber mine filled with Dimetrodons. Thankfully, they find a gate that’ll free them with Ian on the other side. Ramsay opens the gate for them and closes it in time for them as well to avoid getting eaten. By nightfall, Claire reaches an outpost and finds herself cornered by a Dilophosaurus group, but is luckily rescued by Owen & Kayla who reunite with her. Ironically, they encounter Maisie’s group and all avoid getting devoured by the preserve’s biggest carnivore, Giganotosaurus. After that, Owen is able to retrieve Blue. As Dodgson tries to destroy their evidence by incinerating the locusts, it leads to an inferno that that sparks a wildfire within the preserve. This also causes the power to be damaged and when he tries to escape via monorail, the transport shuts off, leading to him being killed by the same Dilophosaurus trio. When Ramsay & Wu catch up with both groups, Ellie & Claire reroute the power. Afterwards, everyone retreats via helicopter. They avoid the wrath of the Giganotosaurus once again when it gets defeated by the Therizinosaurus and the same Tyrannosaurus Rex from Isla Nublar. When they all return to the mainland, Alan & Ellie rekindle their relationship and take part in testifying against Biosyn alongside Ramsay & Ian. Kayla buys herself a new cargo plane while Wu releases his host locust with the pathogen, resulting in the swarm to be eradicated. When Owen, Claire & Maisie return to their home, they return Beta to Blue. The film ends with the world continuing it’s path of coexistence with the dinosaurs as the UN declares the Biosyn Valley as their sanctuary.
THOUGHTS
The best way to discuss this film is through Pros and Cons.
PROS: While I am aware that there are alot of things at fault, which I'll get into shortly, I won't forget that there things that still impressed me in theaters. Looking back, I deeply think the returning Colin Trevorrow did his best in crafting an entertaining sci fi adventure, especially since I saw it in 3D. Of course it's not the best thing to be made, but I find it to be a massive improvement compared to Fallen Kingdom. You get another dope score by Michael Giacchino and the combo of practical and visual effects continue to make the dinosaurs surreal. While the ending sequence of the world adapting to the dinosaurs are the best use of John Schwartzman's cinematography, the creatures we get to see beforehand are indeed a selling point that paid off in the long run. With Blue no longer a main threat, it was very creative decision to show off forms of raptors that exist. Like the prologue did with the T Rex, I thought it was great to show scientific accuracy with the Pyroraptor being feathered. It just came to show that birds have had some dangerous ancestors. Whether or not Therizinosaurus was really blind, it still remained a formidable creature for its size. It's hard to not have been frightened when it almost pursued Claire underwater. And while Giganotosaurus didn't have that much screen time either, you'd be lying if you weren't intimidated of its stature. It was even a treat to see Dimetrodons as they're arguably the oldest of creatures ever recorded. Of all the coolest easter eggs, I was very surprised that Rexy from the first film won't be the only T-Rex in the Biosyn Valley, seeing the Site B couple from The Lost World alongside her. Going back to what I said, the improvement comes from the main theme of life finding a way. This time, it shares how family is an important aspect of life. When you follow the perspective of Maisie Lockwood, actress Isabelle Sermon is able to catch us up that she feels alone when in a world that sees her differently. The older she's gotten, the distant she feels from it. Despite being aware that hiding keeps her safe, she hates it because she wants to explore like Charlotte did. Once things unfolded for her, she accepted that however the shape and size of the family she has, they're always going to love her for pure heart and nothing more. Enter the return of Chris Pratt & Bryce Dallas Howard, who still maintain their chemistry as a headstrong couple, Owen & Claire, that is on the same page on protecting the child they never thought they'd raise. They did their best in being on their guard with her because they can't allow others trying to use her for whatever possible dark purposes. They love the kid for being herself and try to look past the truth of her origin. Seeing the lengths they went to get her and Beta back prove how deep parental can be, which can be empowering to see. Seeing them return home happily, I hope all three continue appreciating each other for the longer run. Going into the rest of the cast, Henry Wu definitely had a 180 here and I think BD Wong made this pay off as well. The guy was devout with his work and it almost felt like he was creating armageddon intentionally when in reality, he worked with the wrong people that liked what he was doing. He wanted his work to be groundbreaking, but never prepared for repercussions. Once he saw how much chaos the locusts made compared to free roaming dinosaurs, he knew he had to undo his damage. Seeing his determination for the pathogen showed that it's never too late to fix mistakes. I don't want to overrate Kayla, but DeWanda Wise made her interesting for portraying her as someone who felt lost and chose to resume her code of honor in a time where she needed to the most. It wasn't just the right thing that motivated her to help get Maisie back, but knowing that family shouldn't ever be separated. With Universal intending to continue making more films for this franchise, I wouldn't mind seeing her stick around. Just because I wasn't impressed on how the legacy characters fit into the story, does not mean I wasn't happy to see them again. If I'm gonna keep talking about improvements, Jeff Goldblum's presence as Ian thankfully had a better impression than in Fallen Kingdom because he actually has something to do besides being rightfully critical. The guy is aware that the worst has arrived and the best he can do is to confront those responsible and it was crazy to believe he still had old friends to help him. Laura Dern & Sam Neill don't skip a beat when they returned for Ellie & Alan and it warmed my heart seeing them pick up where they left off. These two have always been a good pair because of their passion of the past, but it's clear that they separated when they thought of their futures much differently. Ellie wanted to start a family, but Alan wasn't invested/interested in that and that led to him losing her. Let fate have it for her to split with her husband Mark and still think about the guy who knew him better. Of course Alan joined her in the search for the truth because he missed her, but he changed his mind of settling down because he wasn't gonna bare losing her again. So when they shared their first onscreen kiss, there is nothing else to feel but satisfaction. I even thought it was funny to still see him jealous of Ian flirting with Ellie. On the plus side, I also thought it was cool to see the Malcolm throw a burning branch right into the saw of the Giganotosaurus. Obviously, the set up for this returning trio would not have been possible for the man that blew the whistle first. Mamoudou Athie easily made Ramsay likable because he was someone who caught on that he was in the wrong crowd and had to do the right thing by speaking up. Again, since this is apparently not the end of the Jurassic Saga, I really wonder what the future has in store for this unexpected extensive franchise.
CONS: Just because I have a soft spot for a movie does not mean that I can easily ignore the things that bothered me when re watching. I'm sure I'm not the only one thought they wasted a villain like Dodgson, a character from the first movie we never thought we'd see again. I want to appreciate the contribution of Campbell Scott, but he overdoes it on playing a stingy corporate prick who puts minimal thought into his schemes. You honestly wouldn't tell the difference if you put him next to Mark Rylance's Don't Look Up character Peter Isherwell. The guy knew he was gonna destroy the world when that wasn't even his intention and he didn't care. He didn't even think it would be suspicious when people started noticing the locusts weren't consuming Biosyn seeds. Seriously, what made him think no one was gonna figure him out? You can't buy/pay off everyone, look at Ian and Ramsay. I want to be happy seeing the legacy characters get involved, but their connection makes no sense. Ellie had one locust and rather than using a sample from that, she had to go to Biosyn for a whole other sample. And if she needed a witness, she could've asked the family that capture the locust. This is a weird way for her to reunite with Alan. Had she not done that, Ian and Ramsay would've jumped in on the testimony afterwards. Going into the rest of the story, I know there are no legit rules on how to ranch a dinosaur because there's no proof that neanderthals did it, but Owen is pretty lucky to not have a broken arm when encountering a Parasaurolophus. I'm even more confused on the decision of him passing through poaching territory when he knew they would be waiting. It was inevitable for Maisie to be captured for the rest of the movie to happen, but why did it take so long? And why does he think the palm works on every dinosaur. He's lucky that Blue appears to respect it and the herbivores are realistic animals to better respond to it, but god it was stupid for him to think it would work on a Carnotaurus and Allosaurus. I don't want to pick on him, but I'm irritated that he doesn't know most dinosaurs when he worked at the park. He should know the shriek of a Quetzacoatlus did not sound like a plane that could've shot him down or know the difference of an Allosaurus and Giganotosaurus. She is on the news as much as Dodgson so the gap it took to get her is insane. Even putting into the scenario that she disobeyed Claire & Owen almost daily by visiting town when they choose to bring attention to themselves with their actions. I don't blame Barry and Franklin for wanting to help Owen & Claire rescue Maisie & Beta, but why would they allow them to go to Malta if they don't want them to intervene. I know this leads to Kayla taking them to Biosyn, but Owen could've asked Franklin to fly them there once Delacourt got apprehended. And how exactly did the cameras spot Ian put something in Ellie's pocket when he tried to hide from them. If there was another angle that caught a glimpse of the exchange, we should've seen that too and not just take the word a henchman. That even has me thinking why would Dodgson even give him access to those facilities in the first place? If that was Ramsay's doing, that should've been clear as well. Also, why didn't Ramsay tell Ian of the code when trying to save the others? He does save them himself but that was not worth the suspense. On top of that, why didn't he warn Kayla in advance that the dinosaurs moved out of the valley? He didn't have to tell her at the last second, she could've crashed. And how did Ellie forget about the ADS (Aerial Deterrent System)? She was told upon arrival that's what prevents the pterosaurs from leaving the preserve, so that's a macguffin she should've not forgotten. Lastly, I wonder why didn't she or Claire smell the burnt locusts in the power room? Any living thing always smells when they're burnt and they should know that. To wrap up, Jurassic World: Dominion is far from the best finale, but remains an entertaining one nonetheless. Whichever kind of fan you are for this franchise, I’m sure you’ll find some kind of joy from this film.
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