Four years after the destruction of Isla Nublar, dinosaurs now live – and hunt – alongside humans worldwide. This fragile balance will reshape the future and determine, once and for all, whether human beings are to remain the apex predators on a planet they now share with history’s most fearsome creatures in a New Era.
I remember seeing “Jurassic Park” at the theater when I was still living back in Dublin in Ireland in the summer of 1993. The film opened on Friday, July 16th, and I managed to snag two free passes to an advance screening on the evening of Thursday, July 15th and brought my mother along with me. Because of the movie’s anticipation, we arrived early and got good seats, but the theater fell quiet once the film started. Everybody anticipated seeing real-life dinosaurs on the big screen, and it most certainly didn’t disappoint, especially when we got to the T-Rex scene. However, as each sequel graced cinemas in subsequent years, the “wow factor” seemed to diminish as we got used to seeing dinosaurs roam across the silver screen. Still, in watching the franchise’s latest installment, maybe because it has been marketed as the final entry in the series, I found myself being wowed once more, thanks to better-than-ever visuals and CGI. The dinosaurs have never looked better, and throughout certain scenes, I found myself getting caught up in the story’s action and terrific set-pieces.
Four years have passed since a volcanic eruption destroyed Isla Nublar, and now all of humankind shares the Earth with dinosaurs of all shapes and sizes. Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) and Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) have settled down in the sprawling mountain range of Sierra Nevada, far from the madding crowd, along with Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon), a precocious fourteen-year-old who, it was revealed in “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,” was cloned from the deceased daughter of John Hammond’s former partner, Benjamin Lockwood, thereby paving the way for them to clone dinosaur DNA. Owen and Claire know that she will be forever examined and dissected if found, so protecting her is their number one priority. One day, Blue, a velociraptor that Owen trained in Jurassic World, turns up on their doorstep accompanied by a baby raptor that Maisie names Beta. They quickly run off into the woods, and Owen follows them, but no sooner has he started on his trek than he hears Blue squawking loudly and sees poachers loading Beta into the back of a pick-up truck. Maisie tries to follow but is captured by a mysterious woman and loaded into an SUV.
Owen and Claire reach out to Franklin Webb (Justice Smith), a former IT technician and hacker they met in “Fallen Kingdom,” who is now working for the CIA. They tell him what happened, and he informs them that a former colleague of Owen’s from Jurassic World, Barry (Omar Sy), is now working for them and is deep undercover trying to break up an underground dinosaur ring in Malta and that there has been chatter about two special guests who will be arriving the next day. They hitch a ride to Malta and meet up with Barry and learn that they just missed Maisie and Beta, who were put on a plane to the remote headquarters of the BioSyn Sanctuary, a large biotech company similar to InGen from the first two Jurassic Park films, notable for their work in genetic engineering and for acquiring dinosaurs through wild capture and the black market. The sanctuary is a massive research and development facility constructed in the Italian Dolomites to study captured dinosaurs. Owen and Claire meet Kayla Watts (DeWanda Wise), a former Air Force pilot, and talk her into helping them get to BioSyn. Meanwhile, Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) and Alan Grant (Sam Neill) have already made their way to BioSyn, after receiving an invitation from their old friend, Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), who is lecturing at the facility.
Once there, Ellie and Alan are introduced to Lewis Dodgson (Campbell Scott), the CEO of BioSyn, who welcomes them, claiming to be a big fan of each of their work, and gives them free rein to explore the facility. Ellie informs Ian that they have discovered a new species of genetically modified locust that is destroying crops across the United States. Ian gives Ellie his security badge, telling her that he knows about the locusts because of a whistleblower inside BioSyn who is helping him and tells her where she and Alan can get a sample of its DNA, thereby proving to the world that Dodgson is responsible and is trying to take control of the world’s food sources. Ellie and Alan retrieve a DNA sample but also discover Maisie and take her with them. When an outage shuts down BioSyn’s power, Ellie, Alan, Ian, and Maisie find themselves in the wilderness of the BioSyn Sanctuary, surrounded by various dinosaurs. After crashlanding her plane inside the sanctuary, Kayla, Owen, and Claire meet up with the others, but they quickly realize escape will not be easy, especially with Giganotosaurus, the largest known terrestrial carnivore on Earth, hot on their heels.
While I enjoyed “Jurassic World Dominion,” I expected a lot more from it, mainly because it is advertised as the final chapter in the Jurassic series, and I wanted an exhilarating, thrilling send-off. Don’t get me wrong; there is plenty of action and adventure within; I just felt that overall, it didn’t deliver on the promise its trailers purported in the build-up to its release. One aspect I did enjoy, however, was its trek across the globe. Most of the previous films all took place within the confines of a park or an island; here, because all kinds of dinosaurs now populate the world, we travel from the U.S. to Malta to Italy, and at times, it has the ambiance and feel of a James Bond or Jason Bourne movie. Teaming Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard with the original trilogy’s protagonists, Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum, is one of the film’s highlights and a great way to finish the franchise; it’s just a pity a lot of the action and tension is derivative from some of the earlier movies, notably “Jurassic Park.” For instance, one scene has our lead characters being followed by Giganotosaurus around an upside-down vehicle, reminiscent of the scene from “Jurassic Park” where the T-Rex attacks the car with the two kids in it and turns it on its roof. If the scene had never existed in the original film, it would have played out well here, but because we are all familiar with this particular instance, it loses the anticipation and suspense it might have otherwise interjected into the scene.
“Jurassic World Dominion” will undoubtedly make its money back; every entry in the series has, and while the studio is claiming it is the last in the series, give it a few years, and Universal will find a way to resurrect the franchise and inject some new blood into it. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, I’m sure there are a thousand different narratives that could be covered, but in the end, there are only so many ways you can build up tension with an approaching T-Rex or Giganotosaurus or Velociraptor before the audience rolls their eyes as they have seen it numerous times before. If you are a fan of the series, you should enjoy “Dominion,” just don’t take it too seriously; God knows, the filmmakers didn’t.
In Theaters Friday, June 10th
