I truly love the original Jurassic Park from 1993. I will
never forget the amazement in the theater of seeing real-looking dinosaurs on
screen. Thanks to Stan Winston and his practical effects and the astounding
visual effects by Industrial Light and Magic – the movie contributed to a lot
of accepted dinosaur looks and sounds. We all think we know what a TRex sounds
like, because of that movie. I enjoyed
both sequels, to varying degrees and was unsure when they launched a
reboot/sequel idea with Jurassic World.
I did enjoy Jurassic World, mainly because the most compelling characters in the movie were the dinosaurs. I maintain that Blue was the best character in the movie with the most compelling story arc and the hero entrance and of the T-Rex at the end was just spectacular. I hated the second entry, Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom, which seemed to be made by someone who did not care about dinosaurs at all – which is fine, for anyone not making Jurassic movies. While Jurassic World played into the love and awe we felt at the original, Fallen Kingdom threw all that aside by causing pain and terror to the dinosaurs and people in the movie. Having such a strong reaction to that movie, I was unsure I wanted to see another one, but was grateful that Colin Trevorrow was back at the helm.
This movie begins with humans attempting to deal with the after-effects of Fallen Kingdom – dinosaurs are now loose in our world and living with them side by side is proving difficult. There is a sanctuary built in Italy by Biosyn, the company run by Lewis Dodgson who we briefly met in the very first movie. Remember how Nedry got the shaving cream can from him to steal dino embryos and help his company catch up with Ingen’s science? Owen Grady seems to be working on collecting dinosaurs and sending them to the sanctuary, and Claire Dearing is working to stop the quickly rising black market breeding and trading of dinosaurs. Oh yeah, and together they are trying to raise the girl from the second movie who was the clone of the daughter of the secret business partner of John Hammond (what?). In the woods near their home, Blue has made herself a home and a baby (ohmygoodness the tiny baby raptor is the cutest!!).
In addition, a swarm of giant locusts has started sweeping across the globe, completely wiping out crops and multiplying so quickly it could cause some serious damage – but remarkably not attacking crops grown from Biosyn seeds. Our dear Dr. Ellie Sattler is researching the locusts and collects Dr. Alan Grant from a dig to head to the sanctuary to do some digging around where their old friend Dr. Ian Malcom has already begun some investigating. On top of this, Owen and Claire and others we’ve met in these new movies head to Italy because a group of shady poacher-types has kidnapped both the clone girl and Blue’s daughter, and Owen is going to get both back. Along the way they stop in an underground black market dino-dealing and dino-fighting ring where they meet some new cast and some returning cast (they really did put everyone in this movie). Eventually everyone (EVERYONE) ends up in Italy just in time for a very exciting conclusion to this franchise.
I am very happy this was directed by Colin Trevorrow – it does have the same sense of appreciation and awe of the original films as Jurassic World did. I liked all the sequences of people respectfully attempting to live with dinosaurs and I appreciated all the practical effects - Far more robotic dinos in this movie. The black-market sequence was both entertaining and unnecessary…honestly, that is the perfect description for the majority of this movie. I liked the introduction of a couple of new dinosaurs that we hadn’t seen yet, once again leading me to say that the dinos were the best characters in this movie – well, almost the best.
Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard are just fine as Owen and Claire, I like the operation they have set up, out in the woods where they can raise their adopted clone daughter and keep an eye on Blue and her daughter. Pratt is getting so good at playing generic leading-man-action-hero-guy that they have all started to feel the same, not necessarily a problem. Howard was a little more fun and seemed to understand that you don’t have to take this so seriously. Isabella Sermon plays Maisie Lockwood, the clone introduced in the last movie. She does a fine job, and I liked her scene of helping some construction guys gently move some apatosaurs out of their way. That said, she and her entire storyline could have been removed from this movie and I think we would still be okay.
Also returning from various version of the new trilogy are Justice Smith as Franklin Webb, Claire’s sidekick from the last movie, and Omar Sy as Owen’s sidekick from the first movie. Both are essentially cameos that seem to be there just to remind you they were in the other movies.
In terms of new cast, DeWanda Wise was super fun as pilot
Kayla Watts. She seems to be all about black market dino transfers, but then
has a change of conscious and works to help our heroes. I was very excited to
see Dichen Lachman pop up, but as much as I enjoy her – her black-market
dino-trading baddie was also unnecessary. I suppose she introduces a pack of
raptors trained to pack hunt whatever she targets with a laser, but again –
unnecessary. Campbell Scott steps into the slimy shoes of Dodgson and my
goodness, what a creepy bad guy. You
can’t wait for him to get eaten.
Mamoudou Athie joins as Ramsay Cole, a guy working for Dodgson. He’s
great, again, but all his scenes could have been done by B.D.Wong.
Speaking of which, B.D.Wong’s Dr. Henry Wu shows up once again looking for redemption. Honestly, it would have been more interesting having him be the big bad that our heroes find in Italy, running the company and going full mad scientist – looking to create human/dino hybrids. Instead he’s quietly sitting in a lab working to eliminate the locusts. Again, he’s great, but why not let him go a little over-the-top?
The best part of this movie is getting to see Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dern, and Sam Neill back as Drs. Malcolm, Sattler, and Grant. They clearly understood the assignment, are not taking anything too seriously, and are having a great time.
I still think Blue is the best character in this new trilogy, although she had less to do this time around. She basically established her new life in the beginning, and then seemed to request Owen’s help once her baby was taken, and then demonstrating some gratitude at the end when Beta was returned to her. Oh yes, I will spoil that for you – Beta is fine. Also, the T-Rex gets some well-deserved love too. After being the hero of Jurassic World, she is the hero again here, despite nearly getting felled by a Giganotosaurus. She gets some accidental help from a Therizinosaurus – an herbivore with a deadly manicure.
Overall, I certainly enjoyed it, but there were way too many humans in it and not nearly enough of them got eliminated by dinosaurs. In the very first Jurassic Park, we meet a whole group of very interesting humans and only a handful make it out of the movie. Here, we meet a whole group of not-very-interesting humans and nearly all make it out. Also, way too many unnecessary plot lines in a movie that was way too long - two and a half hours. Cutting some of that would have brought this to a tidy two hours. Take out the locusts, the black market bits, most of the new cast, and focus on giving us more with the returning cast and awesome dino-chase sequences. I will say – so many dinosaurs! Which I loved. Lots that we had seen before and some species we have never seen – which makes sense, because new species are being discovered constantly. I love the inclusion of feathers on many of them, and I particularly loved seeing the Dilophosaurs return, wonderful – but nothing beats baby Beta. In case you want a full list of them – I’ll recommend this site: https://a-z-animals.com/blog/meet-every-dinosaur-featured-in-jurassic-world-dominion-30-total/
6 out of 10 – Too many people, but plenty of dinosaurs! An
exceptional entry into the unnecessary nonsense genre!
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