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Jurassic World Dominion - Review
3 years ago
When the first movie reviews for the third part of the Jurassic World series appeared on the internet, I had a feeling of déjà vu. Because the reviews from the media were just as negative as with "Fallen Kingdom", which I defended despite the difficulties the movie had.
Well, I've actually never paid much attention to what so-called professional critics say, but still, like the last time, I got scared because the Jurassic World universe means a lot to me. Now after I've watched the new movie, I have to say that it's not the total disaster like the media said, but there are still a lot of things to criticize about and in my opinion, “Dominion” is clearly the weakest movie of the Jurassic World trilogy.
The movie itself was an absolute nostalgia trip, which is mainly due to the return of the original actors like Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum and Laura Dern, all of them have aged amazingly well.
Of course, the Jurassic World movies have always been associated with great nostalgia, after all, the great and still unsurpassed original will celebrate its 30th anniversary next year.
And it was nice to see the old cast together again in a Jurassic movie, after so many years, but at the same time it's also a big problem, because of that there are two more or less independent storylines, which, however, come more and more together as the film progresses.
But instead of an adventure movie with a few science fiction elements, as was usually the case with the other Jurassic movies, "Dominion" has become a mixture between a spy movie and an eco-thriller with a socially critical message. Which was done rather awkwardly.
In fact, “Dominion” isn't so much about the dinosaurs. It’s about child abduction and genetically engineered giant locusts that posed an even greater threat to humanity than the dinosaurs themselves, because a new reserve had been found for the more "problematic" dinosaurs. So almost a kind of Isla Sorna 2.0, somewhere in the Italian dolomites, which somehow reminded me of the great valley from “The Land Before Time”.
Yes, there were even a lot of new dinosaurs shown that hadn't appeared in the previous movies before, and needless to say they all still look damn awesome. And for the first time you can even see feathered dinosaurs, probably to lure the feather Nazis to the movie theaters, because all of a sudden it was possible to recreate "purebred" dinosaurs, which had not worked before. However, we (the audience) were not told how they were able to fill in the gaps in the gene sequences.
Of the new dinosaurs, the Giganotosaurus really stood out for me, and he looked really cool. However, the showdown towards the end was one of the weakest I've ever seen in a JP/JW movie. Of course, there were also a lot of exaggerated scenes and I really don't want to call a Jurassic Park/World movie trash, but it was very hard at times.
As much as I appreciated seeing the original characters again, they don't make very good figures in this movie and were almost portrayed as a parody of themselves and at some point they even started to get on my nerves. I would have liked it more if the original cast only appeared as cameos, to gave the younger generation (Chris Pratt, etc.) more space and screentime.
Equally, if not even more parodically, was the main villain Lewis Dodgson, the greedy boss of a once again corrupt corporation. Who writes such stupid dialogues and who also approves them?! He was presented in such a comic-like way that I thought I was watching another episode of "Camp Cretaceous" (and no, I’m not a big fan of this show).
Let's get to one more thing: The Jurassic World movies have also always told the story of Blue. She was the first movie raptor to be established as a real character and as a result she became an absolute fan favorite. Her story continued in Fallen Kingdom, where she played a very central role, and I really liked that despite some of the issues that this movie also had. But since the animated series "Camp Cretaceous," it seems the JW creators didn't know what to do with her anymore, so they left her only as a supporting character.
I really wished for Blue to find a mate because in "Camp Cretaceous", (if that show is truly canon) it was shown that Blue is NOT the last living raptor, which we all somehow suspected. So it would have been no problem at all for the creators to finally give her a mate. She deserved it after all she had endured. But instead of that, exactly what I feared after watching Season 3 of "Camp Cretaceous" happened: the asexual reproduction of dinosaurs! Unfortunately, this brings back very negative memories of Roland Emmerich's "Godzilla", because I still hate this idea with a passion and I really didn't want to see something similar happening in JW3 and especially not with Blue.
But still, my heart melted when I saw Blue with little "Beta". I got tears in my eyes, which doesn't happen to me very often. I WANTED TO SEE MORE OF THIS!!! DAMN IT! But other than that, Blue doesn't play a big role in the movie, and that's really a shame. I previously thought that the movie would explore the relationship between humans and dinosaurs. There is so much that could have been done with the connection that still exists between Owen and Blue. But we didn't get any of that. The creators withheld that from us and so Blues story just feels unsatisfying and not fully told.
And apart from that, the whole movie doesn't really feel like the conclusion of a movie series at all. The end wasn't left totally open but it still feels like something is missing. Which leads me to the conclusion that “Dominion” won't be the last film in the franchise. The movie-goers will probably decide about its future…
Despite the criticism and the things, I absolutely disliked, I'm still very, very generous and give with two narrowed eyes.
8 from 10 Points
This is my ranking:
1: Jurassic Park
2: Jurassic World
3: Jurassic World 2: Fallen Kingdom
4: The Lost World: Jurassic Park 2
5: Jurassic World 3: Dominion
6: Jurassic Park 3
Well, I've actually never paid much attention to what so-called professional critics say, but still, like the last time, I got scared because the Jurassic World universe means a lot to me. Now after I've watched the new movie, I have to say that it's not the total disaster like the media said, but there are still a lot of things to criticize about and in my opinion, “Dominion” is clearly the weakest movie of the Jurassic World trilogy.
The movie itself was an absolute nostalgia trip, which is mainly due to the return of the original actors like Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum and Laura Dern, all of them have aged amazingly well.
Of course, the Jurassic World movies have always been associated with great nostalgia, after all, the great and still unsurpassed original will celebrate its 30th anniversary next year.
And it was nice to see the old cast together again in a Jurassic movie, after so many years, but at the same time it's also a big problem, because of that there are two more or less independent storylines, which, however, come more and more together as the film progresses.
But instead of an adventure movie with a few science fiction elements, as was usually the case with the other Jurassic movies, "Dominion" has become a mixture between a spy movie and an eco-thriller with a socially critical message. Which was done rather awkwardly.
In fact, “Dominion” isn't so much about the dinosaurs. It’s about child abduction and genetically engineered giant locusts that posed an even greater threat to humanity than the dinosaurs themselves, because a new reserve had been found for the more "problematic" dinosaurs. So almost a kind of Isla Sorna 2.0, somewhere in the Italian dolomites, which somehow reminded me of the great valley from “The Land Before Time”.
Yes, there were even a lot of new dinosaurs shown that hadn't appeared in the previous movies before, and needless to say they all still look damn awesome. And for the first time you can even see feathered dinosaurs, probably to lure the feather Nazis to the movie theaters, because all of a sudden it was possible to recreate "purebred" dinosaurs, which had not worked before. However, we (the audience) were not told how they were able to fill in the gaps in the gene sequences.
Of the new dinosaurs, the Giganotosaurus really stood out for me, and he looked really cool. However, the showdown towards the end was one of the weakest I've ever seen in a JP/JW movie. Of course, there were also a lot of exaggerated scenes and I really don't want to call a Jurassic Park/World movie trash, but it was very hard at times.
As much as I appreciated seeing the original characters again, they don't make very good figures in this movie and were almost portrayed as a parody of themselves and at some point they even started to get on my nerves. I would have liked it more if the original cast only appeared as cameos, to gave the younger generation (Chris Pratt, etc.) more space and screentime.
Equally, if not even more parodically, was the main villain Lewis Dodgson, the greedy boss of a once again corrupt corporation. Who writes such stupid dialogues and who also approves them?! He was presented in such a comic-like way that I thought I was watching another episode of "Camp Cretaceous" (and no, I’m not a big fan of this show).
Let's get to one more thing: The Jurassic World movies have also always told the story of Blue. She was the first movie raptor to be established as a real character and as a result she became an absolute fan favorite. Her story continued in Fallen Kingdom, where she played a very central role, and I really liked that despite some of the issues that this movie also had. But since the animated series "Camp Cretaceous," it seems the JW creators didn't know what to do with her anymore, so they left her only as a supporting character.
I really wished for Blue to find a mate because in "Camp Cretaceous", (if that show is truly canon) it was shown that Blue is NOT the last living raptor, which we all somehow suspected. So it would have been no problem at all for the creators to finally give her a mate. She deserved it after all she had endured. But instead of that, exactly what I feared after watching Season 3 of "Camp Cretaceous" happened: the asexual reproduction of dinosaurs! Unfortunately, this brings back very negative memories of Roland Emmerich's "Godzilla", because I still hate this idea with a passion and I really didn't want to see something similar happening in JW3 and especially not with Blue.
But still, my heart melted when I saw Blue with little "Beta". I got tears in my eyes, which doesn't happen to me very often. I WANTED TO SEE MORE OF THIS!!! DAMN IT! But other than that, Blue doesn't play a big role in the movie, and that's really a shame. I previously thought that the movie would explore the relationship between humans and dinosaurs. There is so much that could have been done with the connection that still exists between Owen and Blue. But we didn't get any of that. The creators withheld that from us and so Blues story just feels unsatisfying and not fully told.
And apart from that, the whole movie doesn't really feel like the conclusion of a movie series at all. The end wasn't left totally open but it still feels like something is missing. Which leads me to the conclusion that “Dominion” won't be the last film in the franchise. The movie-goers will probably decide about its future…
Despite the criticism and the things, I absolutely disliked, I'm still very, very generous and give with two narrowed eyes.
8 from 10 Points
This is my ranking:
1: Jurassic Park
2: Jurassic World
3: Jurassic World 2: Fallen Kingdom
4: The Lost World: Jurassic Park 2
5: Jurassic World 3: Dominion
6: Jurassic Park 3
humans more than dinosaurs including Blue herself. But
overall, it's not that bad. I'll give this movie 8 out of 10.
I was still hoping we'd be getting something more crazy, like Blue and Owen "together", Owen riding Blue into war, raptors with military training, something similarly setup to the Dinotopia, or some equally crazy ideas.
It would have been more interesting, probably.
I would have liked to see more with the dinos outside the sanctuary and how those dino-human interactions were playing out though (especially more with Blue of course since her territory was still bordering Owen, Claire, and Maisy's house/land).
I do appreciate the feathers (Therizinosaurus and Pyroraptor), and that they had Jurassic World Alive creatures in it that were not in any of the other movies or TV spinoffs (Pyroraptor, Dimetrodon, and I think I saw a Lystrosaurus as well)
Overall I'd give it 8 out of 10. Other movies were stronger, but there were also some weaker ones in my opinion. I'd probably agree with your rankings for the most part.
I just cant stand plots that hinge on "stupid person does something stupid and kills everyone" JP1 got around it by calling it out when the decision to cut all power was made.
The other issue I had with the last two movies is a lot of graphic, non-plot related death on screen. when I saw the last two in theater I left feeling like I wasted my time and money. the few scenes with blue did not make up for the rest of the film
I absolutely agree with this!
I too was extremely disappointed about the parthenogenesis subplot with Blue. It's been done so many times, including in the first film where it came as a shock, and now it's just boring. I also wanted her to have a mate and her own family. At least she had Beta, I suppose...like you said, the scenes with her and Beta were extremely touching!
Despite liking feathered raptors, I hated how the Pyroraptor looked. The problem was the face. It looked very strange, not natural at all.
I felt like it was my least favorite out of all the JP movies, they just had too much in the movie. It actually felt like an extremely long movie and I've never felt that way about any other JP film.
I also agree that Dodgson felt like a Camp Cretaceous character. The dialogue was terrible. lol.
I rate this movie 7.2/10 and give
FK 6.8/10
JW 7.5/10
JP3 9.0/10
TLW 9.7/10
JP 9.9/10