Review: Jurassic World: Dominion (Colin Trevorrow, 2022)

Hold on to your butts: A bumpy ride through the finale of the Jurassic franchise

**This review may contain spoilers**

Fig. 1 - Jurassic World: Dominion (Colin Trevorrow, 2022).

The great Sam Neill’s character Alan Grant in Jurassic Park III (Joe Johnston, 2001) once said, “some of the worst things imaginable have been done with the best intentions.” Whilst Jurassic World: Dominion (Colin Trevorrow, 2022) (Fig. 1) is not quite “the worst thing imaginable” for the finale of the Jurassic  World series, the film lost its spark of excitement through dull action sequences and awkward moments of dialogue despite showcasing more dinosaurs than ever seen before and a stellar legacy cast.

The first Jurassic Park film was released in 1993 under director Steven Spielberg, which he had adapted from the original novel by Michael Crichton (1990) under the same name. Due to the film’s popular success, Spielberg then directed the sequel, The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997). The film saw another follow-up with Jurassic Park III, but unfortunately this was not as highly critically or commercially favoured. Then in 2015, director Colin Trevorrow released Jurassic World, located at the same site as Jurassic Park, a fictional island off the coast of Costa Rica - Isla Nubla. Jurassic World saw a whole new cast take up the mantle and the two main stars Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) and Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas-Howard) have continued to be the main characters in the subsequent Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (J. A. Bayona, 2018) and within Jurassic World: Dominion. Fallen Kingdom was gothic and darker in its tone and approach to the Jurassic franchise with director J. A. Bayona coming on board to make one of the scariest films to date (Carlos Morales 2022). With the return of director Trevorrow from Jurassic World for Dominion, fans were interested if he would continue with this more intense atmosphere.  

Fig. 2 – Henry Wu (B.D. Wong) examining his newest creation, a Giant Locust.

Advertised as the “epic conclusion” to the Jurassic franchise; the film follows up on Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, which left protagonists Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) and Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas-Howard) searching for a new life with human clone, Maisie Lockwood, whilst dinosaurs escaped or were sold from the Lockwood estate. The film ends by asking audiences to ponder the question of how humanity finds a way to co-exist with dinosaurs. Unfortunately, Dominion completely bypasses this question. Instead, it explores how the new ‘bad-guy on the block’, Biosyn, a genetics company that attempts to destroy the world’s food production and is involved in a kidnapping plot to gain dominance over the genome sequence. The main threat in Dominion is thus the cause of the problem with food production, Giant Locusts (Fig. 2), and not any of the other 32 species of dinosaur featured. Aside from a few opening shots of the film (Fig. 3), we do not see the true consequences of releasing dinosaurs across the globe. Instead, they are safely hidden away in the Dolomites Mountain range in Northern Italy, where Biosyn created a nature reserve for any dinosaurs found and in need of rehoming and thus accommodates  all the dinosaurs to be encountered by the film’s heroes.

Fig. 3 – One of the few opening shots we see where dinosaurs have integrated themselves into society.

In contrast, the inclusion of the Legacy cast is one of the few highlights of Dominion. The protagonists from the first Jurassic Park film return: Dr Alan Grant (Sam Neill), Dr Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) and Dr Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) reassembling in a delightful reunion that felt wholesome to return to (Fig. 4). Whilst this is not the first time that Neill, Dern and Goldblum have reprised their roles within the franchise, to witness them coming back into their roles and hand the batons on to the newer members of the cast was a true delight. The performances from each of the Legacy cast were brilliant and warm. Though subtle is the complete antithesis for describing the character of Dr Ian Malcolm, Jeff Goldblum’s performance transcended as some form of chaotician rockstar, giving lectures to glossy-eyed young fans who are later eager to get their books signed by the King of Chaos himself. Goldblum’s natural ability to charm oozes once again from the role, providing many moments of humour and light relief.  

Fig. 4 – Legacy cast reunites!

But what about the dinosaurs? It is impressive to see the range of dinosaurs – 32 different species – that they chose to bring back to life on the big screen. Press releases before the film’s premiere showed both cast and crew speaking fondly about the reprisal of Industry Light Magic (ILM)’s animation techniques within Jurassic Park, where animatronics and puppetry were used to bring these creatures to life. Speaking on his choice of animation technique, director of Dominion Trevorrow said, “[a]nimatronics give [the cast] the ability to interact with it as if it’s another actor because there’s another performer behind it. It really is a human and a human communicating via a puppet, which is a beautiful kind of art" (Davids 2022). He further discusses how the animatronics were used in scenes where there was no running or fighting, as he wished to return to Jurassic World and to Jurassic Park. The choice to return to this technology when the possibilities of CGI are ever expanding is interesting, as practical effects are often costly and gigantic animatronic structures can be temperamental.

Unfortunately, there appeared to be an abundance of dinosaurs with little screen time for each species. Whereas Spielberg’s dinosaurs from Jurassic had characters and personality, Trevorrow’s lacked anything but an innate desire to attack and kill. The dinosaurs became one-dimensional monsters, which is what Spielberg specifically avoided – who insisted that his dinosaurs were animals and never monsters (Shay and Duncan 1993, 91). In film scholar Robert Baird’s research titled, “Animalizing ‘Jurassic Park’s’ Dinosaurs: Blockbuster Schemata and Cross-Cultural Cognition in the Threat Scene” (1998), Baird collates data comparing three of the dinosaurs’ actual onscreen time compared to time they were suggested to be onscreen. He shows that threatening dinosaurs were only revealed fully on screen for 6% of the time with a suggested time of 21%, showing that the threat perceived by the audience is in the sublimity and careful use of the animation and the audience perceived that dinosaurs were shown more than they were in threat scenes. Unfortunately, the threat levels from Dominion’s dinosaurs are as subtle as a Dreadnoughtus (the largest dinosaur currently known to have existed). Trevorrow seemed to take the motto from his last Jurassic film of “bigger, louder, more teeth” and cram as many species of dinosaurs as he could within the 2-hour 27min event, eliminating any chance of subtle threat. As a result, it is just as Kevin Maher of The Times says: “there’s not a single moment of genuine dread, fear or even mild unease” (2022). While the dinosaurs on-set may have scared the actors, this threat level did not cross through the barrier of the screen. Unfortunately, all 32 species failed to achieve any scare factor, and the purpose merely served as an entertaining spectacle.

Fig. 5 – Cast hiding behind a Jeep from the Giganotosaurus.

One particularly important scene is when Giganotosaurus attacks the ensemble cast. The scene appears to pay homage to the T-Rex chase scene from Jurassic Park, as it involves the cast hiding behind a car and close-up shots of the Giganotosaurus’ teeth shown through the window of the Jeep (Fig. 5). Ian Malcolm (Goldblum) finally faces his fears and learns from his biggest mistake that he made in Jurassic Park, choosing fight instead of flight. He waves a blazing Giant Locust to distract the Giganotosaurus, ultimately throwing it into the dinosaur’s mouth to injure it. This is opposed to his manoeuvre Jurassic Park, in which the T-Rex attacks him when he tries to distract it with a flare in his hand (Fig. 6). It is clear to see the parallels between these two scenes with the use of two apex predators. The Giganotosaurus is explained to us by Alan Grant (Neill) as the largest carnivore the world has ever seen. Whilst it is impressive that they created such a large scale animatronic, much like they did with (Roberta) the T-Rex from Jurassic Park, the beauty of the craft has been lost with the lack of characterisation and threat from this apex predator. The Giganotosaurus is dull as dishwater in comparison to the fearsome T-Rex.

Fig. 6 – Comparison of Ian Malcolm then and now.

Jurassic World: Dominion aims to achieve spectacle by bringing beloved cast members back and using a blend of practical techniques and CGI. But, to quote Ian Malcolm from Jurassic Park, “Oooh, ahhh, that’s how it always starts. Then later there’s running and screaming.” Unfortunately, Dominion lost this sense of awe by the characters running and screaming away from all the dinosaurs too quickly that we were unable to fully immerse ourselves in the spectacle. The film was so crammed with action and stunt scenes that it didn’t allow the characters to stay and marvel at the dinosaurs for any substantial length of time before they ran to the next location for the narrative. Unfortunately, because of this fast-paced narrative this also caused the dinosaurs to lose any threat levels and became merely 12A eyewash. All in all, Dominion …uh…does not find a way…and crutches on its original roots to Jurassic Park, failing to create anything new or exciting within the franchise.

**Article published: June 24, 2022**

References

Baird, Robert. 1998. “Animalizing ‘Jurassic Park's’ Dinosaurs: Blockbuster Schemata and Cross-Cultural Cognition in the Threat Scene.” Cinema Journal vol. 37, no. 4: 82–103.

Crichton, Michael. 1991. Jurassic Park. New York: Ballantine Books

Davids, Brian. 2022. ‘Jurassic World Dominion’ Filmmaker Colin Trevorrow Discusses Key Moments in Franchise’s Concluding Chapter.” The Hollywood Reporter, June 10, 2022. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/jurassic-world-dominion-colin-trevorrow-spoilers-1235163155/.

Loock, Kathleen. 2020. “Reboot, Requel, Legacyquel: Jurassic World and the Nostalgia Franchise.” In Film Reboots, edited by Daniel Herbert, Constantine Verevis, 173-188. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Maher, Kevin. 2022. “Jurassic World Dominion review — it’s time for this franchise to go extinct.” The Times, June 8, 2022. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/jurassic-world-dominion-film-review-v5592hvlq

Morales, Carlos. 2022. “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Finding Empathy in Gothic Terror.” IGN, June 9, 2022. https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/06/21/jurassic-world-fallen-kingdom-and-finding-empathy-in-gothic-terror .

Singer, M., 2015. “Welcome To The Age Of The Legacyquel.” ScreenCrush, November 23, 2015. https://screencrush.com/the-age-of-legacyquels/.

Shay, D. and Duncan, J., 1993. The Making of Jurassic Park. New York: Ballantine Books.

Biography

Fern Parsons is an MA Film Studies graduate from the University of Southampton, having previously obtained a Film Studies degree from the University of Winchester. During her studies her research interests varied from Jim Henson’s Labyrinth to Bong Joon-ho’s Okja. Her MA dissertation was a star study on Jeff Goldblum entitled “The Blumaissance: Jeff Goldblum’s career renaissance” in which she sought to explore how internet culture has transformed Goldblum’s star status. When she is not searching for the latest Goldblum memes she can be found re-watching her favourite Studio Ghibli movies, her love of them even extends to a tattoo of Jiji from Kiki’s Delivery Service.