Movie Breakdown: Jurassic World Dominion

Pre-Screening Stance:

I still find Jurassic World to be solidly entertaining, but when it comes to Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, I watched it once and have since had zero interest in revisiting it. Jurassic World Dominion sees the return of director Colin Trevorrow and pulls in Sam Neil, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum, but will it roar? Maybe.

Post-Screening Ramble:

Jurassic World Dominion is one lazy movie. Its story essentially has three basic threads. 1) Owen (Chris Pratt) and Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) live way out in the mountains, where they look after various dinos and a teenage girl, who happens to be a clone, named Maisie (Isabella Sermon). 2) Ellie (Laura Dern) is hot on the trail of a prehistoric locust swarm that’s eating up crops, and she enlists her old flame Alan (Sam Neil) to assist. 3) Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) is currently working for a company called Biosyn, who not only want to find Maisie, but they may also be behind the locust issue. The rest of the movie, as you’ve likely guessed, involves these worlds colliding.

While I’ve laid out the story for you, I have to say that it doesn’t really matter – Jurassic World Dominion stumbles forward with zero interest in suspense or character development. This is a movie based solely on big set pieces, and everything in between just seems like an afterthought. I suppose this would be fine if said set pieces were memorable, but I didn’t really find any of them to be noteworthy. Also, the lack of an engaging story doesn’t do the action in the film any favors, as those moments don’t carry any weight or ever feel earned. Talk about a boring blockbuster. Though, I have to admit, the promo screening I attended was full of people cheering, which baffled me, but maybe dinos biting people is all those folks wanted out of Jurassic World Dominion. And on that very basic level, I guess it succeeds.

The film hits theaters tomorrow, June 10.

One Last Thought:

Everyone in this movie holds their hand up whenever a dino very clearly wants to eat them. I assume it was written in as a thing because it’s what Chris Pratt’s character does to “command” his raptor, but it’s just so nonsensical that every instance of it is eye-roll inducing.