In the early stages of Jurassic World Dominion, the sixth CGI escapade in the Jurassic Park franchise, Laura Dern’s Dr Elli Sattler states: ”it never gets old” as she catches glimpse of a baby female triceratops. While the first appearance of Stephen Spielberg’s resurrected dinosaurs was awe inspiring in the OG 1990s classic, the franchise did get old, as screenwriters simply re-animated the same dusty fossils: an island, a theme park, a plan gone wrong: cue raptors, T-rex, some dead goats.
Jurassic World Dominion brings back the awe as it finally embraces the possibilities that had only previously been teased; what happens when the dinosaurs get loose, not just on an island, but in the world at large? And we mean large. The first unleashing of joy, the first bursts of John Williams’ iconic theme music, however, are when Sam Neill’s Dr Alan Grant appears. T-Rex was scary as he chomped down on that toilet in the rain, but Neill, Dern and Jeff Goldblum were as much a part of Jurassic Park’s success as the menagerie of monsters.
To see the original trilogy cast members interacting with the Jurassic World reboot’s Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard and Isabella Sermon is a fitting collision of old and new worlds. Pratt and Goldblum, both members of the Marvel galaxy too, have some particularly comedic banter, while Dallas Howard and Dern bond over mansplaining and again demonstrate that they are not damsels in distress. New additions DeWanda Wise and Mamoudou Athie are welcome in this world that has begun to feel fresh again and ripe for more sequels.
As in all of the films in the franchise, the villains aren’t really the dinosaurs: the bad guys are the human scientists who let ego and quests for gold, immortality get in the way. A core theme is the myth that man has a God ordained dominion over nature; a belief that has prevailed since Francis Bacon and the industrial revolution, but that COVID-19 and climate change has begun to seriously challenge. There’s plenty of philosophy, chaos theory, examinations of the morality of commercial agriculture and factory farming, but all wrapped up in blockbuster action and horror tropes, exotic James Bond-esque locations like Malta, jump scares and gross out moments.
Some negative points to the film was the confusing storyline between locusts and dinosaurs. Felt like too much was happening in the various storyline’s. And the villain needed to be more nasty. He came across as a little wimpish.
After two and a half decades, it’s fun to play in the park again.
Jurassic World Dominion is now screening at Palace Nova Eastend and Palace Prospect.
Review by James Murphy
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