The Reel Review
This sixth installment in the Jurassic Park fantasy action franchise is set four years after the volcanic eruption destroyed Isla Nublar in 2018’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, unleashing cloned dinosaurs into the world. Now that these prehistoric creatures live among us, what will our future look like?
You would think that reuniting the original Jurassic Park’s Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum with more recent franchise stars Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard – alongside a myriad of amazing-looking dinosaurs – would be a sure-fire recipe for crowd pleasing fan service. Not so. This dull, moronic film goes out of its way to be one colossal, extinction-level event.
The tedious two-and-a-half hour story fancies itself as a bizarre Jason Bourne/Mission Impossible mashup, with our hapless heroes doing battle against an evil drug company CEO (Campbell Scott) who bioengineers giant locusts to destroy the planet’s crops. The dinosaurs are mere set decoration in this contrived film from co-writer/director Colin Trevorrow (Jurassic World). The story is exhaustingly nonsensical and completely void of any of the charm and wonder of the iconic original.
Astoundingly, only two characters spark any joy in this humorless mess – Goldblum, pretty much playing himself, and DeWanda Wise (She’s Gotta Have It) as the smart-mouthed mercenary pilot. The rest of the cast appears to be sleepwalking, perhaps hypnotized by Pratt’s now incredibly annoying schtick of holding out his hand “Stop! In The Name of Love!” style, to halt advancing dinosaurs from attacking. Jurassic Park once invoked awe and inspiration. Now it elicits only mocking chuckles of how pathetic the money-grubbing franchise has become.
REEL FACTS
• Filming of Jurassic World Dominion was halted in March 2020 during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, resuming in July 2020.
• Trevorrow co-wrote the screenplay for Jurassic World Dominion with Pacific Rim: Uprising writer Emily Carmichael.
• Chris Pratt, Sam Neill and Jeff Goldblum all have role in the upcoming Marvel film, Thor: Love and Thunder.
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