Jurassic World: Dominion

The audience surely doesn’t come to a Jurassic World flick for its relevant cerebral rumination. No, they come for the dinosaurs, and the film delivers on that front. Just when dino fatigue has begun to settle in, Trevorrow manages to find new ways to wow the crowd. A raptor gets thrown out of an airplane. Our heroes visit a memorably grim black market. In what may be the most intense, well-choreographed sequence, Claire barely escapes into the water by crawling away from a particularly ferocious, feathery beast. She and Owen later face off against a predator on and under thin ice.

There’s a swarm of burning locusts and a motorcycle chase that’s as pulse-pounding as giggle-inducing. The finale’s giant dino stand-off doesn’t disappoint. All this spectacle begs to be appreciated on the biggest screen possible. Jurassic World: Dominion boasts a tremendously immersive sound design as well. That being said, Trevorrow allows his indie roots to shine through from time to time with smaller touches that resonate. Kayla commenting on Ian’s style in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment alone makes one wonder what a spin-off with just those two characters would look like.

“…manages to find new ways to wow the crowd.”

As pleasant as it is to see the old crew bond with the new one, it’s also instantly obvious which one fares better. The camaraderie between Ellie, Alan, and Ian is so touching and effortless that it emphasizes the listlessness of Owen and Claire’s relationship. Unfortunately, Pratt’s performance still amounts to a series of shocked/determined/befuddled reaction shots. Bryce Dallas Howard’s Claire is as one-dimensional as ever. Thank goodness, then, for Jeff Goldblum adding much-needed humor and charm to the proceedings, while Ellie and Alan… well, the audience at the press screening literally cheered for them at one point.

“Alan, you never get used to it,” Ellie says as she pets a baby Triceratops. After six films over the span of almost 30 years, you really do. Preposterous but entertaining, Jurassic World: Dominion not only finds new ways to inspire the awe and wonder sorely lacking from previous installments, it recaptures some of that Spielberg magic. Trevorrow delivers a proper send-off to a faltering series. Until Jurassic Universe, that is. Dinos in space, anyone?