Jurassic World Dominion
I imagine Steven Spielberg hearing the pitch for “Jurassic World Dominion” from Colin Trevorrow and Emily Carmichael, and just nodding in approval. Maybe he pondered what he was thinking, maybe he just thought, “Why not? Let’s just go for it.” Whatever it was, “Dominion” was the result, and it’s the most batshit insane movie he’s lended his name to since “Gremlins 2: The New Batch.” That doesn’t mean it’s anywhere near that good, however.
After 2018’s “Fallen Kingdom,” I wrote about how the “Jurassic” franchise seemed to represent Spielberg giving into an itch to make B-level genre movies that some of the other filmmakers from his generation cut their teeth on. Knowing he could never possibly top the critical success of his 1993 original, he used the sequels to make big, dumb monster movies that sometimes delivered interesting ideas, but were little more than an excuse to pad his coffers while giving audiences dinosaur action to watch. If it wasn’t clear with “The Lost World” and “Jurassic Park III,” it’s absolutely crystallized when you watch the “Jurassic World” movies, with “Dominion” being the most brazen example of this. You can’t help but admire the hustle, in a way.
The ending of “Fallen Kingdom” pointed to something I loved the idea of from the second it seemed possible in these films- dinosaurs on the mainland, affecting the ecology of Earth that we’ve built, and the chaos that could ensue. I suppose it’s inevitable that “Dominion” doesn’t really deal with that throughout its entire 146-minute running time, but I’m not going to lie- the ways it does are so bizarre and ridiculous I couldn’t help but love it. Dinosaur poachers, underground Dino-fighting. Dinosaur trafficking. There’s a scene here that’s like a dinosaur-laden Mos Eisley cantina, and I’m not going to lie- it was heaven. Bring. It. On.
I don’t even know where to begin in explaining the story of this film, because honestly, there are few blockbusters with less structural shape in recent memory. Here’s what you need to know: Blue the velociraptor had a kid; Owen (Chris Pratt) and Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) adopted Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon), the clone “granddaughter” from “Fallen Kingdom”; Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) is still digging up fossils; Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) is studying a locust outbreak that threatens our food supply; and Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) is working for our latest megalomaniac billionaire (Campbell Scott, only doing the second most comedically absurd riff on Steve Jobs I’ve seen in the past eight months) who thinks they can harness the power of genetic science for their own purposes. Eventually, they all end up at a sanctuary/scientific campus in Europe, where dinosaur mayhem goes up to 11.
The movie doesn’t make a lick of narrative sense, but Trevorrow has some absolutely beautiful images in store for us. Owen riding with dinosaurs in a snowy plain at the beginning. Claire trying to hide from a dinosaur that looks like a giant sloth. Triceratops’s in the sunset. Some apocalyptic images when the sanctuary seems in peril. This film continues the striking visuals of beautiful and horror from “Fallen Kingdom” when it isn’t aping sequences from previous films in the franchise, or other films. When Owen and Claire are in Malda for one of the more ridiculous sequences in the film, the way it unfolds feels like a Jason Bourne film, and honestly? I loved every crazy minute of it. Yes, it should matter that a film has an internal logic, but there’s something to be said for just letting things rip. I get it if you can’t forgive this film it’s logical sins, though; again, I’m not going to pretend this is good filmmaking- it’s just maximalist filmmaking, which honestly feels like the way this franchise should go out.
As a kid, I remember the dinosaur exhibit that made the rounds around the country, and instilled in many of us a sense of imagination of what those monsters were like. On the other side, we had “The Flinstones,” which showed man living with dinosaurs in a wholly ridiculous, sitcom manner. I didn’t watch “The Land Before Time” or “Fantasia,” with its powerful “Rite of Spring” sequence, when I was a kid. “Jurassic Park,” though, has been a staple of my pop culture for 2/3s of my life, and it tapped into those memories of the exhibit that still exist. Five films later, and the wonder of dinosaurs on-screen has been replaced by pulpy, ridiculous adventures that test the idea of smart characters doing stupid things like few film franchises do. The only sense of awe I have towards it is how I’m still a sucker for every minute of it.
