Jurassic World Dominion (2022)

There is a particular kind of franchise fatigue that sets in when a series has run out of genuine ideas but still has enough brand recognition to fill a cinema on opening weekend. Jurassic World, Colin Trevorrow's 2015 reboot of the Jurassic Park series, launched a new trilogy set in a world where humanity had, apparently, learned nothing from the events of the original films and decided to build an even bigger dinosaur theme park. That film made an enormous amount of money, which more or less guaranteed two sequels. Jurassic World Dominion (2022) is the third and supposedly final chapter, picking up four years after the events of its predecessor, in a world where dinosaurs have broken free of any controlled environment and now share the planet with human beings. The tagline promises an epic conclusion. Whether the film delivers on that promise is, shall we say, a matter of some debate.

Trevorrow returns to the director's chair for Dominion, having handed the middle entry of the trilogy to J.A. Bayona. The production is again a collaboration between Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment, Steven Spielberg's own company and the house that the original Jurassic Park built. The film runs to 147 minutes, which is a significant commitment from any audience, and comes weighted with a certain self-conscious sense of occasion. The marketing leaned heavily on the reunion of original trilogy cast members Laura Dern, Sam Neill and Jeff Goldblum alongside the returning leads from the rebooted series. It is the sort of move that tends to generate nostalgia on the poster and complication in the screenplay. The script attempts to weave multiple storylines together, pulling characters from across the entire franchise history into a single narrative. Ambitious is one word for it.

The cast assembled here is, on paper, a genuinely impressive collection of talent. Chris Pratt, who has shown considerable charm across his appearances in other franchise work (including Guardians of the Galaxy and its subsequent sequels), returns as Owen Grady alongside Bryce Dallas Howard's Claire Dearing. The addition of Dern, Neill and Goldblum, reprising their roles as Dr. Ellie Sattler, Dr. Alan Grant and Dr. Ian Malcolm respectively, gave long-term fans of the series considerable reason for excitement. Goldblum in particular has spent decades making Ian Malcolm into something close to a cultural figure. Whether the material gives any of them enough to work with is a separate question from whether they show up willing to try, and the answer to the latter is, broadly, yes. The film also follows directly from Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, so returning viewers will at least arrive with some context for how the world arrived at its current, dinosaur-populated state.

AND THEY'RE MAKING ANOTHER ONE?? Adding the original cast back doesn’t magically make a film good, it just highlights how far things have fallen. Dinosaurs now roam the world and… we’re all just supposed to be fine with it? No global collapse, no ecological disaster, just vibes. The story is somehow both overstuffed and completely dull. It’s like they had ten bad ideas and decided to run with all of them. The pacing drags, the dialogue is painful, and the dinosaurs barely feel like the focus anymore. Honestly? Dominion is the most boring entry in the whole franchise and that’s saying something. A catastrophic end to a trilogy that never took off.

For me, the reunion angle is really where the whole thing unravels. You can feel the production believing that putting Dern and Neill back on screen together will generate the same warmth as the original, but goodwill only stretches so far when the story surrounding them feels assembled rather than written. There is also something quietly telling about the fact that the dinosaurs, the whole reason any of us are here, end up feeling like background dressing in their own film. I have sat through some ovlong blockbusters that at least kept me entertained by the spectacle, but this one managed to make nearly two and a half hours feel considerably longer. When a franchise built on wonder and threat stops delivering either, it is hard to know what it thinks it is offering instead. Dominion, for all its scale, answers that question with a shrug.

Rating: ★  | Year: 2022  | Watched: 2025-04-14

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Trailer

▶ Watch the official trailer for Jurassic World Dominion (2022) on YouTube

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