Jurassic World Dominion Review

No sequel could ever match the magic of Jurassic Park.

This is basically a cliché for me at this point. But it’s true! From The Lost World’s long grass, through to Fallen Kingdom’s horror vibe, each sequel has aspects I enjoy; but they’ll never recapture that magic. Thing is, none of the sequels have tried as hard as Jurassic World Dominion to do that, so when this one leaves me shrugging a bit, it’s painful.

Ian Malcolm would be rolling his eyes at us. We were so preoccupied with returning legacy characters that we forgot if they’d help the story or not. Of course, it’s cool to see everyone in a grand conclusion to the Jurassic films. I get it! Guaranteed interest, and guaranteed bank.

But we should have been wary.

There are individual scenes that I enjoyed. Some small character moments and some cool dinosaurs. But they’re swallowed up in a sea of exposition that is about as far from Michael Crichton as you could imagine. Dinosaurs are out! This is bad! Oh no!

It’s perfectly watchable, and my sequel expectations are well adjusted. But when asked to point out good things by my brother, I struggled. And that’s damning for a film with Jeff Goldblum and Sam Neill in it.

Jurassic World as a concept is failed by Dominion’s lack of follow-through on the set up provided by Fallen Kingdom’s story. It squanders the progress made in the excellent Battle of Big Rock, instead bashing us over the head with ‘moments’ rather than giving us a good story. I’ve no doubt it will make for a decent watch on ITV2 in a few years’ time, but it will ultimately be deemed a weak “conclusion” to the Jurassic story. Until they make some more anyway.