JURASSIC WORLD DOMINION
June 10, 2022
Dinosaurs have found their way around the planet and while the world begins to adapt to that, a bigger threat is unleashed that could bring about the next mass extinction.
The third Jurassic World movie had much to live up to, for better or worse. With the dinosaurs from Isla Nublar spread out across the world, almost everyone anticipated or at least expected a Planet of the Apes/post apocalyptic scenario.
Jeff Goldblum had already made a cameo in Fallen Kingdom as Ian Malcolm, but now the other 2 stars from the first film, Sam Neill and Laura Dern would be returning as Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler respectively. The characters from the original series were meeting the new characters, how could there not be expectations for the finale to the Jurassic series?
(at least for now.)
I certainly had my own. The way this movie handled the spread of dinosaurs was more or less how I expected it to go. No post apocalyptic BS, no last of humanity living in shanty towns. The Department of Fish and Wildlife knows how to do their job and capture, save and relocate as many of these animals as they can. There's still the matter of new animals being engineered, those who were shipped out from the auction and a whole dinosaur black market thriving, which I feel is more or less what would actually happen if this were real life.
Before you watch Dominion, let me assure you the Extended Cut is the preferred cut.
Once again Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard return as Owen and Claire and both actors do a fantastic job with their characters, I loved seeing how far both have come into their roles.
Also returning is Isabella Sermon as Masie Lockwood.
But the highlight of Dominion comes from the return of the three stars of the original Jurassic Park. Although much time has passed, all the actors fall into their roles like not much has changed. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) is given some much needed agency after being under utilized in JP3, Alan Grant (Sam Neill) is given a good character arc as a man who's life really hasn't gone anywhere since we last saw him to getting back in the fray, reuniting with Ellie and making a real difference in the world. I love Grant, he deserves to be happy.
You could argue that Ian Malcolm in this movie is more Jeff Goldblum than Malcolm, but to be fair, if you've spent years being right only for everything to go wrong like you said it would, you'd probably go a bit nutty too.
I also really enjoy the new characters Kayla (DeWanda Wise), a pilot who makes a living transporting dinosaurs on the black market and Ramsay (Mamoudou Athie), Dodgson's right hand man who simply oozes charm.
The antagonist characters are pretty much your standard mooks, but the one who really matters is the head of BioSyn Genetics, Lewis Dodgson (Campbell Scott).
(Dodgson! We've got Dodgson here!)
Dodgson was the main antagonist from the original Jurassic Park and The Lost World novels and only had a brief appearance in the first movie. Having not read the novels, I can only comment on the movie version of Dodgson who I find to be an interesting character. His intentions may seem noble (not all of them, mind you) but he is not above ignoring the obvious flaws and only focusing on selfish ambitions. Also, there is definitely some neurodivergent coding going on with Dodgson and as someone who is on the neurodivergent spectrum myself, all I gotta say is: "Yeh, that checks."
The biggest threat of this movie comes from a swarm of prehistoric locusts engineered by BioSyn to control the world's food supply, but it spirals out of control and threatens to wipe it out completely.
This also leads to one of my favorite character arcs in Dominion. Our favorite geneticist, Henry Wu (BD Wong) sees that his latest artistic license with creating life will lead to disaster and becomes remorseful, now wanting to fix this mistake.
Jeff Goldblum had already made a cameo in Fallen Kingdom as Ian Malcolm, but now the other 2 stars from the first film, Sam Neill and Laura Dern would be returning as Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler respectively. The characters from the original series were meeting the new characters, how could there not be expectations for the finale to the Jurassic series?
(at least for now.)
I certainly had my own. The way this movie handled the spread of dinosaurs was more or less how I expected it to go. No post apocalyptic BS, no last of humanity living in shanty towns. The Department of Fish and Wildlife knows how to do their job and capture, save and relocate as many of these animals as they can. There's still the matter of new animals being engineered, those who were shipped out from the auction and a whole dinosaur black market thriving, which I feel is more or less what would actually happen if this were real life.
Before you watch Dominion, let me assure you the Extended Cut is the preferred cut.
Also returning is Isabella Sermon as Masie Lockwood.
But the highlight of Dominion comes from the return of the three stars of the original Jurassic Park. Although much time has passed, all the actors fall into their roles like not much has changed. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) is given some much needed agency after being under utilized in JP3, Alan Grant (Sam Neill) is given a good character arc as a man who's life really hasn't gone anywhere since we last saw him to getting back in the fray, reuniting with Ellie and making a real difference in the world. I love Grant, he deserves to be happy.
You could argue that Ian Malcolm in this movie is more Jeff Goldblum than Malcolm, but to be fair, if you've spent years being right only for everything to go wrong like you said it would, you'd probably go a bit nutty too.
I also really enjoy the new characters Kayla (DeWanda Wise), a pilot who makes a living transporting dinosaurs on the black market and Ramsay (Mamoudou Athie), Dodgson's right hand man who simply oozes charm.
The antagonist characters are pretty much your standard mooks, but the one who really matters is the head of BioSyn Genetics, Lewis Dodgson (Campbell Scott).
(Dodgson! We've got Dodgson here!)
Dodgson was the main antagonist from the original Jurassic Park and The Lost World novels and only had a brief appearance in the first movie. Having not read the novels, I can only comment on the movie version of Dodgson who I find to be an interesting character. His intentions may seem noble (not all of them, mind you) but he is not above ignoring the obvious flaws and only focusing on selfish ambitions. Also, there is definitely some neurodivergent coding going on with Dodgson and as someone who is on the neurodivergent spectrum myself, all I gotta say is: "Yeh, that checks."
The biggest threat of this movie comes from a swarm of prehistoric locusts engineered by BioSyn to control the world's food supply, but it spirals out of control and threatens to wipe it out completely.
This also leads to one of my favorite character arcs in Dominion. Our favorite geneticist, Henry Wu (BD Wong) sees that his latest artistic license with creating life will lead to disaster and becomes remorseful, now wanting to fix this mistake.
The species variety in Dominion pretty much overthrows the variety of Fallen Kingdom, featuring so many unique dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals and some of them even have feathers to some varying degrees, which is not an argument we're gonna pull the pin on. Although some species are more glossed over than most (poor Iguanodon...) but at least the scenes featuring some more lesser known dinosaurs are memorable. Claire being stalked by the Therizinosaurus, the cave of Dimetrodon and the Malta chase.
The Malta Chase, THE Malta Chase, THE MALTA CHASE!
And finally, anything involving the new big bad dino, Giganotosaurus, who I and many other fans have wanted to see since it was teased in the background of Jurassic World.
Something I don't think most people have caught onto is that the previous World movies foreshadowed the next movie's threat. The Indoraptor in was teased as a creature as deadly as the Indominous Rex, but a fraction of the size. And the locusts were subtly foreshadowed in Fallen Kingdom.
If you don't believe me, here it is from the man himself:
"And now we've got genetic power, so how long is it gonna take for that to spread around the globe and what's gonna be done with it...I'm talking about man-made, cataclysmic change...Change is like death. You don't know what it looks like until you're standing at the gates."
-Dr. Ian Malcom (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, 2018)
So about those locusts...
It does seem out of left field, introducing bugs into a movie focused on dinosaurs. But people seem to love any scene in these movies involving Pterosaurs and the Mosasaurus, but guess what? Those aren't classified as dinosaurs, prehistoric creatures, yes. But not dinosaurs and the species of locusts are based on a species that existed during the Jurassic period and their inclusion fits into the usual man vs nature elements you find in this series. Out of left field? Maybe, but I'll take prehistoric bugs over B.R.A.D's any day of the year.
(I have way to many thoughts about that, but this is a Jurassic World: Dominion review not a Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous rant.)
What can I even say about the visual effects anymore? They're a spectacular blend of practical and digital that rival the original film. You may find yourself confusing the two while watching the film.
Michael Giacchino's score enhances the mood of every scene you hear it in and all in all I find Dominion to be spectacular every time I watch it.
But I can understand how it doesn't quite meet expectations as the finale to the Jurassic series.
And this is why I don't try to speculate or obsess too much over what I want from a film anymore, it lessens my disappointment. I went in just wanting something that satisfies me as a Jurassic fan, something that shows me the characters I love being awesome, fantastic dinosaur moments and of course, the message of the films and I feel that Dominion does that for me. And maybe I also needed a palette cleanser after the bad taste Camp Cretaceous left in my mouth...
The Malta Chase, THE Malta Chase, THE MALTA CHASE!
And finally, anything involving the new big bad dino, Giganotosaurus, who I and many other fans have wanted to see since it was teased in the background of Jurassic World.
Something I don't think most people have caught onto is that the previous World movies foreshadowed the next movie's threat. The Indoraptor in was teased as a creature as deadly as the Indominous Rex, but a fraction of the size. And the locusts were subtly foreshadowed in Fallen Kingdom.
If you don't believe me, here it is from the man himself:
"And now we've got genetic power, so how long is it gonna take for that to spread around the globe and what's gonna be done with it...I'm talking about man-made, cataclysmic change...Change is like death. You don't know what it looks like until you're standing at the gates."
-Dr. Ian Malcom (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, 2018)
It does seem out of left field, introducing bugs into a movie focused on dinosaurs. But people seem to love any scene in these movies involving Pterosaurs and the Mosasaurus, but guess what? Those aren't classified as dinosaurs, prehistoric creatures, yes. But not dinosaurs and the species of locusts are based on a species that existed during the Jurassic period and their inclusion fits into the usual man vs nature elements you find in this series. Out of left field? Maybe, but I'll take prehistoric bugs over B.R.A.D's any day of the year.
(I have way to many thoughts about that, but this is a Jurassic World: Dominion review not a Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous rant.)
What can I even say about the visual effects anymore? They're a spectacular blend of practical and digital that rival the original film. You may find yourself confusing the two while watching the film.
Michael Giacchino's score enhances the mood of every scene you hear it in and all in all I find Dominion to be spectacular every time I watch it.
And this is why I don't try to speculate or obsess too much over what I want from a film anymore, it lessens my disappointment. I went in just wanting something that satisfies me as a Jurassic fan, something that shows me the characters I love being awesome, fantastic dinosaur moments and of course, the message of the films and I feel that Dominion does that for me. And maybe I also needed a palette cleanser after the bad taste Camp Cretaceous left in my mouth...
Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon
and thank you for joining me here in my lair.
So long...
I hope you have enjoyed reading this and if you would like to see more from The Gryphon's Lair, be sure to give my Facebook page a 'LIKE' to see updates and other related stuff.
Thanks for reading!
