Weekend Watch - Jurassic World: Dominion
Jurassic World: Dominion provides a solid outing in the action department but needed even more from it to overcome a weak story and writing and make it great.
Welcome back to the Weekend Watch where each week we give a review and recommendation for a new piece of film or television media that came out recently. This week, we’ll be taking a look at the latest in the long line of dinosaur movies, Jurassic World: Dominion, supposedly the last film in the Jurassic franchise. I went and saw it on Thursday night and have some thoughts for you.
Letter Grade: C, I can’t in good conscience give this film anything higher
Should you Watch This Film? Probably, if you like a basic action film/summer blockbuster that has little to add to filmmaking other than a really good time.
Why?
Jurassic World: Dominion is one of the most enjoyable messes that I have watched in quite some time. My immediate analysis of the film is that it is a workable combination of Bond action sequences, dinosaurs, and unused Star Wars sets packaged with a Jurassic World message of respecting the world we live in. The film’s story is incredibly thin, tying together the Jurassic World heroes with the heroes of the original Jurassic Park to create dollars and nostalgia, while at the same time focusing its character development on arguably the weakest character, Maisie, played by Isabella Sermon. The film’s new characters – Kayla Watts played by DeWanda Wise and Ramsay Cole played by Mamoudou Athie – are solid additions to the cast, each bringing something unique to the table, but the characters feel somewhat lost amid the already bloated cast, not to mention a new “villain”, the barely fleshed-out, Steve Jobs-esque Lewis Dodgson played by Campbell Scott. Even the film’s script struggles in some places, almost going meta by acknowledging a cringeworthy line delivered by Bryce Dallas Howard’s Claire toward the film’s beginning but then slipping back into the frustratingly predictable action film dialogue for its remainder. (Side note, I need to fight whoever was writing Kayla’s dialogue because every second of it felt like an old Millennial trying to sound like a Gen-Z-er or a white guy trying to sound like a black woman, either way, not great.) Jurassic World’s action sequences are its saving grace and why I can still recommend going to see it. Great dinosaur fights and chases provide the highlights of the film, but I wish there were more. The stretches of the human characters talking to each other with no dinosaurs on screen continue to be the Jurassic films’ weakness, trying to add too much of a not great story to a movie where a T-Rex and a Therizinosaurus fight a Giganotosaurus. All told, it’s a solid outing in the action department but needed even more of it to overcome a weak story and writing and make it great. It’s worth seeing on the big screen for those moments, but it might be better if you can find someone else to pay for your ticket.