Jurassic World Dominion wants to be the biggest, loudest entry in the franchise, and mostly succeeds. It also wants to be thoughtful, to ask questions about nature, technology and extinction. It fails there almost completely. This is a movie built entirely for spectacle, with barely enough plot to hold it together.
Trailer, via Jurassic World.
The Opening Hours
The film opens with a global disaster: dinosaurs have escaped the islands and spread across the world. That setup promises a story about humanity living alongside these creatures. Instead, the movie spends most of its runtime chasing after a handful of named dinosaurs, barely touching the wider consequences of its own premise.
The pacing suffers badly from it. The middle section drags, with scenes of characters running from dinosaurs that feel like filler before the next action beat.
Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard
Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard return as Owen Grady and Claire Dearing, and they remain the emotional core of the film. Their relationship carries the quieter moments, but even they get lost in the chaos. Pratt gets some good action sequences, but Howard’s character is reduced to reacting to events around her.
The new cast members fare worse. Isabella Sermon and Oskar Käseberg play Maisie and Eli, the children caught in the middle of everything. They’re likable, but their roles are thin, and their presence feels like a way to pad the runtime rather than deepen it.
The Dinosaurs Themselves
The dinosaurs themselves are the film’s best feature. The visual effects are genuinely impressive, and the creatures look more alive than ever. A T-Rex chasing a car through a forest is a moment of pure awe. But awe doesn’t make a story.
“We want to show the beauty of the natural world, while also making you question it.”
That’s the kind of talk the film tries to pull off, but rarely delivers.
The Science Problem
The film raises questions about genetic engineering, extinction and human responsibility. Then it forgets them. The villain, Ian Malcolm, returns as a scientist who warns about the dangers of interfering with nature. His warnings are sincere, but the film itself contradicts him at nearly every turn, sending Owen and Claire out to save dinosaurs rather than let them die.
It’s a frustrating contradiction, and it undermines any moral weight the film might have otherwise had.
What Works
- The dinosaur designs are the best in the franchise
- Pratt and Howard have a strong rapport
- The action sequences are tense when they’re not dragging
- The score is loud and effective
What Doesn’t Work
- The plot is thin, with barely enough story to fill three hours
- The new characters are wasted
- The film contradicts its own warnings about science
- The pacing sags in the middle section
Jurassic World Dominion is a technical achievement that falls short as a story. It’s a film that knows how to build a world but doesn’t know what to do with it. The dinosaurs are beautiful, the action is thrilling, and the performances are solid. But none of that matters when the film can’t decide what it’s trying to say.
It’s a big, noisy ride that leaves you wanting something more substantial behind the spectacle. The final score is 3.8 out of 10.
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