Jurassic World Dominion (2022)

If I were to list everything this movie focuses on, dinosaurs would be fifth or sixth, behind a multitude of storylines that range from bland to useless. I’m baffled by how little attention is given to dinosaurs. And I don’t just mean that they barely appear on screen. In the original ‘Jurassic Park’ there were almost none for the first hour. But everything that led up to it, the story, the dialogue, and the themes, was focused on dinosaurs.

This is not the case with Part 3. Most of the story lines are tangentially connected at best, and completely unconnected at worst. Imagine watching ‘Taken,’ but Liam Neeson has to watch out for dinosaurs… that’s one storyline. You could replace the dinosaurs with any scary creatures, and it wouldn’t change much in the plot.

On top of that, they did a poor job of balancing so many storylines with different characters. Or maybe it’s because each of them is uninteresting. And the moment when the different characters come together is totally off-putting. I compare it to ‘Very Stranger Things,’ when the stories come together and the team is finally together, those moments are so impressive and exciting. They feel earned and elevate everything afterwards. You don’t feel any magic in Dominion.

Some parts were so bad that they made me cringe or roll my eyes. But that wasn’t the case throughout most of the movie. So why such a harsh score? Because this movie, which is the definition of a popcorn movie, which is here to entertain us, is incredibly boring. Last night I slept for eight hours and drank ‘Red Bull,’ but still struggled to stay awake. I had to lean back.

All the action scenes are easy to forget. Literally. It’s only been a few hours, and I can remember maybe a couple of cool moments. And one thing I couldn’t believe: the climactic action sequence is completely copied from one of the previous movies. I won’t say which one, but I’m baffled that they went that route. It’s even sadder when you realize it’s worse than what was copied in every way.

As for the dinosaur effects, at times the animatronic dinosaurs look like toys. And the CGI dinosaurs look a little different. I don’t think it’s bad CGI, but something is off about it.

I’m so disappointed that this is what they gave us for their self-proclaimed ‘epic ending to the Jurassic era’. Especially after Jurassic World 2 left us with such a spectacular cliffhanger, the chaos that awaits the people of the world when the dinosaurs descend upon them. That’s not what we get at all.

I really liked the first ‘Jurassic World.’ And while the second part is badly spoiled, it’s still interesting and filled with suspense and suspense. I didn’t feel anything like that with Reign.