“We're racing toward the extinction of our species. We not only lack dominion over nature, we're subordinate to it.” Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum)
Jurassic World Dominion may arguably be almost as good as the original. Anyway, it’s quite entertaining summer adventure fare with the CGI dinosaurs more realistic than ever, including the biggest carnivore in the world, yes more fearsome than T Rex. The real dinosaurs are the returning veterans Laura Dern, Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Neill, and the inimitable Jeff Goldblum. You just can’t put them down even with the failure of at least two other theme parks.
In order to fulfill the rigid requirements of the adventure genre, there must be a serious bad guy, and this Jurassic has Lewis Dodgson (Campbell Scott). He runs a sanctuary lab that houses homeless dinos but really serves as a platform for world dominion.
You got it—the four heroes go through innumerable dino encounters to stop the maniac genius. But enough plot, of which there is nary a nuance, because the relationships of good people throughout are pleasantly emphasized so that we care about each one.
We saw this Jurassic in a Phoenix Theater’s Dolby Atmos, a splendid screening venue that titillates with sound moving your seat ever so slightly. When the dino stomps, our seats respond with a tingle. So, our Jurassic joy is watching and feeling the best motion pictures have to offer. Together with the most comfortable seats in town, it’s a pleasant safari with monstrous animals, some over 60 million years old.
The larger point writer/director Colin Trevorrow and writer Emily Carmichael make is about cooperation—be it among family and co-workers or dinos and humans, we have no choice but to work in harmony. Or otherwise, damnation it is or total annihilation.
Although way too much is happening here, and very big locusts take too much-desired dino time, if you just let yourself go, you'll see how a critic can enjoy without being picky about the lack of high-class filmmaking.
Having lived in the last three years with a microscopic monster, it’s nice to see ones big as buildings with the hope that we will survive together, if only in the salutary world of Hollywood dreams.
Jurassic World Dominion is a most pleasant way to enjoy a summer night out, even when it hints of extinction:
“The doomsday clock might be out of time.” Ian Malcolm
Jurassic World Dominion
Director: Colin Trevorrow (Safety Not Guaranteed)
Screenplay: Trevorrow, Derek Connelly (Jurassic World)
Cast: Chris Pratt (Guardians of the Galaxy), Bryce Dallas Howard (The Help)
Run Time: 2h 26m
Rating: PG-13
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts NPR’s It’s Movie Time and co-hosts Cinema Classics as well as podcasts Back Talk and Double Take out of WCBE 90.5 FM. Contact him at JohnDeSando52@gmail.com
