Screenplay by: Emily Carmichael & Colin Trevorrow / Story by: Derek Connelly & Trevorrow / Directed by: Colin Trevorrow / Distributed in the UK by: Universal Pictures International / 146 Minutes / Out Now
Review by Rob Deb. Read more of Rob’s reviews here.
19th June 2022
The Pitch: Four years after the destruction of Isla Nublar, dinosaurs now live and hunt alongside humans all over the world. This fragile balance will reshape the future and determine, once and for all, whether human beings are to remain the apex predators on a planet they now share with history's most fearsome creatures.
Dominion has a great story. A different story, an exhilarating story. It is the story of an African American Lesbian, ex-army air pilot who takes on the odds and eccentric jobs, some legal, others… less so to get by. She has a thing for redheads and spends her time in a Lucas-esque netherworld reminiscent of Jabba’s palace. She treads this new world that has survived a catastrophic event of global proportions as people adapt, manipulate, and change their entire way of life, with protective gear and technical advancements, all to ‘live with dinosaurs’. In turn, the world has taken the majestic and made it mundane while building better Battlesaurs and improving medical science to levels undreamed of, despite imperilling civilisation. In this new world, Raptors chase across cities in Malta and locusts have been enhanced to threaten the world's food supply.
we spend most of the time playing greatest hits on another dinosaur island
However, that story comprises about 20 minutes of the run time of the film. Instead, we spend most of the running time playing the greatest hits on yet another Dinosaur island, with a man so unambiguously evil he literally has built an underground lair with its own artisanal coffee stand. While many scenes are gripping there is the usual see-saw motif of the franchise. One person presses a button that saves person ‘A’ while trapping person ‘B’ with a big bad. Overturned vehicles and random chance meetings are the norm. We even get a wry plus-sized I.T. guy with the hair and glasses, because… of course that's how he would look.
On the plus side, this has a relatively tame level of threat for those with younger viewers. While a 12A, I strongly suspect this film was literally pushed out of PG by a finger. One I almost gave when I saw Alan Grant somehow being devolved into being George Lucas cosplaying Indiana Jones, complete with hat. Worse than staying the same. This film was really quite regressive. The narrative things that pushed the relationships have been stripped away. Ellie Slater’s marriage? Gone. Kids? Off to la-la land. Ian Malcom’s stint as a father... Seriously, where is Kelly? The most Damning is even within the recent trilogy Owen dwarfs Star Lord's planet-shaking powers by having magic hands that zone out ANY dinosaur, trained or otherwise. The worst effect given the amount of initial criticism to course-correct Clare Dearing throughout the franchise is, having now taken away the corporate stare, authority and power shoulders, it seems they were attached to her spine in the first place and she now spends a lot of the film, falling, flailing and consoling her ‘clone daughter’ from the previous movie. There is even a point where for no real reason once the gang's all together they decide to split up on different missions as ‘team boys’ and ‘team girls’ and it becomes quite baffling.
cinema has changed massively from the footprints this franchise has left
It is an Amblin film, and with so many nods and post-modern twists and deconstructions from other studios, this represents the pure Amblin model. I do think though that this film really should mark the end of the era. Cinema has changed massively from the footprints this franchise has left. But it's now time for it to head to the elephant graveyard where it can be remembered fondly, and not be a big pile of shit. For completists and those too young to have met ‘Dippy’ in the Natural History Museum. He may have been fake…but he was alive to me!
Jurassic world attempts to claw at your heartstrings but fails to bite, leaving it more an (AvP) requiem than a finale.