Jurassic World: Dominion movie review: The Giganotosaurus is back on 3D

'Jurassic World: Dominion' - the third film in the 'Jurassic World' trilogy - released in theatres on June 10, 2022.

Colin Trevorrow’s Jurassic World: Dominion (JWD) is a chaotic extinction saga. There are too many dinosaurs roaming free in the world of which the only memorable kind is the Giganotosaurus, which, we are told is the biggest and most predatory carnivore to have ever lived on Earth.

The raptors chase humans on a runway, on snow-covered expanses, lush primitive jungles and inside a futuristic lab. Old-timers from Steven Spielberg’s original appear with a mission to save the dinosaurs from the avaricious head scientist of a sprawling lab situated within the Dolomites in Italy. There are locusts, and there is also a cell-restructured human.

Old-timers from Steven Spielberg’s original appear with a mission to save the dinosaurs.

The visual effects are predictably astounding; in 3D, the effect is initially thrilling, with the rapacious mouths of the raptors almost grazing your face, but there are so many set-ups for dinosaur attacks that by the end of its running time of two-plus hours, the film sets up nothing more than a monumental headache.

Some dinosaurs are cute too, especially a baby that humans reunite with its mother—dino cutesy taken to an extreme. Despite all the tumult and pandemonium, JWD lacks the Spielbergian awe that the first film evoked. Perhaps it is time for the franchise’s extinction.

JWD assembles all the current and formerly inactive series members as it possibly can. Chris Pratt returns as dino trainer Owen Grady, now navigating life in American plains along with Pterodactyls. Bryce Dallas Howard’s Claire Dearing leads a dinosaur rights enterprise and the couple is adoptive parent to Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Simon), a teenager who is a genetic marvel because her brilliant, avant-garde scientist mom saved her life by restructuring every cell in her body.

For original Jurassic Park fans like me, the original trinity of Laura Dern, Sam Neill and Jeff Goldblum return for the ride—the first two investigating why giant locusts are destroying crops throughout the American Midwest. They are all connected by a zeal to stop a creepy, evil, sociopathic tech maverick Lewis Dodgson (Campbell Scott) who wants all the genetic data from dinosaurs populating parts of the world and Maisie the DNA-altered marvel—together, what he calls “the most valuable intellectual property on the planet”—to find a cure to all of the world’s deadly diseases afflicting human beings for millions of dollars as personal profit. Add to the group the badass pilot Kayla Watts (DeWanda Wise) with a kind heart who helps this motley group topple Dodgson—the only interesting character in the film. Goldblum as usual brings a reptilian deadpan humour, and delivers the few funny dialogues that JWD has.

Each character in the film is invested in the idea of humans co-existing with nature.

The story by Trevorrow, Michael Crichton and Derek Connolly is obviously not investing in character graphs. The actors are thrown in to the mad chase, looking desperate and steely for survival—each, invested in the grand idea of preserving nature and the need for the human race to co-exist with all life forms for the Earth to survive another few years. Casual doomsday talk punctuates the film—extinction and apocalypse are near, a popular hard truth after the Covid pandemic. Visually, too, Pterodactyls perched over New York skyscrapers suggest extinction is near.

The only star of this film are the visual effects team. They keep up the suspense and the Dino-terror element enough for the viewer to stay hooked. But this is the most scattered, moony and genre-hopping of the Jurassic World movies. For the 3D spectacle, it is worth a watch as long as you are not looking for the point of all the VFX pyrotechnics.

Jurassic World: Dominion releases in theatres on Friday, June 10, 2022.