JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION (2022)

JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION (2022)

Tagline: The epic conclusion of the Jurassic era.

(Sci-Fi, Action, Dinosaurs Will Eat Your Face) [PG-13]

If our world's going to survive, what matters is what we do now.

In this one, we are taken four years into the future after the events of JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM. Owen Grady and Claire Dearing have decided to protect Maisie Lockwood in a secluded area because basically everyone is after her now that it’s public knowledge she is possibly a clone and everyone and their brother wants to dissect her. Meanwhile, Blue (the velociraptor), lives in the same area sticking close to Owen and has an unlikely offspring of her own. It doesn’t take long before Maisie gets sick and tired of being secluded and decides to take a bike ride, where she is immediately taken by strange men along with Blue’s offspring. Can Owen and Claire rescue Maisie? What is going on with this mysterious company Biosyn which wants to revolutionize the world via biotechnology and how do Ian Malcolm, Ellie Sattler, Alan Grant, and Ramsey Cole all fit into this? 

First off, this review is intentionally not giving away more than what you could have picked up in the preview, but man this movie is a non-stop action and dinosaur fest. Probably the first thing that stands out about this movie is the sheer amount of new dinosaurs we get. I mean this freakin movie is loaded with them and I love that. I typically don’t go to a JURASSIC anything movie without wanting to see at least some new dinosaurs. 

The end of JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM left a tall order. It almost forced this next movie to be a globetrotting world-scale event and for a large part of this movie that is exactly what we get. Writer Derek Connolly is at the helm again coming up with the storyline and he does a great job for the most part. Connolly was also responsible for the screenplay of KONG: SKULL ISLAND. There are some pretty cringy pretentious lines in this and I have no idea why Ellie is now doing what she does at the start of this film, but overall it’s pretty impressive. I also love that this movie has a villain that is so strikingly close to a Bill Gates-type character. For those of you that don’t know back in 2021, Bill Gates funded a biotech firm that released 150,000 genetically modified mosquitos into the United States to curb diseases spread by regular mosquitos. There is something that happens in this film that mirrors that but I don’t want to spoil it, because it’s a major part of the plot. 

Acting-wise this movie kind of brings the older and newer JURASSIC PARK films together bringing back  Laura Dern who is, like I said, working a job that it doesn’t seem like she would be, but is still really bada-s as Ellie in this. We also get the return of a…a… Jeff Goldblum as Ian Malcolm. Goldblum got quite a few scenes in this, which is another credit to the movie. They did a great job of balancing screen time. Finally, we see the return of Sam Neill as Alan Grant. Neill does an awesome job of reprising the role because he’s always had a kind of reluctant nature and that comes across in this thing. For newcomers, we get DeWanda Wise who plays Kayla Watts. Kayla is a fierce former Air Force pilot who is great in this. Mamoudou Athie plays Ramsay Cole who also plays a vital role in the plot and is also solid in this. Regarding the newer series mainstays, we have Chris Pratt (by far one of my favorite people in Hollywood) as Owen Grady and he brings it to the role once again. Bryce Dallas Howard as Claire Dearing who seems to just get more and more competent fighting "everything" with each movie. Isabella Sermon returns as Maisie and does a great job. I like her character better than either of the kids in JURASSIC WORLD. Isabella Sermon’s only movie roles thus far are both the JURASSIC WORLD films she was in. 

If you read my reviews, you know I don’t go to movies for realism unless it’s a documentary or something. I love bombastic nonsense and explosions and decent dialog and monsters or dinosaurs. For me, this thing has it all with a dose of nostalgia and the human relationships are top-notch.

There is at least one major plot point that is missing an explanation and some scenes in the previews are cut from the final film. Usually, this drives me nuts, but what we get in this film that was just edge-of-your-seat entertainment, I have to give this movie a 7 out of 7. Of the movies I have watched in 2022 as of this review, this is the best of them all. When we are just looking at JURASSIC PARK movies, this one is the 3rd best for me, but I could see it moving up after a few more watches.

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF AMBLIN ENTERTAINMENT AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. 

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