“Welcome to Jurassic Park,” was an iconic line spoken by the late-great Sir Richard Attenborough in Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park (1993). When Spielberg released it, the art of filmmaking changed forever. It was the highest-grossing film worldwide and garnered three Oscars, including one for Best Visual Effects—the world had simply never seen anything like Dinosaurs coming back to life (until Titanic (1997)). The blockbuster spawned five sequels, The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) also directed by Spielberg, Jurassic Park III (2001), Jurassic World (2015), Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018), and Jurassic World: Dominion, released on June 10th of this year. This is my review of the latest iteration:
Picking up from where “Fallen Kingdom,” left off, Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) and Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) have been carefully watching out for their adopted daughter, Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon) in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. When Maisie feels overprotected, she runs away only to be kidnapped with Beta, a “baby” raptor who is the offspring of Blue, the raptor from the previous “Jurassic World” films. They are taken to an engineering corporation called Biosyn, where Dr. Ian Malcolm works (once again played by Jeff Goldblum) and he has invited his old friends Dr. Ellie Sattler (once again played by Oscar-Winner Laura Dern) and Dr. Alan Grant (once again played by Sam Neill) to study Biosyn’s locusts. Soon they discover that Biosyn’s CEO Dr. Lewis Dodgson (played by Campbell Scott) is greedily making dinosaurs of its own, but as a competitor to InGen, the originators of “Jurassic Park,” and the two stories collide as Owen and Claire set out to rescue their daughter.
The combined casting of Howard and Pratt with the reunions of Dern, Neill and Goldblum make the film one loud, wild, and epic ride. Although the special effects in the film are similar to the effects used in each of the previous films, the story is perhaps more touching than the others. As adventure continues to peak excitement, the healing of wounds in romantic relationships cleverly parallel. It’s been advertised on TV as the “closing of the Jurassic era,” and honestly, I don’t think one could have asked for a more moving finale.
The film is directed by Colin Trevorrow, director of “Jurassic World,” with Spielberg credited as Executive Producer. (He had the same credit on the previous two “World” films.) Trevorrow co-wrote and co-executive produced this film as well. Music was composed by Oscar-Winner Michael Giacchino, though the score also includes John Williams’s original theme. The Cinematography was done by Oscar-nominee John Schwartzman who also did the cinematography for the first “World” film. Although fans will miss the late-great Sir Richard Attenborough (who died in August 2014), the returns of Dern, Neill and Goldblum give the film the “reunion” feel that fans wanted.
Overall, “Jurassic World: Dominion,” is a wonderful ending to the “Jurassic Park” series. I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s better than the best of its predecessors, but like “Top Gun: Maverick,” it’s the kind of reunion film that works. A modern, up-to-date, story with a simultaneous nod to the past, and a reunited set of talent to boot!
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