Review of Jurassic World Dominion (2022) by Mikau94 — 06 Sep 2022

I really tried to like Dominion but it fell flat on its face. After 45 minutes I was already hoping it would be over soon. Dominion is a far cry from the Jurassic Parks that many of us grew up with. Owen and Claire’s relationship is awkward at best and Alan and Ellie’s relationship felt like fan service gone wrong. Dominion focuses on in-your-face action more than it’s predecessors which makes it feel more like a generic action movie. Unfortunately the subtle visuals and sounds used to create moments of dread in past films is missing completely. The massive dinosaur fights even felt identical to fights from the past 5 films.

Also, what’s up with everyone being able to hold off dinosaurs by holding up their hand? Owen was only able to do this with the raptor he raised from birth. It makes no sense that any other characters can suddenly make the dinosaurs obey them. This choice removes any sense of risk and danger as we know the protagonists can use this magic hand trick to deal with most smaller dinos. At one point we see a Velociraptor show up (one of the most terrifying creatures from past film) and I didn’t even feel worried for our protagonist because they can all take dinosaurs now. The only reason I’m not rating this lower is because the short scenes showing mosques adapting to our world were really interesting.

It’s truly disappointing to see so much wasted potential with the combination of the new and old cast.