If there was ever a time to drop that elusive meteorite on the Jurassic World franchise, now would be a pretty opportune moment. Lacking in any meaty flavour, Colin Trevorrow’s third instalment of the Jurassic World trilogy (sixth in the franchise overall) is tired and convoluted to the point of incoherence. And that’s not the worst thing about this lazy and repetitive finale to the dino revival fun.
This latest film is set a number of years after Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, in which the destruction of Isla Nublar saw the reality of dinosaurs and humans co-existing begin to bear fruit. Now, in monotonous action-hero mode, Chris Pratt’s dino handler Owen is living a secluded life alongside Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) after having adopted Sir Benjamin Lockwood’s granddaughter and clone Maise (Isabella Sermon). But never fear, his beloved Blue, now a mother, still roams close by. When both Maise and Blue’s precious offspring are kidnapped, the husband and wife team find themselves drawn out of the woods and chasing down a Steve Jobs-esque villain to bring them both back home.
Shoehorned in the middle somewhere comes our legacy characters from the Jurassic Park era, Dr Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) who reunite after a swarm of giant locusts threaten to kill of some crops which in turn, via an investigation into who is genetically modifying these beasts, brings them face-to-face with Jeff Goldblum’s Ian Malcolm, who just happens to work for the BioSyn, the antagonist’s company. If it wasn’t for the brilliance and naturally comic effect of Goldblum’s performance elevating any scene he graces, the sleep-inducing dullness of this plot would have turned into a complete snooze fest.
Lacking any kind of tension and a familiar sense of déjà vu, the arbitrary action sequences that plump up nearly every other scene jettison the hope of original ideas or a plot. Each evokes the fight or flight instinct from our leading characters but unrealistically, the dinosaurs seem to be uncharacteristically comfortable amongst humans without seeing them as their next juicy meal.
The chemistry between Neill, Dern and Goldblum radiates with fun and, most importantly, believable ease. They return to the characters they left behind many years ago with such fondness, as if it’s their second skin. Pratt, on the other hand, has lost the charm and charisma we are so used to seeing from his Guardians of the Galaxy role replacing it with a less than convincing smouldering hero with a lack of humour. The chemistry between Howard and Pratt feels forced and rather awkward.
The first two instalments of the Jurassic World trilogy seemed to have that spark of electricity, breathing life back into our fantasy dino world but Dominion has shorted that fuse and that sizzle has been reduced to world-ending unoriginal fizzle.
