JURASSIC WORLD DOMINION
***
Director: Colin Trevorrow
Screenplay: Emily Carmichael & Colin Trevorrow, from a story by Derek Connolly & Colin Trevorrow, based on characters created by Michael Crichton.
Principal cast:
Chris Pratt
Bryce Dallas Howard
Laura Dern
Sam Neill
Jeff Goldblum
DeWanda Wise
Country: USA/Malta
Classification: M
Runtime: 146 mins.
Australian release date: 9 June 2022.
At the end of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, the fifth film in the Jurassic Park franchise, audiences were left with the certain knowledge that the dinosaurs had left Isla Nublar and were going to be sharing the continents with we human beings. Now, in Jurassic World Dominion, we pick up the story four years after the events of the previous movie and the big beasties are definitely living among us. Not all of them are dangerous carnivores, though. Many of the species are harmless herbivores, a bit like cattle, sheep and horses (but bigger), roaming the land in large herds. There are still plenty of Velociraptors and T.rexes around to keep you on your toes, however, and they’ve been joined by a whole new bunch of beasties, one of them even bigger than T.rex - Giganotosaurus, the largest known carnivore to have lived on Earth. As Jeff Goldblum’s character, Dr. Ian Malcolm, asks when he sees one for the first time, “Bigger. Why do they always have to go bigger?”
Colin Trevorrow returns to direct, not having done so since the first instalment in the Jurassic World trilogy; Spanish director J. A. Bayona did the second. Trevorrow’s not the only person returning either: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jeff Goldblum, Isabella Sermon and BD Wong all reprise their roles from the last film, plus Laura Dern and Sam Neill are back, not having been in the series since 1993’s original Jurassic Park. Needless to say, the plot involves lots of action in various locations, chief among them the island of Malta, and there’s a new bad guy in town, Campbell Scott as the CEO of a genetic research company called Biosyn Corporation. As in the earlier movies, there’s a strong environmental message within Jurassic World Dominion, particularly about the dangers of genetic modification. As one of the characters says, when you mess with the fundamentals of life, “unforeseen consequences occur.”
Aside from these real-world references, the rest of the script is really about making sure there’s plenty of contact between the humans and the dinosaurs, some of it benign and some, well, you know how it goes. There’s fun to be had picking up references to other films: I spotted allusions to James Bond, Indiana Jones, Star Wars (especially the bar scene on Tatooine), even Apocalypse Now. See how many you can spot. As with all six films in the franchise, the dinosaurs are the real stars of the Jurassic World movies - not only do they get bigger, they get better. Animatronics supervisor John Nolan and his creature effects team of designers created 27 individual dinosaurs for the film, 10 of which had never been seen in any of the previous movies and they are quite extraordinary. They’re also a reflection of how our knowledge of the Jurassic Era and these extraordinary animals keeps advancing.
Jurassic World Dominion is entertaining and fun - like its predecessors, it’s a high-class popcorn movie, perfect if you’re looking for an escape from the world for a couple of hours. It must be said, though, that the franchise is getting a little bit tired. Apart from the new dinosaurs, there’s nothing really fresh to be seen and it seems a wise decision to make this the last in the series.
Screenplay: Emily Carmichael & Colin Trevorrow, from a story by Derek Connolly & Colin Trevorrow, based on characters created by Michael Crichton.
Principal cast:
Chris Pratt
Bryce Dallas Howard
Laura Dern
Sam Neill
Jeff Goldblum
DeWanda Wise
Country: USA/Malta
Classification: M
Runtime: 146 mins.
Australian release date: 9 June 2022.
At the end of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, the fifth film in the Jurassic Park franchise, audiences were left with the certain knowledge that the dinosaurs had left Isla Nublar and were going to be sharing the continents with we human beings. Now, in Jurassic World Dominion, we pick up the story four years after the events of the previous movie and the big beasties are definitely living among us. Not all of them are dangerous carnivores, though. Many of the species are harmless herbivores, a bit like cattle, sheep and horses (but bigger), roaming the land in large herds. There are still plenty of Velociraptors and T.rexes around to keep you on your toes, however, and they’ve been joined by a whole new bunch of beasties, one of them even bigger than T.rex - Giganotosaurus, the largest known carnivore to have lived on Earth. As Jeff Goldblum’s character, Dr. Ian Malcolm, asks when he sees one for the first time, “Bigger. Why do they always have to go bigger?”
Colin Trevorrow returns to direct, not having done so since the first instalment in the Jurassic World trilogy; Spanish director J. A. Bayona did the second. Trevorrow’s not the only person returning either: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jeff Goldblum, Isabella Sermon and BD Wong all reprise their roles from the last film, plus Laura Dern and Sam Neill are back, not having been in the series since 1993’s original Jurassic Park. Needless to say, the plot involves lots of action in various locations, chief among them the island of Malta, and there’s a new bad guy in town, Campbell Scott as the CEO of a genetic research company called Biosyn Corporation. As in the earlier movies, there’s a strong environmental message within Jurassic World Dominion, particularly about the dangers of genetic modification. As one of the characters says, when you mess with the fundamentals of life, “unforeseen consequences occur.”
Aside from these real-world references, the rest of the script is really about making sure there’s plenty of contact between the humans and the dinosaurs, some of it benign and some, well, you know how it goes. There’s fun to be had picking up references to other films: I spotted allusions to James Bond, Indiana Jones, Star Wars (especially the bar scene on Tatooine), even Apocalypse Now. See how many you can spot. As with all six films in the franchise, the dinosaurs are the real stars of the Jurassic World movies - not only do they get bigger, they get better. Animatronics supervisor John Nolan and his creature effects team of designers created 27 individual dinosaurs for the film, 10 of which had never been seen in any of the previous movies and they are quite extraordinary. They’re also a reflection of how our knowledge of the Jurassic Era and these extraordinary animals keeps advancing.
Jurassic World Dominion is entertaining and fun - like its predecessors, it’s a high-class popcorn movie, perfect if you’re looking for an escape from the world for a couple of hours. It must be said, though, that the franchise is getting a little bit tired. Apart from the new dinosaurs, there’s nothing really fresh to be seen and it seems a wise decision to make this the last in the series.