Jurassic World Dominion

***Jurassic World Dominion*** is a 2022 science fiction action film directed by Colin Trevorrow, who co-wrote the screenplay with Emily Carmichael from a story by Derek Connolly and Trevorrow. The sequel to *Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom* (2018), it is the third and final installment in the *Jurassic World* trilogy and the sixth installment overall in the *Jurassic Park* film series, concluding the storyline that started with the original film.

## Plot

Four years after the destruction of Isla Nublar, dinosaurs now live and hunt alongside humans all over the world. This fragile balance will reshape the future and determine, once and for all, whether human beings are to remain the apex predators on a planet they now share with history's most fearsome creatures.

## Why It's Great

1. In a similar vein as films like *Avengers: Endgame* (Which Chris Pratt has compared this film to), *Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker* and *Halloween Ends*, this film acts as the culmination and conclusion of the storyline that began in the very first movie and thus devotes itself to ending the nearly 30-year-old with a satisfying sense of finality that *Jurasic Park III*, another *Jurassic Park* trilogy capper, simply lacked.
2. The story is quite refreshing for the seemingly final *Jurassic Park* movie, since we finally get to see what it would be like if dinosaurs actually escaped and lived among us. It's such a fascinating direction to take the series and end it on.
3. The original trio of Alan Grant, Ellie Sattler and Ian Malcolm (whose role is much bigger here than it was in *Fallen Kingdom*) are all together for the first time *since* the original film, and it is a **delight** to see them all back. Their interactions with the newer cast are also really fun to watch.
4. Lewis Dodgson and Biosyn also come to the fore after being absent for a long time, and both of them work really well as the franchise's final villains (at least for the time being).
5. As to be expected from the franchise, the effects look absolutely astounding.
6. It is perhaps the most expensive in scope out of any *Jurassic Park* movie yet, taking place on a global stage concerning multiple nations struggling to live with dinosaurs and Biosyn monitoring the world's food supply with hordes of killer locusts, which represent the worst possible consequences of science gone wrong. The stakes are quite possibly at their highest in this film, making Biosyn a truly threatening force in a way none of the dinosaurs across the franchise ever were.
7. After being left out in the previous two films in spite of current scientific consensus, this film finally introduces proper feathered dinosaurs to the franchise.
8. Gorgerous direction and cinematography.
9. Michael Giacchino still provides a great soundtrack that isn't quite as haunting and operatic as in *Fallen Kingdom*, but still a great mixture of old and new themes.
10. For once, there are no hybrid dinosaurs, leaving the locusts as the movie's equivalent to them while bringing back iconic mainstays of the franchise ( Tyrannosaurus, Velociraptor, and Dilophosaurus) and introducing new ones (Quetzalcoatlus, Therizinosaurus, Dreadnoughtus, Atrociraptor, Pyroraptor, Dimetrodon, Moros, Lystrosaurus, and Giganotosaurus). Even the Tyrannosaur Buck and Doe from the second film return here, albeit as a cameo.
11. Speaking of which, the Giganotosaurus is unique among past dinosaur antagonists in that it isn't a monstrous hybrid like the Indominus Rex, Scorpios Rex or Indoraptor, and doesn't constantly hound the protagonists like the Spinosaurus. It's simply a territorial animal whose antagonism is with *Rexy* than any main character, giving more complexity to her story arc.
12. Beta, Blue's offspring, is quite adorable.
13. It addresses a lot of other criticisms with past *Jurassic Park* installments aside from finally introducing feathered dinosaurs and ignoring hybrids as mentioned above.
	1. After complaints that Blue was getting far too much focus in the previous two films of the trilogy, this film dials her way back, making her more of a cameo so that other dinos can shine.
	2. The *Stegosaurus* in the previous *Jurassic World* installments received some flack due to having an outdated low-hanging tail and lacking a beak. This film does away with these inaccuracies, making it resemble more like the real animal and the ones in *The Lost World: Jurassic Park*.
	3. Alan and Ellie get back together at the end of the film, satisfying those who weren't happy with Ellie being revealed to have married someone else prior to the events of *Jurassic Park III*.
	4. Ian and Ellie get a much bigger role.
	5. The film brings back Omar Sy as Barry and briefly references what happened to Lowery and Vivian, after their noticeable absence from the last film.
	6. After being the only dinosaurs from the original to not appear in the flesh since, the *Dilophosaurus* finally make a return. They even get to kill off Dodgson much like how they killed Nedry in the first movie.
	7. Maisie Lockwood gets a lot of criticism from fans due to her decision to release the dinosaurs into the wild in the climax of the previous movie. This movie at least alleviates the issue by explaining that there are various other dinosaurs already loose on the mainland even before Maisie released the ones under Lockwood Manor, with underworld smugglers working for criminals or Biosyn smuggling dinosaurs from Isla Sorna for years, and the implication that some geneticists have been creating new dinosaurs for their shady customers. Maisie’s action, while still controversial, is only a part of an already present issue: that various morally-questionable factions can already get their hands on dinosaurs or create their own, meaning that it was only a matter of time before they all got loose on the mainland and integrated into the modern society and ecosystem regardless of what Maisie did.
14. It also has a lot of great *callbacks* to previous entries.
	1. Franklin notes that many of Owen and Claire's colleagues have since been hired by intelligence organizations, including Lowery Cruthers and Vivian Krill, alumni of Jurassic World. Lowery was intended to return for the film in-person, but his actor was ultimately unable to attend production.
	2. Owen's re-introduction sees him riding to rustle a herd of Parasaurolophus with the same score as his iconic scene from *Jurassic World* where he rode alongside the Raptor Squad.
	3. Maisie's first encounter with Beta has her share her sandwich with the small theropod, which the little girl Cathy also did with the Compsognathus in the beginning of *The Lost World*, an encounter that went badly.
		* Also, one news footage shows a little girl being chased by some Compsognathus.
	4. Ellie stammers nervously again at the first mention of a T-Rex.
	5. Alan is *still* telling people not to move in the face of a large carnivore dinosaur, and Owen gets to join in.
	6. Malcolm distracts the Giganotosaurus with a burning torch, much like he did in the original *Jurassic Park* with Rexy and a flare.
	7. The Compsognathus in the viral short is on a truck labeled "Kirby Enterprises" as a reference to the Kirbys from the third film.
	8. Viral marketing also shows the alpha and beta pair of raptors from *Jurassic Park III* living on the mainland.
	9. Once again, Owen and Barry have to contain a group of raptors, with one of them acting as a bait. This time, Barry is the bait and Owen closes the door.
	10. Lewis Dodgson still has the Barbasol can he exchanged with Nedry in the first film. He ends up getting his comeuppance when he finds himself trapped in an enclosed space with a hungry Dilophosaurus just like his associate Nedry did in the first film, and also tried talking to it as if that would help before getting attacked.
	11. Just like in the third and fourth films in the franchise there is a showdown between the T-Rex and the new dominant predator. Just like the fourth film, the T-Rex is overpowered and taken down, but not killed before another animal intervenes (Blue and the Mosasaurus there, the Therizinosaurus here), with the battle then ending with the T-Rex victorious.
	12. Both Alan and Ian recognize Henry Wu from meeting him in the original film.
	13. Like Nedry did, Ian drives a jeep through a forest at night and also slips off the road. And like the first film's park ride, the jeep gets flipped over, and then spun about by the predator dino with someone trapped in it.
	14. Owen still has his lever-action rifle used in *Jurassic World*.
	15. The chirping of the Dilophosaurus are first heard before any of the creatures are shown.
	16. Ellie, now accompanied by Claire, again has the job of rebooting the systems and needs to be guided by earpiece, with Ian again on the other end of the line, but now being less helpful than he and Hammond were back then.
	17. Like in *Fallen Kingdom*, when the other tyrannosaurs appear, Rexy turns and roars in a mirror image of her famous post-raptor fight pose from the original film.
	18. The first dinosaur Alan and Ellie see in Biosyn Valley is a sauropod.
	19. A minor aversion from continuity in that the previous film showed Owen building his own mountain cabin in the middle of a wide-open field. Now Owen, Claire, and Maisie are living in a different cabin located in a heavy forest.
	20. Rexy even recreates the franchise's *logo* at one point!
	21. Grant also gives an updated lecture about how raptors kill their prey that is just as unsettling, if not more so than in the original.
15. Fantastic action sequences like the scenes in Malta and Biosyn Valley.
16. The entire encounter between Claire and the Therizinosaurus is by far the most suspenseful scene in the film.
17. Henry Wu's unexpected redemption arc is handled really well in this film and gives his character a more satisfying send-off than if he were to simply be eaten by dinosaurs.
18. Epic final battle between Rexy, the Giganotosaurus and Therizinosaurus that draws more than a few parallels to the final battle in *Jurassic World* as mentioned above. The fact that the battle is between three components of the Indominus Rex only makes it an even more significant way to end Rexy's story.
19. The entire ending sequence where the dinosaurs and prehistoric animals gradually adapt to the new world, coexisting with their modern-day counterparts.

## Bad Qualities

1. Right off the bat, the movie makes a **huge** mistake by removing the prologue, which gave more context for Rexy and the Giganotosaurus's relationship by establishing them as natural rivals. It was thankfully restored in the extended cut, however, so it can be looked past.
2. A major criticism of the film is that while there are more dinosaurs featured in this film, they're all competing for limited screentime, leaving many to feel underrepresented despite being heavily marketed in trailers.
	1. The Pyroraptor only shows up for one scene in the frozen dam and then never appears again in any capacity. It isn't even named within the movie itself.
	2. Similarly, although it does get namedropped, the main scene for the Quetzalcoatlus lasts less than half a minute, and outside of this and the prologue is left to a couple of few second scenes within montages. In particular its real life terrestrial stalking behavior is not depicted at all.
	3. Despite the Giganotosaurus' role as the apex predator of Biosyn's dinosaur sanctuary, it does very little other than chase the main characters briefly and then having a rather short final battle against Rexy and the Therizinosaurus. Compared with previous antagonistic theropods (the Nublar raptors, the Spinosaurus and the Indominus felt like a constant threat through their movies, and the Indoraptor offers a rather chilling climatic battle), the Giga overall feels lacking. In fact, unlike the others, it doesn’t even kill anything (human or animal), except for a locust on fire.
	4. Rexy's role is surprisingly short despite her and her species being one of the most iconic animals of the franchise (and popular culture in general). Her arc of competing against the Giganotosaurus for the title of apex predator of the Dolomites only amounts to two scenes, those being one where the Giga bullies her into dropping a deer carcass she was picking and a rather short final battle, and that's all she does for the entire movie. It feels like she was included because she’s so emblematic that they just couldn’t not include her in the climax of the saga despite her scarce role.
	5. Those expecting the Mosasaurus to play a role in the movie are in for a big disappointment, as the huge marine reptile only appears in two brief shots at the beginning (where she appears snatching some spider crabs from fishermen) and the end (where she appears swimming alongside two humpback whales), having even less screentime than in *Fallen Kingdom*.
	6. Blue's role is very small here, unlike the previous installments, where Blue had major roles. After Beta is kidnapped, Blue disappears from the plot and she does not return until the end of the film, when she meets Beta again. Blue does not play a major role in this movie and she does not meet Alan Grant and the Atrociraptors at any time.
	7. The Atrociraptors were built up in advertising as evil counterparts to the Raptor Squad from *Jurassic World*, and were even given individual names in promotional material. Their role in the movie, however, amounts to an extended chase scene. Once Owen and Claire escape from them, they disappear from the story. They don't even encounter Blue or Beta, despite clearly being promoted as Blue's evil counterpart (to the point that one of them is even named Red) and their names are not mentioned. Some suggested they should have been the raptor variants they visually call-Bbck to both due to their Ensemble Dark Horse nature and more directly connect this film with the original trilogy. Other suggested combining its role with the Pyroraptor, arguing it would be easier to differentiate it between our raptors, giving a much more substantial role to the long awaited accurate raptor and, after the film came out, make it more then a one-scene wonder.
	8. For all the hype its return to the franchise got, the Dilophosauru' barely does anything other than menacing Claire. It does, however, have a much more important scene at the end where it kills Dodgson, evoking his associate Nedry’s demise in the first film.
	9. Many fans were disappointed that the Oviraptor did not appear in the movie. It only appears in the prologue of *Dominion*, and there was a scene in the dinosaur black market where there would be a fight between an Oviraptor and Kayla's Lystrosaurus named "Leonard" and Leonard would end up winning. But the scene was cut from the theatrical release and only appears in the *Dominion* novelization and extended cut.
	10. The Buck and Doe from *The Lost World: Jurassic Park* only appear in a single scene near the end. It would be interesting to see them having more scenes and interactions with Rexy, especially after their more than two decades of absence from the franchise.
	11. Fans were excited to see the male variant of the Jurassic World Pteranodon'when one makes a background cameo in one video from the Dinotracker site and hoped to see a proper appearance in the film. But only one male Pteranodon appears in a scene where a Dreadnoughtus gathers at the Biosyn Research Facility.
3. The story can be predictable in some aspects.
4. The pacing is kind of mixed, mainly in the theatrical cut.
5. Franklin and Zia, two characters introduced in the previous film, only have a few minutes of screen time and are not even supporting characters.

## Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 29% of 394 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4.8/10, making it the lowest ratest installment of the franchise underneath *Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom* and *Jurassic Park III*.

## Box Office

*Jurassic World Dominion* grossed $376.9 million in the United States and Canada, and $626.9 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $1.004 billion. It is the third-highest-grossing film of 2022, and was the 50th film to pass the billion-dollar mark, the fourth *Jurassic* film, and the third film released during the COVID-19 pandemic (after *Spider-Man: No Way Home* and *Top Gun: Maverick*).

## External Links

* ***Jurassic World Dominion*** on IMDB
* ***Jurassic World Dominion*** on Rotten Tomatoes