Movie critic Bruce Miller says many of the beats Steven Spielberg introduced with “Jurassic Park” are repeated in "Dominion," but they’re not handled with any finesse.
Everything goes to hell when dinosaurs take over the Earth.
At least that’s what we surmise after “Jurassic World: Dominion” unfolds. With so many characters (it combines “Jurassic Park” folks with “Jurassic World” ones) and dinosaurs, it doesn’t have time for anything close to a story.
The dinosaurs torment folks everywhere; the humans can’t figure out how to stop them.
Naturally, an evil corporate guy (Campbell Scott) has bigger plans for what a world with dinosaurs might mean. He melts down in interesting ways (think of those tech geniuses who populate California) and tries to keep BioSyn, the company that traffics in uber-secrets, off guard at all times. To get everyone there (because it worked in the first films), director Colin Trevorrow first cooks up a story about Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) and Owen (Chris Pratt). They're hiding out in the Sierra Nevada mountains trying to avoid folks who might exploit Maisie (Isabella Sermon), who has a connection to John Hammond, the mastermind of “Jurassic Park.”
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Then, Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern), Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) swing by BioSyn for a progress update. Surprise, surprise, “Park” meets “World” and the humans must figure out how to get out without getting eaten.
While the dinosaurs roar and stomp, a former Air Force pilot (DeWanda Wise) operates all sorts of aircraft to swoop in and save people. Even when she crashes everything is OK.
So much is so over-the-top you won’t get to enjoy the scant scenes Dern, Neill and Goldblum have. They would have been good as the sixth film’s focus but Trevorrow feels beholden to Pratt and Howard, so they get equal time in situations that are hardly believable. Constantly running (and, for some reason, holding a hand out as if to stall the dinosaurs), they spend most of their time trying to get somewhere.
They’re all over the map, but so is the film. Trevorrow gives one character redemption that’s unearned and Neill and Dern a relationship that took 20 years to blossom.
While there are all sorts of dinosaurs (with names you may not have heard), they’re not as scary as they could be. That’s because someone like Steven Spielberg isn’t teasing with things that go bump in the night. Trevorrow brings them into focus and lets this become something of a Godzilla remake. There are locusts as well, “decimating crops from Iowa to Texas,” but they’re not given enough screen time to seem like a threat.
Because “Dominion” runs nearly two-and-a-half hours, it should make more sense. It doesn’t – nor does it cover new ground. This retraces old steps and never bothers to look back.
As a result, there’s room for yet another film (“Day of the Locusts,” perhaps?) if this one makes enough money.
Like politics, "Jurassic World: Dominion" is entirely out of control.
