The final chapter of the Jurassic World trilogy and perhaps the franchise has been released to stream in Amazon.com Early Access. Many of you are aware of my fondness for the Jurassic films, having written many reviews and posts inspired by the original masterpiece, as well as reviewing the sequels. I must confess I was skeptical about this installment. The truth is I feared “The Rise of Skywalker” which I enjoyed, but it felt unpolished and rushed. I am happy to say Dominion is polished like the amber of Hammond’s mosquito.
Jurassic World Dominion is a fitting Pteradon Song to the franchise. We get ample time with the Legacy character of Dr. Alan Grant, Dr. Ellie Sattler, and Dr. Ian Malcom, as well as not losing focus of the Jurassic World mains of Owen Grady, Claire Dearing, and now Maisie Lockwood. Returning faces like Dr. Henry Wu, and others are a welcome sight. But be honest you want to hear about Blue The Velociraptor and he new baby Beta. Well its touching and have me a good cry at the end of the film. They explain with satisfaction that Blue has spliced D.N.A. with a species that can reproduce asexually, which explains one of plot elements that otherwise would have been puzzling. Seeing Blue and her Baby stalk prey in the snow is beyond cute. Especially since their intended target is a white rabbit, but a wolf attacks it and Baby Beta incensed leaps on wolf and so they get two meals out of one.
The real threat this time isn’t dinosaurs, but bio-engineered big locusts who are eating all the crops on earth, save those seeded by Biosyn. Yes Biosyn, which was prominate in Crichton’s books and mentioned in Jurassic Park as the competitor Nedry was stealing embryos for makes its cinematic debut, replacing InGen as the “company of death,” (Roland Tembo). Its figurehead is Dodgson, yes that one, “We’ve got Dodgson here!” (Nedry). Dodgson is the Steve Jobs wannabe CEO of a new sanctuary for dinosaurs and labs cooking up giant katydids.
Ellie Sattler is an investigator of the crop swarms and recruits Alan Grant to expose Biosyn. Meanwhile Maisie and Beta are captured by Biosyn for Dr. Henry Wu to study and cure everyrhing from cancer and beyond. Owen and Claire trying to find Maisy end up in Malta for one of most dinomite action packed sequences, we have Dinosaurs fighting like Gladiators, Children of the Indoraptor who prove that gun with a red dot and sound works.. my Grant it works!
In the final act we have the big bad Gigantosaurus who faces Rexy, the T-Rex from original Jurassic Park, and new dino with giant Freddy Kruger claws. The smackdown is mildy entertaining, though not as good as the battle between Rexy, Blue, and The Indominus Rex in Jurassic World. The real showstopper for me was the return, after 29 years, of a living and breathing Dilphosaurus! And not just one of em, a whole pack of them, who end a certain person in a satisfying way. I’d watch a horror spin off of just Dilphosaurs.
The message of the film is the usual “play God, unforeseen consequences,” “Life will find a way,” especially in the case of Blue and Beta, Maisy and her real mother. But there is a bunch of rather timely messages about causing are own extinction, which some will decry as Climate Change propganda, but actually we are causing our extinction, babys are aborted and now virus is killing babies, and many women are becoming sterile via contraceptives. So like the dinosaurs, we could be facing our own extinction, with Jesus saying when He returns, “In fact, unless that time of calamity is shortened, not a single person will survive. But it will be shortened for the sake of God’s chosen ones.” (Matthew 24:22). It was refreshing that family is valued in this film, with Owen and Claire as adoptive parents to Maisie, and even Alan Grant asked if he had kids, and he sighs and says he doesn’t. Family is emphasized as all important, even with the dinosaurs, Rexy being adopted by The Daddy and Momma T-Rexes from The Lost World Jurassic Park!; and Beta being returned to her mother Blue.
I must say I wept when Owen returns Beta to Blue and as he gets in the truck, Blue emerges and looks at Owen as she once did in Jurassic World, reminding us of what a journey we have been on with Owen, Claire, Maisie, and Blue; they feeling like our family.
Jurassic World Dominion was panned by the critics, and its not perfect, but how can anything touch the thrill and splendor of the first installment? Its not possible, and I did not expect the sixth Jurassic installment to attempt that, nor did it. Rather this film ties all the films together nicely in a dino bow tie. Dominion delivers on giving us one last jaunt in the Jurassic with these characters. This is not likely the end of the franchise, there will be other JP/JW content, but this is the last stroll through the park and world with these characters. And for that reason, its a must see for any JP fan.
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