JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION

[Lynx]

Oh. My. Word. I have just arrived home from watching the movie, and my word it has exceeded the complaints here.
To be fair, my expectations were down due to what people said about it but...

This movie was something else. A beautiful movie. I don't care if the designs are unrealistic, they flow together nicely. It was downright scary, but also enjoyable to watch. Downright better than the previous.

Spoiler

I hope they don't milk the series more. This was a perfect conclusion. The little references from new and old movies (etc. the abandoned control tower from CC, the dimetrodon swimming resembling the spinosaurus scene, etc) 

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were heavily appreciated.

[GiganotosaurusFan]

I think it was pretty cool, some parts could have been better, but seems nice enough! 7.5/10

[JPuggy]

I really liked this movie. Best of the JW films for sure, and probably my 3rd favorite movie overall. I think my only real complaint is the fact that the movie didn't really need Rexy or the Giga. I feel like Dodgson was a better villain than the giga and also the fact that he looks like my 5th grade teacher makes him very memorable to me. Also, absolutely loved the Atrociraptors and Dimetrodons. Definitely the highlight for me.

[Dynomikegojira]

I'm about 2 see it in less than 30 mins

[CARN0TAURUS]

I LOVE "Jurrasic Park" when the movie came out I saw it in theaters an excessive amount of times during it's original theatrical run.  I should be embarrassed to write this but I went to see it everyday for two weeks straight after it released and then after that I saw again 1-2 times a week until it left theaters.  I had obsessed over other movies like that in the past but I had never seen a movie more times, that personal record will stand for ever.  I remember I would get off work and find a different theater to go watch it in because I was embarrassed to go to the same one over and over again. You gotta understand that growing up in LA going to the movies is part of the culture growing up.  When my life permitted it I used to watch movies at theaters several days of the week anyways.  I went to high school with people that became screen writers, extras, set builders, computer animators, you name it.  I myself was a movie extra in two films one in highschool and one in my early twenties.  But still, "Jurassic Park"  holds the distinction of being my most watched film ever during it's original theatrical run.  I grew up my entire young life wishing and hoping to see a dinosaur film with realistic looking dinosaurs and JP was the first to deliver.

So from a purely "it's so cool there are dinosaurs in a movie" perspective that inner child part of me enjoyed dominion.  I was also happy to see all the old folks back on the screen together again and the practical effects where a nice nod to the original film too.  But that's it, that's pretty much all the joy I got out of it.  They unfortunately forgot to hire an editor and a screen writer.  There is no cohesive story, just a collection of nostalgia inducing scenes and subplots leading nowhere.  Entire characters get slopped on the screen and then take no part in the rest of the film.  Too many subplots that lead no where and the giant bugs that only serve as filler and steal screen time from my beloved dinosaurs.  It's almost as if the people in charge of making the movie were in total disagreement about what movie they wanted to make so they compromised and made "everyone's'" movie instead.  Then desperately tried to find a way to slap it all together and make everyone happy. 

I know I'm going to get in trouble for typing all this but I just can't keep quiet about it, yes dinosaurs are always cool, but movie bad.  I'm sorry, I cannot lie and from my point of view I LOVE the source material and the original film.  To me, this feels like a punch in the gut, like an insult to what Crichton and Spielberg created.  This movie will probably be remembered in film classes as an example of how even with a great budget, a great caste, and fantastic source material.  If the people making the film lack imagination or focus, the end result is going to be bad.

I strive to be positive about most everything in my life and I did mention the positives I took from this film.  But this is so overwhelmingly bad that I could not help myself.  I honestly hope I don't get banned for typing this and I hope my fellow forum members don't tear into me too much for typing these words

[Carnoking]

To me, this feels like a punch in the gut, like an insult to what Crichton and Spielberg created.

Interesting you mentioned Crichton here.

Spoiler

If I'm being honest, I felt the idea of a company using genetically modified locusts as a means to control the world's food supply was perhaps the most "Crichton" these movies have been since perhaps the original film. The whole theme behind Jurassic wasn't necessarily the dinosaurs but more so how genetic power can be abused, and I felt like this was the first film in the World trilogy to really take advantage of that idea and not just do another big bad Dinosaur on the loose film.

That being said, I do agree that it robbed the focus from the dinosaurs, so much so that the "villain" dinosaurs (and many others) felt shoehorned in as a result. Not to mention the fact that it totally undermined the premise set up at the end of Fallen Kingdom where the main threat going forward is having to learn to co-exist with dinosaurs in our world. Instead, dinosaurs in our world are more an inconvenience than anything, with most actually having already been rounded up and put back in an isolated preserve while the real threat comes in the form of these unrelated locusts.

An angle I would have liked to see more would have been Biosyn posing as this sanctuary/research facility just so they could get their hands on the dinosaurs in order to breed new iterations that they then use to decimate the world's crops/livestock. This would have kept the weaponized genetics angle while simultaneously keeping the focus on the dinosaurs and delivering on the conflict promised in the previous film.

So yes, I appreciated the locust idea but would have just as preferred to see it in a different film.

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[Brocc21]

The locusts were very interesting, but I think they spent far too much time on them. Should have been used as a set up and introduction for Biosyn.

[HD-man]

Almost any criticism of the film seems to be met with "You're expecting too much of this film. It's a movie with lots of action and dinosaurs, what's not to like?" or "You're just criticizing it for the sake of being a contrarian/ you're just an ***hole."

Don't forget about those who claim that "if they say it was a bad movie must not be real fans of the Jurassic franchise" ( https://www.facebook.com/groups/245524892946028/posts/1224990378332803/ ). That's why I left this comment on Alteori's JWD review:

I've said this elsewhere, but it bears repeating here: It's always refreshing to hear a hardcore fan be brutally honest about their franchise without being a jerk. As a life-long JP fan who's been disappointed by all the sequels (except CC, which I love), I wish more JP/JW fans were like you.

I'm especially glad she includes some film school stories in the below video. They help put her story-related criticisms in perspective.

[Gwangi]

I saw Jurassic World: Dominion yesterday, here are my thoughts.

Before I get into Dominion I would like to preface it with some of my thoughts on the franchise as a whole. If interested, read on, if not then skip to the spoiler portion of this post.

Jurassic Park is one of my all-time favorite movies, I consider it a nearly perfect film, it's not just a great dinosaur movie but a great movie, period. I think that's what makes it stand out because let's be honest, most dinosaur movies are special effects showcases and not high quality films. Jurassic Park was accessible to everyone, even if they had no interest in dinosaurs.

I was 13 years old when The Lost World: Jurassic Park came out, hardly old and experienced enough to view movies with a critical eye. I liked it, although still not as much as I did Jurassic Park. As I've gotten older and re-watched it many times I have come to the conclusion that The Lost World: Jurassic Park is a bad movie with a Spielbergian flourish that makes it appear better than it is. It has some great set pieces, practical effects, action sequences etc. but the overall story and writing are some of the worst in the franchise.

Moving on to Jurassic Park 3, I was about 17 when that movie came out and it was a gut punch to my childhood, one of my first major cinematic disappointments. It didn't look like Jurassic Park, and it didn't feel like Jurassic Park. If ever a movie felt like a hastily written cash grab, it was JP3.

So now onto Jurassic World in 2015. JP3 had already killed my hope for a great Jurassic Park sequel. My expectations for a new movie/soft reboot were rock bottom. I go see Jurassic World and I'm pleasantly surprised. I had a lot of fun with it. It was a fresh idea seeing a functioning, open park, and although not of the same caliber of the original it didn't take itself too seriously and made for an enjoyable summer popcorn flick. The same can be said for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Although deeply flawed and absurd, I do find it an entertaining film and the ending sets up the sequel that we should have got with Jurassic Park 3, dinosaurs in modern civilization.

Now, finally, if you're still reading. Jurassic World: Dominion.

Spoiler

Finally, after five movies, we're getting what we should have gotten 3 movies ago. Dinosaurs in modern civilization. It is a concept so rich with potential that it practically writes itself. The ending of Fallen Kingdom had my hyped to see it. Battle at Big Rock, the various dinosaur sighting clips, all had me hyped to see how the world functions with dinosaurs in it. So what does Dominion do? It just about ignores that entire concept and sets virtually the entire movie in another isolated research facility. More of the same. Not just that but, it's even more complicated, bloated, and bombastic than Fallen Kingdom was!

All of these dinosaurs we were supposed to get excited about. The Pyroraptor, Atrociraptors, Giga, and even Rexy, and Blue were barely even in the movie. They have their scenes and then they're gone. Rexy could have been left out completely and it wouldn't have made a difference. And as much as I hate JP3 at least it had a decent dinosaur villain in the Spinosaurus, this movie doesn't know what to do with the Giga and it's really just another dinosaur, not a "Joker" analogy like what was implied, thankfully. Of course, we get an epic dinosaur battle at the end of the movie and while I was grinning ear-to-ear during the Indominus battle in Jurassic World I was just bored with this one because it just tries to do the same exact thing.

The locusts. Who would have thought this movie would have been about locusts! Seeing them in the trailer I thought they were just another prehistoric animal with a come-and-go scene. I could never have guessed that they would be the driving force for the entire plot. I didn't hate the idea behind it, as absurd as it was, just that they ended up focusing on them so damn much which detracted from the dinosaurs, the reason I was there. They could have done the same plot point but with dinosaurs instead, maybe a smallish herbivore that reproduces quickly and eats crops. We have that in the modern world, like rabbits in Australia.

What the hell did they do with the Maisie storyline? Wasn't it enough that she was a human clone? That alone didn't bother me in Fallen Kingdom. Hammond had a partner that cloned his dead daughter and that's why they had a falling out. Makes sense enough in itself, and not that absurd in a franchise about cloned dinosaurs. But now they basically retconned all of that and made it so Lockwood's daughter cloned and birthed herself? Then why the fallout between Lockwood and Hammond? It's a mess, the entire story in this movie is a hot, complicated, absurd mess.

So yeah, the movie has it's issues and I have my issues with it. If you were to watch Jurassic Park and then skip right to Dominion you would wonder, how the hell did we get here? Dominion is a cartoon, or a video game, about as serious in tone as the Fast & Furious franchise which it might as well cross over into at this point. Seriously, I just watched all of Cadillac's and Dinosaurs on Tubi and Dominion is no less absurd than that cartoon. At various times it reminded me of the SEGA Genesis Jurassic Park game and the movie plays like a video game. It's overly complicated, bloated, absurd, and bombastic. The characters are never in real peril, but that seems obvious from the start. There are too many characters, ideas, over-the-top villians, and set pieces crammed into a movie that really should have been just as simple as the premise that Fallen Kingdom ended with.

Now, all of that having been said. I didn't hate it. I actually had fun with it. I have had low expectations with the Jurassic franchise since 2001. I have never expected a Jurassic sequel to come along even remotely as good as the original film. That's not saying it can't be done, just look at the praise that Top Gun: Maverick is getting. Good sequels can be made. It's a shame they couldn't do it with Jurassic Park but after 25 years of sub-par sequels no one should be expecting a quality JP movie. What I did like about Dominion...

The dinosaur diversity and overall appearance of the animals. Some of these dinosaurs are the best looking dinosaurs in the entire franchise. All of them looked better than their 2015 counterparts; the Apatosaurus, Stegosaurus, Parasaurolophus. New standouts for me include the Moros, Quetz, Therizinosaurus, and Dreadnoughtus. Even the Atrociraptors at least look better than the Velociraptors from Jurassic World. It was great to finally have Dilophosaurus back, and Dimetrodon finally making its on-screen debut. I was not a fan of the Pyroraptor design although I'm happy to see feathers make their debut. I appreciated the use of animatronics although some were a bit janky, same as those in TLW and JP3.

A lot of the set pieces and action sequences were fantastic. The chase in Malta was absurd, but a lot of fun. The Biosyn valley and facility looked great. The scenes of dinosaurs mingling in our world looked great. I was particularly taken with the Apatosaurus in the lumber yard and the various montages of dinosaurs integrated into our world. There were small, scattered moments of awe.

The characters. I have no complaints about any of the main characters. Jeff Goldblum delivers and is the standout performance of this movie. And, he is a more convincing Malcolm than he was in The Lost World. I enjoyed seeing Grant and Sattler back. Owen and Claire are cookie-cutter characters but don't grate on my nerves nearly as much as Sarah Harding, Nick-Van Owen, Kelly, and the Kirby's. I thought that Mamoudou Athie (Ramsey) and DeWanda Wise (Kayla) were excellent scene stealers in their roles.

As I said before, I recently watched Cadillacs and Dinosaurs on Tubi. And I enjoyed it. In much the same way I also enjoyed Jurassic World: Dominion. If you're looking to finally get a high quality Jurassic Park sequel, this ain't it. If your taste in movies is limited to films like Jurassic Park, Citizen Cane, The Godfather, and Casablanca, you will not like this movie. BUT...if you like monster movies, creature features, dinosaur movies of all types, and Saturday morning cartoons from the 80's and 90's then you should enjoy Dominion. Keep your expectations low and get in touch with your inner 13 year old.

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So with that all out of the way I'll now rate each movie in the Jurassic franchise. I'm going to need to see Dominion again to be sure how I rate it but this is how I'm feeling right now...

Jurassic Park: A+
The Lost World: Jurassic Park: C-
Jurassic Park 3: D
Jurassic World: B-
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom: C+
Jurassic World: Dominion: C

Clearly, I hold Jurassic Park in one hand and all of the sequels together in another. My ratings for TLW, JW:FK, and JW:D are so close that the only thing I know for certain is that Jurassic World is the best Jurassic Park sequel and JP3 is the worst.

[Carnoking]

I do love hearing everyone's take on not only Dominion, but the franchise as a whole. As someone who wasn't around to experience JP or TLW in theaters (JP3 was my first opportunity, and even then I was perhaps a little too young for it), it's great to hear stories of what it was like to see a movie like that for the first time in theaters.

[GojiraGuy1954]

Jurassic Park - S
The Lost World: Jurassic Park - A+
Jurassic Park III - D
Jurassic World - A
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom - F-
Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous 1-4 - A
Jurassic World: Dominion - A-

[Brocc21]

Klayton's review finally dropped. Along with an explanation for his absence and disappearance from social media for those who worry.

[HD-man]

Owen and Claire are cookie-cutter characters but don't grate on my nerves nearly as much as Sarah Harding, Nick-Van Owen, Kelly, and the Kirby's.

While I personally prefer watching TLW to JW,* I definitely get how certain characters can ruin the overall experience (E.g. Carlos in The Magic School Bus show, especially "The Busasaurus": http://dinotoyblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=2210.msg79686#msg79686 ).

*Besides the better-looking special effects & cinematography, animals that act more like animals, etc., a big part of my enjoyment (or lack thereof) is how it treats its audience: http://dinotoyblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=6700.msg315671#msg315671

Klayton's review finally dropped. Along with an explanation for his absence and disappearance from social media for those who worry.

Glad to have him back I'm also glad w/his review. There are so many toxic gatekeeper-type fans claiming that anyone who doesn't like JWD isn't a real fan/hasn't read Crichton's books/etc. I already knew they're being ridiculous, but it's especially satisfying to see Klayton, the most dedicated JP/JW fan I know of, prove them wrong.

[Gwangi]

I agree H @HD-man that TLW has better looking dinosaurs and cinematography than JW. It's part of that Spielbergian flourish I was talking about. In fact, despite my preference for Jurassic World I think it has the worst looking dinosaurs in the franchise, proof that dinosaurs alone cannot make or break a film.

The Lost World has excellent sequences too. The trailer/cliff scene, the raptors in the field, the roundup, all great stuff. I even like the San Diego sequence, mostly. But the story is an absolute mess and the character writing... well this isn't the thread for it I suppose. I could write a a tome as lengthy as my Dominion review of just my issues with TLW. I have seen that Magic School Bus episode you mentioned and it's one of the worst episodes in the series, thanks to Carlos, so I know that you know why I have issues with TLW. 

[Faelrin]

Might be worth checking out this Beyond the Gates video. While this reveal was definitely disappointing today, you can get a good luck at most of the film's species designs (especially the new ones) in this ILM size chart thing at about 1:24 in:

[Carnoking]

Well I saw the movie again last night and I'm a little surprised that my initial opinion didn't change too much, I still liked what I liked and had the same issues I had before. I expected to leave either with a new appreciation for the movie after picking up on something I had missed before or fresh disappointment but no. I guess that means this film will end up resting snuggly between the best of the franchise and the worst for me.

[Gwangi]

Doug over at Channel Awesome nicely exemplifies my frustrations with the premise of this movie. I don't agree with all of his points (clearly he never read the novels) but when it comes to the premise in particular he's spot on.

I'm starting to think that the best way to address dinosaurs wreaking havoc in civilization is not with a movie but with a series. Imagine something like the X-files, or maybe Primeval, where you have agents working for Fish and Wildlife or whatever, who's job it is to address dinosaur/human conflicts. The scenario could be different every episode. Allosaurus eating livestock, Compsognathus raiding trash bins, stuff like that. There are plenty of real-world conflicts between humans and animals to draw inspiration from, you just swap out extant animals with dinosaurs.

[Carnoking]

A series also allows room to weave in an over-arching narrative and/or unexpected side plots (something the locust idea might have been better for). I think CC proves how much room there is for that in Jurassic —- each season has expanded upon the lore setup in World through new threats like the poachers raiding the unattended island, side experiments coming to light, and competing companies that all want the dinosaurs for their own ideas.

[Gwangi]

A series also allows room to weave in an over-arching narrative and/or unexpected side plots (something the locust idea might have been better for). I think CC proves how much room there is for that in Jurassic —- each season has expanded upon the lore setup in World through new threats like the poachers raiding the unattended island, side experiments coming to light, and competing companies that all want the dinosaurs for their own ideas.

Yes. If nothing else the Jurassic World franchise has done a lot of world building with tons of potential if it's explored the right way. Dominion may have dropped the ball but there is still hope that the world created can be explored in an interesting way. The locust idea would have been great for a main storyline within a series, with "creature of the week" episodes focusing on dinosaurs, like what The X-Files did.

[GojiraGuy1954]

I hope they address the locusts in the next one. Show a field full of dead ones or something they shouldnt just disappear