My favorite film of all time is Jurassic Park; a stone-cold classic that blended sci-fi fantasy, awestruck wonder, suspense, and horror in a way only Steven Spielberg could. Even he had trouble replicating its success with The Lost World, which went bigger and louder, at the expense of feeling sloppy and bitter. By the time Jurassic Park 3 rolled along, effectively becoming just another monster B-movie, the novelty had worn off considerably. No one's impressed by a dinosaur anymore...
Or so we thought. In 2015, the franchise was revitalized by Jurassic World, director Colin Trevorrow's continuation that recaptured some of the spirit lost between movies, and was an enormous box office hit. It came followed by Fallen Kingdom, which went for darker new avenues, even if it was let down by some stupid lapses in logic. But that movie was clearly a set up to bigger things, which we now see with Dominion, where Trevorrow returns to wrap up both his trilogy, and the original Jurassic mythos. Unfortunately, for what should be a satisfying send-off, what we instead get is a limp finale that doesn't so much roar, as it does whimper off licking its wounds.
Four years have passed since the events of Lockwood Estate, and in the years since, dinosaurs have integrated themselves into the human world. Having adopted the cloned daughter of Lockwood, Maise (Isabella Sermon), Owen Grady and Claire Dearing (Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard) have retreated off the grid to protect her. But eventually Maise, as well as Beta - the pup of velociraptor Blue, are kidnapped by poachers, and Owen and Claire set off to rescue them. Elsewhere, Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) investigates a growing plague of mutated locusts, which seem to tie back to genetic giant Biosyn, and with the help of Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), the trio attempt to uncover the company's secrets, and all groups strive for one purpose: Survive.
Dominion was the story Trevorrow wanted to tell from the beginning, the main driving force that the first two films were just an appetizer for. And if that really is the case, I must ask... why? What was so compelling in this material? Why was THIS what that passion was put into? Because by the time it finishes, Dominion just feels like it was made solely to exist.
If you remember Fallen Kingdom, you know a major theme was the ethical debate over whether the dinosaurs should be allowed to go extinct again, leading into the follow-up where humans and dinosaurs are now forced to co-exist, much in the same way we contend with extraordinary planet-wide changes, such as global warming or man-made disasters, forced on us by our own hubris. An interesting idea, and something that is at least new for this franchise, but if you were expecting that to go any deeper, you will leave disappointed. Because oddly enough, that world in which we co-exist with dinosaurs feels barely developed. There was so much room to see how we cope with these changes, but aside from the minimum lip-service, it runs away from that potential with its tail tucked between its legs.
Trevorrow has Endgame envy. Because that feels like what he's trying to make this movie out to be, by bringing back the nostalgic stars of older movies, and merging them with the characters he himself created. The problem is that this movie is too clumsy to do those ambitions justice. That's especially true with the movie's first act, which jumps between locations in very erratic pacing, and so it struggles to maintain any semblance of tone. Actually, for much of the first half, it seems more intent on becoming a Bond film, as the dinosaurs themselves take a backseat to the bombastic action sequences. But Trevorrow's handling is not Bond, and honestly, after a while, started to feel more in line with Michael Bay action. Which isn't far off, because my beloved T-Rex has essentially become the Optimus Prime of this trilogy.
That said, the human cast don't give us much to root for. Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard return for their third time, and whereas they were once strong standouts, it really does feel like the boredom is setting in. Less so for Howard, who does at least try to lend some credence to her evolved character, but specifically for Pratt, whose novelty has worn off and who looks ready to call it quits. To be honest, much of the new cast can hardly be qualified as successes either. While Mamoudou Athie's Ramsay is at least a charming and engaging presence, DeWanda Wise's Kayla is a waste, whose only purpose is as a mode of transportation.
All of the real energy goes into the second storyline, that following the returning trio of Dern, Goldblum, and Neill. To their credit, they all get back into the swing of things without missing a beat, with Goldblum in particular getting some standout moments. The problem is not with them, but with their subplot, with the three investigating the goings-on of Biosyn, and their ties to growing attacks of mutated locusts. Not only is Biosyn so hilariously, obviously evil (and a blatant reskin of Mantah Corp, the corporation from Jurassic's own Camp Cretaceous), but the main conflict being prehistorically gifted locusts feeding on crops feels hilariously on the nose. As if the commentary on man's own self-destruction weren't enough, we had to make them Biblical!
But that's nothing compared to Maise. She was a controversial component of Fallen Kingdom, the result of Benjamin Lockwood cloning his own daughter to bring her back to life. That was the explanation given to us then, but Dominion goes into it further, with much of her backstory filled in by Henry Wu, again played by BD Wong in an unearned redemptive fashion. And if you thought the twist with Maise was bad then, just you wait, because this expansion is not only a massive retcon, but a full blown descent into outrageous. Suspension of disbelief completely flies out the window with the science of this subplot, to the point that, without giving much away, this backstory is the epitome of everything that is wrong with Maise. Because she isn't even a proper character anymore. Now she's just a plot device, and a convenient Deus Ex Machina.
I don't think Trevorrow even cares about humans anymore. He's far more enamored with the dinosaurs. And to his credit, for all of the World trilogy's faults, he has at least done well in giving these animals personality. And yet, even with that quality in mind, the dinosaurs feel very underdeveloped as characters, probably not helped by the fact that there are A LOT of them. So much so that Blue, the unofficial mascot for the franchise, is barely in the movie. She bookends the film, but the rest of the attention goes to her pup Beta, and even she is just the funko pop version of Blue.
Aside from that, this movie isn't great at fleshing out its dinosaurs. You get an idea of this in Malta, with the sequence in which Owen is chased on motorbike by Atrociraptors, and then later on a chasm, where Owen and Kayla have a face off with a Pyroraptor over an icy lake. Not only do they feel like blatant reskins of the Velociraptor, but because the film is so stuffed with dinosaur encounters (including with Dimetrodon, Quetzalcoatlus, and the return of the Dilophosaurs), the tension just doesn't have time to sit. It feels like watching one random encounter after another, before the scene ends so we can get to the next one. The only one that manages to stand out is the Therizinosaurus, and that's because of its pure suspenseful approach where the tension is allowed to simmer. It's also a nice novelty, because it's rare you see herbivores in these movies feel like a genuine threat, which really helps this one stand out.
If I will give the dinosaurs anymore appreciation, I will say that the designs and effects work are still top notch as ever. While the CGI isn't always consistent, and in some cases is incredibly ropey, the live-action counterparts are a breathtaking sight to behold. They use a lot of honest to god animatronic effects, making the creatures feel all the more imposing and majestic, and so that is at least one area where it's respectful to the original.
But on the whole, it really is wasted on such an uneven movie. At nearly two and a half hours long, Dominion is not only overstuffed and overlong, but it's framing device is incredibly messy, almost like two films being crammed into one, and so by the time you ultimately get those two groups of characters together, you've really lost sight of what the end goal was. Even the big baddie of the movie, the Giganotosaurus, just feels flavorless and tired, and massive for the sake of being massive. It only exists to give Rexy something to fight at the end, and by the time that climax rolls along, I was just done. The gas has run out, and the engine is stalling at this point.
Jurassic Park has overstayed its welcome, and in retrospect, it's debatable whether it had the mileage to last more than one movie, and you really feel that in the way it keeps nudging at your nostalgia. And with all of these conflicting flavors - the nostalgia buttons, the corporate conspiracies, the drastic deviations, the wayward action, the oddball science, I have to ask... who is this movie even for? Dominion wastes so much talent on absolutely nothing, and the way it trips over the rug and lands with a resounding thud, Trevorrow has given Jurassic Park its own The Rise of Skywalker. It's so pathetic, I'm actually looking back more fondly on The Lost World. Yeah. It's that weak.
** / *****
No comments:
Post a Comment