Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Laura Dern, Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum, Dewanda Wise, Mamoudou Athie, Isabella Sermon, Campbell Scott, BD Wong, Omar Sy, Justice Smith, Daniella Pineda, Scott Haze, Dichen Lachman, Kristoffer Polaha, Caleb Hearon, Freya Parker, Alexander Owen, Ahir Shah, Elva Trill, Teresa Cendon-Garcia, Manuela Mora, Bastian Antonio Fuentes, Jasmine Chiu, Varada Sethu, Ben Ashenden, Enzo Squillino Jr., Glynis Davies, Mo Brings Plenty, Emilie Jumeaux, Aisling Sharkey, Joel Eiferink.
When a franchise ends, the opportunity to look back at the entire narrative in greater depth is compelling, an enthralling, forceful cause to which your own interpretations and political thought overwhelm what is in effect a simple tale told well, or which leaves the watcher frustrated by its lack of consistency…even its own pitfalls of despair.
There is no other way to look at the Jurassic Park series of films than one of ecological warning, that if the reality of climate change does nit set the alarm bells ringing, then how about seeing Earth’s history, its largest predators, its meanest creatures sit in the same era as your children, as your grandchild, and tell them it was all possible, that this mistake only came about by humanity’s hubris, the belief that just because something can be done, doesn’t mean that it should – and yet, all around the world there are those willing to pay fortunes to see their dreams, our nightmares, come true.
From the moment that the audience in the original 1993 film, based on Michael Crichton’s 1990 novel is introduced to the prospect of seeing dinosaurs in the animatronic flesh, there has been the whisper, growing to a crescendo, of what if? What if it was possible to somehow find complete DNA of a creature that walked the Earth millions of years ago, should we allow natural human curiosity to bring them back, to understand, to study, to what…rectify a mistake of the cosmos and of Time?
Could we ourselves be revived in the same manner, a few hundred million years down the curve of Time and some species who have overtaken us in terms of genius and illumination daring to let human kind loose on the universe; would be thankful, would it a blessing, or as should be suspected, a moment of colossal madness, a collective, reckless, moment of irrationality.
That is the question that has been speculated upon since Laura Dern, Sam Neill and Jeff Goldblum were introduced to Richard Attenborough’s John Hammond, and one that bares an answer as the ecological disaster that is on the verge in the final of the second trilogy, Jurassic World: Dominion, as corporate greed, that ever powerful tool that stands in the public eye as the darkness of our own hearts. What if?
As a trilogy, and even franchise, ending, the sense of equilibrium is one that rational, not wishing to determine the absolute, the cast and creatives bring enough suspense to make it an enjoyable romp, a scientific quest, a mystery worthy of the entire twisting tale…however, and despite the beauty of bringing together five of the main stars to the table to give the fans the send-off thrills they deserve, it can, in parts, feel tame. The illusion of the various species is no longer a surprise, the sense of fear broken, an entertaining tale, but not the truth of a gratifying ending, a dystopia of eventuality that the franchise deserved.
Jurassic World: Dominion is a love fest, a stroke of genius but one hindered by a different kind of expectation. Bold, intriguing, but in the end a tame affair in which will be its lasting legacy.
Ian D. Hall