"Jurassic World Dominion:" The Extinction of a Dinosaur-sized Legacy

As a mega Jurassic fan I have never looked forward to a film so much in my life, nor have I ever been so disappointed by one.

My biggest qualm is with the legacy characters and the legacy story that was promoted so largely for the film. Ellie Sattler, Alan Grant, and Ian Malcolm are exactly what this franchise needed for a strong ending. The acting is phenomenal and each character feels authentically like their younger selves. Their storyline on its own is fantastic and could very well have been the entire focus of the film over the mega-mess of a plot that was given.

The connection to Jurassic World’s Claire Dearing and Owen Grady feels extremely forced, making the plot feel very constructed and non-plausible in the context of the film. The overall lack of connection to the previous iterations of the franchise leaves our legacy characters as, well, simple side characters. They feel subsequent to a plot that should’ve revolved around them, or been more intertwined than a chance meeting in the woods, in the first place.

There was a huge lack of connection to the previous films as a whole, something that many fans were looking forward to seeing plate out. Having legacy characters doesn’t matter if the storylines are not planned accordingly. The creators truly lost the opportunity to bring many aspects of the franchise-long story full circle in a wrap-up ending that answered fans’ burning questions.

Why not validate the traumas of Ellie, Alan, and Malcolm with a confrontation between the trio and the main villain of Dominion, Dodgson (who is responsible for the events of the first film)? The only connection the audience sees is a short shot of Nedry’s famous Barbasol can and instead are shown gut-wrenching scenes of the characters interacting, but not addressing, any of the franchise’s biggest plot concerns.

I will note that Claire’s storyline is great and has been an amazing character journey to track through her three films. It is most definitely the hidden gem in Jurassic World films. Bryce Dallas Howard truly harbors what it means to be part of this epic franchise through her acting. Despite the odd inclusion of random filler characters everywhere, Claire was the holding thread in the storyline that didn’t involve the legacy characters.

The scenes meant to parallel the previous films, such as when Ellie and Claire have to reboot the system, are barely recognizable and could’ve been way more creatively explored. Why don’t we see Ellie face raptors like in the first film, giving a nod to the character’s resilience and feminine strength?

When the movie did attempt to connect to the original films they did it through non-based means, such as Maisie’s mother and her place in the first park. As with every Jurassic film since 2015’s Jurassic World, there has been an unnecessary push for MORE in each of the subsequent films.

Since 1993 fans have been okay with the plot revolving around dinosaurs and, based on the acclaim for 2015’s reboot, we still are. The hybrid Indominus Rex makes sense for a reboot, but why try to outdo it if you’ve already hooked the audience for another round? Fallen Kingdom’s Indoraptor, Maisie’s entire storyline, and the plot-defective dinosaurs in Dominion are a few examples.

The use of dinosaurs to fill plot holes, like the factually incorrect Pyroraptor swimming in a cold climate or the Atrociraptor chase, feels like wow-factor filler. These dinosaurs could’ve been replaced with animals that fit the ecology of the organism AND achieve a plot goal by being scientifically accurate or connecting to the original movies.

While Jurassic World: Dominion tries its best to create an epic “conclusion” as the promotion says, they fail to create a genuinely Jurassic movie. This movie is more of a tragic extinction.

Note: all images from @jurassicworld on Instagram