In Jurassic World: Dominion, the big creature of the movie is not the one with the longest height or the sharpest claws (although there are plenty of those too). It’s the one that has the biggest swarm. Genetically engineered locusts — yes, LOCUSTS — endanger the crops and terrorise a farmer’s children in this concluding part of the saga (thankfully) that had long run past its expiration date.

It has been billions of years since dinosaurs existed on Earth — as we see in the long, National Geographic documentary-ish prologue at the start of Dominion — and it feels just as long since 1993, when Steven Spielberg wowed us with his cinematic masterpiece that started this whole mess in the first place. (Well, technically, Michael Crichton’s novel did that, even though the story was acquired by Universal for Spielberg to direct before the novel was published in 1990.)

In the years since, there has been a gradual shift from the innocence and stupefying sense of wonder that Spielberg brought to life with his idea of dinosaurs roaming around with humans. In hindsight, the simplicity and effectiveness of Spielberg’s take had almost run its course by the second film, when the Tyrannosaurus Rex terrorised San Diego in 1997’s The Lost World: Jurassic Park.

Crichton’s second book (The Lost World), as well as the film — which adapted the barebones of the novel’s plot — felt rushed, but under Spielberg’s direction, and a screenplay by David Koepp, who had penned the first part, the first Mission: Impossible, and the first Spider-Man, it delivered despite the haphazardness.

Jurassic World: Dominion, allegedly the final film of the Jurassic series of films, feels like a set of prerequisites that needed to be ticked off the list before the franchise is put to bed

It culminated a chapter, but not the story, when fanfare urged Spielberg to produce — but not direct (Spielberg is sneaky that way) — a sleeker, back-to-basics sequel Jurassic Park III, with Dr Alan Grant (Sam Neill), the face of the first part who was missing the second time around.

Jeff Goldblum’s Dr Ian Malcolm, was great in the sequel, but he may not have been enough. Malcom was the harbinger of doom who quoted ‘Chaos Theory’ (according to the theory, small changes can move things to total disorder). Grant, however, was the familiar, vulnerable hero who saved children from narrow-eyed, man-eating dinosaurs, even though he didn’t like kids at all.

In Dominion, that, and a lot of other pieces of nostalgia pop up time and again, as returning director Colin Trevorrow (he directed the first of the reboot Jurassic World movies, 2015) piles on the familiarity.

Grant, Malcolm and Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) return to end the franchise (hopefully), along with Jurassic World trilogy regulars Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) and Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard), amongst bit parts from characters you’ve seen, and probably forgotten. Trevorrow, who writes with Emily Carmichael, from a story by himself and Derek Connolly, doesn’t know when to stop. At two hours and 20 minutes, the film’s actual villain is its excessive running time.

The film feels like a set of prerequisites that needed to be ticked off the list before the franchise is put to bed. The dinosaurs have long lost our sense of captivation and wonderment. Putting new characters in, tying up loose ends, giving each dinosaur a send-off, is the sensible thing to do when one is ending the story on a sombre, satisfying, teary-eyed note…but not at the expense of losing the audience’s sense of intrigue; this is an adventure film, after all!

Dominion feels like an action movie that doesn’t know its own beat. More often than not, one feels like they’re looking at a collection of ideas held awkwardly together by rubber bands. There are some impressive action sequences, but the plot — about a company called Biosyn (Biology and Synthetic, or biological sins, you take your pick), which still harvests dino DNA — is old news now. The corporate versus humanitarian battle doesn’t exactly set one’s senses on fire after five movies.

The jaggedy nature of the premise was established well in advance in the first Jurassic World movie in 2015, and the idea of humans sharing the world with dinosaurs was cemented in 2018, at the end of the second, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, when dinosaurs spread worldwide.

By the time Dominion takes place — which is four years after Fallen Kingdom — the world has all but accepted that people will have to share the Earth with animals and dinosaurs until all three go extinct.

Spoiler Alert: don’t expect the dinos to go extinct in the film. The makers of the franchise love them as much as they love legacy characters.

The story of Dominion is nothing but a series of sentimental reminiscences from the first part, and high-octane action sequences.

Two set-pieces with Dilophosauruses (the dinosaur from the first film that cocks its head, opens flappy membranes from the side of its head and spits acid), a bike chase sequence through the streets of Malta (inspired by the Moroccan chase sequence from Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn) and an escape from a sneaky Pyroraptor offer brief respite from boredom.

Years ago, when this reviewer was young and still in school, I remember dozing off at Capri Cinema while watching the first Jurassic Park (it was a school night). Today, one hopes to doze off but the high ticket prices don’t let you.

Jurassic World: Dominion is playing in cinemas. It offers a lot of action, some sentimental value, and very little value for money

Published in Dawn, ICON, June 19th, 2022