Jurassic World Dominion is a 2022 science fiction adventure film directed by Colin Trevorrow, who wrote the screenplay with Emily Carmichael, based on a story by Trevorrow and his writing partner, Derek Connolly. It is the sequel to Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018), the sixth installment in the Jurassic Park franchise, and the third film in the Jurassic World trilogy. As with its predecessors, Frank Marshall and Patrick Crowley will produce the film, with Trevorrow and Jurassic Park (1993) director Steven Spielberg acting as executive producers.

Four years after Isla Nublar has been destroyed, dinosaurs now live—and hunt—alongside humans all over the world. This fragile balance will reshape the future and determine, once and for all, whether human beings are to remain the apex predators on a planet they now share with history’s most fearsome creatures.

The film stars an ensemble cast including Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Laura Dern, Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum, Daniella Pineda, Isabella Sermon, Justice Smith, Omar Sy, and BD Wong reprising their roles from previous films in the franchise, and they are joined by Mamoudou Athie, Scott Haze, Dichen Lachman, Campbell Scott, and DeWanda Wise.

Jurassic World Dominion made it’s debut in theaters and IMAX on June 10th, courtesy of Universal Pictures.

THE GOOD

I’m a Jurassic Park fan through and through, and although I wouldn’t necessarily say that I am a hardcore fan considering I don’t have a t-shirt in my closet or anything like that, these films still are absolutely pure nostalgia for me. I always think of the army green jeep with Jurassic Park written on the side, man that would be a cool summer vehicle. If you go all the way back to the original film, they always felt larger-than-life and ahead of their time. Dinosaurs really are the ultimate trigger of curiosity, I mean just look at the recently released docu-series Prehistoric Planet (see our preview here) which is incredible by the way. Okay so to get back on track a bit, I knew I would be seeing the latest film in the storied franchise, Jurassic World Dominion, as soon as it hit theaters. As I made my way to my super comfortable seat with warm delicious buttery popcorn and ice-cold soda in hand, was it worth my time? Keep reading to find out!

I had so much fun with Jurassic World Dominion. The movie delivered on the promise of edge-of-your-seat entertainment and genuine nostalgia as it managed to still feel like an authentic Jurassic Park movie. Bringing together the new age cast and the original cast for one final Jurassic World hoorah was a fantastic idea and they made the most of the opportunity. As expected, Jurassic World Dominion takes full advantage of the advancements in CGI technology, serving up some incredibly realistic and oftentimes downright terrifying dinosaurs. Don’t worry, we also get some cute ones that you would happily bring into your home as a pet. I was smiling for the better part of the film and really enjoyed seeing some of my favorite characters grace the big screen again. As far as the characters, the writing team put extra effort into ensuring the original characters felt like they had been living separate lives since the original film and subsequent sequels instead of it feeling like they just showed up.

The technical elements of Jurassic World Dominion take center stage as expected, and I don’t think many viewers will complain about that. At the end of the day, there is something reassuring about knowing you’ll have an unlimited supply of eye candy when you head to the theater to see a Jurassic Park film. Instead of going the route of feeling like a Transformers movie with one epic action sequence after another, which they easily could have, they opted for a nice balance to ensure the action helped to move the story along. The first few acts of the film are built around some of the more moderately sized yet still extremely dangerous dinosaurs as they are more popular in the underground black market scene for obvious reasons. I mean, you can’t exactly transport and conceal a T-Rex as much as you might want to.

We get some fantastic white-knuckle scenes including an awesome scene with Chris Pratt’s character on the run for his life on a motorcycle, as well as a few fantastic flying sequences. Plus our favorite characters are constantly in danger which had my blood pressure through the roof. When it comes to building tension, Jurassic World Dominion gets high marks from me. As far as the visuals are concerned, they really thrive in the finale when the humans step aside and let these amazing creatures fight it out. One scene, in particular, stood out to me and had a little bit of a Godzilla vs. Kong vibe. In my opinion, the film built things up like a great 4th of July fireworks display with a finale well worth the price of admission. So satisfying!

Aside from the visuals, the obvious bread and butter of Jurassic World Dominion is this fantastic and very well-rounded cast. The core Jurassic World crew is back led by Chris Pratt and the beautiful Bryce Dallas Howard. Pratt is great yet again as expected, and it was great to see how much his character has grown since the first Jurassic World film. If you were creating a list of jaw-dropping redheads, you better have Bryce Dallas Howard at the top of that list. The daughter of actor turned accomplished director Ron Howard, I just cannot seem to get enough of her. She is sort of like a more attractive but not quite as talented Jessica Chastain, and I mean that as a compliment. I love her in this role and her relationship with Pratt’s character is a big driving force for me. A big part of the film’s story is built around the Maisie Lockwood character played by Isabella Sermon, who made her debut in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Even though she is very inexperienced as an actress with this being her second acting credit, I thought she was great and definitely an asset to the film.

Jurassic World Dominion introduced a few newcomers as pivotal characters within the story, Mamoudou Athie, DeWanda Wise, and Dichen Lachman. I’m a little embarrassed to admit that it took me much longer than it should have to realize why Athie looked so familiar. The Mauritanian-American actor has some quality acting credits on his resume, but his role in the Netflix drama-thriller series Archive 81 is likely to be fresh in the minds of most viewers. I loved his character and the intrigue he brought to the storyline, and I think he was easily the best new addition as far as the cast. Wise, who has been making quite a name for herself including a solid role in the Netflix film The Harder They Fall (our full review here), was just a badass in this. I really liked her former military-always-willing-to-do-the-right-thing-no-matter-the-consequences character, and she really upped the fun factor of the film.

I also really liked Lachman’s character as she took on the role of the mysterious antagonist, Sonoya Santos. Born in Kathmandu, Nepal, Lachman is known for her role as Frankie in the hit series Animal Kingdom, as well as a supporting role in the incredible Apple TV+ drama series Severance. The versatile actress is obviously talented and continues to make her presence felt in film and television series roles. I did really like Campbell Scott as the film’s primary antagonist as he played the extremely intelligent and socially awkward Lewis Dodgson. His character is hard to get a read on but you can tell from the start something isn’t right about him. I also really liked my guy BD Wong as Dr. Henry Wu. His character is conflicted as he finds himself in the middle of a global disaster, and I really liked the story arch for his character.

Okay so I will do my best to keep it brief as I have already rambled quite a bit, but I have to talk about the OG cast that helped to build the Jurassic Park franchise from the ground up. That would of course be the dynamic trio consisting of Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and the man, the myth, the legend, Jeff Goldblum. This is random but even though Goldblum has enjoyed an illustrious career as an actor, when I see him now I somehow can’t help but think about the Seth Rogen scene from Pineapple Express when he mentions his girlfriend’s attractive high school friend he is jealous of and the fact that he is so funny with his great Jeff Goldblum impressions, to which James Franco’s character responds “F**K Jeff Goldblum, Man!”. So funny!!

So yeah, I can’t understate how much I love me some Jeff Goldblum, the guy is just always on point. Someone needs to give Taika Waititi a high five for casting him in Thor: Ragnarok. It blows my mind to think that his career began in 1974 in the Charles Bronson crime thriller Death Wish, as the titular character, Freak #1. But seriously, he is one of the greatest. I enjoyed so many of the characters in Jurassic World Dominion, but I think his iconic Ian Malcolm character was my favorite. It was just classic Goldblum as he managed to play more than one character for the sake of deception while remaining hilarious as always no matter what. Okay so back to Sam Neill and Laura Dern, it was amazing to get the two of them back on-screen again in a Jurassic Park movie. Their reunion held the most weight without a doubt, and I really liked what the writers did with them and how their relationship developed. So yeah, bringing back the original characters for Jurassic World Dominion was a slam dunk.

THE BAD

As far as movies that are just meant to be seen in theaters, Jurassic World Dominion is an absolute blast. But, it’s not perfect. For me, it starts off a little slow which is an issue considering the long run time and the fact that this is the 3rd film in the “Jurassic World” franchise. I just felt like they could have gotten things going a bit quicker to allow for more of the exciting stuff in the rest of the film. Although I did enjoy the story, especially how it all comes together at the end, they really played it safe here making it so this felt oddly similar to 2018’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. We did get a few solid twists and the return of the original characters made up for a lot of the writing deficiencies. I will say though, that I’m honestly not sure why so many critics seem to have such an issue with this film, calling it dull and uninspired. It almost feels like they watched the beginning of the movie, made up their mind, and started giving an opinion. Which if I’m being honest, really wouldn’t surprise me.

THE VERDICT

Although the decision to play it safe with the screenplay limits its overall potential, Jurassic World Dominion still packs a hefty punch with exciting action sequences and stunning visuals, a satisfying reunion with the original cast, and an epic finale that serves as a great sendoff for the franchise. So much of this film is fan service, which is more than okay with me and most of you heading out to the theater. The original film was released way back in 1993, and it was so cool to see a few fathers and grandfathers taking the opportunity to share a special experience with their children and grandchildren. Jurassic World Dominion isn’t perfect as I talked about earlier in the review, but the pros far outweigh the cons, and the fact that this movie simply NEEDS to be seen in theaters seems obvious. Take what the majority of critics are saying with a grain of salt as for some reason they seem to be comparing this to the magical cinematic treat that is Top Gun: Maverick (our full review here). So yeah, kick off the summer movie season with the dinosaurs that have been entertaining us for nearly 30 years, you won’t regret it.