[All photos in this post are from Bloody-Disgusting.com. Used here on Fair Use basis.]

Every time I watch a Jurassic Park sequel, I hope to experience the illusion of connection with prehistoric carnivores on instinctual level, and every time I end up thinking, “yeah, it had its moments, but this is just a family friendly version of primeval experience.” I keep hoping one day it’s not going to be that family friendly anymore. Perhaps a family non-friendly reboot had been long overdue with violent parts of the original novel not being omitted? Hmm...

Dominion as a Jurassic Park sequel didn’t surprise me with anything primeval, but it did make me go “wow” during certain scenes. The most impressive part being one which was like a genetic experiment of sequencing Jurassic Park’s DNA and filling the unwanted or missing bits with the DNA of James Bond and Star Wars. I ended up watching Dominion again just to see all the sequences in Malta repeatedly. Black market, car chase and dinos; everything’s done right. Thrilling and refreshing. Despite the skepticism that arises at the beginning of the film regarding the possibility and potential interestingness of the world with dinos and humans co-existing, one simply can’t admire enough the sight of couple of apex predator dinos taking time to have a snack or two at the civic center of a city – this is what I mean when I refer to connection with those creatures on instinctual level. If Emily Carmichael and Colin Trevorrow want to help cinemas with snack sales then I think this is the way to go – scenes like that are bound to trigger powerful metabolic signals of hunger. Food is food; when you see it, your instincts respond accordingly.

Malta is also where we are introduced to a new character in Jurassic Park movie franchise: Kayla Watts, played by DeWanda Wise. Being involved in not exactly legitimate business, Kayla looks a bit too swanky and thus problematic when it comes to blending in environments like those of underground markets. She is also supposed to be sophisticated, but this characteristic is more implied than exhibited. Her initial appearance may not be very convincing, yet as the movie progresses, Kayla may surprise you as the character reveals an unexpected level of care for her human companions and their mission objectives. I’m certain you will like Kayla from the minute she makes a child resque mission her priority.

Production still with DeWanda Wise as Kayla Watts in Jurassic World Dominion.

Jurassic Park has always dealt with the message that some things shouldn’t be attempted despite how sensational and lucrative such projects would look. And there’s always someone who is not going to miss an opportunity to make money where someone else’s naivety and idealism present such an opportunity. While Dominion touches on the theme of both, The Lost World and Fallen Kingdom, namely, the topic of animal market, the real problem in this new film is megacorporation Biosyn Genetics, the CEO of which Dr. Lewis Dodgson (Campbell Scott) would go as far as to work with organized crime in order to achieve his goal of being able to manipulate and ultimately control food markets. This has again a lot to do with the field of genetic engineering. One can’t overlook the real world problem in this Jurassic Park sequel, recognizing one of the biggest challenges that’s the result of climate change in Africa. However, and equally, one cannot not notice that the message is using a popular franchise as a podium rather than being an artistic, creative expression of an idea. I think Colin Trevorrow has attempted to use all the assets he would see as most promising to make Dominion a box office hit, including bringing back both, Sam Neill and Laura Dern (who wears a ring with amber in Dominion) from the main cast of the original film, but all these ideas have shifted Jurassic Park franchise away from peculiarities of prehistoric habitats, and into reality that’s shaped by greedy, careless corporations a la Umbrella Corporation. Thus Dr. Alan Grant and Dr. Ellie Sattler look more like lost visitors in a different movie than original characters that are supposed to make this installment more exciting. The mandatory lead skeptic in the franchise Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) dosn’t make it all more exciting either; while it’s somewhat funny to see The Fly’s Seth Brundle giving a lecture to geneticists in Dominion, Goldblum’s character, for that modest amount of screen time he’s got, is mostly concerned about Dodgson’s deeds here, which has relatively little to do with dinos. Personalizing the bad guy, Campbell Scott with his solid performance presents Dodgson as a power that’s ruthless, intelligent and reticent, holding much of the film together like a gravitational force, being everywhere even when not on screen.

So is Dominion that devoid of dinos? Well, not that devoid, but mostly... it's just not about dinos really. Bar some moments like those of Chris Prat going for a swim in an ice cold water, Isabella Sermon learning to control Velociraptor, or a scene with larger-than-life apex predator fight; the director, producers and actors have all been busy with other things – dinos are there to just occasionally remind you that Dominion is a Jurassic Park installment in case you start wondering what's that you are watching. I think with rules like that in place BD Wong’s Dr. Wu should get his sh!t together, sequence Dodgson’s DNA so that the clone of the latter could create a Biosyn and Umbrella merger. It’s time Wu proved Xenomorph got nothing on any of the possible variations of Indoraptor.

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