Jurassic World Dominion
★★ ½
After very negative reviews out of the gate, I decided not to make a trip to the theater to catch this film. But my wife and I ended up having a kidless night and I figured that no matter how good or bad, I would end up watching this film, so off to the theater we went. Jurassic World Dominion was not as bad as I thought it was going to be, but that in no way makes it great. Everything is more puzzling than anything. Not that it's confusing, but I'm befuddled by the decisions that director Colin Trevorrow and his crew make. The movie opens up with a terrific premise that humans and dinosaurs are forced to live in the same world, but this whole concept is ditched so everybody, including the cast from the original film, can end up on a secluded island to once again, flee from dinosaurs. There are some extremely well-conceived action scenes that are fun to see on the big screen, but it's as if Trevorrow tried to build a movie around these ideas. Too much of this film is laughable in all the wrong ways. All the charisma is sucked out of Chris Pratt, Campbell Scott plays a bumbling, evil tech lord and for some reason, threatening dinosaurs are replaced by gigantic locusts. Although it was fun to see some of the old gang back together, they aren't able to salvage a mediocre installment in this franchise. I understand a money grab, but as a movie lover, you sometimes wish that the creators at least tried to hide their greedy intentions.
