Jurassic World: Dominion (2022)

[The Joker]

Sorry to hear about your friend, Joker, my condolences.

Thanks, TLF.

I don't mind Jurassic Park, but I'm not too into the franchise. The original Spielberg film was good, but I was always surprised it spawned so many sequels. They kinda seemed derivative.

I like the franchise alright, but the original was lightning in a bottle. None of the sequels come anywhere close to the magic of the 1993 film. Same goes with JAWS. A truly outstanding film that spawned three lesser sequels no less (JAWS 2 I personally like, JAWS 3 and JAWS The Revenge are made better if you have some buds over and are in a 'rifftrax' / 'MST3000' mood).

[The Dark Knight]

I was on a flight yesterday and saw this as a viewing option. Out of curiosity I clicked play. Locust World doesn't remotely feel like a Jurassic movie and is even worse than the dire Fallen Kingdom. It's way too long and features some of the most wooden acting I've seen in a blockbuster. I thought the original three (Neil, Goldblum and Dern) were okay despite the chosen plotline - it's the new cast that I dislike. I never connected with Owen and that cast of characters to the point I consider anything after Jurassic Park III not canon. Especially with the retcons surrounding the origins of the original Park and Hammond, and I really couldn't care less about the biogenetic granddaughter. The basis for adventure and corporate intrigue is there, but ultimately this feels very low energy and going through the motions with brazen plot conveniences. Nothing that made the original such a classic is present here.

[Gotham Knight]

Finally saw this. I watched the extended cut. What we have here is a tale of two stories. One story is pretty compelling and the other gums up the works and is irritating. Hilariously the more compelling of the two stories is the one that has the least to do with dinosaurs.

The good story is this weird, but cool techno thriller that reunites the original cast in their effort to thwart former Biosyn espionage man turned CEO Lewis Dodgson at his super science commune. The Locust story is the best advancement of Michael Crichton's purpose since the original novel IE man's arrogance before nature, science, and the unmitigated exploitation of the latter in the name of greed. 

The other story about the shallow husk "characters" from Jurassic World doing Mission: Jurassic Impossible to chase around their step daughter while dinosaurs flail around is the crap that should have been discarded.

[The Dark Knight]

Something I've been feeling for a while is how better Jurassic Park III looks in retrospect. It really had no business being made in terms of its flimsy story, but as a result it does the least harm of the latter sequels. It doesn't change canon and is simply a side adventure that happens in the universe. I like that it's set exclusively in the jungle and has an interesting abandoned factory aesthetic going on. I think the action is conceptually better than anything we saw in the World films, namely the aviary and river attack sequences.

I'm inclined to agree with what Sam Neill says here:

"I enjoyed making it. Joe Johnston was wonderful to work with. Alessandro [Nivola], who plays my number two in the film, he and I got on real well. Bill Macy and Téa Leoni didn't seem that happy making it, but I had a really good time making it and I actually think it's a very undervalued film and really worth having a look at again. It finishes rather abruptly, but for all its difficulties—because it became inevitable that we would start shooting on the first of November or whatever it was, and they kept changing the script—we were flying by the seat of our pants a lot of the time. But for all that I think it works real good and that there's some really good stuff in it."

[thecolorsblend]

Haven't seen the third one in ages. But my dim recollection of it is that I enjoyed the third one more than the second one. Jurassic Park III didn't cause fatal offense. And considering what a classic the first one is, that's actually saying quite a lot.

[Silver Nemesis]

Haven't seen the third one in ages. But my dim recollection of it is that I enjoyed the third one more than the second one.

Same here. I still think the only really classic JP film is the original, but I remember enjoying the third movie and thinking it was very watchable. More so than JP2 or any of the Jurassic World flicks. The whole sequence in the aviary was really well done, and it was good to see Alan Grant return. I always thought he was the most interesting of the JP protagonists. How he managed to juggle his dual careers as a palaeontologist and comic book writer, I'll never know.

[The Joker]

I've always felt JP3 is a fairly easy-breezy entry in the JP trilogy, especially so in comparison with TLW. Which, even so when I first saw it in the theaters, came across as a slog to get thru at times. Course there's things I do like about TLW (it does have the novelty of being THE follow-up to JP1, and the anticipation couldn't have been greater back in the summer of 1997), but again as far as the JP trilogy goes, it's the one I tend to want to revisit the least. Where the 3rd JP, wisely chose to have more of a light hearted approach to the premise/material, threading the needle, and not taking things too far.

In comparing the JP trilogy to the JW trilogy, I find that both sets tend to parallel one another, which is kinda interesting.

JP1 / JW

Easily the best and polished of their respective trilogies, as well as being the top crowd pleasers.

TLW / JWFK

I would say these are the "darkest" films in the JP/JW trilogies. Intentionally or unintentionally.

JP3 / JWD

Popcorn flicks that caps their respective trilogies.

In terms of the notion of genetic hybrids being brought into the equation with this series, I think it was probably handled the best with the Spinosaurus in JP3. As it's not presented as so upfront and in your face about it. Choosing to rather imply the idea of such a concept with how abnormally large the Spino was, how erratic the Spino acted, and just how different it acted from other dinos in JP3, that you could surmise that the Spino was simply a haphazard genetic mistake of Ingen that became THE apex predator on site B.

The World movies are not spectacular, but these movies have been made with children in mind, a looooong time ago, and there's really no going back. Which was something Spielberg himself laid the foundation for. Honestly, the Jurassic films got off easy when compared to other ips like Star Wars under Disney.

[thecolorsblend]

Haven't seen the third one in ages. But my dim recollection of it is that I enjoyed the third one more than the second one.

Same here. I still think the only really classic JP film is the original, but I remember enjoying the third movie and thinking it was very watchable. More so than JP2 or any of the Jurassic World flicks. The whole sequence in the aviary was really well done, and it was good to see Alan Grant return. I always thought he was the most interesting of the JP protagonists. How he managed to juggle his dual careers as a palaeontologist and comic book writer, I'll never know.

You know, something I hadn't considered until now is the sequel factor.

I never needed a sequel to Jaws. But if such a thing was always inevitable, then it's understandable if people wonder how things might've played out if Dreyfus and Spielberg had come back for another round. Get the band back together to take down another shark and all that.

Well, TLW could be an indication that maybe the best case scenario was Spielberg NOT returning for Jaws II. Because I never thought TLW ever held a candle to the original. Or JP3, frankly.

Also, I've always been surprised how infrequently the Alan Grant joke has been made in comic book circles.