‘Jurassic World Dominion’ is a Fun Spectacle
And I unexpectedly had a roaring good time.
The summertime months are often filled with warm days in the sun, watermelon season, and the smell of sunscreen and backyard barbecues. But for us movie lovers, summertime means it is officially blockbuster season. The summer months are laced with big, action-filled franchise films packed with spectacle and entertainment for the whole family.
And in this 2022 summer season, Jurassic World Dominion checks all of these boxes.
Jurassic World Dominion brings the entire Jurassic gang together in a colliding of two worlds. The characters from the Jurassic Park movies in the 90s and the more recent Jurassic World trilogy are together in one film. It has been compared to the Marvel franchise, deemed “the Avengers Endgame” of the Jurassic franchise.
Jurassic World Dominion is set four years after the events of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom with dinosaurs living amongst the human race. Adventures ensue as our group of protagonists fights against the evils of corporations who threaten the world’s ecological balance with the impending doom of worldwide famine.
I expected to find Jurassic World Dominion entirely uninteresting before watching the film. It seemed to have all of the typical big franchise blockbuster pitfalls: mediocre storylines, undeveloped character arcs, and heavy reliance on showy action set pieces with CGI.
And yet, as the film’s ending credits rolled onscreen, I was entirely surprised by how much I enjoyed the past 2 hours and a half. I had a darn good time watching this film. And I have a few hypotheses on why I enjoyed this film far more than I expected.
Note: spoilers for Jurassic World Dominion ahead.
Hypothesis #1: Low Expectations from Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
I remember the snacks I ate during Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom more than I remember the movie itself. That’s saying a lot.
While I could not tell you the events of the film, I do remember the feeling of disappointment I felt walking out of the theater. The movie felt like a total slog, just another franchise movie churned out by a big studio that was only mildly entertaining. Thus, my expectations were calibrated more accurately this time as I walked into the theater to see Jurassic World Dominion.
I’m not here for nuanced character development and great screenwriting. I am primed and ready for pure spectacle. Nothing more.
Lifting the weight of expectation for a great narrative backbone freed me up to embrace the cotton candy fun of this film. I was looking for a momentary thrill with no expectation of substance, which leads me to my next hypothesis.
Hypothesis #2: The Theater Experience is Like a Rollercoaster Ride
In 2019, I got to visit Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. I hadn’t been to a theme park in nearly a decade, and I was thoroughly surprised at how rides have evolved and changed with new technology advancements available.
There were a plethora of “rides” that were essentially a moving apparatus in front of an immensely large, immersive screen. This is a new category of rides that have emerged that people are calling “screen-based rides”. The movements of the seat that you were strapped into, much like a rollercoaster car, were timed perfectly with what you were seeing in front of you onscreen.
For example, in one of the rides called “The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man,” the screen may show you from the perspective of teetering on the edge of a building. In your rollercoaster car, you feel the back-and-forth movement of teetering on the edge. Suddenly, there is a large drop, the rollercoaster car lurches forward, and the screen shows the POV shot of falling down the side of the skyscraper building.
It is fascinating to think about this emerging gray area in the world of entertainment. You are sitting in a dark room in front of a large screen in a rollercoaster car that is moving and shaking and whipping you around. Is it a rollercoaster ride? Is it technically a film? Perhaps, it is a 4-D film? These thoughts were running through my mind throughout my experience watching Jurassic World Dominion.
In many ways, Jurassic World Dominion was like a much calmer, “screen-based ride” to me. The plot and the characters were less important, as long as I got to experience an adrenaline-pumping thrill ride with some epic dinosaur roaring every so often.
Hypothesis #3: Distance from the Original Jurassic Magic
It was illuminating to discuss Jurassic World Dominion with Sarah Callen during our recent podcast episode review of this film. My third hypothesis here emerged as our conversation unfolded and Sarah shared her love for the original Jurassic Park film from 1993. She adored the original film, and absolutely hated Jurassic World Dominion because it utterly failed to capture the magic of the original film, even with the original characters that returned in this film.
It has been decades since I watched the original Jurassic Park movie. Because I had little connection to the original’s magic, I also had little expectation for Jurassic World Dominion’s potential, and what this film could have been: a dinosaur action film with better screenwriting, more strategic pacing, more beloved characters, and more dynamic action sequences.
All in all, Jurassic World Dominion was an entertaining movie-going experience for me. Although Jurassic World Dominion is guilty on all accounts of classic summer blockbuster blunders, I was pleasantly surprised at how much fun I had when I utterly turned my brain off and experienced some thrilling dinosaur roars in this “screen-based ride.”
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