When Jurassic Park first hit cinemas, it was hailed as both a groundbreaking blockbuster and a smart reflection on the hubris of mankind’s venture into science. Due to its popularity, the movie spawned many sequels, complete with a sixth one coming out in the near future. But the thing is, the Jurassic Park franchise has devolved from an action-packed meditation on the clash between nature and science into full on dinosaur schlock.
As the Jurassic Parkfranchise continues its descent into madness, there’s not much reason to think that Jurassic World: Dominion will be a good movie, or even a coherent one. But that’s all future thought. Maybe these things can make the final film in the reboot trilogy a touch more presentable. Without further delay, here are 10 things that need to be in Jurassic World: Dominion.
Characters We’ll Actually Care About
The original Jurassic Park hosts a lot of memorable faces. Ian Malcolm, Alan Grant, Ellie Sattler, John Hammond, heck, even Dennis Nedry! Jurassic World has…Chris Pratt. He’s not really a character, he’s just Chris Pratt trying to do a Harrison Ford impression. Adding insult to injury is the fact that he’s not even being utilized properly, because the filmmakers don’t let him have more fun.
All of the new characters suffer the “Who Cares?” fate in Jurassic World. No one is that engaging or discernable from other generic blockbuster leads, and not caring about them or their fates, plights and goals makes the film less thrilling.
No Attempts To Be The Original Film
Jurassic Park was a masterpiece. There’s no point trying to top it, mimic it, or cash in on the nostalgia. Anything after it will be lesser; that’s a given.
Constant callbacks to the first film don’t add to the franchise whatsoever or enhance them. If anything, they just remind audiences of how good the first film was, and leave them wishing they were watching that instead.
Old-School Puppets & Animatronics
Even Jurassic Park 3 had the decency to use a big animatronic Spinosaurus in some shots, and it looked great! Having a tangible massive dinosaur on set really packs a punch and adds to the realism.
Jurassic World had occasional animatronics, but it painted over them in CGI. What was the point of the animatronic, then? Jurassic Park came out in 1993, and it still looks breathtaking for a reason.
New Dinosaurs
When fans want new dinosaurs, they don’t just mean quick cameos that only dinosaur nerds could spot on the fly. This also doesn’t mean lame genetic hybrids that are indistinguishable from T-Rexes or raptors.
To the credit of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, it did feature Baryonyx in a more drawn out scene, which was nice. It’s a welcome change of pace to shake things up. However, it’s a shame that the Allosaurus didn’t get that same justice (at least until Battle At Big Rock).
A More Cohesive Tone
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is a hot mess (lava pun intentional). The tonal whiplash is shockingly fierce here, ranging from “Let’s giggle at Chris Pratt dodge lava!” to “Let’s cry over a Brachiosaurus dying in a brutally drawn-out manner!” Or perhaps “Indoraptor grins like a Road Runner to the audience!” to “Little girl discovers she is a clone!”
The film couldn’t decide between horror and comedy or between thriller and popcorn film, delivering a very strange mixed bag. If it were going to be helmed by a team comfortable with juggling tones in the way Sam Raimi would then sure but otherwise, this flip-flopping needs to be avoided for Dominion.
A Variety Of Real-World Sets
The Battle At Big Rock short film has an Allosaurs fight a Nasutoceratops in a campsite in Big Rock National Park, where a family with an RV is caught in the crossfire. They take shelter and eventually have to fend off the Allosaurus.
This new location is a good one, and the thought of dinosaurs wreaking havoc in iconic spots, whether natural or manmade, is exciting. Whether or not the film focuses solely on the USA is another thing entirely but whatever the case, there should be a variety to the sets and locations..
A Time Jump
Frankly, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom should have never existed. It was a filler movie. Even Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow didn’t want to deal with it, so he let J.A. Bayona direct it instead. Trevorrow just wanted to throw dinosaurs into the human world immediately, but milking the franchise meant drawing it out to a trilogy, so presto, Fallen Kingdom exists.
The idea of dinosaurs rampaging in cities has been touched on and even executed in The Lost World’s last twenty minutes, but Dominion is going to be a full two hours of it. Ideally, the new film will start where it needs to (i.e. a city with dinosaurs in it) and doesn’t have too much fluff to set up the fun.
No More B-Plots
Adding in B-plots just to stretch out runtime isn’t interesting. Worse than that is trying to justify these subplots’ absurd turns and revelations by them seem more intelligent than they actually are, making them more unbearable than they already are. Add a load of pretentious and convoluted B-plots together, and that’s exactly why no one cares about these characters.
It’s already very likely that the seeds of genetic hybrids or militarized dinosaurs will come back in Dominion, which would be a shame since all audiences want is to see the dinosaurs be dinosaurs, not be lectured about playing god and such in a pandering way that would have Michael Crichton roll in his grave. While each sequel has its draws, they also got increasingly more ridiculous with the attempts to complicate the story.
Dinosaurs Vs. Armed Forces
A T-Rex versus a tank. What American, no, what human being on the face of the Earth wouldn’t pay to see that showdown? There aren’t many other responses that the world’s governments would have against a dinosaur breakout, so let the madness happen. Just go crazy with it! No more buildup or banter, just have the armies of the world fight dinosaurs.
In fact, why stop there? Why not have cartels face a Spinosaurus, or street gangs have a shootout with Velociraptors? Some neighborhood Nerf kids against a Dilophosaurus? They’d be fine, kids never die in this franchise!
The Original Characters (For More Than A Cameo)
The only things from the original film that audiences will want to see are the original characters, because they actually cared about them. It’s been announced than Dr. Sattler and Dr. Grant will return, alongside Ian Malcolm. However, Malcolm only had a very brief cameo in Fallen Kingdom, so the possibility that the original cast are relegated to cameos again is highly possible.
Ideally, this isn’t the case. Audiences are in desperate need of a human connection in the Jurassic World films, and that engagement can come from the charismatic cast of the original movies. Here’s hoping they don’t get petty and distasteful deaths for shock value.
