Jurassic World Dominion IMAX Review: Absolutely Roarful

Matthew Clewley brings us this Jurassic World Dominion IMAX review and well, he wasn’t too impressed.

Four years after the destruction of Isla Nublar, dinosaurs now live and hunt alongside humans all over the world. This fragile balance will reshape the future and determine, once and for all, whether human beings are to remain the apex predators on a planet they now share with history’s most fearsome creatures.

Another day, another highly budgeted nostalgia-tickling sequel that has been slapped onto our laps.

I write that with slight pessimism, but there has been such amazing promise considering the triumph Top Gun: Maverick was.

Jurassic World: Dominion should have been the mother of the array of blockbusters that has been released this year. Jurassic World showed some excellent promise (the product placement does get sickly) and set up the new trilogy quite well.

Fallen Kingdom didn’t hit the right notes properly, but it still carried that value where you really care about the characters and dinosaurs.

The question I pose is this – Was Dominion the fossil waving blockbuster that we were promised?

Nostalgia is a funny thing and we are all an absolute sucker for it as it gives us glimpses back of the good times (to my joy at least, we can’t escape the fact the ’80s was the most fun decade *cough* Stranger Things *cough*).

We all know that Jurassic Park is the main source of this trilogy, but Dominion just confirmed the very thing that we all knew deep along – it was a cash in cow… or Ankylosaurus. 

The movie is set 4 years after the volcano eruption of Isla Nublar (Fallen Kingdom) and Dominion is as an idea of dinosaurs co-existing with modern life is a very interesting one and I was hoping the film explores it.

Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon) is the main target of a corrupt company called BioSyn with the super awkward Lewis Dodgson leading the company to research and use her for experimenting for gene splicing and replacing as she is a medical miracle.

Beta, Blue’s self-reproduced baby gets kidnapped along with Maisie, and Owen (Chris Pratt) and Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) aim to get to BioSyn to rescue her. The infamous Jurassic Park trio Dr Grant (Sam Neill) and Dr Sattler (Laura Dern) reunite after Sattler received an invitation to now BioSyn employee Dr Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) to check out some dodgy stuff going down. Meanwhile, the world’s food supply is being attacking by super locusts being bred and released by BioSyn.

A news report at the start and a few other bits do catch glimpses, but the gutting feeling is that the dinosaurs weren’t even the main plot point.

In fact the plot is messier than an Indominus Rex massacre on a herd of sauropods. Whilst some movies are clever to use nostalgia as context, it is the crutch keeping Dominion on its frail legs hindered by the weight of trying to do so much in so little time.

It introduces characters that are either being forced to have back stories or they seem to be interesting and then we never see them again.

In fact, the main villian Lewis Dodgson isn’t even that hateable, but we aren’t entirely sure of his ambition and main goal with BioSyn is either, so aside from trying to destroy his dinosaur sanctuary with locusts being set on fire, released and creating forest fires (admittedly, it was kind of cool), he doesn’t really strike out as a hateable villian compared to the previous films. 

So little carnage or even clarity goes into the dinosaurs roaming free especially when the movie focuses on the illegal dino trading in Malta.

The T-Rex causing mayhem at the drive-cinema in the trailer looked incredible, but this was placed in the prologue for the film when really, it should have been in the main movie.

From the previous outings this franchise has had some shockingly brilliant scenes, but Dominion is very tame. I’m not expecting a gore fest, but it made the dinosaurs seem very uninteresting now that the modern world co-exists with them.

Mutant locusts are the sheer terror that seemed far more terrifying than theropods taking on each other head-on or chasing people around to make a meal out of them. This film with its bloody locusts, honestly!

I will stand by and deliver the fact that without the original Jurassic Park trio cast this film would be worse. Those Doctors are just incredibly likeable and credit due to Dominion they did take care of them and the scenes with them do have a charm to them and the scenes shared with them are humorous and heartwarming.

However, that might be the nostalgia sucking me in, but even these three can’t save the mess the film is. Whilst the previous films have gone into supreme depth with the science behind it Dominion just expects us to take in some half-arsed explanations and roll with it.

In fact the original Jurassic World cast seem that bland that they managed to write some pointless story about the pilot who flies Owen and Claire to BioSyn. The huge dinosaur showdown at the end was anti-climatic too and the somewhat intense dinosaur chase scenes with their near misses of biting and eating folk or being trampled on are the same.

Nostalgia should be a comfort blanket, but it felt like we’ve seen all these scenes already and even in Dominion it gets very repetitive. 

I will now bring in what I liked about the film. Finally.

The special effects are second to none and even from the first Jurassic Park film these movies know how to deliver the final punch when it comes to re-creating our beloved ancient creatures.

The imagery is so believable that it is difficult not to admire and cherish them when they get their screen time. The research has gone into so much care on how these dinosaurs act and if you haven’t seen the Prologue on YouTube for Dominion it’s absolutely worth watching. However, I am feeling very bitter that these didn’t have enough focus aside from brief clips of a pterosaur nesting on a skyscraper.

The original trio of Doctors from Jurassic Park are the only likeable actors in this and there is some chemistry to be admired. 

There is amazing cinematography within Dominion too with one of my favourite scenes of Claire slowly going underwater to escape the danger of a Therizinosaur which was the only dino and human dangerous encounter that was unnerving. 

Jurassic World Dominion shines in IMAX with crisp imagery and immersive sound with every roar rumbling the cinema and immersing you into the experience.

IMAX delivers the grand spectacle of what a big blockbuster film like this is all about but sadly the film lets the audience down with everything else. It looks the part on the big screen with the immersive audio but sadly we’re not witnessing anything even close to Top Gun: Maverick enjoyable here.

Infact it’s all a bit dissapointment. 

Overall Dominion has an incredible concept that just collapses beneath its feet when nostalgia isn’t holding it up.

The time frame on making this movie may have been too short and it has many cop-outs with rehashed chase scenes and predictability, but it is no excuse when such a die-hard fanbase has expected this to be one of the biggest cinematic triumphs of all time.

We have invested our time and money into this and it is heartbreaking to see a plot so messy, not even the greatest creatures to walk on the Earth could even save.

Jurassic Park will always remain the greatest film in the franchise, but it baffles me how nearly 30 years on none of these sequels have even lived up to be as great as the first film. 

Jurassic World Dominion IMAX review by Matthew Clewley