The final Jurassic Park film is here. A franchise dating back to 1993 has finally come to an end by bringing back all the original cast along with the new generation for one final fight against mad scientists and dinosaurs. It’s hard to believe there have been six films in the Jurassic Park franchise. I don’t think anybody would have expected that nearly 30 years ago, but they’ve been fun, to say the least. Jurassic World: Dominion it’s about the world trying to coexist with dinosaurs after they have pretty much escaped from the theme parked islands they came from. The big question still looms, can man and dinosaurs coexist and how will it affect the current ecological system. At the beginning of the movie, we find Owen and Claire Protecting the young girl they rescued in the last film. And while they are not exactly newcomers, we reintroduce old characters, Alan Grant, Ellie Sattler, and Ian Malcolm from the original movie. At the center of the story is the crazy mad scientist with his billion-dollar company trying to control dinosaurs and genetically alter them or learn from their DNA in an effort to cure disease and hunger, of course, for a profit. He’s Jurassic Park’s version of Dr. Frankenstein. And yes, we have seen this before in the world of Jurassic Park. They are scientists with good intentions or so it would seem.

Jurassic World: Dominion is a fun movie, and it was nice to get the old gang back together, witch a connection to the original film because having Laura Dern, Sam Neill, and Jeff Goldblum back together again always makes for a good film. But I question whether it was necessary, did we really need them or was it just for the sake of nostalgia? I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy the movie, but there was nothing in this movie that I hadn’t seen before. If this film is anything then it’s a great bookend to a fun franchise by connecting two generations in the Jurassic Park franchise. It’s kind of like the Rise of Skywalker, but for the Jurassic Park universe. It’s fun and nostalgic, but you’ve seen it all before, and everybody is there just to remind you why you loved the original film in the franchise, to begin with. There are a lot of great action scenes, and it does truly feel like a globetrotting adventure. Chris Pratt is great as Owen and who doesn’t love Bryce Dallas Howard. Jeff Goldblum is always entertaining as Dr. Ian Malcolm, but it’s all way too familiar with nothing new and that is the film’s biggest flaw. I have no complaints about the characters, I love them all, and having them all work together is cool. Sam Neil and Laura dern are just as lovely as ever and will you feel like you’re watching the first film all over again. But the sad truth is nothing can quite capture the magic of the first Jurassic Park film. Mostly what works in this film are the great action sequences and the fantastic chemistry among the cast.

As much as I liked this film, the plot was filled with old tropes and the mad scientist is the same kind of Dr. Frankenstein we’ve seen before in films, just in different clothing. And this mad scientist wasn’t even that good. Nothing against Campbell Scott as an actor, but we expect our mad scientists to be a little bit more flamboyant, especially when they feel like what they do isn’t wrong. I guess the film is the ultimate metaphor that humanity doesn’t learn from its mistakes, and they really are a stupid species. But I don’t need to watch a Jurassic Park film to know that and there are much better stories that perpetuate that truth. This is a typical summer blockbuster movie with lots of great action and fantastic monsters where you don’t really need a good plot. And throughout most of this film, the scenes and the terrain within the film just remind you of what made the original film fantastic. It’s all too similar, but if there are truly some unique action scenes then they would be with the plane crash. Then again, it’s not like we haven’t seen a plane crash in Jurassic Park. Didn’t that happen in the third film? However, Jurassic Park has become an old and tired franchise that doesn’t have any legs left to stand on so I’m glad that this is the final film. I’m not saying it’s a terrible film, as I said, it’s a great bookend to the franchise. It’s just an okay film trying to capture the same old magic and doesn’t really deliver. It’s not like this year’s Top Gun: Maverick or not only does it capture the same feeling magic from the original film but goes beyond. Jurassic World: Dominion is a stylish film, but at times even the dinosaurs look too animatronic.

If you go see this film, see a matinee, that’s my recommendation. There was really no reason to make this Jurassic Park film except to have a good ending to the franchise and bring back the original cast. I like nostalgia as much as the next person, but this is a film that can have easily been seen on a streaming service. The only reason that you’ll see this movie in a theater is for all the great action scenes with dinosaurs, but that alone can’t fix the plot. And even though there’s a great social commentary on corporate greed, it’s unnecessary. This film isn’t going to change corporate greed or how humanity feels about it. There’s nothing new that we haven’t seen before. Even the cute story of the raptor, Blue having a child and no one having to rescue that Raptor can’t save this movie. At this point it’s like the Fast and the Furious franchise… You watch the movie because you’ve seen all the rest and you got to see how it ends, you got to complete the journey. I’m not saying that I completely hate the film, but it’s barely average and you shouldn’t pay a full price movie ticket for it. This would be a good film for the dollar theater if they still existed or a good rental. But I will give it a few extra points because it was great to have the original cast back even if it was unnecessary. But hey, sometimes we just need that kind of fun to escape our own shitty world that we live in and at its core, Jurassic Park films are just monster movies, they’re good for escape!