One of my sons pointed out the fact that movies spend so much time and money and energy making sure a film looks good but often fail to put that same effort into telling a good story. I suspect he’ll end up teaching English one day or, more likely, being a critic. He’s geared for both. He also is right. The conversation came as a result of his mom saying how much we take the magic of CGI for granted–which she is also right about. We were exiting Jurassic Park: Dominion after a dissapointingly rushed few hours of storytelling that, if I am being fair, was more about closing the loop and paying homage than it was about telling a story. I’m not entirely sure it succeeded in telling a story. Effort was made to inject new content, but more effort was made to show us the history of the franchise in an enjoyable way. See it? Of course. But only the once. Only if you’ve seen all the others first.
Jurassic Park started as a Crichton Science Fiction novel discussing the perils of genetic manipulation. The final movie ends, heavy handily (and with full voice over) in this very fashion. From start to finish we are treated with a roaring ride of Dino-fights, chases, and some scene stealing by one very talented DeWanda Wise. It is worth watching for the nostalgia of the thing and to close the loop. It is worth noting that the film is heavy handed and speaks volumes about who it thinks are the bad guys in our world. It may not be wrong. It also may not be good. As a standalone film it does not work. As a serious film it does not work. However, as a big screen summer spectacle, it hits most of the right notes and carries enough action and acting and visually stunning scenes to say it was worth the time spent.