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Twenty-nine years ago, when " Jurassic Park " was released, computer-generated and digitally composited effects were still relatively new, but director Steven Spielberg's team raised them to a new level of credibility by deploying them sparingly, often in nighttime and rainy scenes, and mixing them with old-fashioned practical FX work (mainly puppets and large-scale models). The result conjured primal wonder and terror in the minds of viewers. The T-Rex attack in particular was so brilliantly constructed that it put this writer sideways in his seat, one arm raised in front of his face as if to defend against a dinosaur attack. When there was a break in the mayhem, Spielberg cut to a very quiet scene, letting everyone hear how many people in the audience had been screaming in fright, which of course led to raucous laughter and a release of tension (a showman's trick). A small girl sitting near this writer regarded his still-terror-contorted body and asked, "Mister, are you all right?"

There's nothing in "Jurassic World: Dominion" that comes close to that first "Jurassic Park" T-Rex attack, or any other scene in it. Or for that matter, any of the scenes in the Spielberg-directed sequel "The Lost World," which made the best of an inevitable cash-grab scenario by treating the film as an excuse to stage a series of dazzling large-scale action sequences, and giving Jeff Goldblum's chaos theorist Dr. Ian Malcolm the action hero job. Goldblum, who reprises his role in "Dominion" alongside fellow original cast members Sam Neill and Laura Dern , turned his "Lost World" performance into a wry-yet-cranky meta-commentary on corporate capitalism.

For that matter, there's nothing in this new film as good as the best parts of "Jurassic Park III," " Jurassic World ," and "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.” The latter had the most surprising pivots since the original, conjuring Spielbergian magic (think of that shot of the brachiosaur left behind on the dock) and mixing gothic horror and haunted house-movie elements into its second half. "Jurassic Park" creator Michael Crichton's original inspiration, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein , was referenced through the character of Maisie Lockwood ( Isabella Sermon ), a clone created by John Hammond's business partner to replace the daughter that he lost. 

Maisie is one of many major characters featured in "Dominion," and her tragic predicament has disturbing new details added to it. But returning franchise director/co-writer Colin Trevorrow (writer/director of "Jurassic World") and his collaborators are unable to focus on their deeper implications long enough to develop Maisie with the sophistication required for a great or even good science fiction/horror film. 

The mishandling of Maisie is but one bit of scrap in this dumpster of a sequel. The film opens with Claire Dearing ( Bryce Dallas Howard ), onetime park operations manager of Jurassic World turned head of the activist Dinosaur Protection Group, breaking into a ranch where baby plant-eaters are being kept and impulsively deciding to rescue one of them. Then she goes to a cabin in the snowy Sierra Nevada mountains, where Maisie is living with the park's former raptor-whisperer Owen Grady ( Chris Pratt ). The three form a makeshift nuclear family focused on protecting Maisie against parties who want to exploit her for genetic and financial gain. The semi-domesticated raptor Blue lives with them as well, and has asexually produced a child (mirroring Maisie's relationship to her mother's genetic material—though so haphazardly that it's as if the filmmakers barely even thought of the two creatures as being thematically linked). 

There's also a corporate spy plot (as in most of the other films) involving a thoughtless and/or sinister corporation that talks of magic-and-wonder but is mainly interested in exploiting the dinos and the technology that created them. From "The Lost World" onward, the successors to park founder John Hammond ( Richard Attenborough )—a nice old man who meant well but failed to think through the  implications of his actions—have been actively treacherous Bad Guy types. The heavy in this one is Dr. Lewis Dodgson, a character from the original film who’s been recast and promoted to CEO of BioSyn ('bio sin,' get it?). Dodgson hired another recurring "Jurassic" character, B.D. Wong's Dr. Wu (arguably the true villain of most of these films, though in an oblivious, John Hammond sort of way) to breed prehistoric locusts that are genetically coded to devour every food crop, save for engineered plants sold exclusively by the company. 

Dodgson is the mastermind behind the kidnapping of Maisie and Blue's child. Actor Campbell Scott uses inventive body language and unpredictable phrasings and pauses to invest the under-written Dodgson with a distinct personality. He turns him into a sendup of two generations of Baby Boomer and Generation X tech-bro capitalist gurus. Dodgson is a man who carries himself like a peace-loving hippie but is really a voracious yuppie who keeps black marketeers and hired killers on retainer. The warm-voiced but dead-eyed way that Dodgson conveys "caring" is especially chilling—like a zombie Steve Jobs . It's the film's second most imaginative performance after that of Goldblum, who never moves or speaks quite as you expect him to, and blurts out things that sound improvised. (Chastising colleagues who are moving too slowly for his taste, he snaps, "Why are you skulking?")

All narrative roads converge at BioSyn headquarters, where Neill and Dern's Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler have gone to ask Ian Malcolm's help in obtaining top-secret information that can end the prehistoric locust plague, and where Maisie and Blue's baby have been brought so that their genetic secrets can be mined as well. Two new characters—Han Solo-ish mercenary pilot Kayla Watts ( DeWanda Wise ) who says she doesn't want to get involved in the heroes' problems and then does, and Dodgson's disillusioned acolyte Ramsay Cole ( Mamoudou Athie )—join the intrigue, and presumably are being introduced as new-generation figureheads who can take over the franchise. Even if the entire film had focused on BioSyn headquarters, the film still might have seemed overstuffed and under-imagined. But Trevorrow turns the movie into a global travelogue, every sequence feeling narratively cut-off from the others in the manner of a substandard spy flick. (There's even a rooftop chase modeled on one in " The Bourne Supremacy ," but with a raptor.)

A long sequence in Malta, where Claire and Owen have gone to rescue Maisie from kidnappers, encapsulates the film's failures. There are a lot of promising notions in it, including a dinosaur-focused black market (like something out of a " Star Wars " or Indiana Jones film) where criminals go to buy, sell, and eat forbidden and endangered species. But it's undone by a lazy undercurrent of comic-book Orientalism and a seeming inability to even see, much less capitalize on, potentially rich material. Michael Giacchino's score pours on sinister Arabic-African "exotic" cliches, as if setting up an R-rated prison thriller in which Owen does a " Midnight Express " stint in a Turkish prison for hashish possession. 

An action scene that throws Owen and the lead kidnapper into a fighting pit where onlookers wager on dinosaur fights is as indifferently composed and poorly edited as nearly every other action scene in the film—and it becomes depressing once you think about what Spielberg, or his favorite second-unit director Joe Johnston ("Jurassic Park III"), might have done with it. It could've been a tiny masterpiece of action, slapstick, and social commentary, with the pit audience initially reacting with outrage when their regularly scheduled dino-fights are disrupted, then gleefully shifting gears by betting on the two humans who are going at each other, making fresh odds and handing off fistfuls of cash while baying for blood. Trevorrow looks at this setup and sees nothing but a hero fighting a henchman in a pit. 

There's no scene in the film that's entirely worthless. There's no question that at this point, the "Jurassic" factory knows how to design and animate prehistoric creatures and integrate them with live-action scenes of actors running, screaming, shooting, setting fires, and the like. And yet the totality feels indifferently assembled, and the stalkings and chases and dino-battles are for the most part bereft of the life-and-death tension that every other franchise entry has managed to summon. And the plotting is abysmal, relying too heavily on coincidence and flukes of timing, retro-engineering personal connections between new and pre-existing characters, and handing the heroes major victories as casually as a hotel desk clerk giving a guest a room key, instead of letting them earn them through ingenuity.  

Trevorrow even manages to recycle, not once but three times, one of the only clever gags in his "Jurassic World"—a comment on the 40-year budgetary and spectacle escalation of the summer blockbuster, in which a great white shark, the creature at the center of Spielberg's groundbreaking 1975 film " Jaws ," gets eaten by a mosasaurus the size of a skyscraper. Every time Trevorrow does something like this, it feels like an even-more-desperate attempt to remind us of how much fun we might've had during "Jurassic World," which wasn't that great of a film to start with, and that was dining out on reheated cultural leftovers even during its best moments. 

There are also scenes where characters (mainly but not always Malcolm) tie the capitalist rapaciousness of BioSyn to the film you're sitting there watching. But these don't have the wit and playfulness that powered similar material in "The Lost World." They just seem curdled with self-loathing and awareness of how hollow the whole production is. At one point Malcolm chastises himself for taking the company's money to work as their in-house philosopher/guru even though he knows they're cynical corporate exploiters, and there's a self-lacerating edge to Goldblum's voice that makes it seem as if it's the actor rather than the character who's confessing to low personal standards. And there are times where Sam Neill, like Goldblum, seems embarrassed to be onscreen, or at least confused as to what he's doing in the story—although to be fair, the script never convincingly justifies why Allan, a reluctant action hero in his other two "Jurassic" appearances, would leave the dinosaur dig site where Ellie finds him, other than that he's from the earlier movies and needed to be here for nostalgia-marketing reasons.

Worst of all, the series again fails to properly explore its most tantalizing question: how would our world change if dinosaurs were added to it? The opening section packs any halfway intriguing or funny thing that "Dominion" might have to say about this topic into a TV news montage—showing, for instance, a little girl being chased on a beach by baby dinos (an homage to "The Lost World"), a couple releasing doves at their wedding only to have one of them get snatched out of the air by a pterodactyl, and pteranodons nesting in the World Trade Center (possibly a reference to Larry Cohen's " Q: The Winged Serpent ," in which an ancient Aztec god nests in the Chrysler Building). Ninety minutes of footage like this, minus any characters or plot at all, probably would've resulted in an artistically better use of a couple hundred million dollars than "Jurassic World: Dominion," which will doubtless be a smash on the order of all the other entries in the franchise, even though it doesn't do much more than the bare minimum you'd expect for one of these films, and not all that well.

Now playing in theaters.

Matt Zoller Seitz

Matt Zoller Seitz is the Editor at Large of RogerEbert.com, TV critic for New York Magazine and Vulture.com, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism.

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Jurassic World: Dominion (2022)

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of action, some violence and language.

147 minutes

Sam Neill as Dr. Alan Grant

Laura Dern as Dr. Ellie Sattler

Jeff Goldblum as Dr. Ian Malcolm

Chris Pratt as Owen Grady

Bryce Dallas Howard as Claire Dearing

Mamoudou Athie as Ramsay Cole

Scott Haze as Rainn Delacourt

Dichen Lachman as Soyona Santos

Daniella Pineda as Zia Rodriguez

Isabella Sermon as Maisie Lockwood

Justice Smith as Franklin Webb

Omar Sy as Barry Sembène

DeWanda Wise as Kayla Watts

Campbell Scott as Lewis Dodgson

B.D. Wong as Dr. Henry Wu

Joel Elferink as Jeffrey

Jake Johnson as Lowery Cruthers

Kristoffer Polaha as Wyatt Huntley

Elva Trill as Charlotte Lockwood

• Colin Trevorrow

Writer (based on characters created by)

• Michael Crichton

Writer (story by)

• Derek Connolly
• Emily Carmichael

Cinematographer

• John Schwartzman
• Mark Sanger
• Michael Giacchino

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‘jurassic world dominion’: film review.

Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard are joined by original franchise stars Laura Dern, Sam Neill and Jeff Goldblum in Colin Trevorrow's globe-hopping conclusion to the de-extinct dinosaur saga.

By David Rooney

David Rooney

Chief Film Critic

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More is depressingly less in Jurassic World Dominion , a legacy sequel that tosses in frequent winking nods to the 1993 Steven Spielberg thriller that started the dinosaur franchise and yet completely loses sight of the heart and humanity, the rapturous awe that made it so unforgettable. Whatever goodwill superfan director Colin Trevorrow earned with 2015’s enjoyable reboot, Jurassic World , he pulverizes it here with overplotted chaos, somehow managing to marginalize characters from both the new and original trilogies as well as the prehistoric creatures they go up against in one routine challenge after another. Evolution has passed this bloated monster by.

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Universal’s sixth installment in a series that has long since left the Michael Crichton source material behind will no doubt make a fortune anyway; longtime Jurassic junkies certainly aren’t looking to reviews for guidance. But they deserve better; at least a modicum of respect from filmmakers convinced that everyone watching has the attention span of a gnat.

Jurassic World Dominion

Release date : Friday, June 10 Cast : Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Sam Neill, DeWanda Wise, Mamoudou Athie, BD Wong, Omar Sy, Campbell Scott, Isabella Sermon Director : Colin Trevorrow Screenwriters : Emily Carmichael, Colin Trevorrow

The Spielbergian Jaws trope of patiently building suspense by keeping the deadly creatures out of sight for as long as possible is anathema to this movie and its juvenile instant-gratification approach. There’s no mystery, no steadily mounting dread, just a succession of rampaging mayhem triggered with anesthetizing inevitability.

In one moment early on, Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon), who was revealed in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom to be a genetic clone, gives a group of Sierra Nevada Mountains loggers a tip to lure a pair of brachiosauruses away from their work site. The astonishment on the human faces as these majestic gentle giants lumber off on their sweet, herbivorous way recalls the poetic power of Spielberg’s original . But the new movie elsewhere is engineered for only the most soulless of thrills. It almost never stops to breathe.

Like one of the dangerous experiments with genetic modification of scientist Dr. Henry Wu (BD Wong), the screenplay by Emily Carmichael and Trevorrow splices together the DNA of countless different movies but cooks up a genre mishmash with no discernable identity of its own. On top of the Jurassic Park core elements, the writers drop in bits of the Indiana Jones , Bourne and Alien series, and a Maltese black-market dino-traffic hangout straight out of the Star Wars cantina. There’s even a mutant locust plague that recalls … The Swarm ?!

Those big-ass crossbreed locusts start decimating crops across the American heartland, quickly multiplying to the point where Dr. Wu, who developed the freak species, warns of an impending food shortage. But to Lewis Dodgson (Campbell Scott), his weirdo corporate boss at tech conglomerate Biosyn, global famine is just an unfortunate side-effect. Crops grown from Biosyn seed are untouched by the locusts, as intended, paving the way for the company to control the world’s food supply.

Ellie Sattler ( Laura Dern ), last seen in 2001’s Jurassic World III , learns of the locust phenomenon while studying soil science and sustainable farming. When she traces the bugs’ genes back to the cretaceous period, she reconnects with her former flame, paleontologist Alan Grant ( Sam Neill ), and they fly to Biosyn headquarters in Italy’s Dolomite Mountains. Their former associate, Ian Malcolm ( Jeff Goldblum ), is working as a consultant there, preening like a rock star during lectures for the company’s young scientists. But he’s also been slipping Ellie intel about the food shortage threat.

Along with the giant lab facility, the Biosyn complex includes a vast sanctuary, a valley of lush vegetation ringed by snow-capped mountains, where international governments have agreed to relocate the countless prehistoric species that have been breeding like rabbits since they were liberated from the gothic Lockwood mansion at the end of Fallen Kingdom . Exactly how those dinos have multiplied and spread across the planet in four years remains a hazy detail, though the surviving velociraptor known as Blue has reproduced without a mate thanks to her strand of monitor lizard DNA.

It’s through Blue’s baby, named Beta, and Maisie that the second storyline comes into play. Both are abducted near the cabin where Maisie has been living under the guardianship of former Jurassic World park manager Claire Dearing ( Bryce Dallas Howard ) and raptor wrangler Owen Grady ( Chris Pratt ).

Before the whole gang gets thrown together in the labyrinthine tunnels and forests of the Biosyn sanctuary, there’s a bunch of minimally engaging plot preamble involving teenage Maisie’s rebellious need for freedom; the worldwide poacher market for exotic prehistoric species, of which there now seem to be dozens; and the nefarious mercenaries on Dodgson’s payroll to bring in both the baby raptor and Clone Girl, who holds the key to DNA manipulation. Or something.

That requires a detour to Malta for Owen and Claire, where they go into action-hero mode fending off attacks from human and animal predators, including a ruthless smuggler named Santos (Dichen Lachman), confusingly dressed in cocktail attire while she’s busy laser-tagging folks left and right to make them raptor targets. The film’s biggest set-piece is a dual chase through the ancient streets of the Maltese capital Valetta, with Claire in the back of a pickup and Owen on a motorcycle.

There’s some nail-biting excitement in the will-they-or-won’t-they make it scene in which they race to board a cargo plane bound for the Dolomites, captained by unflappably cool pilot-for-hire Kayla Watts (DeWanda Wise). The writers count on pre-existing affection for the holdover characters, rather than giving them anything interesting to do beyond interchangeable “Oh no! Another dinosaur!” encounters. That allows charismatic newcomers Wise and Mamoudou Athie as Dodgson’s savvy head of communications, Ramsay Cole, to walk away with the movie, simply by virtue of bringing something different to the table.

Frankly, aside from the droll humor Goldblum brings to slick, shamelessly vain Dr. Malcolm, I could have ditched the old crew and taken an entire spinoff led by Kayla and Ramsay. The other newcomer, Scott’s Dodgson, is a pallid villain we’ve seen far too often lately, the socially stiff, egomaniacal CEO in the Bill Gates/Jeff Bezos/Elon Musk mold, who half convinces himself that the capacity for scientific and medical discovery in his work justifies the greed and the God complex.

The storylines feel rote, both separately and when they converge; a sameness sets into the action, whether it’s Ellie, Alan and Maisie in an abandoned amber mine or Owen, Claire and Kayla out in the wilderness sanctuary. Trevorrow keeps rolling out different dinos, including some old favorites not seen since the first movie, and new entries like the fearsome giganotosaurus, a late-cretaceous bad-boy theropod that has the distinction of being history’s largest terrestrial carnivore. Meh. In the apex-predator hall of fame, it might be bigger and meaner but ends up being no more terrifying than the good old T-Rex.

That’s because the storytelling lacks imagination. Scene after scene follows a familiar narrow-escape template, with no menace lingering for more than a few minutes, whether it’s a feathered pyroraptor (I’m including these names strictly for the dino nerds — you’re welcome) on a thinly frozen lake prone to cracking, or a bunch of flaming mega-locusts falling from the sky.

Despite all the breathless panic, most of the fixes seem too easy, like Claire glancing at a bank of computer monitors and conveniently exclaiming, “This is the same system we used at the park!” I actually started to miss watching her flee dinos in heels, given that she’s in sensible boots this time.

The dinosaurs are certainly varied in type and the CG work is solid enough for the most part, though some of the smaller, cuter species like the baby nasutoceratops look more like merchandizing opportunities than actual creatures. There was an artfulness to all this when Spielberg did it, with far less advanced technology. Now it all just looks like digital paint-by-numbers. There’s no magic. Even the abrupt swerve into classic monster horror that director J.A. Bayona attempted in Fallen Kingdom showed more invention than anything happening here.

Editor Mark Sanger and composer Michael Giacchino keep the story hurtling along, possibly hoping that if it moves fast enough no one will mind the colossally dumb plotting. At least there’s delicate distraction when John Williams’ original theme music is piped in over Ellie and Alan’s halting romantic reconnection, serving as a reminder of a real movie. As for this one, extinction beckons.

Full credits

Distribution: Universal Production companies: Universal Pictures, Amblin Entertainment, in association with Perfect World Pictures Cast: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Sam Neill, DeWanda Wise, Mamoudou Athie, BD Wong, Omar Sy, Campbell Scott, Isabella Sermon, Justice Smith, Daniella Pineda, Scott Haze, Dichen Lachman Director: Colin Trevorrow Screenwriters: Emily Carmichael, Colin Trevorrow Story: Derek Connolly, Colin Trevorrow, based on characters created by Michael Crichton Producers: Frank Marshall, Patrick Crowley Executive producers: Steven Spielberg, Alexandra Derbyshire, Colin Trevorrow Director of photography: John Schwartzman Production designer: Kevin Jenkins Costume designers: Joanna Johnston Music: Michael Giacchino Editor: Mark Sanger Visual effects supervisor: David Vickery Live action dinosaurs: John Nolan Casting: Nina Gold

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Review: Dino delight 'Jurassic World Dominion' is the best since the first 'Jurassic Park'

After so many “Jurassic Park” and “Jurassic World” movies spent trying to keep dinosaurs isolated in poorly executed high-tech sanctuaries, it’s nice to see a thunder lizard drop by a drive-in movie theater for a bite.

Director Colin Trevorrow’s “Jurassic World Dominion” (★★★ out of four; rated PG-13; in theaters now) is a globe-trotting action adventure that awesomely imagines a world having to come to grips with rampaging dinos big and small living among humans – at least until the movie shifts its focus to yet another sanctuary full of cloned creatures, another shady tech company and another climactic primal showdown.

Although overly familiar, “Dominion” boasts everything you’d ever want in a “Jurassic” film and is the best in the series since the original 1993 movie. (That said, apart from Steven Spielberg's wondrous opener , this is not exactly a high bar.) The plot brings together the original “Park” heroes – a joy to meet again – and the newer “World” crew to essentially wrap up the current trilogy and the franchise so far.

'It's truly remarkable': 'Jurassic World' dads Chris Pratt, Jeff Goldblum on witnessing childbirth

All those warnings in the first “Jurassic Park” about playing with science come to fruition at the beginning of “Dominion,” which deftly uses an internet video to show how life on Earth has been affected by an influx of dinosaurs.

The new film picks up four years after the beasts escaped the destruction of Isla Nublar (see: 2018’s “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" ), and returning characters Owen Grady ( Chris Pratt ) and Claire Dearing ( Bryce Dallas Howard ) are now a couple living in the Sierra Nevada as adoptive parents to Maisie (Isabella Sermon), the clone girl who released the dinos into the wild in the previous film. Much to her tween angst, the adults keep her hidden away from people who’d want to capture her for scientific purposes, but she gets kidnapped anyway alongside Beta, the spawn of Owen’s Velociraptor pal Blue.

Meanwhile, evolved dino-locusts are doing a number on crops in the Midwest. Fearing a worldwide famine on the horizon, paleobotanist Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) reaches out to old paleontologist friend – and fellow OG Jurassic Park survivor – Alan Grant (Sam Neill) for help. During their investigation, they get an invite to the remote Italian mountain headquarters of Biosyn Genetics, where dinos from all over the world are taken. Mathematician Ian Malcolm ( Jeff Goldblum ) is the in-house philosopher, and he gives Ellie and Alan the lowdown on the corporation and the morally and ethically questionable practices of its CEO (Campbell Scott).

'Appropriate at the time': Laura Dern, Sam Neill reflect on 'Jurassic Park' romance's age gap

It takes a while, but the parallel story lines in Trevorrow and Emily Carmichael’s screenplay do come together for a “Jurassic” super team-up that’s pretty nifty to see, especially the long-awaited reunion between Dern and Neill’s characters. The coolest new character joining the bunch is Kayla Watts (DeWanda Wise), a cargo pilot – and fun, swagger-filled twist on the Indiana Jones/Han Solo archetype – who helps Owen and Claire on their rescue mission. If the next trilogy ends up being “Jurassic Space,” let’s hope she’s at the wheel.

If you come to the “Jurassic” movies for the dinos (and let’s face it, that’s a lot of folks), there are plenty of species to be had – 27, in fact. The T. rex is back, naturally, although it gets a large new foe on the block with the debuting Giganotosaurus. Atrociraptors are used as precision killing machines in a spectacular motorcycle chase scene set in Malta – think something out of “Mission: Impossible,” but replacing Tom Cruise with speedy reptiles – and a winged Quetzalcoatlus does a number on Kayla’s plane. The creature effects are all top notch, especially the eerie mega-locust swarms.

Other than a T. rex getting loose in San Diego for a little while in the second “Jurassic Park,” the franchise hasn’t really leaned into dinos wrecking stuff in the real world – and mankind being thrown by having to share the Earth – so those moments early on in “Dominion” feel inventive. Yet the science veers pretty wonky and, while still mostly exciting, the film tends back toward the romping-and-stomping template we’ve seen previously.

In that vein, the new “Jurassic World” is more “Return of the Jedi” than “Empire Strikes Back,” giving fans a comfort-food finale that plays a few fresh numbers, but mainly sticks to the hits.

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‘Jurassic World Dominion’ Review: Extinction Rebellion

Things get very hectic in the last episode of this trilogy, which brings back familiar faces (Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dern, Sam Neill) along with the usual dinosaurs.

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By A.O. Scott

“Jurassic World Dominion” starts with a nod to “The Deadliest Catch”: A marine reptile snacks on king crabs in the Bering Sea before turning its jaws on a trawler and its crew. Yikes! Then a mock newscast swiftly brings us up-to-date on the global catastrophe that began to unfold almost 30 years ago in the first “Jurassic Park” movie. In case you need a refresher, how it started was with Richard Attenborough rhapsodizing about the wonders of life; how it’s going is that the big lizards are everywhere, generally bringing out the worst in people.

It would be nice if those reanimated monsters inspired better movies. The “Jurassic” brand, born in Michael Crichton’s 1990 novel , promises bone-rattling action and sublime reptilian special effects infused with pop pseudoscience and bioethical chin-scratching. The second trilogy, which started in 2015, hasn’t quite lived up to that promise. “Dominion,” directed by Colin Trevorrow, might be a little better than its two predecessors ( “Jurassic World” and “Fallen Kingdom” ), but in ways that underline the hectic incoherence of the whole enterprise.

However: Jeff Goldblum is back, as the “chaotician” Dr. Ian Malcolm, more seductively lizardy than the dinosaurs themselves. Ian is reunited with his “Jurassic Park” frenemies Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern). Ellie has been married and divorced and made a name for herself in the field of genetic something or other. Alan is still carrying a torch for her. Yes, he’s in love with her, but what I mean to say is that he literally carries a torch, to light their way through an old amber mine deep in the Dolomites.

That rocky bit of Italy is where the fiercest, biggest ancient predators now live, in a preserve built and supervised by Lewis Dodgson, an evil tech/pharma billionaire played by Campbell Scott. He seems nice enough at first — his company, Biosyn, claims to be protecting the dinosaurs out of the goodness of its corporate heart, and also curing disease, feeding the world and so on — but nobody except a naïve scientist is likely to be fooled. There are too many tells. Lewis’s silver hair is combed flat against his scalp, and he wears collarless shirts and soft jackets in rarefied neutral tones like ecru, pewter and mother-of-walrus. His very speech patterns suggest libertarianism run amok.

As it happens, Lewis has bioengineered a plague of giant locusts, with the help of Dr. Henry Wu (BD Wong), another revenant from the earlier “Jurassic Park” movies. Biosyn has also kidnapped Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon), the cloned avatar of a famous scientist.

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Jurassic World Dominion review: Is it a satisfying end to the Jurassic saga?

No spoilers here.

Back in 2015, the first movie brought back Dr Henry Wu (BD Wong) to bridge the gap between the original trilogy and the new one. Dr Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) joined the party for Fallen Kingdom and now with Jurassic World: Dominion , they've completed the set by bringing back Drs Ellie Sattler ( Laura Dern ) and Alan Grant (Sam Neill).

It's a natural progression, rather than a cheap tactic to capitalise on the current trend, and it also serves another purpose. Like Avengers: Endgame and The Rise of Skywalker before it, Dominion acts as the epic finale to not just the Jurassic World trilogy, but the entire saga back to 1993's Jurassic Park .

The stage is set for Jurassic World: Dominion to do something special where all bets are off, given it's the (planned) final outing. And yet the big disappointment you'll feel is that it all ends up being overfamiliar and just another Jurassic movie, albeit an entertaining one.

It's not just the meeting of the two casts that make Jurassic World: Dominion a potentially unique offering either. Set four years after Fallen Kingdom , it opens with the world in an entirely different place after dinosaurs were let loose in the sequel's cliffhanger ending.

The 2019 short Battle At Big Rock and last year's prologue had given us a sense of the new world order, but if you hadn't seen them, an opening news reel sets the scene. While there have been dino attacks, they've largely retreated to natural habitats so it's not like in this world, you'd see a raptor on your way to Asda.

While it might make more logical sense, we are talking about a series where Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) can outrun a raptor. We're happy to have a suspension of disbelief about the Jurassic movies, so a plot about a real-world battle between dinos and humans could have worked – and be more interesting than what Dominion ends up being about.

The movie is split into two strands, with one following Claire and Owen (Chris Pratt) as they try to keep Maisie (Isabella Sermon) safe. In the other, Ellie, Alan and Ian investigate the shady dealings at BioSyn which is now run by another Jurassic Park character, Lewis Dodgson (Campbell Scott, a recast from the original).

As you'd expect, these two distinct strands eventually come together as heroes from past and present team up to save the day. It takes a while for this to happen though, and when it does, it feels less like a finale to the series and more like another outing where a 'controlled' environment turns out to not be quite so safe.

What also becomes apparent during the extended build-up is that there's one set of characters you prefer, and it isn't the Jurassic World ones. It's not just the emotional nostalgia of seeing Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum back together – their characters are richer and their interplay more engaging.

Even the script seems to like the legacy characters more as Goldblum gets the best lines, especially when he becomes the comic relief in the final third. It's actually a Jurassic World newbie in DeWanda Wise as Kayla Watts who comes the closest to being as strong as the legacy cast.

Bryce Dallas Howard has been giving a good arc and development for Claire across the three movies, but Chris Pratt's Owen has been saddled with bland action-hero stylings, something that continues here. Together, they lack chemistry and it's made more apparent by the re-arrival of Alan and Ellie.

Yes, we've technically known the original trio for three decades, but we've had three movies with Claire and Owen, and we should care more. Perhaps it's because they never really are in danger, unlike in the original Jurassic Park movie. There's so much plot armour in Dominion that even during an 'Bourne, but with dinos' sequence in Malta, you know that they'll both survive with barely a scratch.

As much as the threequel delivers the big-screen spectacle you expect, it's when things are stripped back that it's more effective. Dominion leans into the horror more though to evoke the original movie's terrifying set pieces, with tense sequences in an amber mine and in the forest of the BioSyn sanctuary. (None can hold a candle to that T-Rex sequence though.)

Returning director Colin Trevorrow – who also wrote the script with Emily Carmichael – smartly keeps the fan service subtler than expected as well. There are nods throughout and sure to be more found on repeat viewings, but relatively few 'Hey, you remember this moment, right?' beats.

When Dominion does lean on the past, such as in a recreation of the iconic "don't move" sequence, you remember you're actually watching the culmination of a franchise. There's just nothing particularly surprising about events or a major swing that will be discussed endlessly by fans. It has a sense of finality, but more of an ellipsis than a full stop.

Perhaps that's for the best as we know that this probably isn't the end of the Jurassic saga. We're not even disappointed about that as there are new characters we'd want to see more of, especially Kayla who proves to be a terrific addition to the franchise.

What is disappointing though is that for all the trumpeting about it being the finale of three decades' worth of storytelling, Jurassic World: Dominion never ends up being that impactful. It's entertaining, sure, but ends up feeling too safe and samey for its own good.

Jurassic World: Dominion is out now in cinemas.

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'Jurassic World Dominion' Review: Messy Franchise Finale Is Streaming Now

The last Jurassic Park movie is all over the place, and you can check it out on Peacock.

Bryce Dallas Howard gets some of the best scenes in Jurassic World Dominion.

I was in a toy store the other day, and I saw a toy for tiny tots: a cutesy dinosaur with a Jurassic Park sticker on it. It struck me that the kids the toy is aimed at probably weren't born when the last Jurassic World film was released, let alone when Steven Spielberg's original '90s classic came out. And that sums up Jurassic World Dominion -- a familiar logo slapped on a toy that makes no sense at all.

Released in theaters in June, Jurassic World Dominion is streaming on Peacock now, having been released Sept. 2 with extra footage. It's the sixth and final film in the franchise (for now) and unites the stars of the original movies -- Laura Dern, Sam Neill and Jeff Goldblum -- with the stars of the more recent Jurassic World films: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard and, er, some other people. It should be the culmination of a series that for decades has delighted fans and inspired people's interest in dinosaurs.

And sure, this hyperactive, overstuffed widescreen blockbuster is certainly a T. rex-size bucket of popcorn. But if you're emotionally invested in these characters, this world of dinosaurs and humans co-existing, then Dominion doesn't know what to do with you.

The last time we saw the Jurassic World crew was 2018. Fallen Kingdom led to the biggest cliffhanger in the whole franchise, finally fulfilling the threat that's hovered over the series since the beginning: The dinosaurs are out! That promised a sixth and final Jurass-equel that would be the biggest and most bananas yet. Forget about reality, dinosaurs rule the Earth! The gloves are off! Look out, humans!

Exit, pursued by a dinosaur.

Except not really. Dominion boasts some cool opening images, like dinosaur cowboys and pterodactyl nests atop skyscrapers. But the film wimps out on that bonkers premise, rowing back the dino-plague to just a few isolated locations and a dark web of breeders, poachers and heavily tattooed cockfighters. Instead, a whole new and unexpected menace is introduced that gives the film a startlingly scary early image, but feels like kind of a sidestep from what should be the main peril. Which is that dinosaurs rule the frickin' Earth.

Co-writer Emily Carmichael cameos as an autograph hunter fangirling over Jeff Goldblum, and you can at least sense the giddy love for the Jurassic series in the whirlwind of action and jokes. But in the hands of co-writer and director Colin Trevorrow that giddiness pinballs all over the place in a script that can't seem to concentrate. It's a Western (with dinosaurs). It's a spy movie (with dinosaurs). It's a Westworld -esque corporate sci-fi conspiracy chiller (with... actually, that bit could've done with more dinosaurs). Dominion tries to be not just a climax to the Jurassic Park series, but also some kind of frenzied culmination of every blockbuster ever. Only with dinosaurs.

No time to dinosaur

The first half is a James Bond film, with globe-trotting undercover agents and shady brokers and a Jason Bourne-esque Mediterranean motorcycle/rooftop chase. Dominion does eventually turns into an actual Jurassic Park movie, with stars dangling precariously in crashed vehicles while a Doyouthinkhesaurus sniffs them out. Bryce Dallas Howard in particular gets a couple of creepily tense scenes. But the whole thing suffers from genre whiplash, struggling to grasp onto the kind of nerve-shredding set pieces that made the original movie(s) so unforgettable. Watch the first Jurassic Park and tell me it would've been improved by a knife fight. 

In the hands of director Steven Spielberg, the first Jurassic Park was a glossy blockbuster full of suspense and action, while underpinned by unforgettable characters. And it also had a sly B-movie sense of gallows humor, like that bit where the snivelly lawyer got eaten on the toilet. Dominion doesn't have either the characters or the sense of black comedy. By this point, the characters are all basically the same heroic good guy, with no selfish or untrustworthy or cowardly characters adding texture and suspense. When all the characters are people we know and supposedly love, the action scenes turn into an unwieldy scrum of a group of eight or nine people shuffling around together, with little sense that anyone can do anything unpredictable or that anything unexpected will happen to any of them. If only the film had the conviction to show the heroes being warped by their experiences, or even the courage to have the core cast get eaten. Anything to add some conflict, some unpredictability, anything.

Kayla Watts, Maisie Lockwood, Claire Dearing, Dr. Alan Grant, Dr. Ellie Sattler and Owen Grady meet a smiling Giganotosaurus.

The film also doesn't really know how to unite the two generations of Jurassic stars, shoving them into a room together and letting them awkwardly stare at each other. There's a lot of "I read your book!" and an eye-rollingly shoehorned "I knew your mother," but really only Goldblum sparks in these overpopulated scenes. The film just can't think of a compelling reason these people need to meet. Compare it with Spider-Man: No Way Home , another nostalgia play merging former generations of a long-running franchise. No Way Home at least came up with affecting emotional problems and cathartic payoffs for Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire. By comparison, even with Laura Dern gamely giving it her best shot, the encounter between Park and World stars is disappointingly inert.

One welcome addition is B.D. Wong, the scientist from the first film who's popped up in enough of these things to become a tragic figure, tortured by his mistakes. He's the closest thing to an actual human person, and carries the original film's themes of scientific folly and hubris on his shoulders. We don't see much of him, though: As if the cast wasn't padded enough with old faces, there's also a ton of new characters. 

DeWanda Wise's swaggering Han Solo-esque rough diamond pilot is entertaining but never going to do anything unexpected, and oddly sidelines Chris Pratt during the action stuff. Meanwhile, there's no need for not one but two icy evil women villains, or a succession of nothing-y henchmen -- especially as they all have a habit of just disappearing from the story.

But then there are the real stars: the dinosaurs. Dinosaurs will never get old. Still, one of the strengths of the first film was the way it set up certain dinosaurs and their traits, leaving us watching through our fingers as we waited for those lethal traits to be employed against our heroes. Whether it was T. rexes seeing movement or velociraptors getting behind you (clever girl), each action sequence was given a nerve-shredding jolt of tension because we knew what the dinosaurs were capable of. In Dominion, dinos are just kind of there. Paleontology fans will no doubt get a kick out of the assorted creatures (especially the ones with feathers) but it's a missed opportunity to layer in suspense for the average viewer.

By this point, dinosaurs from all different paleontological eras are crashing about the place, with spinosauruses and giganotosauruses and tyrannosauruses going nuts at each other. If you learn anything from the Jurassic Park series, it's that mixing eras is madness. And yet Jurassic World Dominion splices nostalgic eras and movie genres and just about any other DNA it can lay its hands on. The result is a primordial soup of a few entertaining scares, but it's 65 million years away from making any sense.

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Review | Jurassic World Dominion movie review: Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum reunite for legacy sequel, and it feels like time the dinosaurs go extinct again

• There’s so much going on in the latest Jurassic Park sequel you feel like Ethan Hunt or Indiana Jones should be in charge, not three ageing former zookeepers
• Mercenaries, shady scientists, mutant locusts – the dinosaurs seem almost an afterthought in a production that’s lost sight of what makes the series special

Hollywood’s love affair with legacy sequels continues as Jurassic World Dominion reunites original stars Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum on screen for the first time since 1993’s Jurassic Park .

In this third and possibly final chapter in the blockbuster franchise’s sequel series, the dinosaurs have escaped their island enclosures and now live among us. Returning director Colin Trevorrow hopes to dovetail both existing trilogies into a single satisfying conclusion, but this latest instalment struggles to recapture the magical sense of awe and wonder that once enraptured audiences.

Mercenary groups are also scouring the planet for teenage clone Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon), whose DNA may hold secrets for Biosyn’s genetic scientists, led by a returning BD Wong. When Maisie is kidnapped, together with semi-domesticated velociraptor Blue’s own infant, former Jurassic World employees Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) and Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) give chase.

Simultaneously, Ellie Sadler (Dern) is investigating giant swarms of mutant locusts, and recruits Alan Grant (Neill) to join her on a visit to Biosyn’s island research facility, where Ian Malcolm (Goldblum) is now a consultant.

Jurassic World Dominion unfolds as a globe-trotting adventure better suited to the heroics of Indiana Jones or Ethan Hunt than an ensemble of ageing scientists and out-of-work zookeepers.

One action-packed sequence in Malta, which flits from underground dino bazaars to high-speed street chases, feels plucked from a multiversal Jason Bourne movie rather than conjured from the imagination of Michael Crichton. Only in the film’s second half does everyone eventually congregate on a remote, dinosaur-infested island, where it is back to business as usual.

Campbell Scott’s Biosyn CEO Lewis Dodgson is a typically Steve Jobs-esque social introvert, endlessly frustrated by the narrow-mindedness of those around him who can only see the cataclysmic flaws in his bold new vision.

Other franchise newcomers DeWanda Wise, Mamoudou Athie and Dichen Lachman do their best to make their presence felt amidst the compounding chaos, and there is a notable attempt to return the dinosaur designs to genuine species whilst incorporating the latest theories in appearance and behaviour.

Ultimately, Jurassic World Dominion is unable to escape the same sense of impending doom that has plagued the eponymous theme parks from their inception. Blinded by a desire to further profit from our endless fascination with these giant beasts of the past, Trevorrow and co have lost sight of what made this franchise special in the first place.

When the dinosaurs themselves begin to feel like an afterthought or contractual obligation within their own franchise, it is probably time to let the entire enterprise slip back into extinction.

While not Jurassic Park III levels of bad, Dominion concludes not so much with a triumphant roar as the exhausted whimper of a child ready to go home.

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The Jurassic World Trilogy Has Painted Itself Into a Corner

Watching Jurassic World: Dominion , you might find yourself starting to feel just a little sorry for the people who made Jurassic World: Dominion . At the end of the previous film ( Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom — these titles start to blend together after a while), dinosaurs had finally been unleashed on the mainland and begun to exist alongside humans. That made for a promising cliffhanger, not to mention some stirring closing images, but it also effectively put the series in a bind. Now that dinosaurs are just, like, out there … what happens next? Why should we care about dinosaurs showing up somewhere since dinosaurs are effectively everywhere? How can the suspense escalate in interesting ways when these prehistoric creatures have become mere background noise?

Sadly, Jurassic World: Dominion appears to have found the answer in not making a dinosaur movie at all. The new film is, at times, a kidnapping thriller, a cloning drama, a Jason Bourne–style action flick, an Indiana Jones derivation, and a disaster movie, among others. It impatiently leaps from subgenre to subgenre with such frantic desperation that it feels like the movie is running from its own lack of imagination. Once upon a time, Steven Spielberg could spend enormous amounts of screen time patiently (and nastily) tightening the screws on a suspense set piece. Jurassic World: Dominion can’t be bothered to spend much time on anything, perhaps because if the movie ever pauses to take a breath, the audience might realize they’re being had. Because if the filmmakers aren’t all that impressed by dinosaurs, then what chance do the rest of us have?

To be fair, there are dinosaurs in Dominion , and there are enough bits of dino business to keep the kids awake, but the film itself clearly finds these creatures mostly unremarkable and uninteresting; one climactic three-way dino fight seems to last for about three minutes. Instead, the movie spends its time on … locusts? Dominion ’s central menace is a mysterious plague of giant locusts that is destroying crops and terrorizing farmers, seemingly unleashed on humanity by a powerful and mysterious biotech firm. Of course, all the Jurassic films like to dwell on the dangers of unchecked science and amoral profiteering (that’s how we got the dinosaurs in the first place), but we don’t go to these movies to see cautionary tales about deluded scientists, we go to see dinosaurs. The scientists are just an excuse to have the dinosaurs — not vice versa.

There are many other things Jurassic World: Dominion assumes. It assumes that we are genuinely interested in the relationship between raptor-trainer and dino-wrangler Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) and park manager turned activist Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard). It assumes that we buy Pratt as a wisecracking, can-do tough guy (as opposed to the slightly hapless and overconfident goofball he plays in the Marvel movies, where he fares better). It assumes that we are fully invested in the fate of Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon), a young girl who was revealed to have been a clone near the end of Fallen Kingdom (long story) and who is now being sought by Dr. Lewis Dodgson (Campbell Scott), a soft-spoken but sinister, Steve Jobs–style tech guru who runs the aforementioned biotech company, called Biosyn.

The previous Jurassic World movies did generate tankerloads of money, so perhaps such assumptions were fair ones to make. Owen and Claire are, after all, the heroes of this trilogy. And yet one never really hears about them out here in the real world, the way we once heard about Han Solo and Princess Leia and Indiana Jones and the way we still hear about assorted superheroes, or James Bond and Jason Bourne. (Have you ever seen an Owen Grady lunch box? I sure haven’t.) That is likely because — and I hope you’re sitting down for this — the Jurassic World movies are not about characters; they are about dinosaurs . The original Jurassic Park trilogy (mostly) understood this; the films offered solid character work, but once the time came, the monster-movie spectacle took over.

Dominion also seems to have overestimated the nostalgia factor in bringing back the stars of the first film, Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum, treating their relationships like some sacred canon. So, when doctors Ellie Sattler (Dern) and Alan Grant (Neill) are reunited, we learn about her failed marriage, which means there is hope again for them as a couple. Ellie and Alan have been invited to the campuslike headquarters of Biosyn by Dr. Ian Malcolm (Goldblum), who has become some sort of in-house philosopher and skeptic for the firm. While it’s certainly nice to see Dern, Neill, and Goldblum play these people again, it’d be nicer if the script gave them well-written dialogue or placed them in interesting situations. A symptom of our current nostalgia-at-all-costs pop-cultural landscape is that all too often filmmakers think it’s enough to just bring back familiar faces. I love Sam Neill, but I’m not sure I needed to see that “raising his head in twinkly-eyed bewilderment” move of his 85 more times.

Anyway, there are foot chases and motorcycle chases, and a plane crash, and a big fire (there’s often a big fire). It’s frantic yet lifeless, chaotic yet pro forma. A thorough lack of care emanates from the screen. At one point, a standoff involving two somewhat major characters is, as far as I can tell, completely abandoned halfway through; these people are never mentioned again. The film cuts so rapidly and so haphazardly among its various plot strands that the filmmakers appear to have lost their own threads.

At times, one can see what director Colin Trevorrow and his collaborators were attempting. Trying to be all things to all people, and to find their way in a universe where dinosaurs roam (and rampage) freely, they decided to mix dinosaurs into these familiar subgenres instead of finding a new story to tell. But the solution reveals the depths of the problem. Because the awe we’re supposed to feel upon seeing these dinosaurs — the entire reason for the movies’ existence — winds up taking a back seat to a cacophony of half-hearted plot points and story lines and twists and throwaway bits. During one chase, a dinosaur does the famous stunt from The Bourne Ultimatum in which Jason Bourne jumped from the window of one building into the window of another. In that earlier picture, the moment took our breath away, because we could see that it was a real stunt, done by real people, and it was something we recognized as being nearly impossible to accomplish. In Dominion , it’s an offhand, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it gag, but it’s symptomatic of the movie’s broader issues. Because when the “stunt” is being performed by a CGI dinosaur … well, let’s just say a certain “wow” factor is removed. Which is a bizarre thing to say, because these movies are supposed to be nothing but wow factors. The only wow factor in Jurassic World: Dominion is the awesome depth of its failure.

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Is ‘Jurassic World: Dominion’ good? What critics are saying about the dinosaur adventure

By Trent Toone

What if dinosaurs really roamed the earth today?

Audiences will soon have an entertaining visual as they flock to theaters to see “ Jurassic World: Dominion ,” which opens in theaters Friday.

The dinosaur adventure film, which unites two generations of Jurassic movie characters in one film, currently has an early 88% rating on RottenTomatoes.com .

What is ‘Jurassic World: Dominion’ about?

“ Jurassic World: Dominion ” is the third film in the “Jurassic World” series and the sixth in the “Jurassic Park” franchise overall.

The film takes place four years after the conclusion of “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,” with dinosaurs living alongside humans around the world. Franchise fans will get to see “Jurassic World” main players Owen ( Chris Pratt ) and Claire ( Bryce Dallas Howard ) team up with Dr. Ellie Sattler ( Laura Dern ), Dr. Alan Grant ( Sam Neill ) and Ian Malcom ( Jeff Goldblum ) from the original “Jurassic Park” series to save humanity.

The film also features new feathered dinos, characters and visual effects, according to universalpictures.com .

“Dominion” started production in 2020 and experienced delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, director Colin Trevorrow told The Mercury News .

“The last film was about animal trafficking, moving animals from one continent to another, which is something that is dangerous and destructive,’’ Trevorrow said in the article.

With the new film, “We’re talking about larger issues of how we are manipulating genetic power right here and now — from the (film’s) locust epidemic to the notion of what Maisie Lockwood (the cloned adopted daughter of Claire and Owen) represents and what medical advances could come from that.”

‘Jurassic World’ series at the box office

The release of “ Jurassic World: Dominion ” comes two weeks after the impressive takeoff of “ Top Gun: Maverick ,” which made $153 million over the Memorial Day weekend and climbed to $291.6 million across North America after two weeks, according to the Los Angeles Times . The jet fighter action movie’s worldwide total is $548.6 million, according to boxofficemojo.com .

“ Jurassic World ,” released in 2015, earned $1.6 billion worldwide, according to boxofficemojo.com .

“ Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom ,” released in 2018, made $1.3 billion worldwide .

“ Jurassic World: Dominion ” has already raked in $55 million overseas, “a rock-solid debut for a film still expected to be the summer’s biggest global grosser,” according to Forbes.com .

What critics are saying about ‘Jurassic World: Dominion’?

There are only a handful of reviews from movie critics so far. Here is a sampling:

• “A storytelling masterpiece that is considerate of not just the old, but the new. ... If this is to be the end of the road, it’s a stellar way to close the curtain on a series that has captured the hearts and minds of generations.” — dexerto.com .
• “If you want dinosaurs, chases and familiar faces, ‘Jurassic World Dominion’ delivers. If you want some spice, blood and surprise, you’ll have to look somewhere else.” — screenanarchy.com
• “‘Jurassic World Dominion’ unfolds as a globe-trotting adventure better suited to the heroics of Indiana Jones or Ethan Hunt than an ensemble of aging scientists and out-of-work zookeepers. ... While not ‘Jurassic Park III’ levels of bad, ‘Dominion’ concludes not so much with a triumphant roar as the exhausted whimper of a child ready to go home.” — scmp.com

What parents need to know about ‘Jurassic Park: Dominion’

Common Sense Media has not yet reviewed “Dominion” but suggests that “young and sensitive viewers should probably pass.”

“Jurassic Park: Dominion” is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of action, some violence and language.

Jurassic World Dominion Reviews Are Online, And Critics Have A Lot To Say About The Blockbuster Sequel

The buzz is... interesting

The long-awaited third installment of the Jurassic World trilogy is finally upon us, with Owen Grady ( Chris Pratt ) and Claire Dearing ( Bryce Dallas Howard ) teaming up with the original Jurassic Park trio for a globe-trotting adventure. Jurassic World Dominion brings back Alan Grant, Ellie Sattler and Ian Malcolm (Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum, respectively) to a world where dinosaurs live among humans. Life finds a way, right? Critics have screened this legacyquel, and their reviews are in to tell us what to expect when the two Jurassic trilogies collide .

Audiences’ first reactions to Jurassic World Dominion ’s screening were pretty harsh, with criticisms of the Colin Trevorrow project including lack of character development and being overall pointless (even without the inclusion of hybrid dinosaurs ). Now the critics’ reviews are out to give us more context to those thoughts. Let’s check out what we can expect from this sequel when it hits theaters on June 10, starting with CinemaBlend’s review of Jurassic World Dominion . Eric Eisenberg rates the movie a paltry 1.5 stars out of 5, calling the plotlines bland and disconnected with a script that has no idea what to do with the legacy characters: 

The blockbuster model for Jurassic World Dominion is very clearly Avengers: Endgame – a capstone project that is intended to reflect cohesiveness in the continuity – but it fails in so many ways where the Marvel film succeeds. Rather than constructing a story that effectively captures the full scope of the franchise and takes advantage of the principal characters’ beloved qualities, we instead get two high-concept ideas that are mashed together in a structure-less mess with bad pacing and boring action.

Alonso Duralde of The Wrap says just like in the movies, grafting two DNAs together proves to be a bad idea, and adding the stars of Jurassic Park into the Jurassic World trilogy only serves to highlight how uninteresting the more recent characters are: 

The screenplay by director Colin Trevorrow and Emily Carmichael (Pacific Rim: Uprising) spends so much time moving its cast from place to place that it can barely be bothered to provide twists or sleuthing; characters like Mamoudou Athie’s PR flack or Dichen Lachman’s sleek assassin show up, tell the heroes what they need to know, and then sink into the background. There’s certainly no room for any big ideas about science or technology besides, ‘Whelp, the dinos are here now; guess we gotta coexist.’

Pete Hammond of Deadline , however, says there is fun to be found in the new sequel, if you can buy into the premise. This review says the visual effects and overall production are, as expected, first-rate, and the movie is quite an allegory for humans losing their grasp on what’s happening to our planet: 

Audiences who will flock to it will not be disappointed, plus the filmmakers really do have something to say about the way our earth is moving out of our control if we don’t find a way to contain the damage, so much of it man-made. Jurassic is the perfect allegory for what we actually are doing to ourselves.

Sarah Musnicky of Nightmarish Conjurings says the movie has a fanfic vibe and loses focus pretty quickly. The addition of Sam Neill , Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum only proves how lacking in heart and humanity this series has been, the review says: 

There’s a lot going on in JURASSIC WORLD DOMINION. It’s as if Colin Trevorrow (who also directs albeit poorly considering performances) and screenwriter Emily Carmichael decided to throw things at a wall to see what would stick. A lot must have stuck to produce this convoluted, bloated final product viewers get to witness. You’ve got kidnappings. Genetically engineered locusts. Baby Raptors. Underground dino trafficking rings. There’s a lot going on, which results in a film that feels long and loses its focus from its main point – the livelihood of both dinosaurs and the human race.

Matt Singer of ScreenCrush rates the movie 3 out of 10, saying that not only does Jurassic World Dominion not answer its predecessor’s question about how humans and dinosaurs could co-exist, it doesn’t even try. It’s fun to see the Jurassic Park actors back together again, but their presence doesn’t really make much sense in the movie. In the end, this review says it’s just more of the same: 

Alas, Dominion is just more of the same. More banal platitudes about the dangers of science run amok. More breathless chases involving dinosaurs who can keep pace with a jeep and yet never manage to catch the humans when they’re running on foot. More scenes where an idyllic and flawless dino sanctuary completely collapses in a matter of minutes. More scenes where Chris Pratt’s unflappable and impervious action dude gets a dinosaur to stop attacking him simply by sticking his hand in front of its face. (Later, he teaches the other characters this trick and then they’re all controlling raptors by shoving their hands in their faces.)

Even with its criticisms, Jurassic World Dominion is sure to be a box office win. If you’d like to see what happens when the original trio combines forces with our Jurassic World heroes (and find out what these locusts are about that the reviews keep mentioning), you’ll have the opportunity to do that soon! The blockbuster hits theaters on Friday, June 10. Be sure to check out our 2022 Movie Release Schedule to see what other films are coming to theaters soon! 

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Review: Overlong franchise finale ‘Jurassic World Dominion’ falls short of veloci-rapture

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“This isn’t about us.” The words arrive late — much too late — into “Jurassic World Dominion,” an underimagined, overlong goodbye to this phase, at least, of a blockbuster franchise that’s overdue for extinction. The speaker is making an obvious point (it’s about the dinosaurs, stupid), but also, in context, a pretty disingenuous one.

Once upon a Michael Crichton-loving epoch — exactly 29 summers ago, when Steven Spielberg’s “Jurassic Park” conquered the box office — these giant prehistoric reptiles effortlessly stirred our collective awe, terror and wonderment. But those days now feel as distant as the Late Cretaceous epoch, and this sixth series installment, ostensibly another Mother Nature cautionary tale, feels awfully human-centric and human-driven. For better and for worse, it is about us.

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What this means, practically speaking, is that you’ll spend much of the movie’s 147-minute running time watching seven or eight co-protagonists running around another mad scientist’s dinosaur farm, where bioethical boundaries are once again crossed and security measures are once again doomed to fail.

Chris Pratt is back as that genial raptor whisperer Owen Grady, as is Bryce Dallas Howard as his dino rights-defending better half, Claire. The more exciting news, if you can call it news, is that Laura Dern, Sam Neill and Jeff Goldblum are reunited for the first time since 1993’s “Jurassic Park” — a fan-service coup that almost compensates for the dim reality of how little they’ve been given to do.

From a narrative standpoint, the most important figure here is Owen and Claire’s adopted daughter, Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon), the 13-year-old product of a human cloning experiment whose precious genetic code may hold the key to human survival. And survival is key, now that the dinosaurs have broken past their various man-made barriers and migrated all over the planet.

After the relentless claustrophobia of the previous film, 2018’s “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,” there’s a certain relief in seeing these creatures free to roam the planet they once ruled; witness the majestic sight of a friendly, wrinkly apatosaurus experiencing what appears to be its first taste of snow.

That striking image aside, it’s a grave new world indeed. Fishing boats are capsized by creatures from the deep. Winged pteranodons attack from above without warning, and it’s a pter-rible sight indeed.

A deep-pocketed biotech firm called Biosyn has stepped up to provide the dinosaurs with a high-tech mountain sanctuary, and just in case you thought that might be a good thing, the company is run by an eccentric megalomaniac (a perfectly hissable Campbell Scott) whose name, Lewis Dodgson, will jog every “Jurassic Park” fan’s memory. And if all that weren’t enough, a plague of genetically modified giant locusts has descended on farms and fields, threatening to wipe out most of the world’s food supply.

Maybe it’s my entomophobia talking, but in a movie about dinosaurs, it’s funny that it takes a swarm of oversize insects to induce even the mildest case of the shivers. Still, for a while, “Jurassic World Dominion” holds your attention, and it does so less insultingly than 2015’s franchise reboot “Jurassic World,” a vapid, hugely profitable foray into blockbuster filmmaking for its director, Colin Trevorrow.

After contributing to the script for 2018’s mildly superior “Fallen Kingdom,” Trevorrow is back at the helm for “Dominion” and clearly determined to engineer his own nostalgia-tickling clone of a grandly old-fashioned Spielberg entertainment.

That’s a tall order, but Trevorrow and his co-writer, Emily Carmichael, do an initially serviceable job of keeping the story’s many unwieldy parts in diverting motion. Much of the first half plays like a globe-trotting espionage thriller, as Owen and Claire get swept up in a kidnapping, a raptor-napping, car chases through the streets of Malta and a brief glimpse inside the ever-growing dinosaur black market, which is sadly not called “Dinos ‘R’ Us.”

The genre template is obvious, but for a “Jurassic” arc, it’s almost novel. It also generates the movie’s one remotely thrilling sequence, involving Owen, a couple of friendly-as-they-sound Atrociraptors and a rusty beater of a plane piloted by the whip-smart Kayla Watts (a very welcome DeWanda Wise).

Meanwhile, the movie busies itself getting the original “Jurassic Park” gang back together, staging a tentative romance between scientists Dr. Ellie Sattler (Dern) and Dr. Alan Grant (Neill) under the least romantic possible circumstances (genetically modified giant locusts!), and then shipping them off to Biosyn’s remote facilities for some undercover snooping.

There’s fleeting pleasure in these scenes, especially once John Williams’ original theme kicks in and that merry theoretician of chaos, Dr. Ian Malcolm (Goldblum), shows up, wisecracks at the ready. But this is also where tedium sets in, long before the finish, as all the good guys — which is most of the cast, including Mamoudou Athie as a conflicted Biosyn employee — wind up on a long and repetitive collision course, in which scene after scene plays out with zero wit, tension or surprise.

OK, that’s not entirely true. It is surprising, or at least dispiriting, to see an actor as nimble as Omar Sy ( “Lupin” ) wasted in a few forgettable action scenes. Sadder still is the reduction of a once-proud antagonist, Dr. Henry Wu (BD Wong), to a series of self-flagellating “Oh, God. Sorry I unleashed a plague of genetically modified giant locusts” monologues.

For all that, and despite Dodgson’s unambiguous villainy, “Jurassic World Dominion” plays at times like a feature-length biotech promo, anchored by the sight of young Maisie contemplating her own miracle-baby origins and a lot of earnest encomiums about the power of genetic engineering to save us all.

It’s about us, in other words, notwithstanding the movie’s imbecilic “Circle of Life”-style hymn to the wonders of interspecies coexistence. And because it’s about us — well, us and the genetically modified giant locusts — the dinosaurs themselves fade even further into insignificance.

It’s astonishing how little tension or even momentary menace Trevorrow is able to mine from individual action sequences, how tame even T. rex now seems in its late-franchise dotage. The mix of practical and computer-generated effects used to bring these behemoths to life has evolved by leaps and bounds, but their ability to stir and scare us — much less provoke even a moment’s thought — is a thing of the ancient past.

'Jurassic World Dominion'

Rating: PG-13, for intense sequences of action, some violence and language Running time: 2 hours, 27 minutes Playing: Starts June 10 in general release

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All Jurassic Park and World Movies Ranked by Tomatometer

Jurassic Park celebrates its 30th anniversary: Buy tickets for its 3D theatrical re-release this weekend !

Jurassic Park was a next-gen leap in the evolution of the Hollywood blockbuster, combining the high concept of man versus dinosaur with CGI, practical effects, and Steven Spielberg’s unmatched yet still growing directing prowess. Throw in some fleshed-out characters and a clever script dipped in the amber of moral and ethical quandary, and no wonder Jurassic Park became the highest-grossing film ever upon release in 1993.

Spielberg returned for sequel The Lost World: Jurassic Park , and Sam Neill’s chracter Dr. Alan Grant came back for 2001’s Jurassic Park III . The franchise lay dormant until 2015’s Jurassic World , and its sequel Fallen Kingdom , which go all-in on theme park spectacle. World stars Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard join OG JP crew Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum for the finale, Dominion .

Now see all Jurassic Park and World movies ranked by Tomatometer! — Alex Vo

Jurassic Park (1993) 92%

Jurassic World (2015) 71%

The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) 53%

Jurassic Park III (2001) 49%

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) 47%

Jurassic World Dominion (2022) 29%

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Jurassic world 4: release date, cast & everything we know about the next jurassic park movie.

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Jurassic world 4: latest news, jurassic world 4 release date, jurassic world 4: cast, jurassic world 4: story.

• Jurassic World 4: Further News & Info
• Jurassic World: Dominion served as a conclusion to the sequel trilogy, Jurassic World 4 has still been confirmed.
• Jurassic World 4 will be a complete reboot of the entire Jurassic Park franchise, and none of the original actors will be involved.
• Jurassic Park screenwriter David Koepp has been hired to write the script, suggesting Jurassic World 4 hopes to return to the franchise's roots.

Following the misstep of Jurassic World: Dominion ​​​​​​, Jurassic World 4 has officially been announced and aims to steer the franchise in the right direction. Jurassic World: Dominion very much serves as a conclusion to the sequel trilogy, bringing together arcs from across the new movies but also seeing the return of Jurassic Park 's main characters. This helped give Dominion a sense of finality, but major franchises like Jurassic World can't stay away for too long.

The Jurassic Park franchise has had its ups and downs, but the tantalizing chance to rake in hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office has always enticed Hollywood to return to the well. Jurassic World: Dominion received both negative reviews and a disappointing box office, but even a colossal flop or underwhelming critical reception can make the series extinct forever. Therefore, it has officially been announced that Jurassic World 4 is on the way.

Jurassic World 4 Can Bring Back The Island Chris Pratt's Trilogy Totally Forgot About

The Jurassic World trilogy kicks off at Isla Nublar, but Jurassic World 4 has the opportunity to revisit the island Chris Pratt’s movies forgot about.

Scarlett Johansson Teases The Script

With so little actually known about the upcoming movie in the celebrated franchise, the latest news sees Scarlett Johansson tease Jurassic World 4 's script . The A-lister was the first name attached to the reboot of the Jurassic Park franchise, and she spoke candidly about returning screenwriter David Koepp who penned 1993's Jurassic Park and is penning the current film as well. Emphasizing the " incredible " script, Johansson was quick to note the " passion " behind the project , something that many critics feel was sorely lacking in the Jurassic World sequels. Unfortunately, Johansson wasn't able to reveal any specific story details.

Read Johansson's full comments below:

Everything. I'm an enormous Jurassic Park fan. It's one of the first films I remember seeing in the theater. I remember seeing it so vividly. It was like life-changing. It was mind-blowing. I cannot express how excited I am. The script is so incredible. David Koepp wrote it. He returned after like 30 years to write the script. He's so passionate about it, which is so awesome.

The New Jurassic Era Begins Sooner Than Expected

Only a few weeks after the ambitious new project was announced, Universal provided a planned release date for Jurassic World 4 that suggests the film is moving quickly. The " new Jurassic era " is slated to begin on July 2nd, 2025 , just a little over a year and a half after it was revealed. There's no telling if the movie will achieve that goal, and it's likely that the July 2025 release date may be moved in the next 18 months.

Find out where to watch the Jurassic World movies below:

No Original Stars Are Expected

Most of the speculation surrounding Jurassic World 4 in the past was based on the assumption that it would be a continuation of the franchise. However, the latest update confirms that none of the original cast members from any era of Jurassic Park will be involved . With that in mind, the entirety of the Jurassic World 4 cast is unknown at this time, and none of the film's roles have been filled.

In March 2024, it was revealed that Scarlett Johansson was in talks to lead the new Jurassic World film , but the status of the negotiations is unknown. Not long after Johansson was first courted, Bridgerton star Jonathan Bailey was also announced to be in talks to appear in Jurassic World 4 . They were eventually joined by Lincoln Lawyer star Manuel Garcia-Rulfo who is tapped to play a major role. Obi-Wan Kenobi 's Rupert Friend has also been cast. Mahershala Ali is in talks to appear, but no deal has been signed yet.

Several original Jurassic Park and Jurassic World stars have confirmed they will not be returning.

A Hard Reboot On The Franchise

It could go back to the first novel and more accurately adapt Michael Crichton's chilling and pessimistic story of corporate greed, or it could reboot everything from an entirely new perspective

Though Jurassic World: Dominion was somewhat conclusive, it wasn't impossible to speculate about how a fourth film could build on the threequel. However, with the revelation that Jurassic World 4 will be a complete reboot of the franchise, there is no telling what the movie will tackle. It could go back to the first novel and more accurately adapt Michael Crichton's chilling and pessimistic story of corporate greed, or it could reboot everything from an entirely new perspective. However, the involvement of screenwriter David Koepp suggests the series is aiming to return to its roots .

Jurassic World 4

Jurassic World 4 is the seventh film in the Jurassic Park franchise and continues the story of Jurassic World: Dominion. Written by David Koepp, Jurassic World 4 will begin a new era for the Jurassic franchise.

Jurassic World 4: Further News & Info

With the announcement that Jurassic World 4 is in development, here's everything we know about this new era for the Jurassic franchise.

• Jurassic World 4 From Original Jurassic Park Writer Confirmed, Will Launch "New Era" [UPDATED]
• Jurassic World 4 Director Talks Fall Through, Search Continues As Sequel Eyes Summer 2025 Release
• Jurassic World 4: Godzilla Director In Talks To Take Over After Previous Candidate Dropped Out
• Original Jurassic World Actor Addresses Potential Jurassic World 4 Return
• "I'm Gonna Be Honest With You...": Dominion Star Casts Doubt On Jurassic World 4 Return
• Sam Neill Addresses Jurassic World 4 Return Ahead Of Franchise Reset
• Jurassic World 4 Filming Start Date Reportedly Revealed As Sequel Races To 2025 Release Date
• Jurassic World 4: Scarlett Johansson In Talks For Lead Role In New Movie
• Original Jurassic World 4 Director Breaks Silence About Stepping Down From Sequel
• Jurassic World 4 Eyeing Bridgerton Breakout To Star Alongside Scarlett Johansson
• Jurassic World 4 Casts Lincoln Lawyer Star As Co-Lead Opposite Scarlet Johansson
• Jurassic World 4 Return Alongside Scarlett Johansson Addressed By Chris Pratt: "You'll Just Have To Tune In"
• Jurassic World 4 Casts Obi-Wan Kenobi Star In Leading Role
• Jurassic World 4 Story Update Teases Return To Jurassic Park Roots
• Mahershala Ali Eyes Jurassic World 4 Role While MCU's Blade Struggles To Get Off The Ground

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Watch Jurassic World with a subscription on Max, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video.

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‘Jurassic World 4’ Will Retcon Entire Franchise, Set Photo Suggests

in Movies & TV

Jurassic World 4 (2025) is one of three upcoming Jurassic sequels , but it’s the only one that’s gearing up to retcon the entire franchise. Hold onto your butts.

Production on Jurassic World 4 (2025) is underway. While we don’t know any plot specifics, Variety has revealed that the seventh installment will be “a completely fresh take launching a new Jurassic era, following three adults and three teens getting stuck on the island.”

So far, the cast includes Scarlett Johansson (the Marvel Cinematic Universe), Jonathan Bailey ( Bridgerton ), Manuel Garcia-Rulfo ( The Lincoln Lawyer ), Rupert Friend ( Obi-Wan Kenobi ), Luna Blaise ( Manifest ), David Iacono ( Dead Boy Detectives ) and Audrina Miranda ( Lopez vs Lopez ). Mahershala Ali ( Leave the World Behind ) is also in talks to star.

Recently, Scarlett Johansson broke her silence on the film, describing the script as “incredible.”

Related:  ‘Jurassic Park: Survival’ Trailer Breakdown

Variety has also reported that filming started on June 13 in Thailand, where it’s expected to last until July 16, after which production will move to studios in the UK and Malta .

@reelnewshawaii on X (Twitter) has shared several pictures of the Thailand locations in questions regarding the production of Jurassic World 4 — all of which are photographs of the jaw-dropping natural beauty that will serve as “the island” in the upcoming film.

However, one they recently uploaded shows a very interesting set that has been constructed at Huay To Waterfall within the Khao Phanom Bencha National Park in Krabi, which looks like an “ancient ruin.” Check it out below:

[Edited for clarity] A better look at the Jurassic World 4 (SAGA) set being built at Huay To Waterfall in Krabi, Thailand. Looks like some sort of ancient ruin entrance which leads to a view of the falls. Filming to take place this location June 20-24.

A better look at the Jurassic World 4 (SAGA) set being built at Huay To Waterfall in Krabi, Thailand. Looks like some sort of ancient ruin entrance which leads to a view of the falls. Filming to take place this location June 20-24. pic.twitter.com/tBBLs4ejaA — Reel News Hawaii (@reelnewshawaii) June 16, 2024

Needless to say, we have many questions about this new set. For starters, what do ancient ruins have to do with Jurassic Park ? Of course, as the film will presumably take place on a new island, the ruins could simply be there and have nothing to do with the dinosaurs.

Either way, it’s possible the island in the film is yet another breeding ground for genetically engineered dinosaurs like Isla Sorna, AKA Site B, or a regular island that has become overrun with dinosaurs now that they’ve been unleashed upon the entire world.

Related: ‘Jurassic Park’ Official Sequel: Everything We Know

With all that said, as confusing as the image might be, this sort of look would make for some welcome new aesthetics for the series — after all, we’re quite bored of man-made laboratories.

After all, while the latest sequel, Jurassic World Dominion (2022), promised new worldwide locations, we only got a handful of such places such as Malta and the Sierra Nevada Forest. For the most part, the film takes place in another jungle and another facility.

Still, even with an entirely new aesthetic that would feel more like Indiana Jones than Jurassic Park , the idea that Jurassic World 4 will return to its jungle roots and take place on an island, abandoning the dinosaurs-living-with-humans concept, is also quite boring.

However, we still have one more question about this image — and it’s a big one. Is this an ancient island not dissimilar to Skull Island from King Kong ? In other words, will Jurassic World 4 introduce “natural” dinosaurs, ones that survived extinction 65 million years ago?

Related: All 4 Upcoming ‘Jurassic Park’/’Jurassic World’ Sequels Explained

For a franchise that revolves around the concept of genetically-engineering extinct dinosaurs using fossilized DNA (and the DNA from modern animals to complete gaps in the genome sequence), this sounds absurd . But the idea isn’t completely foreign to Jurassic Park .

“The Lost World” (1990) novel from Michael Crichton , which the 1997 movie sequel is loosely based on, leans quite heavily into the idea that dinosaurs may have survived the cataclysmic event that wiped them out at the end of the Cretaceous Period.

Of course, this doesn’t turn out to be the case — Ian Malcolm and his fellow scientists learn that reports of dinosaurs appearing on mainland South America can once again be traced back to InGen. Only this time they’re coming from a second island: Isla Sorna, AKA Site B.

But why then, are there so many conversations and debates around dinosaurs having potentially survived the “K-T Boundary” throughout Crichton’s best-seller when it’s simply a sequel to “Jurassic Park” (1990)?

For starters, the characters don’t know for certain that it’s InGen to begin with. Also, Ian Malcolm is trying to refute the theories of relentless paleontologist Richard Levine, who believes it’s a possibility that dinosaurs may have survived.

Another reason is in the title of the book itself — “The Lost World” is a play on the 1912 novel of the same name by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in which dinosaurs have survived for tens of millions of years on an isolated jungle plateau in South America.

Related: ‘Jurassic World 4’ Everything We Know: Plot, Cast, Release Date, Trailer, and News

With all that said, there are absolutely no “natural” dinosaurs anywhere in the Jurassic Park franchise, no matter where you look, whether it’s video games, comic books, or any other form of tie-in media.

However, movie franchises are no stranger to evolving — just look at the latest Planet of the Apes film series , for instance.

What started out as a modern-day sci-fi thriller about genetically-enhanced apes in a San Francisco facility is now a futuristic film series set hundreds of years from now in which the latest generation of super-intelligent primates have evolved into the dominant species.

While Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) appeared to be making efforts to put the franchise on a similar path to Apes , Jurassic World Dominion missed the perfect opportunity to capitalize on the concept of dinosaurs now living among humans.

Even though the logline from Variety sounds pretty bare-bones (humans stranded on an island — so what?), perhaps Jurassic World 4 is set to do for the franchise what Dominion failed to do . Maybe the film will have a few tricks, twists, and turns up its sleeve.

But with that said, there’s the evolution of a franchise, and then there’s the complete retconning (or “de-evolution”) — just look at what’s currently happening with Star Wars .

The new Disney+ Star Wars series The Acolyte (2024) has been a complete disaster for Disney Star Wars , largely because its third episode retcons the Force, thus completely undermining George Lucas’ vision as depicted in the original six films.

If there have been natural dinosaurs in the Jurassic Park universe all along — who knows, it may also be the case that InGen never created dinosaurs but instead cloned living ones they discovered in some remote region on the planet — then Universal Pictures could have a similar backlash on their hands when the new film is released next year.

Jurassic World 4  will be released in theaters on July 2, 2025.

Would you like to see natural dinosaurs in Jurassic World 4 ? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!

Scarlett Johansson Confirms Jurassic World Casting and Teases Movie's 'Incredible' Script

The black widow star has wanted to be part of the dino franchise for ten years..

Marvel alum Scarlett Johansson has confirmed she is starring in the next Jurassic World movie, which she says has an "incredible" script.

Reports surfaced in March that Johansson was in talks to join the new Jurassic World movie , which will be the seventh film in the franchise, and now the actress has opened up about her role. Johansson told ComicBook.com she is "excited" about the feature and its story by David Koepp , writer of the original Jurassic Park.

"I'm an enormous Jurassic Park fan. It's one of the first films I remember seeing in the theater. I remember seeing it so vividly. It was like life-changing. It was mind-blowing. I cannot express how excited I am," Johansson said before teasing the next installment. "The script is so incredible. David Koepp wrote it. He returned after like 30 years to write the script. He's so passionate about it, which is so awesome."

Johansson is still coming down from her decade of service in the Marvel Cinematic Universe but admitted that she has had her eye on the beloved dinosaur franchise for a long time, with her interest first sparking up when Jurassic World opened in theaters in 2015, kickstarting a whole new trilogy 22 years after the first film.

"I'm such an enormous fan of the franchise and huge nerd for it. I'm just like, I can't even, I'm pinching myself," Johansson said. "I've been trying to get into this franchise in any possible way for over ten years. I'm like, 'I'll die in the first five minutes! I can get eaten by whatever! I'll do the craft service!' I'll do anything for it. The fact that it's happened in this way at this time just is actually unbelievable."

Johansson joins a cast that reportedly includes Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Jonathan Bailey, and Rupert Friend, among other stars. Two-time Oscar winner Mahershala Ali is also said to have been circling the project in May, but it is unclear at this stage what role he would play in the movie, which has a July 2, 2025 release date .

The untitled Jurassic World movie is currently undergoing principal photography in Thailand, with Gareth Edwards at the helm .

Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on X/Twitter here .

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How Jurassic Park is Redeeming Its 30th Anniversary

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Why jurassic park's 30th anniversary was a disappointment, how jurassic park is reviving the franchise, what does jurassic park's 30th anniversary have to teach fans.

• Jurassic Park's 30th Anniversary was surprisingly underwhelming.
• What should've been a major milestone felt more like an end for the Jurassic Park franchise.
• A series of surprise Jurassic World announcements and projects come with greater revelations.

Jurassic Park's 30th anniversary came and went, leaving much to be desired, but over a year later, it's finally redeeming the franchise. Unlike Lex Murphy in the original movie, a 30th anniversary is nothing to sneeze at, celebrating a three-decade legacy and reflecting on a film's cultural impact. Jurassic Park remains one of the most acclaimed and historically significant works in cinematic history, having been selected for the National Film Registry. While the initial disappointment surrounding the anniversary announcements raised questions about the franchise's future, there's still plenty to celebrate. Even decades later, the Jurassic Park franchise reminds dinosaur enthusiasts that the series is far from extinct, continuing to evolve in surprising and amazing new ways.

In 1993, Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park revolutionized cinema with its groundbreaking special effects, compelling storytelling, and the enthusiasm it sparked for paleontology, with many considering it the best dinosaur film . The film's massive box office success and critical acclaim led to two theatrical sequels before the franchise was softly rebooted as Jurassic World in 2015. Now consisting of countless adaptations and every kind of merchandising imaginable, Jurassic Park took off as a full-fledged paleontological phenomenon. Although the Jurassic Park films are loosely based on Michael Crichton's 1990 novel, the franchise celebrated the 30th anniversary of the first film's theatrical release in 2023. Embraced by fans as a milestone occasion, Jurassic Park's 30th Anniversary brought various announcements, with many enthusiasts wondering if they'd set the pace for the franchise moving forward.

• Jurassic Park's first animated series wasn't Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous; it was Lego Jurassic World: Legend of Isla Nublar .

This Divisive Steven Spielberg Movie Has One of the Best Action Scenes of the '90s

Even with its divisive reviews, Steven Speilberg’s work on Jurassic Park’s sequel rivaled some of the greatest action movies in the 1990s.

Jurassic Park's 30th anniversary came with plenty of expectations from fans and high standards to meet. After all, few movies have achieved the widespread acclaim and cinematic triumphs of Jurassic Park . Unlike cult classics like Batman: Mask of the Phantasm or even infamous films like Super Mario Bros . , Jurassic Park's 30th anniversary was more than just a recognition of its existence, but a full-fledged celebration. Fans anticipated a full celebration with new projects, emotional retrospectives, and much more than what was delivered. While the celebration wasn't a failure, as evidenced by the box office success of the original film's 3-D re-release, it did leave many fans underwhelmed.

At the time of Jurassic Park's 30th anniversary, the series seemed to be facing a decline. Jurassic World Dominion , a film that reunited much of the original cast, had been released a year before to divisive reviews. Meanwhile, the beloved animated series Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous had ended its five-season odyssey after a bizarre excursion with mind-controlled dinosaurs. With Jurassic World Dominion billing itself as "the epic conclusion of the Jurassic era," many fans feared this was the end. Concerns grew that the franchise would face another long hiatus, similar to the nearly 15-year gap between Jurassic Park III's end and Jurassic World's premiere. Fans sought reassurance of future movies, theme park attractions, TV shows, and other experiences to keep the Jurassic Park legacy alive, especially to counter the mixed reception of Jurassic World Dominion . However, the 30th-anniversary celebration revealed plans that left fans questioning the franchise's future direction, mirroring some of the disappointments from Jurassic World Dominion and the final seasons of Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous .

Jurassic Park's milestone anniversary wasn't without its highlights. The Jurassic Park Tribute Store at Universal Studios Florida theme park offered an engaging walkthrough chronicling the movie's legacy. Meanwhile, re-releasing the original film in 3-D allowed audiences to experience the wonders of Jurassic Park's dinosaurs in theaters again. Later, a nostalgic trailer for the video game Jurassic Park: Survival was released at the tail-end of 2023, long after "Jurassic June" had passed. However, many of these announcements, attractions, and experiences felt fleeting, with a heavy emphasis on merchandising, such as LEGO products, rather than new content. Fans were eager for new Jurassic Park and Jurassic World content. Although LEGO Jurassic Park: The Unofficial Retelling was released on the Peacock streaming service and Jurassic Park "training videos" appeared on YouTube , these short films didn't satisfy the desire for a new movie, TV series, or larger theme park attraction; if they were even intended to tie into the 30th anniversary at all. Ultimately, Jurassic Park's 30th anniversary lacked a sense of occasion, failing to provide new projects or assurances of a future beyond Jurassic World Dominion . Fans were left wanting more, hoping for something to look forward to in the Jurassic Park franchise's future.

• Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous' Glen Powell was offered a role in Jurassic World 4 but ultimately turned it down.

Chaos Theory Could See the Return of a Mysterious Jurassic World Villain

With raptors at their command, and limited screentime in the movies, Jurassic World: Chaos Theory suggests the return of an enigmatic villain.

While collectors might've been satiated and parkgoers impressed by The Jurassic Park Tribute Store, as a whole, Jurassic Park's 30th-anniversary retrospective felt underwhelmingly humble. It felt like a missed opportunity to delay Jurassic World Dominion another year as a way to tie it into the celebration, and like Dreamworks Animation should've had a trailer ready for their upcoming Jurassic World project played before the re-release of Jurassic Park . However, it isn't to say that there weren't big things in the works for the Jurassic Park franchise. Audiences would receive everything they wanted as Jurassic Park's 30th Anniversary silently faded into obscurity.

While Jurassic Park: Survival proved to be a step in the right direction, it couldn't match the excitement or gravitas of a new movie for most fans, especially since past titles like Jurassic Park: The Game failed to make a lasting impression on the franchise. Although many fans were divided on the concept of a fourth Jurassic Worl d, "Jurassic June" felt incomplete without it. Fans wanted something substantial that would herald the return of Jurassic Park in an epic way. It wasn't until 2024, at the end of Jurassic Park's 30th anniversary, that a seventh movie was announced. Colloquially titled " Jurassic World 4 ," the film's announcement created a buzz with the reveal that David Koepp, an original Jurassic Park trilogy screenwriter, was drafting the script. Additional details included the casting of MCU star Scarlett Johansson in an unspecified role, recruitment of Godzilla director Gareth Edwards, and a release date set for July 2, 2025. Although the film is not expected to feature returning characters from the previous movies, it suggests a new chapter for the series, with a healthy dose of nostalgia to redeem Jurassic World Dominion's ending.

While fans eagerly awaited the 2025 release of Jurassic World 4 , they were also treated to a sequel to Netflix's Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous . Initially discovered at a 2023 toy fair and teased in November of the same year, Jurassic World: Chaos Theory debuted in 2024. Despite some criticism regarding the final seasons of Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous being bizarre and at times absurd, its successor managed to hit all the right notes. Centered around the death of fan-favorite character Brooklynn and the new conspiracy that followed, the first season of Jurassic World: Chaos Theory delivered an emotional watch filled with action, intrigue, and plenty of dinosaurs to keep audiences engaged. Met with critical acclaim and the promise of a second season, Jurassic World: Chaos Theory proved to be worth the wait, keeping the series alive even after the supposed end of the "Jurassic era."

• During its 2023 re-release, Jurassic Park managed to outgross Elemental , Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, and the live-action remake of The Little Mermaid in the box office.

How Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous Connects to the Movies

Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous takes place about the same time as the movies, while making several references to the whole franchise.

It can be argued that the Jurassic Park franchise needed a break and that announcing a new movie right after Jurassic World Dominion would have been too soon. Moreover, it can also be said that giving the Jurassic Park series a respite to let new ideas grow organically might've been what it needed. One element remains constant when reflecting on these suggestions for Universal's franchise: time. As much as audiences wanted the big, groundbreaking announcement of Jurassic World 4 and more to hold onto than a few revelatory scraps about Jurassic World: Chaos Theory , it was probably for the best that the franchise got its genetically engineered ducks in a row before unleashing them upon eager fans. After all, Jurassic Park showed the importance of preparation, consultation, and research. If fictional creator John Hammond had opened his park before it was ready, the results would have been even more disastrous. While neither of the biggest projects arrived in time to make Jurassic Park's 30th anniversary a more worthwhile occasion, it ensured that what came after would be a promise worth keeping.

The first Jurassic Park movie billed itself as "an adventure 65 million years in the making," while Jurassic World taught audiences that the Isla Nublar resort wasn't built in a day. If there's anything to be learned from the Jurassic Park anniversary, it's the value of patience and that celebrations happen every day. While taking time to recognize a well-deserved milestone is healthy for a franchise, ultimately, it's just one day. What truly matters is what has allowed this franchise to endure over the decades: the cherished memories it has created and how its legacy continues to evolve and endear audiences.

Jurassic Park

Scientists bring back dinosaurs for an amusement park, but everyone learns that the dinosaurs cannot be contained in the Jurassic Park franchise.

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‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ review

'jurassic world: fallen kingdom' brings some dark intensity to the franchise.

The formula for the Jurassic Park films has always been relatively simple: Take an island full of dinosaurs, add humans, and let chaos ensue.

The recipe has been tweaked a bit here and there, but the fundamental ingredients have always remained constant — much like audiences’ excitement for the films, which has made the Jurassic Park franchise one of Hollywood’s highest-grossing series  ever.

While it would be difficult to match the success of 2015’s record-breaking blockbuster Jurassic World , there’s a lot to like about the latest installment of the franchise, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom , which lacks its predecessor’s sense of wonder, but offers a darker, more intense adventure than previous films.

Directed by J.A. Bayona, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom brings back  Jurassic World stars Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard as dinosaur behaviorist Owen Grady and former park operations manager Claire Dearing, respectively. The pair are recruited to rescue the remaining dinosaurs of Isla Nublar after the island’s volcano suddenly becomes active, but their mission takes a deadly turn when they get caught up in a diabolical scheme to weaponize the surviving dinosaurs.

Bayona is best known for his work in moody horror films, with 2007’s  The Orphanage first catching the attention of critics and audiences, and 2016’s  A Monster Calls showcasing his knack for dark fantasy and effects-driven scares. Those skills are on full display in  Fallen Kingdom , which feels significantly darker than  Jurassic World and any of the earlier Jurassic Park films, both in its palette and its overall tone.

There’s a lot to like about the latest installment of the franchise.

Where many of the earlier films were satisfied to leave the scares to the dinosaurs,  Fallen Kingdom  features some of the franchise’s most overtly villainous human characters so far, with motivations far more sinister than the usual, theme-park-related aspirations. After four films that exhaustively explored just about every corner of the dinosaurs-as-attractions premise, the shift in theme gives  Fallen Kingdom a unique feel in the franchise, but it’s likely to polarize fans with its willingness to abandon some of the series’ more traditional emotional cues.

Although 2015’s  Jurassic World was essentially a reboot of the franchise, its success in capturing the sense of wonder and beauty in the notion of bringing dinosaurs back from extinction — before all of the running and screaming, that is — was a big part of what worked about the movie. Of all the films so far, it was the closest in spirit to Steven Spielberg’s franchise-spawning  Jurassic Park , and like that 1993 film,  Jurassic World kindled that sense of amazement with breathtaking visual effects and cinematography.

Fallen Kingdom feels like a smaller movie than  Jurassic World (or  Jurassic Park , for that matter), as it doesn’t seem interested in evoking that sense of wide-eyed astonishment at dinosaurs walking among us. Instead, it wants to show audiences the terrifying possibilities in mixing dinosaurs with mankind’s worst impulses. The movie’s protagonists spend as much time avoiding the jaws and claws of dinosaurs as they spend hiding from the guns of mercenaries and the machinations of evil men in  Fallen Kingdom , making for a distinctly different approach to the premise than previous films have taken — and one that’s likely to generate some strong reactions from its audience.

Both Howard and Pratt seem comfortable in returning to their  Jurassic World characters, but their roles don’t hold much in the way of surprises in Fallen Kingdom . Howard’s character has warmed a bit since the events of the previous film, and Pratt’s character appears to have picked up some serious hand-to-hand combat skills, but otherwise it’s running, jumping, and dinosaur-evading business as usual for both actors, who have the charisma to keep things entertaining even when the events feel familiar.

Fallen Kingdom is a masterpiece of visual effects that makes every scene look fantastic.

Although the newcomers to the franchise in  Fallen Kingdom all do well in their roles, the film doesn’t offer any truly standout performances. It’s nice to see Jeff Goldblum reprise his original franchise role as Dr. Ian Malcolm, but even his part feels more decorative than necessary.

As with all of the films in the Jurassic Park franchise,  Fallen Kingdom is a masterpiece of visual effects that makes every scene look fantastic, even in the story’s most terrifying moments. The dinosaurs are not only amazing to watch in action, but also rendered with a level of detail that makes each dinosaur distinct, even when the action is at its most hectic. In other films, digitally created creatures often blur together when they tussle or otherwise group up closely in a scene, but the level of attention they’re paid in  Fallen Kingdom  — and all of the Jurassic Park movies, for that matter — goes a long way toward making them viable characters in the story.

Still, despite the fresh spin on the Jurassic Park franchise that  Fallen Kingdom provides, the film falls a little short when it comes to engaging with the deeper philosophical questions it brings up.

Bayona’s dark tone gives the ethical issues explored by the film the perception of extra weight, but the story stops short of actually dealing with all of the overarching moral dilemmas its characters face. The question of whether humanity should let the dinosaurs die off again or save them, possibly threatening our own existence in doing so, is brought up over and over in the film, but never explored any more deeply than to wonder aloud about the right decision. The moral issues surrounding cloning — as it pertains to dinosaurs and humans — are introduced at various points but never tackled with any sincere narrative effort.

Fallen Kingdom is an ambitious film, certainly. It succeeds in bringing the Jurassic Park franchise in a new direction and offers a peek at the wider storytelling potential of the films, but it stumbles a bit in its efforts to use that premise as a vehicle for exploring more cerebral, philosophical themes. That said, it’s just as beautiful a film to behold as its predecessors were in their time, even if it filters its dinosaur-filled world through a dark lens.

While the film is certain to have a fair share of detractors who feel the absence of wonder a little too acutely in  Fallen Kingdom , the story’s willingness to take the franchise in new directions feels like a risk worth taking, and the final product is a visual spectacle that’s well worth experiencing.

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Following several delays caused by the pandemic and the Warner Bros.-Discovery merger, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom finally swam its way into theaters. Set a few years after the first film, Arthur Curry must team up with his villainous brother Orm to defeat his nemesis, Black Manta, who has returned to destroy all that he holds dear with the power of the cursed Black Trident.

Fittingly marketed as Aquaman's last stand, this sequel film marks the final chapter set in the DC Extended Universe. After The Flash ended with the Scarlet Speedster using his powers to reboot the timeline, many have wondered how this would lead into James Gunn's DC Universe. Now that the DCEU has released its final chapter, it's a good time to break down what's next for the franchise. What's canon in the DCU?

The last superhero movie of 2023 is finally here. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is following up on the $1.15 billion dollar success of the first Aquaman film, which is no easy feat to repeat. But this time, director James Wan isn't recreating Romancing the Stone vibes with Arthur Curry/Aquaman (Jason Momoa) and Mera (Amber Heard). Instead, the sequel is a bromance between Arthur and his estranged half-brother, Orm (Patrick Wilson).

Family relationships are always tough, but especially so under the sea since Orm did try to kill Arthur and destroy the surface world (which is basically where all of us live). But what's a little oceanic Armageddon between brothers when they have a common enemy to fight in Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II)? That's why Orm is on Aquaman's side in the sequel, but you'll have to watch the film to find out if the brothers fully reconcile.

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Leave the World Behind (2023).

Sam Esmail’s new thriller, Leave the World Behind, ends with two major stand-offs and a short epilogue that is more satisfying than it really has any right to be. The film spends its final minutes cutting back and forth between a tense confrontation between G.H. Scott (Mahershala Ali), Clay Sandford (Ethan Hawke), and G.H.’s doomsday prepper former contractor, Danny (Kevin Bacon), and a terrifying encounter that Clay’s wife, Amanda (Julia Roberts), and G.H.’s daughter, Ruth (Myha'la), share in the woods with a strangely aggressive herd of deer. The latter scene is preceded by an argument between Amanda and Ruth about the former’s coldness toward seemingly everyone outside of her family.

10 Movies Like Jurassic Park You Can Watch Online Right Now

Published on.

Keith Langston

Official JustWatch writer

Giant dinosaurs eating people and destroying everything… what more could you want from a movie? Well, throw in some big stars like Laura Dern and Samuel L. Jackson , and have it all directed by the legendary Steven Spielberg . It’s no wonder Jurassic Park grossed over $1 billion throughout its lifetime and spent a whopping 81 weeks in theaters during its initial run in 1993 (it’s since been re-released numerous times).

If you’re the type who likes giant animals destroying things, tons of dino madness, or even a bit of genetics gone wrong, you’re going to love these 10 movies. Check out our guide below to discover 10 movies like Jurassic Park you can watch right now using streaming services like Netflix , Prime Video , Max , Disney+ and many more!

While he might not be a dinosaur… he’s basically kind of a dinosaur? Depending on which film/franchise you watch, Godzilla is either a genetically modified reptile who mutated from nuclear radiation, or he’s a previously unknown dinosaur lured by nuclear radiation. Either way, 2014’s Godzilla is big, awesome, and destroys everything in sight. Anyone who loves the dino carnage in Jurassic Park will surely be a Godzilla fan.

Unlike the new MonsterVerse storyline, in Peter Jackson’s 2005 film, Skull Island is inhabited by dinos that are modeled after real dinosaurs. For example, one of the big fight scenes involves Kong and a “V-Rex”, a creature heavily influenced by the real-life tyrannosaurids family. Other creatures in the movie are heavily inspired by dinosaurs like brontosauruses and velociraptors. For a more fantastical vision of dinosaurs, King Kong is a sure bet.

In 65, Adam Driver plays a space pilot who crash lands on a mysterious planet filled with giant monsters. But it’s later revealed that he’s actually an alien who crash-landed on Earth in the days before the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. So the monsters are actually dinosaurs. Whereas Jurassic Park brought dinos into the modern world, 65 shows a person lost in the time of dinosaurs.

Deep Blue Sea

While not technically centered around dinosaurs, Deep Blue Sea has a lot in common with Jurassic Park. In the movie, a trio of genetically modified mako sharks escape their enclosures during a storm and cause absolute bloodshed… sound familiar? Plus, sharks are considered “living dinosaurs” since they’ve been evolving for hundreds of millions of years, somehow outliving numerous mass extinction events. So when you think about it, Deep Blue Sea actually is about dinosaurs.

Tammy and the T-Rex

Let’s face it, we all love the T-Rex in Jurassic Park. The name literally means “tyrant lizard”, so what’s not to love? For more T-Rex madness, check out Tammy and the T-Rex. In the film, a high schooler (Paul Walker) has his brain inserted into a giant robotic T-Rex, and then he sets out for revenge against everyone who wronged him. The film is campy, bonkers, wild, and tons of fun.

Sure, it’s not technically a dinosaur. But a giant 25-foot anaconda is basically one. After all, there really was a prehistoric snake called the Titanboa which could reach 40 feet long, so the movie isn’t as fictitious as you might think. The film follows an Amazonian expedition that unfortunately encounters the giant anaconda, and before long, the researchers are fighting for their lives. 

If giant snakes aren’t scary enough for you, how about creepy, slithery worms… that are the size of a school bus? In Tremors, a small desert town is terrorized by giant, burrowing (and predatory) wormlike creatures. Starring Kevin Bacon and Reba McEntire, the film is tons of fun and is an often-overlooked creature feature that deserves to be watched.

In Jurassic Park, the real villains are the humans who try to play God. If you want another movie about scientists manipulating DNA for all the wrong reasons, look no further than Splice. In the movie, a scientific duo creates a human-animal hybrid… and that’s when things get weird. Not only does the creature kill the couple’s cat and have sex with Adrien Brody, but then she undergoes a Sequential hermaphroditic transformation and becomes male, and then tries to murder them both. Ah, nature!

Cloverfield

Sure, Cloverfield is about an alien and not a dinosaur, but we all know damn well that dino fans can’t resist watching a giant 30-story alien monster destroy Manhattan. Plus, when Cloverfield came out in 2008, it was basically the lone monster movie of that decade and reignited interest in the genre. Without Cloverfield, we likely wouldn’t have Pacific Rim , the MonsterVerse, or Jurassic World .

In Congo, an expedition into the Congolian rainforest discovers a rare breed of grey, murderous gorillas who inhabit a diamond mine. While the movie is pretty different from Jurassic Park, the lush jungle setting, animal enemies, and “nature finds a way” plotline definitely give off some major Jurassic Park vibes. Plus, it has Tim Curry, what could be better?

Where to watch movies like Jurassic Park online

Check out our list below to find the best movies like Jurassic Park streaming online in the United States right now!

Ford Brody, a Navy bomb expert, has just reunited with his family in San Francisco when he is forced to go to Japan to help his estranged father, Joe. Soon, both men are swept up in an escalating crisis when an ancient alpha predator arises from the sea to combat malevolent adversaries that threaten the survival of humanity. The creatures leave colossal destruction in their wake, as they make their way toward their final battleground: San Francisco.

In 1933 New York, an overly ambitious movie producer coerces his cast and hired ship crew to travel to mysterious Skull Island, where they encounter Kong, a giant ape who is immediately smitten with the leading lady.

65 million years ago, the only 2 survivors of a spaceship from Somaris that crash-landed on Earth, must fend off dinosaurs to reach the escape vessel in time before an imminent asteroid strike threatens to destroy the planet.

Researchers on the undersea lab Aquatica have genetically altered the brains of captive sharks to develop a cure for Alzheimer's disease. But there's an unexpected side effect: the sharks got smarter, faster, and more dangerous. After a big storm damages their remote research facility, they must fight for their lives.

An evil scientist implants the brain of a murdered high school student into an animatronic Tyrannosaurus, who later wreaks vengeance on the bullies who killed him, and is reunited with his sweetheart.

A "National Geographic" film crew is taken hostage by an insane hunter, who takes them along on his quest to capture the world's largest - and deadliest - snake.

Val McKee and Earl Bassett are in a fight for their lives when they discover that their desolate town has been infested with gigantic, man-eating creatures that live below the ground.

Elsa and Clive, two young rebellious scientists, defy legal and ethical boundaries and forge ahead with a dangerous experiment: splicing together human and animal DNA to create a new organism. Named "Dren", the creature rapidly develops from a deformed female infant into a beautiful but dangerous winged human-chimera, who forges a bond with both of her creators - only to have that bond turn deadly.

Five young New Yorkers throw their friend a going-away party the night that a monster the size of a skyscraper descends upon the city. Told from the point of view of their video camera, the film is a document of their attempt to survive the most surreal, horrifying event of their lives.

Eight people embark on an expedition into the Congo, a mysterious expanse of unexplored Africa where human greed and the laws of nature have gone berserk. When the thrill-seekers -- some with ulterior motives -- stumble across a race of killer apes.

The First Story Details For New Jurassic World Movie Are Here, And Kind Of Boring

Gareth Edwards' new film in the "Jurassic Park/World" series hasn't yet been given an official title, but —  according to a report in Variety  — may likely be called "Jurassic City." It will be the seventh film to be based on Michael Crichton's 1990 adventure novel. 

The new film will be written by longtime blockbuster scribe David Koepp, and is being described as "a completely fresh take launching a new Jurassic era, following three adults and three teens getting stuck on the Island." The Island is presumably Isla Nublar, the fictional Costa Rican island where Steven Spielberg's "Jurassic Park" (1993) took place. 

It may be generous to call the story "completely fresh," as "characters trapped on an island with dinosaurs" is also the plot of "Jurassic Park," "The Lost World: Jurassic Park," "Jurassic Park III," and "Jurassic World." Only "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" and "Jurassic World: Dominion" don't take place entirely on a remote, dinosaur-infested island. It seems, however, that Edwards' film will not include characters from any of the previous "Jurassic" movies. One can say, then, that it will feature a "completely fresh" new batch of characters to serve to hungry dinosaurs. The species of dinosaurs to be featured has not yet been revealed.

The cast of Edwards' film will include Scarlett Johansson and Mahershala Ali, as well as Jonathan Bailey, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Rupert Friend, Luna Blaise, and David Iacono. The new "Jurassic" is currently being shot in Thailand, Malta, and the UK. The Variety article goes into great detail about which areas of Thailand will be visited. The Thai Environmental minister went on record, assuring readers that the makers of "Jurassic City" will be careful not to damage the local environment.

The other Jurassic City

Edwards' new film is not to be confused with Sean Cain's 2015 film "Jurassic City." In that film, a pack of dinosaurs breaks out of a secret government facility (!), and must be rounded up and transported to a nearby city-sized prison overseen by Ray Wise . Naturally, the dinosaurs will also break out of their new cages and run amok in the prison. Three sorority girls (Dana Melanie, Sofia Mattsson, and Kayla Carlyle) happened to be visiting the prison during the dinosaur breakout, and will have to fight both the animals and a group of well-armed Black Ops soldiers to survive. "Jurassic City" is one of many, many, many dinosaur-based "Jurassic Park" imitation films — commonly called mockbusters — that have been released since 1993.

Gareth Edwards' film will likely contain no references to Cain's film. It is currently scheduled for release on July 2, 2025 . 

The canonical "Jurassic" franchise includes six theatrically released feature films, two short films (both directed by Colin Trevorrow), and two animated TV specials called "Lego Jurassic World: The Secret Exhibit" and "Lego Jurassic World: Legend of Isla Nublar." The Lego films are not canonical with the live-action features. In 2020, Netflix released a canonical animated TV series called "Jurassic Park: Camp Cretaceous." The TV series also spawned a 2024 straight-to-Netflix film called "Jurassic World: Chaos Theory," which is set in between the events of "Fallen Kingdom" and "Dominion." These movies and TV shows are all presented in addition to theme park rides, video games, slot machines, and Lord knows how much tie-in merchandise. 

The six theatrical featured have made over $6 billion worldwide.

• Cast & crew

Jurassic World 4

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• Gareth Edwards
• Michael Crichton
• David Koepp
• Jonathan Bailey
• Scarlett Johansson
• Mahershala Ali

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia Gareth Edwards "dropped everything" to direct the film, stating before production, "I was about to take a break and I started writing my next idea for a film and this is the only movie that would make me drop everything like a stone and dive right in. I love Jurassic Park (1993) ...so this opportunity is like a dream to me. And to work with Frank Marshall and Universal and David Koepp , who's writing the script, I think they're all legends. So I'm just very excited."
• July 2, 2025 (United States)
• United States
• Thế Giới Khủng Long 4
• Sky Studios Elstree, Borehamwood, UK (Studio)
• Amblin Entertainment
• The Kennedy/Marshall Company
• Universal Pictures
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $265,000,000 (estimated)

Technical specs

• IMAX 6-Track
• Dolby Atmos

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