ScarJo’s expedition to dinosaur land is leaning into the darker elements of the premise.
Dinosaurs went extinct but Jurassic World (formerly Jurassic Park, I guess) seemingly never will. The received wisdom about Jurassic World Dominion was that it wasn’t very good, being largely concerned with giant grasshoppers rather than dinosaurs, but it did scoop up over a billion at the global box office, which pretty much mandates a sequel. So here one comes, shorn of all pre-existing human characters (unannounced cameos notwithstanding) because, hey – the dinos are the real stars. Let’s have a look:
…now, call me crazy, but that looks like a horror movie trailer to me. It’s certainly cut together to feel like one. We got the first trailer three months ago, and that’s way more in keeping with the general “adventures in dino-land” tone of the franchise. Check it out:
So there’s a real tonal shift there, which indicates we may be revisiting some of the darker, not to mention bloodier, elements of the franchise. Don’t forget back in ’93, Jurassic Park had that dude getting dragged into the velociraptor cage and Samuel L. Jackson’s severed arm. Dennis Nedry? Forget about it.
But to Jurassic World Rebirth! The object of the exercise and the latest directorial effort from Gareth Edwards, who previously gave us the 2014 Godzilla, Rogue One, and the pretty but resoundingly dumb The Creator. On scripting duties we have OG Jurassic Park screenwriter David Koepp, who’s having a bit of a banner year, having penned Steven Soderbergh’s Presence and Black Bag already.
And as to plot, we have Scarlett Johansson as covert operations specialist Zora Bennett, who’s hired to join yet another expedition to yet another island, this one the original experimental dino-making facility, to help paleontologist Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) to retrieve biological material from a range of species for some kind of miracle drug. But unfortunately for all concerned bar the audience, it seems this island is home to a whole bunch of “failed” genetic experiments that have been thriving in isolation for decades, which means things all go a bit Aliens.
Mahershala Ali is on board as mission leader Duncan Kincaid, while Rupert Friend, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Luna Blaise, David Iacono, Audrina Miranda, Philippine Velge, Bechir Sylvain, and Ed Skrein round out the main cast, many of whom will no doubt wind up getting eaten. And that’s about my metric for enjoying a Jurassic World movie: Are there dinosaurs? Do people get eaten? I’m pretty happy, then. I’m also pretty happy with this groovy new poster:
Jurassic World Dominion is in Australian cinemas from July 3, 2025.
MORE IN News
