For a franchise called Jurassic Park , spending 40% of the runtime on a subplot about genetically modified bugs destroying Midwest cornfields feels like a bait-and-switch. The dinosaurs become background noise in their own movie. You came to see a T. rex chase a car; instead, you get a boardroom meeting about crop yields.

The elevator scene with Ian Malcolm, Alan Grant, and a very confused modern scientist. Worst moment: Any scene where a character explains the “locust genome.”

Finally, the villains are weak. Lewis Dodgson (the man who paid Nedry in the first film) is reduced to a mustache-twirling CEO. The dinosaurs are no longer the antagonists; the locusts and the bad guy with an evil computer are. Jurassic World Dominion is not a disaster, but it is a disappointment. It tries to be three movies at once: a globetrotting spy thriller, a serious sci-fi drama about genetic power, and a dinosaur chase flick. By trying to satisfy everyone, it fully satisfies no one.

Jurassic World Dominion is the end of an era. It’s messy, overstuffed, and illogical. But it’s also heartfelt and occasionally thrilling. Just like the dinosaurs themselves, it’s a magnificent relic that probably should have been left extinct.

Jurassic World Dominion : Nostalgia Over Nature