‘Jurassic World: Dominion’ does not honor, re-copy scenes and situations from ‘Jurassic Park’

The third chapter of ‘Jurassic World’ has meant the closure of the new trilogy linking, furthermore, with the old one, since has joined the original cast of ‘Jurassic Park‘ consisting of Alan Grant (Sam Neill), Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) and Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) with the new protagonists Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) and Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard).

SPOILERS FOR ‘JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION’ FOLLOW

‘Jurassic World: Dominion’ promised to be the first installment in which dinosaurs and humans lived together on the continent in freedomand the trailer seemed to advance various situations in which the animals interacted with urban elements… But finally, in the film, these images are practically as extensive as in the trailer. We only see a prologue and an epilogue with images that seem to be taken from a newscast and that serve to introduce the story, showing the dinosaurs as if it were documentary footage.

The only interaction we have between humans and dinosaurs in an urban setting is the atrociraptor chase of Owen Grady in Malta, which seems like something out of a ‘Fast & Furious’ movie and even almost completely dispenses with the soundtrack to focus on the action and forget about the context. The only thing that makes it different from being set in a tropical jungle is that, as Fausto Fernández recalls in his review of ‘Jurassic World: Dominion’, “they eat a fool on a scooter”.

In the end, for one thing or another, Colin Trevorrow and his writing team manage to refocus the action on an isolated nature reserve.where dinosaurs roam freely and the protagonists have to escape from them.

It was clear, especially bringing back the original leading trio, that there were going to be nods to ‘Jurassic Park’. But one thing is a wink (like the references that ‘Jurassic World 3’ makes to Star Wars and Indiana Jones), and quite another is to directly copy entire scenes from beginning to end. Winks are, for example, when Ian Malcolm opens a flare to try to distract the Giganotosaurus just like he did 29 years ago with the T-Rex, or when the same character is warned that his shirt is too unbuttoned, referring to the iconic Jeff Goldblum posed in ‘Jurassic Park’.

But there are at least two scenes that go beyond the tribute and trace from beginning to end several moments already lived in the 1993 filmcausing us a strange déjà vu.

One of them is when Claire and Ellie have to go to disconnect the main power system that supplies the complex. Exactly like in the Steven Spielberg tape, Ellie is guided through tunnels full of cables thanks to a walkie talkie, while Ian details step by step what buttons to press.. It is a scene, moreover, that does not contribute anything, and that could have been given in a totally different way without greatly altering the script, but there it is.

The other one that stands out for its plagiarism self-confidence is the death of villain Lewis Dogson (Campbell Scott), who is the twin sister of his infiltrator Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight) in the original Jurassic Park. Dogson dies in the same way as the hateful computer scientist, with his vehicle stopped and at the hands of a herd of dilophosaurs that use their poison against him and end up devouring him, leaving Barbasol’s boat again abandoned to his fate.

Even the ending, with himThe protagonists leaving by helicopter while the orange light of the fire illuminates a melancholy and relieved lookis the same plane as in previous films, becoming a kind of personal brand of the saga.

It remains to be seen if the saga will return in the future, but what is certain is that they will have to think of new ideas since those of new parks, islands abandoned to their fate and isolated nature reserves are already more than hackneyed within the franchise. Although better that than recovering the dinohuman hybrids from the lost script of ‘Jurassic Park 4’…