Jurassic World Dominion

Essential only in the sense that it closes the trilogy, and it is the weakest film here by common consent. The verdict above is about position rather than quality: this is where the Jurassic World story ends and where Rebirth picks up from, so skipping it leaves a gap.

The central disappointment is a choice, not an accident. Fallen Kingdom ended with dinosaurs loose in the world, which promised a film about what that world looks like. What arrives instead is a plot about genetically engineered locusts destroying crops, with a biotech company in a remote compound, and the dinosaurs mostly relegated to set dressing in a story they are not driving. The most interesting footage, an underground trading market in Malta and a sequence in the Dolomites, is over by the midpoint.

Bringing back Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum is the film's best instinct and its most wasted. They are given a separate plot for most of the running time, reunited for a corridor sequence, and the reunion plays as an arrangement rather than a reason. Goldblum is handed one-liners instead of the argument the first film gave him.

At a hundred and forty-seven minutes it is the longest in the series and has the least incident per minute. There is an extended cut that restores around fourteen minutes and is marginally better paced. Watch it to finish the trilogy, and do not expect it to deliver what the previous film set up.