I absolutely loved Jurassic World: Dominion, and fully because I am but a humble servant to the dino franchise. But what I really loved about the final installment in the Jurassic World trilogy was how much it utilized the cast from Jurassic Park. When news broke that Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum would be returning as Dr. Alan Grant, Dr. Ellie Sattler, and Dr. Ian Malcolm (respectively), it became a simple question of how much of Alan, Ellie, and Ian would we actually get to see?
**Spoilers ahead for Jurassic World: Dominion.**
In the original trilogy, the three were only really together in the first Jurassic Park movie, and while Ian had his time in The Lost World, we only briefly saw Ellie again in Jurassic Park III, which featured Alan more. So there hasn’t been a return to the franchise for all three of them in nearly 20 years, and with the Jurassic World trilogy being focused more on Chris Pratt’s Owen Grady and Bryce Dallas Howard’s Claire Dearing, it felt like we might not get to see much of them anyway (especially since Ian Malcolm was briefly featured in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom for one scene).
Instead, what we got in Dominion was two separate storylines, coming together by the end, that brought the old trilogy into the new one in such a way that didn’t feel like a forced “Oh, see? Here are those characters you know and love,” but rather two different groups fighting the same fight joining together to win and it ruled.
More than a cameo
From the jump, fans were worried that Alan, Ellie, and Ian would have a scene and that’d be it, but the story really is focused on Ellie and Alan trying to get to bio-tech company Biosyn to see Ian and see what he’s discovered about their involvement with the plague of (giant) locusts threatening the entire Earth’s ecosystem, and it’s mixed with Owen and Claire trying to get to Biosyn themselves to save their daughter, Maisie. And the movie does a great job balancing the two storylines and making both feel complete without really taking anything away from the original trio or the Jurassic World cast.
And it feels good to have them back. The story connects at Biosyn because Ian is there working as a lecturer, and he invites Ellie to come to investigate what they’re doing with these new bugs. Ellie goes to get Alan because she needs his expertise, and it just all feels right. There’s nothing that feels like they forced it just for the nostalgia.
Did I wish that Ian Malcolm and Alan Grant made out with each other? Yes, obviously. I instantly left the movie and wanted to look up fanfiction about them all being a throuple together. But it also just felt like what I’ve been missing since that first Jurassic Park movie. Jurassic World: Dominion doesn’t shy away from the nostalgia and doesn’t act like these characters don’t mean a lot to us, and it works in the movie’s favor—and now I want more (even if I know that this is the end).
(featured image: Universal Pictures)
