'Jurassic World Dominion' brings trilogy to a guilty-pleasure-packed conclusion | Movie review

Jun. 8—It took six movies, but dinosaurs finally roam the earth again.

That the magnificent, sometimes winged creatures no longer are confined to an island in the new "Jurassic World Dominion" — in the movie's opening moments, we see them in the desert, at sea and elsewhere — is just one element contributing to this being the most entertaining of the "Jurassic World" entries.

Another is that this trilogy-closing effort not only reunites the three main figures from 1993's "Jurassic Park" — Laura Dern's Dr. Ellie Sattler, Sam Neill's Dr. Alan Grant and Jeff Goldblum's Dr. Ian Malcolm — and pairs them with the heroes of 2015 smash hit "Jurassic World" and its disappointing 2018 sequel, "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" — Chris Pratt's Owen Grady and Bryce Dallas Howard's Claire Dearing — but does so skillfully. "Dominion" is a movie that never feels as if it's too crowded with characters, all the key players getting enough time on screen to be reasonably impactful.

Perhaps most important, however, is that it's a fast-paced thrill ride, a movie with hard-charging prehistoric beasts. "Dominion" has little interest in giving you time to think about how silly the thing you just saw was; it will just throw something else at you.

Directed and co-written by trilogy mastermind Colin Trevorrow, "Dominion" is set four years after the events of "Kingdom."

Still together, Owen and Claire are living off the grid with 14-year-old Maisie Lockwood (a returning Isabella Sermon), a clone of a woman she had thought was her natural mother. Maisie wants more freedom than her pseudo parents are willing to grant her out of their fear someone will come for her, so she must make do with friends such as Velociraptor Blue and her 4-foot-tall child, Beta.

Meanwhile, Ellie goes to visit old friend Alan to ask for his help investigating a powerful biotech company, Biosyn, that may be responsible for a plague of super-sized locusts threatening the world's food supply. Ellie is now single, like Alan, so you suspect these two may finally get together. (You also think it's probably no coincidence Biosyn is pronounced "bio sin.")

Biosyn is led by a character from "Jurassic Park," Lewis Dodgson (Campbell Scott, taking over for Cameron Thor), who is employing chaos theory expert Ian at the company's remote complex in Italy's Dolomite Mountains. There is something there Ian wants Ellie to see.

And that's ultimately where all the aforementioned characters — as well as a new ally to Owen and Claire, tough pilot Kayla Watts (DeWanda Wise, "She's Gotta Have It") — are heading.

So much of the action takes place in the forest surrounding the complex, as well as in the air above it, that "Dominion" ultimately feels a lot like previous installments. It's a little disappointing that we don't get, say, a Tyrannosaurus rex having its way in the streets of New York, but there's no time to focus on that. Trevorrow simply throws so much at us — including some action set in Malta that at times feels like it's out of a James Bond film and at others an Indiana Jones adventure.

The director of 2012's "Safety Not Guaranteed" and 2017's "The Book of Henry" was at the helm for "World," which earned a global box office of $1.7 billion. He returns to the director's chair after handing it off to pal J. A. Bayona for "Fallen Kingdom" and co-wrote "Dominion" with his "Battle at Big Rock" collaborator Emily Carmichael, working from a story he constructed with longtime associate Derek Connolly.

Amongst all the action scenes, the writers have provided a satisfying amount of character moments, with Pratt ("Guardians of the Galaxy") and, especially, Goldblum ("Thor: Ragnarok") landing solid laughs. Plus, the interactions between Ellie and Grant are really sweet, with plenty of the credit going to the talented Dern ("Little Women") and Neill ("Rams").

The filmmakers also have provided longtime "Jurassic" fans with scads of fun callbacks that go well beyond the return of Lewis or the inclusion of longtime character Dr. Henry Wu (BD Wong, "Mr. Robot").

Plus, there's an especially nice visual reference to the franchise late in the affair.

It should be said "Dominion" can be a little choppy, with editor Mark Sanger ("Gravity") cheating more than once when it comes to getting a character out of a tough spot.

Also, it has a largely forgettable villain in Lewis, who, like other "Jurassic" baddies, mainly is a means to a dinosaur-filled end.

Ultimately, though, this isn't the kind of movie where you complain too much about the editing or the villain.

Instead, you turn off your brain, shove popcorn into your mouth and give yourself over to the spectacular sights — the dinosaurs are, somehow, more impressive than ever — and the epic sounds, the theater speakers working overtime to envelop you in thunder and roar.

"Jurassic World Dominion" arrives in theaters two weeks after another long-delayed larger-than-life affair, "Top Gun: Maverick," which has been soaring at the box office.

After a couple of years in which streaming movies at home was the main option for many, plenty of folks seem exhilarated to be back in front of truly big screens. In fact, at a recent advanced screening of "Dominion," after one wonderfully over-the-top moment, someone in the crowd shouted, "Movies!"

Yep. Movies.

'Jurassic World Dominion'

Where: Theaters.

When: June 10.

Rated: PG-13 for intense sequences of action, some violence and language.

Runtime: 2 hours, 27 minutes.

Stars (of four): 3.