'Jurassic World Dominion' is like a tricked out pick-up truck that won't fit in the garage

The overstuffed, under-executed “Jurassic World Dominion” is kind of like one of those enormous pick-up trucks with all the extra gizmos.

Sure, it sounds good in theory, but then you realize it won’t fit in the garage.

There is a really cool idea at the heart of the film, which brings together the cast of the original “Jurassic Park” movies and the cast of the latest bunch from the “Jurassic World” ones for the first time. Although, they’re kind of like guests staying in different parts of the same hotel who just happen to run into each other at dinner.

The film, directed by Colin Trevorrow, begins four years after the iffy “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” left off, with dinosaurs living among us. And not always happily.

A montage of some annoyances and some out-and-out attacks make it clear that humans are having to adjust to the dinosaurs, not vice versa. And why not? They seem to be saying, if you’re going to bring us back, we’re not messing around.

Road trip: 'Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom' gets off the island

This is really a battle between eco-saviors and villains

Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) is now a kind of eco-terrorist, for all the right reasons — stealing dinosaurs from farms that abuse them and funneling them to places that can help them. And Owen Grady (Chris Pratt), who she’s still with, lives with her out in a cabin in the middle of cold nowhere.

Living with them is someone — someone you'll recognize — who is very much wanted by Lewis Dodgson (Campbell Scott, classing up the joint).

Dodgson runs Biosyn, one of those companies that seems like it’s doing good things for the planet, while it is in fact doing more than its fair share to ruin it.

Scott is excellent, a fusion of Steve Jobs and Tim Cook, seemingly, blending all of the idiosyncrasies of these visionaries with a touch of Elon Musk evil. Not because he is evil, per se, but whatever accomplishes the main goals is fair game.

The original cast is clumsily teamed up with the new one

Meanwhile a huge swarm of locusts — make that a huge swarm of huge locusts — has clued Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern), still knocking around since the first movie, that something is amiss.

She calls in old flame Alan Grant (cranky Sam Neill), brushing off bones at an archeological dig and lonely. She enlists him to help check out Dodgson’s company, which seems to be behind the locust development.

Who should be working for Dodgson, but Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), part of the original trio with Ellie and Alan, and now a kind of low-rent prophet (and bestselling author?).

Mamoudou Athie and DeWanda Wise are, along with Scott, the best of the new additions.

Athie plays Ramsay Cole, a true believer in Dodgson. Wise is Kayla Watts, a Han Solo sort of pilot who seems to be willing to take the most lucrative job no matter what, but maybe not.

There is a kidnapping of both a person and a dinosaur, a plot device to bring the gangs all together at Biosyn where they must fend off the inevitable catastrophe we’ve come to expect in these films.

If you're looking for magic when the old and the new crews get together, you won’t really find it. It’s OK, fine, nothing more. Certainly not a “Spider-Man: No Way Home” situation, a generational meeting for the ages.

Another film that's all about special effects

Honestly, I could have spent the whole movie, nearly two and a half hours, watching humans trying and failing to co-exist with dinosaurs.

It made me wonder: Is there acceptable risk in this scenario? Like in the 1990s, when dog-wolf hybrids were popular, albeit with the knowledge they might snap and gnaw your arm off? What does a wandering T. Rex do to property values in your neighborhood? Can anyone ever truly sleep well at night, knowing dinosaurs are out there?

Those questions aren’t answered, and aren’t even asked, in “Jurassic World Dominion.”

But then, I have found even the best films in this franchise — the first one, basically — to be more exercises in technical wizardry than anything else.

Watching computer-generated dinosaurs was a big deal then. Now it’s expected. The problem with this film, like so many of the others, is that there isn’t much more to it.

'Jurassic World Dominion' 2.5 stars

Great ★★★★★ Good ★★★★

Fair ★★★ Bad ★★ Bomb ★

Director: Colin Trevorrow.

Cast: Chris Pratt, Laura Dern, Bryce Dallas Howard.

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

Note: In theaters June 10.

Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk. Subscribe to the weekly movies newsletter.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 'Jurassic World Dominion' movie review: Two casts, one wasted idea