Warning: SPOILERS for Jurassic World Dominion below.
The most recent installment of the Jurassic Park franchise, Jurassic World Dominion, fails its three original legacy characters upon their return to the franchise. Ellie Sattler, Alan Grant, and Ian Malcolm reunite in the action-packed dinosaur extravaganza but their characters don't show what made them so beloved and respected in the first place. Each of them adopts an individual characterization problem, showing clearly how Jurassic World Dominion fails them.
Jurassic World Dominion picks up four years after the cataclysmic ending of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and briefly shows the effects of dinosaurs loosed upon civilization. As Claire and Owen desperately attempt to keep Maisie safe from capture, Ellie Sattler returns to the Jurassic Park franchise to recruit Alan Grant in her cause to investigate BioSyn's shady genetics research. They reunite with Ian Malcolm, who is speaking at seminars for BioSyn and informs them about the facility's corrupt boss. In the characters' efforts to dismantle the corruption, more chaos between dinosaurs and man erupts.
The franchise's three legendary original characters hadn't been reunited since the first Jurassic Park movie, and massive hype was built around the possibilities of where their characters could go in the new generation. Laura Dern, Sam Neill, and Jeff Goldblum appear in Jurassic World Dominion longer than Goldblum does in Fallen Kingdom, but they still aren't given enough to do in the plot. Unfortunately, the lack of significance they have in the narrative takes away from the film's nostalgic charm. Each of these three Jurassic Park legacy characters is portrayed in a way that removes or disrespects their agency and unique characteristics. Here's how Jurassic World Dominion failed its franchise's original characters.
Jurassic World Dominion Betrays Ellie Sattler's Jurassic Park Bravery
In Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park, Ellie Sattler is played by Laura Dern as an ambitious and gutsy paleobotanist. Her bravery is one of her more notable characteristics, especially when the more suspenseful action begins. A famous scene from the movie shows Sattler running away from an aggressive dinosaur even after she's broken a leg. While the scene works to give her character an appropriate amount of vulnerability, it also showcases her backbone. Strong female characters are sparse, even in the 1990s, but the traits of hers that were so vital in Jurassic Park are neglected in Dominion.
Laura Dern returns with Ellie's usual grit at the beginning of Jurassic World Dominion but the movie slowly undermines her established strengths. This is especially egregious in scenes involving the oversized locusts. In one scene where she's extracting DNA from them with Alan, they begin to swarm, and the pair scream in fright while struggling to get out of the insects' containment chamber. It is suspenseful, but her squeamishness with the bugs appears later again in the film when she and Claire are walking down a hall filled with dead locusts. The fear hinders her ability to finish vital tasks and is something she would have easily been able to brush off in Jurassic Park. With it, Dominion sadly devastates the legendary bravery of her character, especially because the second scene is played off as comic relief and unneeded.
Jurassic World Dominion Fails To Show Alan Grant's Biggest Conflict
A defining trademark of Dr. Alan Grant's character is the dedication he has to his paleontology work. It's implied in Jurassic Park 3 that he and Ellie never settled down together because he's too married to his job. Jurassic World Dominion had a great opportunity to take advantage of their reunion to develop his character and their dynamic together but makes the barest of efforts to show his willingness to finally move on. In Dominion, his escalating loneliness is apparent as is his lingering love for Ellie. However, there aren't enough relationship moments between the two of them to rationalize why he chooses to finally be with Ellie by the end of the film. Alan should have discussed, in-depth, the reasons he's grown apart from his work to better establish this change in character. The weakly executed narrative disrespects the conflict that so strongly defined Alan in the original films.
Ian Malcolm's BioSyn Job Hurts His Jurassic Character Arc
Jeff Goldblum returns to Jurassic World Dominion with every ounce of Ian Malcolm's charisma and attitude. Despite this, Dominion still fails his character in a major way. Malcolm is a stand-out character in the Jurassic Park films because of his moral resistance to the effects of John Hammond's genetic research. He warns Hammond and his scientists about the ramifications of bringing dinosaurs back into existence and remains averse to Hammond's mysticism. By having Ian Malcolm working at BioSyn in Dominion, the franchise upends the righteousness he'd earned, and in a bad way. Though he's aware of the corruption in BioSyn and helps his friends stop it, he's initially framed to be an antagonist and potential sellout, completely disrespecting the progressive goals Ian Malcolm stands for. Luckily, Dominion's conclusion redeems this issue somewhat by having him outright reject BioSyn CEO Lewis Dodgson's motivations.
While the characters feel much different than they did in Jurassic Park, the returning actors at least still share deeply untouchable chemistry. Unfortunately, the most recent movie in the franchise doesn't earn its conclusions for these legacy characters. Despite the pitfalls of Jurassic World Dominion, however, the narrative is certainly left open for a potential Jurassic World 4 in the future.
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