Movie Review: Jurassic World Dominion

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A mediocre film that brings together the “Jurassic World” and “Jurassic Park” franchises that can’t overcome ridiculously over the top action, lame dinosaurs and not-so-intimidating human villains. The plot at its heart is flimsy, but the execution ramps it up to eleven to cover this fact. The two storylines that bring together the casts of both franchises a pretty evenly distributed, so it feels more earned when the groups finally meet up. There are a few new additions to the cast that are fine, but with so many characters already, it makes the film feel bloated. While there are plenty of dinosaurs, there’s not really one big bad that stands out as most of the reptiles are just temporary obstacles instead of major threats. And while the humans at the evil corporation are the true villains, they end up doing very little to be much of threat. There are a couple big action scenes, but they require some serious suspension of disbelief, and the heroes never feel like they’re in any real danger.

** out of *****

Movie Review: Top Gun: Maverick

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Despite a slow build up, cookie-cutter secondary characters and a slightly convoluted third act, the sequel to 1986’s “Top Gun” delivers in the end thanks to intense action sequences, strong lead characters and solid emotional payoffs. The film starts off slow, dishing out nostalgia while letting us catch up with Maverick before suddenly laying out the big mission (against an enemy that’s so intentionally vague it’s almost comical.) We’re then quickly introduced to the rest of the cast. While Jennifer Connelly’s Penny has enough charisma to keep up with Cruise, (even though she’s just a blatant swap out for Maverick’s love interest from the first film), the dozen or so pilots that fill out the cast are fairly generic and unmemorable. They’re all ridiculously good looking, in great shape and a bit cocky, with only Miles Teller’s Rooster getting any real characterization. The action during the training montages is fine but suffers from the fact that all the planes look alike on the outside, making it easy to lose track of who’s who. However, the finale is set up well and leads into the tension-filled final act. While this goes on a little too long, it leads to a few crowd-pleasing moments and some catharsis for the characters.

*** out of *****