When dinosaurs walk the earth, stupidity will reign. That’s the motto of Jurassic World Dominion, a movie that can be enjoyed only if you’re willing to seriously temper your expectations.

The seemingly final entry in the current Jurassic Park saga, Jurassic World Dominion is about on par with its predecessor--the incredibly dumb and not-good Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom–but a far, far cry from the relatively grounded and intelligent original.

Even if Jurassic World wasn’t exactly fantastic, it was an entertaining jolt to the franchise. But since then, the filmmakers responsible (Colin Trevorrow, who directed two and co-wrote all three of the second trilogy, is the constant) have taken the tack that audiences just want dinosaurs and don’t care about anything else. The writing doesn’t have to be good, the characters don’t need to be likable, and the plot no longer needs to make sense.

Jurassic World Dominion embraces this philosophy wholeheartedly.

Following the events of Fallen Kingdom, which involved a black market dinosaur auction, a human clone, and said clone foolishly releasing dinosaurs into the world, Dominion looks at what a world filled with both humans and dinosaurs could be. But in reality, it’s an awkward spy adventure that drops the ever-growing cast of characters back into another Jurassic Park.

Talk about missed opportunity.

Unlike many people, I’m not a Chris Pratt hater, though I definitely wasn’t asking for another pairing of him and Bryce Dallas Howard. The two lacked chemistry in the first Jurassic World, and they’re even more uninteresting to watch now. 

The filmmakers seem to at least acknowledge this by spending a fair amount of time with reunited originals Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum, who are a lot more fun to watch even if they are no longer dealing with Spielberg-quality material. It’s great to see the three back together; frankly Jurassic World Dominion would have been a more enjoyable time (and much shorter than its 2.5 hour running time) had Trevorrow just dropped Pratt and Howard entirely.

Nonetheless, Trevorrow does deliver a few thrilling sequences, most notably a motorcycle/velociraptor chase through Malta featuring Pratt, Howard, and a few others. A cave sequence is sort of fun, even if it looks and feels like a cheesy Disneyland ride, and there are no shortage of other dinosaur moments.

But as much action as there is, it’s all so utterly forgettable. Not once does Dominion come close to delivering a sequence on par with the expertly staged scenes of the original (think about the first T-Rex scene, the velociraptor kitchen scene, or even the car in the tree scene); it’s just a bunch of cheap and colorful CGI lacking real suspense or craft.

As bad as Jurassic World Dominion is, it’s oddly hard to hate. The return of the three original cast members, the fast pacing, and the sheer ridiculousness of the whole thing makes it hard to look away. DeWanda Wise’s charisma overrides her character’s emptiness to make for a nice addition, and those seeking lots of mindless dinosaur action should look no further.

Still, one hopes that whenever this franchise is inevitably relaunched again, Universal takes things in a different direction and puts it in the hands of someone who respects their audience more than Trevorrow and crew have here. 

When dinosaurs walk the earth, stupidity will reign. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Review by Erik Samdahl unless otherwise indicated.