Buy it... if you trust Michael Giacchino to provide a competent, respectful, and occasionally engaging combination of his and John Williams' prior scores in the franchise with newly electronic and ethnic enhancements.

Avoid it... if you expect Giacchino to match the majestic scope, thematic memorability, and solid narrative structure of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, a clearly superior alternative to this entry.

Jurassic World: Dominion: (Michael Giacchino) The appeal of Michael Crichton's original 1990's concept behind the stories of Jurassic Park was rooted not just in the intrigue of the resurrection of dinosaurs but the thrill of imagining a visit to an amusement park or zoo full of them. As the franchise of movies based on that concept deviated from its core attraction, so too did the uniqueness of its premise. By 2022's Jurassic World: Dominion, the conclusive entry in the second trilogy of movies, writer and director Colin Trevorrow had completely lost those roots, steering the franchise towards a hybrid between Planet of the Apes and Godzilla sequels that rehash with pointless repetition the clash between contemporary human culture and something fantastical. The selling point of Jurassic World: Dominion is the reunion of the primary cast of 1993's Jurassic Park and the leads of the Jurassic World follow-ups, and they unite to expose an evil Mediterranean corporation, Biosyn, that is using dinosaur DNA to engineer locusts that threaten to destabilize worldwide crops better than a dictator like Vladimir Putin could ever accomplish. The tale is a rather pedestrian rescue and chase entry that, despite more callbacks to the original 1993 film, failed to convince critics and audiences of its worthiness. No matter how many of these films are cloned for the purposes of profit, the magic of Crichton's initial idea cannot be recaptured. The film's plot afforded franchise veteran Michael Giacchino a chance to balance character themes and rambunctious action in his music with a little more worldly flair, leaving behind much of the fantasy element that dominated Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and the origins of the concept. Suspense is also no longer of much use by this point, either, leaving the music of Jurassic World: Dominion as a somewhat detached entry dedicated to conversational underscore and sustained action sequences all trying to balance a wealth of accumulated concept themes.

Giacchino is no stranger to these sequel situations, having adapted existing identities into major franchise continuations more than anyone else in Hollywood history. He's not always the best at this task, unfortunately, and if Jurassic World: Dominion is indeed the send-off for this franchise, then don't expect the music to reflect any satisfying sense of closure. He remains mindful of the necessary balance between his own existing musical character and that of John Williams in this case, but his handling of the ever-expanding complexities of their combination is only basically adequate in Jurassic World: Dominion. This score is at a disadvantage because of the outstanding narrative of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, which not only introduced monumentally memorable new themes for its own plot but made smart use of Williams' identities as well. By comparison, Jurassic World: Dominion is a defocused work with inadequate new thematic constructs and poor narrative flow despite its generally high quality of writing and, surprisingly for Giacchino, a well-rounded recording. On the other hand, there are some truly intelligent and commendable manipulations of existing franchise identities in the work that may compensate for the lack of appeal from the new themes. Some listeners may also find significant positives and negatives in Giacchino's decision to alter the instrumental equation in this score, bringing an enhanced role for electronics and some Mediterranean flair to the mid-film Malta sequences. Neither of these elements is a strategic detriment, as even Williams brought some significant electronic presence to Jurassic Park, but by the time electric guitars make their mark on the action sequences in Jurassic World: Dominion, some listeners may be tempted to tune it out. Striking a modern edge to the techno-thriller element of the story makes sense, though such interjections don't really add much to the concept as a whole and may feel a bit off. The composer's handling of the orchestra is fairly mundane compared to his comparable fantasy/adventure works, solos for this franchise typical to harp, piano, and French horn.

Thematically, whereas Giacchino's ideas for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom were a combination of biblical fantasy, dramatic tragedy, and military romps, the new themes in Jurassic World: Dominion are disappointingly pedestrian to match the less apocalyptic subject matter. (The lack of prominent choral presence here does not help the transition.) He devises a pair of new themes for protagonists but fails to really enunciate them clearly enough to provide lasting identities to their presence. The villainous Biosyn receives the score's main new theme, but even this is diminished after a strong influence early in the score. A fresh theme for yet another nasty predator dinosaur is unfortunately inevitable, and the locusts themselves are offered a dissonant motif for their menace. Other distinct melodic structures meander through the score, mostly in its final third, and muddy the waters even further. Meanwhile, the three main themes from Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom return as a method of providing a narrative arc to the Henry Wu character responsible for engineering much of this mess going back to the beginning, and here Giacchino does succeed a bit better. Several ideas return from the initial Jurassic World score as well, with even Giacchino's music for the video game, "The Lost World: Jurassic Park," enjoying another cameo. All four of Williams' main identities from Jurassic Park also return, but they do so in perfunctory fashion outside of some keen adaptations of Williams' fantasy theme. As customary for Giacchino, the conclusive "Suite, Suite Dino Revenge" contains a summary of these four new themes, but this collection doesn't flow well from one idea to another. The composer has a tendency to simply conclude a thematic representation, fading it down to near silence before entering into the next theme; more fluid transitions akin to those by Williams and Jerry Goldsmith are simply absent in much of Giacchino's career. One can hope that writing bridge sequences will improve for him with time. The first theme heard in that suite is actually a secondary motif for the Giganotosaurus dinosaur, which opens that track with a long crescendo to a chime-banging conclusion. In the score proper, the motif also forces itself into the end of "Ladder and Subtract/..." and the outset of "Battle Royale With Reprise."

The second idea heard in the "Suite, Suite Dino Revenge" end credits arrangement is actually the main theme of Jurassic World: Dominion. This theme for Biosyn flourishes in the first half of the score but fails to retain any power thereafter. It's a nice adaptation of the personality of Williams' original park-related exuberance with a greater dose of mystery thrown into the equation, and expect it provide the best moments of the score's new themes. The theme is previewed at 1:30 into "Jurassi-logos/Dinow This" but really emerges at 2:36 into "The Wages of Biosyn," where it truly usurps Williams' fantasy by its end. It offers uncertainty in the middle of "Free-Range Kidnapping" but explodes again with ensemble adventure at 1:39 into "A-Biosyn' We Will Go," where it explores an underutilized interlude sequence on woodwinds. The Biosyn theme once again diminishes to subtle applications in the middle of "You're So Cute When You Smuggle" and early in the suspense of "Ladder and Subtract" before combining with the tragedy theme at 0:06 into "Girls Can Alpha Too." In "Suite, Suite Dino Revenge," this theme starts softly at 1:20 but enjoys a reprise of its early exuberance not long after. The two new character themes in Jurassic World: Dominion are badly underplayed and are typically handled with such soft instrumentation that they don't have an impact. The theme for the girl at the heart of the story, Maisie, is intelligently mingled with Williams' fantasy identity for the original park, denoting their shared origins in engineering. But Giacchino really diffuses the idea in its applications, making it difficult to track. Pieces of the idea influence at 0:19 into "Upsy-Maisie," the middle of "The Campfire in Her Soul," the opening of "The Wages of Biosyn," more cohesively on piano in the middle of "You're Making Me Feel Wu-zy," and in soft, piano-led shades at 6:13 into "Suite, Suite Dino Revenge." Meanwhile, the composer felt compelled to provide the Ellie Sattler and Alan Grant tandem from the first film with a new identity here, but he barely develops it in the score. After opening "A Sattler State of Affairs" with it in somber tones, this theme is marginalized in the rest of the score until a truly pretty and delightful rendition at 4:38 into "Suite, Suite Dino Revenge," where the idea oddly receives Goldsmith-like treatment that defies anything heard before in the work.