Jurassic World: Dominion is the sixth film in the Jurassic franchise, and it seemed very intent on wrapping up lots of plot threads that ran through, or surfaced in the series. I’ve watched it twice now, and I will say this, enjoyed it much more the second go round.

I will also say this. We’re six films in here, we’ve seem some water dinosaurs, and we still haven’t seen a pleiosaur which is my fave water dino. Come on!

There are a few storylines running through this film, and it means you have to pay attention to keep all the plot lines straight.

Maisie (Isabella Sermon) is kidnapped from the remote home she shares with Owen Grady (Chris Pratt not being as Chris Pratt as he was in prior films) and Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard). Also grabbed is Beta, Blue the raptor’s baby.

Owen and Claire set out to find their adopted daughter, and it takes them across the globe hunting down leads that take them to Biosyn. This company is run by Dodgson (Campbell Scott) – we got Dodgson here!

Biosyn is all about genetic manipulation, including those of crops, and insects. It seems there is a swarm of genetically engineered prehistoric locusts that are laying havoc to crops that aren’t Biosyn, and a familiar paleo-botanist is called in to take a look. Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern).

She in turn reaches out to Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and the pair begin their own investigation into Biosyn, thanks to an inside man… Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum).

Of course the stories, and other minor plot threads, are all going to come together amidst dino-mayhem!

I love seeing Sam Neill on screen. He’s been a favourite of mine for as long as I can remember.

Michael Giachhino delivers a solid score, which incorporates those familiar John Williams themes any time our original big three are around, and there are some nice sequences.

Sure there’s more VFX than practical, but overall, I still come down on the side of enjoying this one. It wraps up almost everything from the previous films, putting a little bow on it, and perhaps letting the franchise rest.

We know that’s not true, as a new film came out this year, and I’ll finally take a look at it next week.

Still, this film, in my opinion has a lot going for it. Particularly when it comes to the cast. Sure there are familiar beats, and moments that we’ve seen through a number of iterations of the series – they are almost jurassic tropes now, but they’re still fun.

And there’s some great nostalgia seeing Grant, Sattler and Malcolm together again.

There are some funny moments, some bad moments, but overall, it’s a solid dino film. But now in my head, I’m trying to figure out how I’m going to rank the films of the series. Let’s wait until I watch the latest one, and then maybe I can commit to some kind of order.

But man, I do enjoy these films. I remember seeing the first one on the big screen, I remember reading the original novel long before that. And I’ve never met a kid who doesn’t, at some point, love dinosaurs. Some of us were lucky enough not to grow out of it.

And you throw in that Jurassic Park theme by John Williams. I’m done.