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A blockbuster dinosaur film has officially been named as the most expensive movie ever made, but its Rotten Tomatoes score isn’t much to write home about.
The 2022 saw the third Jurassic World film Dominion arrive on the big screen, costing a staggering $658.8 million to produce.
This beat the price tag of making Star Wars: The Force Awakens, officially giving it the crown as the most expensive movie in cinematic history.
However, a big budget doesn’t always translate to critical acclaim, and clearly that was true for this movie.
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Despite the huge amount spent on it, Jurassic World Dominion received an abysmal 28% Rotten Tomatoes score.
Still, the dino flick did have financial success, with it earning nearly $1 billion at the box office.
This particular Jurassic World movie saw its stars, Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, be reunited with Jurassic Park icons, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum and Sam Neill.
A major reason for the enormous budget was timing as production took place during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced the studio to implement extensive safety measures and navigate lengthy delays.
Filming interruptions reportedly pushed the movie’s release back by an entire year, while the studio continued paying for soundstages, equipment rentals, security and key crew members during periods when cameras weren’t rolling.
The cast and crew also spent months operating under strict quarantine arrangements in the UK, with several stars staying at luxury accommodation near Pinewood Studios, where a lot of the film was shot.
It seems that the reviews published by top critics on Rotten Tomatoes left much room for improvement, as Adam Mullins-Khatib wrote for the Chicago Reader: “While there’s never really a sense of true danger for our heroes, we get just enough of the range of CGI dinosaurs and their weird traits to keep the film entertaining.”
Meanwhile, for the The Wall Street Journal, Kyle Smith said: “Colin Trevorrow has done something nearly as astonishing: In Jurassic World Dominion, he has made dinosaurs dull. This $165 million effects extravaganza is built atop a script worthy of a board game.”
Peter Travers of ABC News wrote: “The kid in us knows that even in a pokey, predictable sequel like this one you still stick around for the scary parts with the stampeding dinosaurs. But the wonder and awe of the Spielberg original have gone pfft.”
And Financial Times’ Danny Leigh added: “Universal has promised this will be the final instalment. Somewhere in the gleaming robot eyes of the giganotosaurus, you see a desperate hope the humans mean it.”
