"Giganotosaurus, the biggest letdown the world has ever seen"
29/5/2025
Just a clarification, that's not actually what Grant says, although it should have been.
Ignoring than the many other things that made Jurassic World: Dominion a complete mess of a film -cough cough, locusts- the more than lackluster antagonist, the Giganotosaurus, was definitely a disappointment in a franchise that should, if anything, getting the dinosaurs right.
Even though Trevorrow might insist that this dinosaur just "wants to watch the world burn" the Giganotosaurus spends its screentime not being much more than just a bumbling fool. While some have praised that the Giganotosaurus acts far more like an actual animal rather than the movie monsters we're used to receiving from the Jurassic films, I personally can't forgive the dissonance between how the movie treats this carcharodontosaurid and how it actually behaves.
More bloodshed!
Firstly, the Giganotosaurus is the only "big bad theropod" of the Jurassic films that has a kill count of a whopping zero. Yes, you read that correctly. This oversized behemoth fails to snag one of the EIGHT protagonists that run around the movie, not to mention any lame side characters that could have easily been victims to it.
What made the dinosaurs in the first Jurassic Park feel so threatening was that dinosaurs show up quite seldom, and when they do, it usually results in someone's death. This makes the dinosaurs feel deadly and cunning and like the protagonists are never safe. And while none of the main protagonists die, there's quite a few likeable characters that meet their ends at the jaws of a Tyrannosaurus or the sickle claws of a Velociraptor. In addition to this, the protagonists are purposefully split up, making them far more vulnerable and thus giving the opportunity for a lot more thrills. Dominion on the other hand, learns absolutely nothing from this, and instead makes their protagonists group up. Now the Giganotosaurus has to stand and stare as all 8 of them try to huddle up behind a tiny jeep to prevent what would otherwise be an absolute massacre.
Now Dominion has more than its fair share of dinosaur encounters; so many in fact, that the entire film feels like jumps between encounter after encounter after encounter. So, you might be wondering, how come after coming up against all these beasts, how come no one (of significance) dies? Well the short answer is: fan service. The long answer is: the Jurassic franchise can't possibly afford killing off the beloved characters they've crammed into the film. If they died, whose merch would they sell?
The incessant need to feature these iconic characters comes at the cost of the film's thrill and immersion. Knowing that the dinosaurs won't ever kill any of the protagonists removes any would-be suspense from most dinosaur scenes. Likewise, it also leads to a lot of illogical goofs, such as how an Atrociraptor can almost outpace a motorcycle, yet fails to catch Claire Dearing on foot.
"Genetically pure"
Turns out Giganotosaurus can still look decent when adorned with anything other than drab splotches of gray and black.
Yes, this crooked-toothed, crocodilian monster is stated to be "genetically pure" and the same exact design is featured in a prologue taking place supposedly 66 million years ago, about 30 million years after Giganotosaurus had gone extinct. Sure, the Jurassic franchise has never been renowned for its scientifically-accurate dinosaur depictions, but at least there was some understanding of the actual animal and there was always the excuse that they were impure conglomerates of different animal DNA. Giganotosaurus, and the other dinosaurs in Dominion, are just lazy.
If the Jurassic franchise is really allergic to accurate dinosaurs, they could still come up with an interesting excuse for these designs. Maybe Biosyn is trying to cut costs and appeal to public interests, making their dinosaurs look extra monstrous and wicked by mixing together all sorts of animal DNA.
Seems that Dominion's Giga resembles the actual one in little more than name.
So while the weird humped edge-lord design we got isn't the worst thing out there, it ends up being unoriginal and even misinformative to the general public, whose knowledge on dinosaurs is still mostly based on this franchise.
And the award for the most lame final battle goes to...
For those who don't want spoilers to a now 3-year old movie, I'd recommend skipping this part. For those who do, I hope you like reading through rants.
I'll firstly set up the scene. The entire Biosyn sanctuary is set ablaze by burning locusts that escaped their containment chamber. They broke out of the containment chamber designed specially to contain them. Don't question it. Using some weird magical technology signaling device, all the dinosaurs in the sanctuary are called to the visitor center. One might question how an entire valley full of dinosaurs could possible fit in a measly courtyard, yet clearly this is a magical courtyard as dinosaurs appear and disappear depending on what is relevant. Other than bending the laws of the reality, this also sets up the perfect conditions for an amazing scuffle. The Giga is back, and now so is Rexy, who is still pissed about her lunch getting stolen. Our protagonists are stuck in the middle of what is about to be a battle of the ages. Just as Grant declares "this isn't about us" the brawl ensues, and the camera decides to focus entirely on the humans, practically ignoring the giant dinosaur fighting literally everyone who showed up to the cinema was waiting to see.
Soon enough, Rexy is bested, and the Giganotosaurus roars in triumph. Yet a lucky flare grabs the attention of the Therizinosaurus (don't forget that all the dinosaurs in the valley are actually here despite only a total of 4 or so being shown). Maybe with the recent victory getting to his head, the Giga decides to engage with the Therizinosaurus, and their battle is soon interrupted as Rexy literally revives due to the strength of the willpower (prologue or not, that's the actual reason for her coming back from the brink of death). A roar or two later and the Giga is impaled on the Therizinosaurus' claws.
And thus the evil antagonist, who at this point has done practically nothing, meets their ill-fated end. Ultimately it ends up feeling like an unfair death to an undeserving character, yet it is celebrated as a moment of glory.
The Struggle to Stand Out
The uninspired design combined with its lackluster role in the movie, end up making the Giga the least memorable of the Jurassic franchise's big bad theropods. In effect, the Giganotosaurus plays practically the exact same role as Jurassic Park III's Spinosaurus; being the "bigger than T. rex" theropod that chases around the protagonists and in the case of the latter, actually manages to take down a T. rex. And while the Indominus rex and Indoraptor have their fair share of issues, they at least tried to bring something new to the table. Meanwhile the Giga is just a rehashing of existing ideas.
I would go as far as to say, that its sub-standard story role is what led to the overly-grotesque design we saw in the movie. Most audiences that watch movies like Jurassic World aren't very familiar with dinosaurs and thus it's quite easy for them to confuse something like a Giganotosaurus with the much more famous Tyrannosaurus. Rather than highlighting the differences the two dinosaurs do have, or giving the Giganotosaurus a unique role to make it stand out, it was given gnarly osteoderms and teeth that would give any dentist nightmares.
Might it be too late for braces?
Conclusion
In the end, Giganotosaurus ends up being an unthreatening antagonist whose gnarly spikes unfortunately don't make up for it's wasted potential. The fact that the majority Jurassic fans still prefer the franchises other big theropods, like the Spinosaurus and Tyrannosaurus over Giganotosaurus goes to show how underwhelming a villain this is to the finale of a series that started off so strong with the Jurassic Park trilogy.
Of course Hollywood won't let their biggest cash cow -or in this case, cash dinosaur- die off, so we'll have to see how well Jurassic World Rebirth carries the torch. While I'm optimistic for this fresh take on the series, I'm also worried we're losing more and more of what made Jurassic Park actually Jurassic as we steer away from dinosaurs and more towards classic movie monsters.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jurassic_World_Dominion
https://www.deviantart.com/mariolanzas/art/GIGANOTOSAURUS-Jurassic-World-Dominion-Paleoart-922143691
https://www.aol.com/news/jurassic-world-dominion-giganotosaurus-became-170040279.html?