From Maverick to Dominion, Summer Sequelmania

The guy who never goes to the movies anymore, and never has seen any Oscar nominees, somehow has managed to see “Top Gun-Maverick” and “Jurassic World: Dominion”.

I have no idea how this happened.

But, a few thoughts.

Sequels usually suck, let’s just be honest. They hook us with hopes of more greatness, but by the time you bought your ticket and settled into your theatre chair, it’s too late to back out. You wait for something that you know isn’t going to happen.

In the case of the two summer blockbusters, these sequels are not only the equals of their originals, but  given technological advances (these are both movies that benefit from movie-making tech magic), and stars who’ve aged well, they might be better than the first editions.

There, I said that. Let the rage begin.

I loved these movies so much I didn’t even feel like reading a book for two hours.

Both are truly summer movies: the veneer of plot is very thin. What country is Tom Cruise bombing anyway? What’s this Dodgson weirdo actually trying to do with his killer dino-locusts??

By the way, the hero characters are really great in both sequels—give all the “casting” awards to whoever filled in “Maverick” and “Dominion”, because besides the returning leads, the newcomers are top-notch. Jon Hamm and Jennifer Connelly in TGM; Dewanda Wise and Isabella Sermon in JWD.

Everyone talks about Cruise, but look at Laura Dern (I know I did), or Sam Neill. What’s their secret?

I got a kick out of the “Dominion” villain—actor Campbell Scott playing Lewis Dodgson, who seems to be the jittery, twitchy love child of Elizabeth Warren and Sting. The Bond producers missed a Blofeld here, for sure.

I wonder if these two summer 2022 franchises are outliers, or if sequels will start getting better?