Why You’re Wrong About Jurassic World: Dominion
A movie with so much going on, that you miss the parts where it succeeds
Last night, I saw Jurassic World: Dominion with my girlfriend. I was incredibly excited going into it, especially when the scene opened up with crab fisherman on the Bering Sea off the shores of Alaska, as my girlfriend and I are big Deadliest Catch fans.
I’m not going into the full story, as there’s a lot going on in this movie’s plot, but it starts us off summarizing how the world has been coexisting with dinosaurs since the ending of the previous movie. NowThis makes an appearance, showing the issues the dinosaurs are causing for humanity, including the increasing amount of deaths per day caused by dinosaurs.
This is exactly how it would be in reality, with videos on social media showcasing the destruction dinosaurs are causing, while others show the adorable situations the little ones get themselves into.
The way humanity responds to the situation is also similar to how it would be in real life. There’s a locust plague due to some mixing of dinosaur DNA with the locusts’, which results in thousands of acres of crops being destroyed, which could result in a global famine. There’s also illegal breeding of dinosaurs, underground fight clubs, as well as illegal sales of dinosaurs as weapons, which is very similar to what would happen in real life.
My Favorite Parts That You Probably Didn’t Pay Attention To
Charlotte Lockwood’s Clone, Maisie
Since the events of the last movie, Maisie has been living in hiding with Owen and Claire in a cabin in the woods. Maisie is being sought after by the world due to something amazing in her genetic code, as she is a clone of the deceased Charlotte Lockwood. The reason for this is confusing throughout the movie and is slowly explained, but I want to get into the philosophical ideas this movie attempts to portray.
Maisie is 14-years-old and is frustrated with Owen and Claire controlling her, telling her that she’s not allowed to go into town passed the bridge to try to keep her safe. She’s a teen, so she doesn’t follow these rules. Like other teenagers, she’s also trying to figure out who she really is. She’s aware she’s a clone created by her grandfather (at least she thinks), and only a tiny part of her family’s history.
She’s struggling to figure out who she really is. Maisie is a clone, so how does she differ from her mom/clone, Charlotte? Does she have similar thoughts? Does she only have the same physical features and her mind is all hers? Where does Charlotte’s traits end and Maisie’s begin?
You can visually see her struggle with these thoughts throughout the beginning of the movie, and I really wish they were able to spend more time on her, as Maisie’s scenes were my favorites of the entire movie. There was a scene where Claire tells Maisie something to the like of “you’re the only you there is,” to which Maisie responds “that’s incredibly corny.”
(Spoiler Alert): One of my favorite scenes is after she is kidnapped by someone from Biosyn and one of the scientists says, “I’m sorry it had to happen this way.” Maisie responds, “yeah that’s what all kidnappers say.” The scientist responds with something else respectful and expected, and then Maisie simply flips him off, which was the most accurate thing she could have done in that moment. I almost feel like her script had her say some corny, back-talky comeback, but instead, Maisie decides to go off-script and just flip him off, which was perfect!
CEO of Apple, Tim Cook’s Clone, Dr. Lewis Dodgson, CEO of Biosyn
Ok, I cannot be the only person who thought this throughout the movie. No, Tim Cook did not make an actual cameo in Jurassic World: Dominion, but he could have!
Dr. Lewis Dodgson is the leader of Biosyn, an organization that aims to use dinosaur DNA to help find the cures to cancer, Alzheimer's, and several other diseases. There’s a lot more that goes into this company, but that’s its main goal that it presents to the world. However, behind closed doors, Dr. Dodgson has much darker plans. He designed the bioengineered locusts and set some loose into the wild to repopulate and wreck havoc on the world’s agriculture.
This is where things get a little confusing though. He’s aware it will cause a worldwide famine but doesn’t seem to care, even though he is also a human? He claims the locusts are simply a side project that will only eat non-Biosyn seed crops, so that their crops sell more…? I’m still confused as you can tell.
However, I really love that the main antagonist of the movie was Dr. Lewis Dodgson, a CEO of a large company whose goals to the outside world seem harmless and good for the future, but of course behind closed doors, there’s a big conspiracy, and the whole time, the protagonists are trying to take him down.
(Spoiler Alert): I understand he’s everyone’s least favorite character, but that’s kind of the point. There’s a fantastic part where he has a mental breakdown in front of his employees, and it’s just so amazing. Seeing an evil CEO’s mental breakdown because things aren’t going his way is better than seeing him eaten alive.
Jeff Goldblum's Character, Ian Malcolm
He’s definitely everyone’s favorite character, but he has some fantastic parts in this movie. People need to get over the fact that he’s a protagonist working for the antagonist that doesn’t align with his views. He could have taken the job because he knows if you want to make any real change to the world, you have to either be a politician or work for a large company in the industry you want to change. For background, Ian is Biosyn’s in-house philosopher.
Now, I don’t know if that’s really a thing at other large companies, but it makes sense. Biosyn could have hired him to essentially brainwash their employees to align with their views, which Ian probably signed a contract promising he would, but being the rebellious, good-looking, person he is, he delivered his own contradictory views anyways.
He has some brilliant scenes where he’s extremely Jeff Goldblum, admiring a character’s bamboo jacket, and acting all quirky when attempting to figure out a door’s code in a hectic situation, making light of the scene’s stressors.
(Spoiler Alert): When Ian gets fired for helping uncover the locusts, he immediately goes off on a rant in front of other employees as to why Dr. Dodgson is a fraud and why working for Biosyn sucks and how they brainwash them. I’m sure all of us have done a similar thing when we quit or get fired from a job we hate, so it almost felt like a shout-out to those in similar situations.
Jurassic World: Dominion Focused Less On Dinosaurs Themselves and More On Humanity’s Issues Coexisting With Them
It has the worst Rotten Tomatoes score of any Jurassic World film, but like all scores from critics, you cannot believe them. Each review is coming from an individual human with their own history with the franchise and thus had various expectations.
I feel like many people disliked this movie due to the plot having so many twists and turns and information, and dealing more with taking down a human antagonist than the dinosaurs themselves, but that’s what the movie was supposed to be.
Jurassic World: Dominion was to focus on how humans coexist with dinosaurs who are from a world millions of years ago, and wanted to focus on it in a realistic way. It wasn’t a simple plot like the first Jurassic World, where it’s an amusement park filled with dinosaurs, with interesting attractions, and a plot surrounding the simple question of: “what could go wrong?”
The movie attempted to complete the trilogy’s various plot points in 2.5 hours, which resulted in an overwhelming amount of information and not a lot of time spent on some of the most interesting aspects, such as Maisie and Ian.
I hope despite some flaws, you go see the movie eventually, or at least wait for clips to arrive on YouTube, as there are some fantastic scenes that everyone needs to experience.