Jurassic World Dominion

Back to the old power and megalomania hellbent on global domination, this time having genetically engineered giant locusts which habitually feast on various crops worldwide.

Various crops which happen to have been resolutely cultivated with Biosyn seeds, Biosyn having created a market (like Monsanto?) for its grain, then proceeded to wipe out every form of competition.

Dr. Wu (BD Wong) realizes catastrophe's afoot but can't seek redemption without looking bad, let millions of people starve to death or risk losing face, he wants to make amends but can't think of how to do so.

He's denied by his wicked boss (Campbell Scott as Lewis Dodgson) whose evil intent is rebelliously disputed, as both Jurassic World and Jurassic Park alumni converge on his remote laboratory. 

Doctors Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) and Alan Grant (Sam Neill) representing scientists generally seeking to promote knowledgeable wonder, like the bourgeoisie they rely on funding to make spiritually prosperous cultural contributions.

Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) and Mr. Grady (Chris Pratt) are more hands on and take a practical approach to living with dinosaurs, like versatile independent conscientious workers they promote sustainable communal life.

Thus, the mad elitist seeking to monopolize global food production, is courageously challenged by worker and middle-management who daringly obscure his psychotic vision.

But Jurassic World Dominion is also about a world where dinosaurs abound, multiple species fortuitously finding a way to generally adapt to divergent ecosystems.

I suppose it would be a grandiose ecological disaster of intensified colossal invasive magnitude, but thoughts like that kind of spoil the fun, and contemporary and ancient species alike seem to be getting along so well in the film (it's just a movie).

I was almost teary-eyed to see Laura Dern and Sam Neill back at it, after so many intervening years, was but a wee lad when the original came out, I was reading the book at the time, which I thoroughly loved, it's my favourite Michael Crichton.

Apart from the requisite mayhem and the inevitable hoopla of the traditional blockbuster, there are some really cool animal scenes, especially one where Dr. Sattler sees a baby, and says, "you never get used to it".

People who love animals know how true those words are, and that even if you see wild turtles or zebras or water buffalos every day of your life, the experience never gets old or tiresome, it's irrefutably exciting each and every time.

That scene made the film for me and it was also really cool to see the two casts converge.

The likelihood of their plan succeeding: it's up for debate.

Certainly not without the aid of Ms. Watts (DeWanda Wise) and Mr. Cole (Mamoudou Athie).  

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

Jurassic World, back at it.

Dinosaur-related shenanigans, check.

Some dick trying to cash in on the genetically reincarnated beasties: you got it.

Those who care about preserving both the independence and integrity of dinosaur kind, primed, and ready to go.

Consistent death-defying escapes mixed in with a ludicrous plot that unravels like a particularly intriguing series of Bazooka Joe comics?

Yuppers.

Although the dinosaurs, as in the actual dinosaurs, having been left alone to exist freely on Isla Nublar, still make for a stunning cinematic extravaganza, their wild unpredictable prehistoric codes of conduct generating thrilling exceptional naturalistic exhilarations, that make the unrelenting poaching of elephants, rhinos, lions, tigers, bears, and others, seem even more horrendous, as even more are illegally deprived of life each day.

A UN army to stop them?

I'd greenlight that idea.

Yet, for the next Jurassic World sequel, might I suggest 25 minutes more pure dinosaur, and 25 minutes less human interaction?

Still include plenty of Zia Rodriguez (Daniella Pineda), Franklin Webb (Justice Smith), Owen Grady (Chris Pratt), Claire Deaning (Bryce Dallas Howard), Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon), and Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), but take it easy on the maniacal conspiring.

Plus, the ending, spoiler alert, suggests dinosaurs will be proliferating partout in Jurassic World 3.

Considering how many were saved from the island, that's a bit ridiculous, unless all the dinosaurs who jumped off the cliff to freedom swam to land and survived, the numbers simply don't add up.

Not including those who can fly.

Methinks more time should be spent on the script for future instalments as well.

I was super happy to see James Cromwell (Benjamin Lockwood) but then he had to deliver the worst dialogue imaginable, over and over again.

He deserves so much better.

Even the first half of Ian Malcolm's speech isn't that tight, although his statements at the end of the film make an impact, as if they reserved the best writing for the last 2 minutes, hoping the rest would be overlooked as a consequence.

Even with the impact, they still make you think the world will be overrun with dinosaurs in the next movie, when those who were shipped off the island weren't exactly handpicked by Noah (I assume dinosaurs lay a bunch of eggs at a time, but how often do they breed and how closely do they watch their young? [elephant moms carry their young for 22 months{mama turtles lay then take off}]).

What happened to Lowery (Jake Johnson)?

He didn't die in the first/fourth film.

He was cool.

The Indoraptor may be a prototype, but it's also a highly refined predator bred to kill and kill.

And kill again.

I don't think turning the lights out would fool it.

Plus, the auction doesn't make much sense.

None of the dinosaurs they're selling apart from the Indoraptor prototype have been genetically conditioned to follow commands, and a bunch of them are herbivorous by nature.

How are you going to turn something that eats grass and plants all day and isn't violent into some strange breed of instinctual vegetarian mercenary?

And how could you trick elite arms dealers into thinking that's a great idea?

Even if it'd make a funny Will Ferrell movie.

And wouldn't one sniper bullet put a dinosaur mercenary out of commission?

If you could weaponize herbivores wouldn't a deer be more suitable option?

I can't believe I'm thinking about these things.

Plus, if Eli Mills (Rafe Spall) is managing the fortune that built Jurassic Park etc., why would he take so many idiotic risks to pick up what probably amounts to spare chump change?

The payouts he had to make after Jurassic World fell apart weren't astronomically high in speculative comparison.

A fun movie to watch lacking in structural cohesion, perhaps Fallen Kingdom's writers made internal and personal sacrifices to narratively lampoon the miserable ethical foundations of global weapons manufacturing, deliberately not thinking things through to sharply critique plutocratic ambitions, while betting on making a shit ton of money meanwhile?

The do-gooders are still awesome.

And the dinosaurs too.

My favourite dinosaur: the stegosaurus.

Always has been.

😌

Jurassic World

The miraculous theme park envisioned by John Hammond has become a reality, and profits are steady, but their future is theoretically in jeopardy, or they at least may not continue to increase, hence, a new carnivorous force of immaculate magnetism is required, the product, the indominus rex, a creature so malevolent it makes the fearsome tyrannosaurus look like a fluffy pillow, bred to dominate, severely shackled.

But it's highly intelligent and soon tricks its creators into setting it free, proceeding to rampage thereafter, as hundreds of tourists unsuspectingly stride.

Enter one Owen (Chris Pratt), adventurous pulsar, intimately aware of danger, his knowledge essential, his strategies, ignored.

His relationship with the velociraptors he trains forges the film's ethos in relation to the ways in which it examines the phenomenon of control.

He maintains a respectful attitude, looking at their relationship symbiotically, he controls aspects of their dynamic but only because he respects the team, and treats it with corresponding assertive humility.

He's indirectly compared with Simon Masrani (Irrfan Khan), who also finds freedom in letting go, a constructive truth in my opinion, variations on a theme, but he made the mistake of authorizing the indominus's creation without applying either oversight or foresight, for which he pays an incendiary penalty.

Too much progress.

You see a number of the park's features throughout and wonder how its profits could ever be called into question.

It looks mind-blowingly amazing.

How driving a spherical vehicle through a field of dinosaurs could ever become boring doesn't make sense to me.

Even the petting zoo could never become boring.

But future profits are called into question and the aforementioned apex predator is the solution, treated with foolhardy disrespect, and then hunted as it threatens their very existence.

Bad decision.

Small aggressive dogs can be difficult to control.

But aside from the appealing critique of the poor decisions that can be made when obsessing about profits that are already stable, and team leaders who apply too much or too little oversight to their vitalities without taking into consideration the agencies of their networks, found in Jurassic World, it's generally a chaotic enough blockbuster, romance blooming amidst the carnage, reckless youth suddenly coming of age.

B.D. Wong (Dr. Henry Wu) makes a welcome reappearance in the franchise; I always wondered what happened to him in the original.

My favourite character was Lowery (Jake Johnson), who likes to think of his working space "as a living system, with just enough stability to keep it from collapsing into anarchy." 

Nice line.

There are some other nice lines.

Too much oversight is provided by Hoskins (Vincent D'Onofrio), who wants to turn Owen's velociraptor team into a militaristic fighting force. 

His ideas are fast-tracked. 

Menacing progressions are critiqued, although their devastations develop character.

Those that survive anyway.