Jurassic World: Dominion (2022) is the latest installment in the Jurassic Park franchise. But while it's on track to be devour over $1 billion at the global box office like its two predecessors, critics are tearing it apart. However, we think the sequel is a blast, even if there are a few things that don't quite add up...
Jurassic World: Dominion sees the return of Jurassic World characters Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard), Owen Grady (Chris Pratt), Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon), and Dr. Henry Wu (BD Wong).
It also brings back Dr. Ellie Sattler (Ellie Dern), Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), and Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) from the original Jurassic Park Trilogy, who must join forces with Claire, Owen, Maisie, and Wu.
The movie is packed with incredible action sequences and has the most dinosaurs in the entire series. However, here are six things in Jurassic World: Dominion that don't entirely make sense...
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1. The Locust Storyline
One of the many complaints about Jurassic World: Dominion is the film's main plot, which revolves around corrupt bioengineering company Biosyn having created a horde of genetically-engineered locusts from the Cretaceous Period.
While this does fall in line with the franchise's ongoing themes of tampering with genetic power (the locusts are also prehistoric), many take issue with the fact that this premise substitutes that of dinosaurs on the mainland.
However, there's also a logic issue with the locust storyline. If Biosyn intends to control the global food supply market by "programming" the horde to target competitors' crops, then won't the resulting famine leave much less people to rely on Biosyn crops..?
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2. The Dinosaur Populations
Jurassic World: Dominion takes place four years after the world-changing events of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018), in which a number of dinosaurs are released from Lockwood Manor and into the North American wilderness.
Now, dinosaurs are flourishing all over the country and beyond. The beginning of the film is narrated by a YouTuber, who exposition-dumps around this concept, stating that the dinosaurs have even "breached borders".
We know that several species have made it overseas, owing thanks to activities such as the illegal dinosaur trade, however, the concept of dinosaurs thriving in the North American wilderness is one thing, especially considering that not that many escaped Lockwood Manor, but how on earth did they "breach borders"?
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3. Dr Henry Wu's Redemption
We all love a good redemption storyline, and no one needs redemption more than Dr. Henry Wu (BD Wong), especially when you remind yourself about all the terrible things he has done during his time as a world-leading geneticist.
Not only did he create the dinosaurs at the original Jurassic Park, he also cloned new ones at Jurassic World, as well as the deadly hybrids, Indominus Rex and Indoraptor, both of which led to world-changing events.
And while Jurassic World: Dominion does indeed find Wu to be guilt-stricken, this is only in relation to the locust horde he has created, as he realizes that they've populated beyond his estimation and are now threatening the planet. What about all those other problems you created, Henry?
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4. Dinosaurs Co-existing With Modern Day Animals
There's something captivating about seeing dinosaurs occupying the same frame as modern-day animals. This is teased at the end of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) when Rexy bursts into a lion enclosure at a zoo.
Jurassic World: Dominion continues with this sort of imagery even further, particularly during its closing shots, whether it's seeing parasaurs running wild with horses, or the mosasaur swimming peacefully alongside blue whales.
It's a wonderful sentiment, as the film ends on a high note with dinosaurs now learning to co-exist with modern day animals. The trouble, however, is that this would probably never happen. Have you ever seen several different species of animals intermingling peacefully? Sounds like something out of The Lion King.
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5. The Barbasol Shaving Can
The Barbasol shaving can has become as iconic as many things from the original Jurassic Park (1993), whether it's any one of Jeff Goldblum's lines, the jeeps, the toilet scene, or even Nedry's infamous GIF.
While many fans have debated over its ambiguous fate over the decades, the original film makes it perfectly clear what happens to Nedry's lost embryos container - it lands in the wet mud and is covered in more wet mud.
While Steven Spielberg has since admitted that the scene was left there as a possible sequel-teaser (though never followed up), finding the can would have been next to impossible for anyone. However, in Jurassic World: Dominion, Lewis Dodgson (Campbell Scott) is in possession of it. Why, and how?!
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6. The Charlotte Lockwood Retcon
One of the best characters in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Jurassic World: Dominion is Maisie Lockwood, who is the first and only human clone to have been introduced into the long-running franchise.
Isabella Sermon is on top form in the latest sequel, especially when her character Maisie learns a second truth about her past - that she isn't a "replica" of Charlotte Lockwood, that she's actually her daughter.
Scientist Charlotte Lockwood is revealed to have asexually impregnated herself and given birth to Maisie. It all makes sense, until you realize that Benjamin Lockwood (James Cromwell) and John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) couldn't have possibly fallen out over this.
It has been confirmed in canon that John Hammond died in 1997, however, we learn in Jurassic World: Dominion from Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) that she met Charlotte "years after" Hammond's death, at which time she wasn't even pregnant. So what did Lockwood and Hammond really fall out over?
Related: Jurassic World: Dominion ENDING EXPLAINED
Jurassic World: Dominion is described as the "epic culmination to the entire series" and the "end to the Jurassic era". As per the official Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment website, here’s the synopsis for the film:
Dominion takes place four years after Isla Nublar has been destroyed. Dinosaurs now live -- and hunt -- alongside humans all over the world. This fragile balance will reshape the future and determine, once and for all, whether human beings are to remain the apex predators on a planet they now share with history’s most fearsome creatures.
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Jurassic World: Dominion stars Bryce Dallas Howard (Claire Dearing), Chris Pratt (Owen Grady), Isabella Sermon (Maisie Lockwood), Omar Sy (Barry Sembène), and BD Wong (Henry Wu), Campbell Scott (Lewis Dodgson), DeWanda Sykes (Kayla), Jeff Goldblum (Dr. Ian Malcolm), Sam Neill (Dr. Alan Grant), and Laura Dern (Dr. Ellie Sattler).
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