Prevalence of Cataracts in Deserts

Desert peoples have a higher rate of cataract formation than those habitating other environments. The question: why?

Deserts are known for their harsh conditions. These all stress the eye, leading to the development of cataracts. Heat and sunlight are the major factors, but others such as malnutrition and dehydration also have an affect.

Causes

The lens of the eye is, at its healthiest, clear. 

      It's made of various proteins that can be damaged and broken by heat. Due to this, the lens becomes cloudy, leading to cataract formation. 

      The hotter an area is, both by strength and by duration, the more likely the heat is to instigate cataracts. Considering deserts are hot, no wonder cataracts are more prevalent in deserts.

Intense sunlight puts the eye under oxidative stress, a process whereby oxygen-containing unstable molecules called ROS damage cells (and hence tissues at a wider scale). 

      ROS is produced as part of cellular metabolism; exposure to light also produces them. Light penetrates the eye to cause this damage, even more so when it's UV. 

      As deserts have a lot of intense sunlight, especially UV rays, of course deserts accelerate cararact formation.

Contributing Factors

Malnutrition and dehydration contribute to cataract formation rather than directly causing the condition. However, as they are significant contributions (plus they are significant desert problems), their acknowledgement is relevant.

The eye's lens requires specific vitamins (most famously vitamin C) to be healthy. 

      Malnutrition leads to deficiencies in all minerals and vitamins, including those necessary for the lens' health. An unhealthy eye leads to cataracts. 

      As it's easy to suffer malnutrition in a desert, it's thus easy to suffer cataract development in deserts, too.

Dehydration doesn't cause cataracts directly.

      Rather, they make the eye dry, leading to inflammation which, over time, can damage the lens and hence results in cataracts. Also, a hydrated eye means the lens is clear and functional: ultimately, this means cataracts-free.  

      Deserts are pretty easy to dehydrate in so this is another explanation of desert cataracts.

There's another contributing factor that's only relevant to some desert-dwellers: Arabs. This ethnic group, including individuals who don't reside in a desert, have a higher genetic susceptibility to developing cataracts than other ethnic groups. This shall be explored in a seperate post.

Conclusion

Therefore, it's quite clear that common issues in deserts happen to allign with common causes of (and contributions towards) cataracts. It thus can't be surprising that cataracts are prevalent in deserts.

If light only travels straight, how can gravity bend it?

If something is bent, it's no longer straight. Light always travels in a straight line and thus should never bend. Yet observations show that gravity does bend light. Or, more accurately, gravity bends the path of light.

With things like gravitational lensing, we can see how gravity and light interact. 
     Looking at this, it's easy to think that gravity bends light itself. However, in reality, light only appears to be bent: it's really still straight.

     Objects in the foreground block our view of objects in the background. With gravitational lensing, light from the background object is bent around the foreground object. As such, we can see what should otherwise be blocked from view. 

Two otherwise seperate concepts are needed to understand this. 
     One: light always travels the shortest distance possible. That is, it always travels straight. 
     Two: gravity bends spacetime (the fundamental fabric of the universe). That's the foundation of how gravity operates.

Putting these two concepts together results in the explanation.
     If spacetime itself is curved, any straight lines on it appear to be curved. 
     If light moves along this gravity-caused curve in spacetime, the path of the light is still technically straight. 
     Yes, it looks curved, but that's only because space itself is curved.

Jurassic World Dominion: Critique 5/5

*****SPOILERS*****

  

False Alarms: Humans

 

Sattler is divorced. Was this done just to get her and Alan together like the fans wanted, rather than the divorce making sense in the story? Jurassic Park 3 and Jurassic World both have divorce as a topic so it does feel stale.

Yet. In Jurassic Park 3, Sattler tells Grant to call her whenever, and then she says he’s the best, looking forlorn as he drives away. So, it’s clearly shown that Sattler is interested in Grant.

Although this could also have been fan service. But it does establish the possibility of their romance in-world. This was half the franchise ago so it would be weird not to do anything with it.

Hence Sattler and Grant’s coupling in Jurassic World: Dominion isn’t out of the blue.

 

The film ends with a montage showing the events after the characters had fled Biosyn.

A reporter says that Wu solved the ecological disaster. Yet, at the start of the film, Sattler was worried that the locusts would cause an ecological disaster. Going from something could happen to something has already happened, especially when it’s something as massive as a global ecological disaster, would take a lot of time. The time between Sattler’s worry and flying Biosyn does not account for this.

But the montage has images that clearly happened straight after the Biosyn incident. These are shown after the reporter’s news, which would have happened a lot after the Biosyn incident. This means that the montage wasn’t in chronological order. (Whilst not the end of the world, it was nonetheless disorientating.)

However, from a purely visual perspective, the images in the sequence were in the right order. The events’ chronological order had no importance on the greater scheme of things so putting them in the most visually appealing order was sensible.

 

I was surprised to see Maisie living with Owen and Claire. Why would she live with them when Iris raised her?

Maybe Maisie didn’t trust Iris because when Iris didn’t fight her dismissal hard enough to stay with Maisie? Plus, Maisie’s experiences with Owen and Claire in the previous film definitely would have created a deep bond of trust and mutual care. Maisie definitely had affection for Iris but perhaps it couldn’t compare.

Maisie needed to be kept hidden in the middle of nowhere so she’d be safe from nefarious people. Perhaps Owen and Claire thought Iris, an old lady, would be unable to handle this. Also, being older, Iris had a higher chance of dying sooner than Owen or Claire. Perhaps they feared Iris would die before Maisie was old enough to look after herself?

Iris knew Maisie was a clone of her mother all this time and kept it to herself. Maisie could have seen this as a massive betrayal, leading to the destruction of trust. If she felt like that, Maisie would have fought living with someone she perceived as deceitful.

All of these are valid reasons. It could be a mixture of these reasons.

 

How did the staff evacuate?

So far, the only way in and out of Biosyn’s valley within tall mountains is via aircraft. Yet they had pterosaurs flying around that attacked aircraft. Sure, they had a system that could deter the pterosaurs, but this would need activating. But everyone got up and left immediately, which meant no-one activated the deterrent. So all these evacuees would have been killed.

But then we Biosyn’s boss Dodgson flee via the hyper-rail. It travels through a mine which could easily lead to the other side of the mountain, whether because that’s the extent of the mine or additional tunnelling. Anyway, it’s safe to assume the other Biosyn employees fled via the hyper-rail, too.

 

 

False Alarms: Creatures

 

Due to the way arthropods breathe, it’s always been assumed that their size is limited by the amount of oxygen in the air. Carboniferous arthropods were massive because people think that period had a higher concentration of atmospheric oxygen. As such, the audience complained that this film’s giant locusts aren’t realistic.

            However, some new research suggests that the Carboniferous oxygen concentration was similar to now. Thus, oxygen concentration doesn’t limit arthropod size. As such, there’s no reason why these giant locusts wouldn’t be able to respirate in the current atmosphere.

Also, Biosyn is at the helm of genetic research. If they wanted giant locusts, what’s to stop them genetically engineering their giant locusts to be better adapted to survive Earth’s current atmosphere?

 

Next, dinosaur questions.

The farmed triceratops babies are kept locked in restraints. However, there are massive gaps between the babies. It seems like wasted space, but maybe the restraints can be changed as the triceratops is growing. Hence the gaps between the babies: room for them to grow.

Santos targets a laser at Owen, making the raptor chase him outside. Then a second raptor joins the chase. But this second one was in the streets so it clearly didn’t see Owen get targeted. So how could he know? Perhaps it’s just following the lead of the first one? Also, Lions and wolves manage to coordinate which animal they’re hunting, so there’s no reason why these raptors can’t, too.

We see small, feathered raptors in the Biosyn lab. Ramsey says that Biosyn uses whole, untouched genomes, leading to feathered dinos. A subtle explanation about why InGen dinosaurs had no feathers. The t-rex with Biosyn doesn’t have feathers, meaning this t-rex doesn’t have a complete genome: if they’re so proud of their complete genomes, why do they have a t-rex without its one? However, at the start of the film, a news reporter says that Biosyn had the sole rights to capture and relocate dinosaurs. So, this featherless t-rex was clearly created by someone else.

 

The mercenaries from the previous film took few animals to the mainland. How, then, did the mainland become so dinosaur populated?

Perhaps some of the dinosaurs managed to swim to the mainland? Perhaps people made new clones (if InGen and Biosyn could do it, why not others)?

But still, dinosaurs are large. It usually takes larger animals a long time to reach sexual maturity, longer than the gap between the two films provides. Some evidence suggests at least some dinosaurs grew extremely fast, so maybe those kind of genes were inserted into all the dinosaur genomes? People would flock to see baby dinos and large dinos, so InGen would want a quick growth rate so their dinos spent less time in the less profitable in-between stage.

The mainland being as populated as it is brings loads of questions with unsatisfying yet logical solutions.

 

 

References

 

There were many references to previous films. Most, of course, are in reference to the very first Jurassic Park.

            Maisie and co are in an upside-down car, just like the kids in the first Jurassic Park film. Also, the car teetered on the edge of a ledge.

They need to turn the power off and on again to reboot the system. Malcolm uses radios to coordinate with Sattler. The buttons of the system are the raised square red-green buttons. All just like in Jurassic Park.

Dodgson, the character causing all the trouble in this film, is eaten by a Dilophosaurus inside a vehicle. All this is just the same as Dennis in Jurassic Park.

 

The Park trilogy as a whole also get in on the action.

Owen wrangles duckbills in the snow in this film. Just like how a duckbill is wrangled in Jurassic Park: The Lost World.

            There were many car chases in this film. Too many for me, personally, but they all fit with the story. Plus, they referenced the car chases in the first two Jurassic Park films.

            Claire’s ejector seat with parachute gets stuck in a tree. Just like Eric’s glider parachute gets stuck in a tree in Jurassic Park 3.

 

Other films get a look in, too.

The first prehistoric creature seen in this film is the mosasaur, just like Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.

            The giganotosaurus’ mouth lowers next to the car. This mimics the Jurassic Park t-rex and the Jurassic World Indominus-rex. Plus, the Giganotosaurus swivels the upside-down car with its snout, just like the Jurassic Park t-rex.

            When they fly away in a helicopter at the end of the film, music is playing. The same as every other time in every other film that ends in the helicopter.

 

 

Conclusion

 

I think it’s quite clear what my overarching view of this film is.

The number of issues this film had was impressive. Putting all those problematic points together really drove home how disappointing I found the end product.

The good points were rather special. Without these, I wouldn’t have bought the DVD and I’d flip any channel showing it. But the good points don’t save the film, though at least they mean it’s no longer a disaster. (To be honest, the ‘dragon’ alone would have made me watch it again.)

Jurassic World Dominion: Critique 4/5

Positives! Despite how negative the past three critiques for JWD have been, there were areas that fully deserve praise.

 

*****SPOILERS*****

 

Visual Brilliance

 

There were many amazing visual moments.

My favourite feature was when Malcolm impaled a burning locust on stick then threw this stick into the Giganotosaurus’ mouth. It roars, the air making the fire come out the mouth. DRAGON.

A little less silly than the dragon was my second favourite feature. The t-rex walks behind the ring water feature then roars, looking just like the Jurassic Park symbol.

The first side shot of the film focuses on a fishing boat. Then this massive wave comes up and down, hiding the boat and bobbing it around. Visual genius.

Claire hanging in the tree at the same level with the blind therizinosaur’s head was in interesting shot. The audience goes from anticipating the dinosaur’s reaction to confusion to relief. Then its clicking and grumblings were such complicated, rhythmic sounds. Just like a big angry bird.

Raptors are chasing Claire so she holds a pole up horizontally between two cars. This catches the raptor under the chin, resulting in a full pinwheel. Brilliant.

 

Other visuals of note are as follows.

Near the end, a mosasaur is shown next to a humpback whale, dwarfing it. Between whales being massive and us seeing the mosasaur’s entire body, the enormity of the mosasaur was fully appreciated.

The locusts get set on fire in the lab. This gets reflected in Dodgson’s glasses, making it look like fire was burning in his eyes. Then these fiery locusts escape and swarm the air, dropping like meteors. They’re a danger to the dinosaurs, giving a nod to the meteor that originally made the non-avian dinosaurs extinct.

Everyone is in a high building. The giganotosaurus pushes its head through the glass walls then sweeps its head from side to side. That moment was super scary.

Doves are released at a wedding and immediately get eaten by a pterosaur. The very symbol of peace dies at the hands (beak?) of a prehistoric creature.

In the black market, there are several raptorfights, mimicking dogfights and cockfights. Also in the black market, Owen twisting and pulling of the tiny compies climbing all over his body was done really well.

Owen drives his motorbike onto the plane. A raptor follows, but as the plane takes off, the bike slides out the plane, dragging the raptor with it.

 

 

Cleverness, Funniness and Sweetness

 

There were many clever elements. Such as moss being displaced when the t-rex and Giganotosaurus walk.

            Mutant locusts are eating entire fields of crops; the only farms unaffected are those that use Biosyn seeds. This forces farmers to buy Biosyn seeds, making the company rich.

            When Sattler asks, “You caught a live one?” her voice is so husky. I’m glad they kept that detail rather than force a retake. It’s the sort of situation where directors would want her to sound younger, softer, smoother, more ‘feminine’. Yet here they kept the husk, adding realism (enhanced with Grant’s likewise husky voice).

            A small detail, but one of my favourites, is related to Blue. She clicks her big toe claw on the metal bus. The sound and rhythm emphasised Blue’s deadly nature.

            When Grant, Sattler and Maisie exit the mines, we get the classic Jurassic Park music. But the last few notes change to give an ominous atmosphere. Yes, they escaped the mines, but something bad’s going to come. (And it does!)

            In Jurassic Park, Grant said how raptors would disembowel their prey. In this film, he talks about how scientists now think differently, that raptors go for the jugular. It’s nice that the change in paleology paradigm is reflected in this film.

 

Whilst not as numerous as other films in this franchise, there was still an element of amusement.

            In the black market, a carnivore chomps on a guy’s hand, but he only starts screaming hysterically when a tiny four legs starts nibbling on his other sleeve. If he were going to scream about one of the creatures, one wouldn’t expect it to be the tiny nibbler over the sharp predator!

            Malcolm orders lots of coffee from a noisy machine. Then he quickly tells Sattler about the locusts in the lab, including directions whilst handing over a pass. So the coffee machine was to prevent them being overheard. I really wasn’t expecting this: sneaky surprises always amuse me.

            The guard of the underground market was disguised and acting like he was homeless. Then opens the door… with a smartphone. The dichotomy between poverty and affluence in the one individual elicited another surprised laugh from me.

         When the plane goes down, Owen asks, “What’s the plan?” Kayla the pilot yells, “Whatever happens!” Simple yet successful.

            Malcolm tells a story about his pet dog and his own leg cast. That story was so like Malcolm, providing verbal continuity with Malcolm’s depictions in the Jurassic Park series.

 

There were a few sweet moments that really stood out.

When Owen kisses Claire before her ejector seat is initiated, he kisses her on the cheek rather than the lips. This made it much more caring.

When the plane is in the process of crashing, Owen tells Claire that Maisie needs her because Claire is her mum. Considering Maisie’s closer with Owen, him saying this shows such reassurance, trust and love. (Which Claire needed after Maisie saying Claire wasn’t her mum.)

Upside-down in a car, Maisie sees Claire and Owen and says, “It’s my parents!” Earlier in the film, Maisie crossly told Claire she wasn’t her mother, so to see this retraction and announcement was heartwarming.  

            In the start of the first two films, Claire and Owen are no longer together because their relationship fell apart. In this film, they are still a couple. Their need to look over Maisie takes priority over their squabbles.

Maisie says she’s not a real person (because she’s a clone). Claire says, “You’re the only you that ever was.”

Although Owen and Blue essentially don’t interact in this film, their bond is still shown. Like how, at the end of the film, Blue runs away with Beta yet comes back to see Owen one last time. Also, their symmetry is lovely because they both have a child.

Jurassic World Dominion: Critique 3/5

*****SPOILERS*****

 

Hair Problems

 

Hair was an unexpected issue.

 

Zia was unrecognisable in this film.

She no longer had glasses. Her hair was in a completely different style and length. She didn’t talk about the past. It’s been four years since she last was seen on screen. This meant there was no way to recognise her as a character we already knew. Plus, she barely had any screen time in this film, meaning I didn’t hear her voice, or see her face, long enough to recognise her that way.

If the look of a character is completely changed, something needs to be done to ensure the audience can identify them. Otherwise, there is no continuity and it doesn’t make sense. For example, Henry Wu was recognisable despite his hair being longer because we see his face for longer, hear his voice for longer, and nothing else about him changed.

I only found out her identity after seeing the credits and doing an image search!

 

Maisie has blonde in her hair. As it’s winter, this means it has to dyed rather than natural sun bleaching. Plus, it looks professional, meaning none of them did it at home.

Owen and Claire have told Maisie she can’t go past the bridge. If they don’t like her doing that then they definitely wouldn’t have let her into town for anything, let alone hair dye.

Yes, Maisie could have done it without their permission. But they definitely would have noticed. So when Maisie lies in this film about how, “The only people I’ve spoken to these last four years are you two,” Owen and Claire would have challenged her (because it’d be sensible to assume that Maisie spoke in the salon).

Clearly, there’s no way in-world Maisie would have had her hair dyed. After all, Owen and Claire are hiding Maisie from the unsavoury people wanting to take/study her: why risk her discovery over something so unnecessary and trivial as hair colour? As such, it was a mistake on the filmmakers’ part to colour her hair as they did.

 

 

Character Issues

 

Malcolm, Sattler and Grant all swear in this film.

It doesn’t fit with their characters. We’ve seen them plenty of times in other Jurassic Park/World films and they never really swore. Yes, characters change, but the chances of all three changing in the exact same way is statistically unlikely.

Yes, the Jurassic World characters swear, but that works with their characterisations. Making Grant and co do something just because others are doing it doesn’t make sense.

So for Malcolm, Sattler and Grant to start all of a sudden swearing now? This is beyond bizarre.

 

Some of the characterisations were insufficient.

Sattler screaming, “Oh, my God” was not believable. She’s not the kind of person who would say anything in that way in that moment. Even if she were, one would expect Sattler to maybe gasp or make an observation. Her screaming those words clearly doesn’t match her character.

Dodgson’s tantrum was weird. At the start of it, he makes two short, sharp arm movements. Combined with the fact they were at an unnatural, uncomfortable angle, it makes this movement an unwelcome surprise. Maybe the actor/director were aiming for something unique but they achieved something subpar.

 

Kayla goes to land the chopper in the courtyard. Ramsey warns her, saying the dinosaurs are in there now, something emphasised by the sauropod raising its head at that moment.

I know it’s dark, but how did she miss all the massive dinosaurs? Plus, when the sauropod head came from underneath the chopper, and she dodged it, this means she can somewhat see underneath her. Thus she should have noticed the dinosaurs in the first place.

Also, surely a pilot has to look somewhere before they land it there? All she’d have to do is tilt the chopper for her to see below. Considering the hight-tech plane and her piloting skills, neither this skill nor the necessity of doing it should have escaped her mind.

 

Sometimes the characters did something that would have been faulty if anyone did them.

            When Grant, Sattler and Maisie hear someone coming towards them, they run away so that they aren’t discovered. Yet Sattler drops her mask on the floor: anyone who sees it will know something’s up. Plus Sattler purposefully ripped the mask off and dropped it. No-one would purposefully leave a clue for the opposing side, especially not someone as clever as Sattler.

            When the system reboots, everyone is surprised, saying it shouldn’t do that. But then they hit it with an axe: this makes the system reboot which was their aim. Surprised it did something they didn’t want, but then it does something they do want, which happens to be what seconds before they said they didn’t want? What a mess.

 

 

Claire Issues

 

Claire gives the giganotosaurus a taser shock on the side of its mouth/head. But the taser lands in the air next to the dinosaur: about 30cm sideways and she would’ve made contact.

Whilst it’s hard to believe she missed something so big, people do misjudge things, especially when risking their life. Like Claire was, going near the mouth of the world’s largest predatory dinosaur.

However, it looks to me like the filmmakers didn’t properly align Claire and the dinosaur, because the film carried on as if Claire didn’t miss, meaning she hit it even though it doesn’t look like she hit it.

 

When Claire hides underwater from the therizinosaur, she holds her breath for a long time.

Far longer than is normally possible. People can train to achieve this, sure, but we’ve neither seen Claire in water nor talk about swimming. It’s not believable that she’s developed this skill just because it’s convenient for the plot.

When people are scared, or doing something uncomfortable, every moment feels dragged out. So maybe this moment was in slomo for the audience to experience the dragged-out time alongside Claire. Yet we could see her blinks, and the movements of both her and the dinosaur, plus the water rippling: all these were at normal speed. So this slomo excuse is not viable.

 

 

Other Issues

 

The frozen lake scene was full of oddities.

            A shot of the swimraptor jumping into the lake is in slomo and is accompanied by a screech. We’ve heard the swimraptor screech at normal speed before. If something is in slomo, not only does it take longer but it is deeper. Yet the screeches at normal speed and at slomo speed are exactly the same.

            As Owen and Kayla slowly walk on the ice, they slip a lot. Yet when they run on both occasions (before and after Owen falls into the water), they have perfect balance. People’s balance gets worse with speed, particularly on slippery surfaces like ice. So for running to be better than walking, on not one but two occasions, is wrong.

            When fleeing the swimraptor on the gangway, Kayla screams. But she starts and finishes it at moments that don’t seem natural. Also, her screams sound forced without any notes of fright. Considering this situation is a frightening one, any screams should demonstrate this.

 

Maisie is the clone of her mother Charlotte. This film and the previous one don’t agree on why this happened.

            In the previous film, Miles revealed that Lockwood’s daughter die and he wanted her back. And he had the technology to do that. Later, Miles says this is what drove Hammond and Lockwood apart.

            In this film, Maisie’s mum Charlotte cloned herself. How can Maisie be Lockwood wanting her daughter back if Maisie was alive before Charlotte died? Perhaps Miles misunderstood or filled in the blanks incorrectly? But if this were the case, someone should have corrected this so that it’s a character’s mistake, not the filmmakers’ mistake.

This film’s explanation for Maisie’s existence drive the plot. So if the explanation doesn’t make sense, this collapses the story.

It's a muddle. Yes, there are ways to justify the disparity between the films. But it’s flimsy, so the filmmakers lacking consistency is surely the more realistic explanation.

 

Finally, let’s look at miscellaneous issues.

            The locusts break out of their containment chamber. This is not feasible. I scoffed the first time I saw it because it’s complete rubbish.

            The humour is very reduced compared with the other films. The first two Jurassic Worlds made a big effort to always roll with the light-hearted jokes and laughing when in dire situations. So to have that all removed in this film, the change in tone was far too drastic. Also, Malcolm is a big part of this film: he’s always been the comic relief (especially in dire situations), so him not doing so here doesn’t make sense.

Grant and Sattler pant heavily when they cling to one another on the floor; Grant leans over Sattler as he looks into her eyes. The shot is too long, giving the audience more time to register and notice how forced it looks. The same amount of romantic tension could have been achieved with a third of the time (and, more importantly, achieved without the issues).

Jurassic World Dominion: Critique 2/5

*****SPOILERS*****

 

Problems on Malta

 

There’s a dinosaur black market on Malta.

 

There are many pits for raptorfights (like cockfights/dogfights). These carnivores are all chained to the wall. One pulls themselves free. How was it so easy?

Any animal whose life is about fighting for pure survival is particularly prone to reacting aggressively to every stimulus. This applies to these fighting raptors. (This is before even factoring in their predatory natures). So, one would expect these fighting raptors to be properly secured to keep people safe.

Yes, one would expect the chains to get jostled. The dinosaurs would definitely try to tug themselves free. The fights would result in pulling and straining of the chain. As such, all this would be compensated for with better chains to make sure they’re properly secured.

Unsecured dinosaurs would attack the people and then escape. An increase in dinosaur-related injuries/death on Malta would make the authorities investigate, leading to the discovery then closure of the black market. But to have an actual dinosaur rampaging the streets? The authorities would be even more incentivised to find the cause!

This would create a loss of income and freedom (because jail) for the sellers and buyers. There would be retribution on those who caused this (i.e. the dinosaur securers). Hence these securers would keep people safe from the dinosaurs to keep themselves safe from the people: by properly securing the dinosaurs.

Hence this raptor breaking free so easily just isn’t feasible.

 

The dinosaur black market was a complete disaster.

Some compies were inside a cage. They not only poked their heads out of the bars but the front half of their torsos, too. The thickest part of their body, no less, meaning they could have easily escaped! This problem would be solved if the compies were chained inside the cage. But later on, this cage is knocked over and these compies scamper free. This couldn’t have happened if they were chained. If they weren’t chained, they couldn’t contained to the cage. As such, there’s no way the compies would have just sat in the cage as docilely as they did.

The dinosaurs in the black market were animatronics and models. They look cheap. They look unrealistic. The animatronics and models in Jurassic Park, made decades ago, look so much better than the ones in this film. There’s no justification for a regression in quality.

A tall carnivore comes out of its containment. Owen holds his hand up, like he does with Blue to ensure her obedience. However, his hand, head and eyes are at neither the right height nor angle for the carnivore to see and hence respond to the hand. But even if all these factors were correct, Blue only responded to this hand gesture because she was trained to do so: the black market dinosaurs haven’t, meaning using this gesture for them is pointless. (However, it’s sensible to think this is just a natural reaction Owen has to predators. This doesn’t negate the faulty height or angle, though.)

 

There are problems after the black market, too.

Claire hits a raptor with a pole. Its sound was a clanging, as if the metal pole had hit another bit of metal. The raptor definitely isn’t made of metal. So this clanging sound was a bizarre choice.

When the truck goes across a stinger, the truck tips over. This doesn’t happen with stingers. If the driver tried to avoid the stinger, tipping would make sense: this clearly wasn’t what happened here, though. Now, the truck tipping over was necessary for the raptors to escape, and the raptors escaping was necessary for the plot. So, if the truck tipping over was unfeasible, then the following plot events are likewise unfeasible.

Claire uses a taser on Santos who goes flying across the room. What? Why on Earth would that have happened?

 

All-in-all, this film didn’t let Malta serve.

 

 

Callback After Callback

 

All films in this franchise reference the previous movies. How this film did it was inadequate.

In Jurassic World, callbacks to previous films were many but they weren’t overwhelming. The film’s identity wasn’t swallowed by the past. However, this was not the case for this film.

Don’t get me wrong, the callbacks in this film themselves were executed well, but the sheer number was overbearing. The impact of them altogether overall was the issue. The closer this film got to the end, the more concentrated these callbacks were. Frankly, they were packed beyond sensibility. Events became dictated by this checklist of things to mention rather than the actual plot itself.

If these references had been spread out more, they wouldn’t have become a parasite at the end of the film. It drained all the life out of the movie. Instead of building to this big conclusion, the plot just fizzled out. The filmmakers managed to film’s identity despite having new dinosaurs, settings and people. Managing this would be impressive if it were a positive skill.

Jurassic World Dominion: Critique 1/5

In this film, Claire and Owen are looking after Maisie, living in the woods to protect her from nefarious companies and the black market. Meanwhile, giant locusts are ravaging farms so Dr Ellie Sattler, along with Dr Alan Grant, meet Dr Ian Malcolm at Biosyn to expose the truth.

 

*****SPOILERS*****

 

Problems with Beta

 

Beta is Blue’s child. The creators, in trying to explain how Blue had a child by herself, just demonstrated that they don’t quite understand the topic of parthenogenesis.

 

Henry Wu says that Blue has monitor lizard DNA, and that monitors can reproduce without a mate, hence Beta is genetically identical to Blue.

However, when monitors reproduce using parthenogenesis, they make male children. So if Blue created Beta with parthenogenesis, Beta should be male: a male Beta cannot be identical to a female Blue.

Yes, some forms of parthenogenesis do result in offspring genetically identical to their mothers. However, as Henry specifies the monitor’s parthenogenic process resulted in Beta, it should work like the monitor’s process. That is, parent and child are not identical.

 

Theoretically, even if Beta was genetically identical to Blue, Beta would need to look identical to Blue. She does not.

The audience saw videos of baby Blue in the previous film. Beta doesn’t look like this. However, Blue’s colouration in this film is different from the previous film. Perhaps her colours changed in the cold (like how a weasel ‘becomes’ an ermine). Perhaps if Blue had been in this current environment as a baby, she would look like Beta does now.

Blue’s colours are darker than before. Yes, this isn’t good for camouflage in the snow. However, dark colours retain heat better than light colours; as Blue has no fur/feathers to keep herself warm, retaining heat somehow is essential.

Beta, however, is light coloured. Animals have a harder time regulated their heat both when cold and when young. So if any animal in the species turned dark in order to conserve heat, one would expect it to be a younger animal. Like Beta.

Further, if Blue turns dark in the cold, then surely if Beta is genetically identical to her then Beta would turn dark in the cold, too. Unless Blue would have been light in the cold when young. But it makes no sense for the same animal to turn different colours under the same circumstances.

 

 

Problems with Dinosaurs

 

There are a few problems with the therizinosaur killing the deer.

A therizinosaur swipes at a deer and it goes flying. If the dinosaur put enough force in that hit to send the deer flying that distance, those claws would break because they’re thin and supported at the base only. Plus, studies consistently show the claws were unsuited for forceful impacts and they’d break under those conditions. Such as sending a deer flying. Maybe Biosyn engineered the therizinosaur to have claws suitable for high impact, but why would they? All-in-all, the therizinosaur’s attack shouldn’t have gone as it did.

The therizinosaur killing the deer doesn’t make sense in the first place. Herbivores may compete for food access but this wouldn’t result in instant death. There would be at least some sort of threatening or warning behaviour involved (which there wasn’t).

Also, therizinosaur created a carcass by killing the deer. This would attract predators. Yes, the therizinosaur can clearly defend itself. However, creating a carcass then staying next to it puts the therizinosaur at an unnecessary risk of harm. Even a small wound could cause infection and death, or weakness/blood loss hence death by hunger. So it shouldn’t do anything to attract large dinosaurs that can inflict large wounds.

Finally, the therizinosaur is the one that kills the giganotosaurus at the end. Perhaps they needed to show the therizinosaur being capable of violence (by using the deer) so that this death was believable? However, the t-rex pushed the giganotosaurus onto the therizinosaur’s claws: the therizinosaur wasn’t the aggressor so we don’t need to see the therizinosaur being aggressive to believe this death. As such, this explanation goes out the window.

 

The t-rex found the dead deer. Dead things don’t move, meaning that the t-rex doesn’t need movement to see things. (As was explained and visually depicted in the Jurassic Park films.)

So either the t-rex can see sedentary things or its sense of smell is sufficient to locate things. With this in mind, if the t-rex could find the dead deer, all the previous instances of t-rex not noticing still things is completely out the window because the t-rex would’ve scented them.

(Yes, scientists think t-rex could see motionless things, but the franchise should be consistent. Or have a reason that justifies this change, such as an updated genome. Yet neither option was taken.)

 

 

Biosyn Problems

 

For a company doing amazing things and led by the genius Dodgson, some really stupid decisions were made.

A few of these are Malcolm’s security pass and the observation tower’s ladder. These will be dealt with a little later.

But first? Biosyn think they can discover pharmaceutical properties within the dinosaur’s ancient immune system. Dinosaurs definitely aren’t adapted for modern day pathogens, so using their immune systems to deal with modern day pathogens is bizarre. Considering how fast viruses and diseases diversify into many new strains every year, a gap of sixty-six million years between us and the dinosaurs makes their immune systems redundant.

 

Malcolm gives Sattler a security pass that will let her get to a restricted lab. But he’s a chaotician giving lectures, not a scientist. Why should he have any access to any labs, let alone a restricted one?

Yes, maybe Biosyn use him to create predictive models on their research. Though if this were the case, a scientist with the high clearance could just take Malcolm along when needed.

The more people that have access, the more likely people on the outside will find out. Considering Biosyn is engineering a famine, that’s information they would keep under lock-and-key. Hence Malcolm, unnecessary to this lab work, having access to these areas is thus nonsense.

Later, we find out Ramsey told Malcolm about ‘the programme’. So why did Malcolm have access to the areas of the programme when he wasn’t told about it directly?

Perhaps Malcolm didn’t originally have a pass that gave him restricted access there. Ramsey may have updated Malcolm’s pass, or maybe he created a whole new pass with access. If it were either of these options, the system or a person must have seen that unauthorised access was given.

Another option would be Ramsey stealing a pass from someone who already had access. That individual would have needed a new pass made so that they could go where they needed for work. So the technicians would have cancelled the missing one, meaning it wouldn’t have functioned for Malcolm or Sattler. These problems apply even if Ramsey gave them his pass: Ramsey still had full access to everything, meaning he would have needed a replacement pass, hence his old pass would get cancelled.

However which way one looks at this issue, there’s no sensible solution.

 

The observation tower has a retractable ladder and it’s out in the open.

As it isn’t permanent, it means it prevents people getting to safety. Between possible deaths and lawsuits, Biosyn should have been incentivised to make safety better.

Countries would ask where their citizens are, something that would prompt the Italian government to investigate (because Biosyn’s valley is in Italy). Most of Biosyn’s employees seem to be American and having the world’s most influential country pester you isn’t ideal. So Biosyn couldn’t hide deaths.

Yes, the ladder in the middle of the clearing means a big dinosaur could snap it off or knock it down, so making the ladder retractable is damage limitations. However, having it against a solid structure would eliminate this issue without the problems retractability presents. (There were plenty of solid structures this ladder could be up against.)

Perhaps they were also worried a permanent ladder would let dinosaurs enter the observation tower. A perfectly vertical ladder with very shallow and very round handholds would prevent any dinosaur from jumping their way up the ladder. (Dinosaurs haven’t exhibited ladder-climbing skills with their hands.) So this explanation doesn’t hold up.

Let’s say dinosaurs can climb ladders, so Biosyn made this one retractable so that the dinosaurs couldn’t access it. This doesn’t mean the ladder has to be out in the open: there are still plenty of solid structures to put it against. That way, all the problems are solved. Hence there’s no way to justify the ladder’s current setup.

 

 

Biosyn Aerial Security

 

Biosyn’s aerial security is letting their Quetzalcoatl (and presumably other pterosaurs) take down aircraft that are unwanted in Biosyn’s air space. This is, of course, a fantastic idea. But its reality is rife with difficulties.

Biosyn would need to spend a fortune on clearing up plane/helicopter wreckage. The humans involved would be vulnerable to maiming and death because of all the dinosaurs (if the crash didn’t kill them first). Putting the fire out is another concern. Medical bills for the dinosaurs would be high due to the smoke inhalation, oil spill and fallen wreckage.

These issues would also damage the food: not only would ingesting this food be dangerous for the animals but funding replacement food would be expensive for Biosyn. (Biosyn has the exclusive right to collect all dinosaurs roaming the world, including the lysine-requiring dinosaurs created by InGen. These dinosaurs’ special diet would already be an expensive endeavour, so why would Biosyn do anything to exacerbate this problem?)

Whenever an aircraft goes missing, it’s noticed and its blackbox is tracked. Every time Biosyn allowed an aircraft to be destroyed, that risked investigation. They’d have to explain the damage and murder to the authorities. Legal fees, loss of reputation, loss of work permits, loss of profit… so letting aircraft get destroyed seems like too much hassle.

Also, if the pterosaurs drive the aircraft off instead of destroying it, the pilots/passengers would tell people about the aerial security system. That would involve governments and protest groups getting angry at Biosyn. I don’t see why Biosyn would allow such a clear problem to exist. Biosyn’s airspace is restricted, meaning only law-ignoring pilots like Kayla fly there, so perhaps they won’t tell on Biosyn because they’d be admitted they conduct illegal activity. Still, this doesn’t eliminate the other issues.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom Critique 6/6

 

*****SPOILERS*****

False Alarms: People

 

These were very minor questions.

Some people criticised Lockwood carrying a walking stick whilst in a wheelchair, citing it as a contradiction. However, most wheelchair-users to have some mobility. Due to a lack of speed, strength, stability or stamina, a wheelchair is the safest way to get around. Also, if someone requires a wheelchair, they most likely absolutely need a walking stick to get up from the wheelchair.

Iris talks about lions in the forest. Maisie says there are no lions in the forest. In Africa, this is true. But all Asian lions do live in forest. Are the writers trying to flex their knowledge but failing? Or are they reflecting actual opinions? If this were the latter, it would be good writing. If it were the former, it definitely would not be.

Claire says she felt awe the first time she saw a dinosaur. Considering the previous film made such an effort to portray that Claire didn’t care, this would be a severe lack of consistency. However, as I felt they didn’t portray this properly in the previous film, to me this line in this film is in fact a confirmation.

Instinctively, I wanted to ask where Owen got the gun from. He wasn’t given a gun by the mercenaries and he didn’t have a chance to wrestle one from a mercenary, either. However, considering he’s ex-military and he’s American, him carrying a gun with him isn’t unlikely, especially when he’s going somewhere dangerous.

 

 

False Alarms: Miles Blaming Claire and Owen 

 

Miles tells Claire that they both exploit living animals in cages for money.

            Claire kept dinosaurs in a zoo. The dinosaurs received plenty of space and healthcare. Miles, on the other hand, is selling endangered animals to criminals. People that partake in this market are notorious for not looking after their animals: cramped, dirty conditions with no healthcare.

So, Claire’s is for the animals’ benefit and is legal; Miles’ is for the benefit of people and is illegal. Yes, they both use the dinosaurs for money, but how something is done is important. (The naughty step and corporal punishment are both ways to discipline a child. So it’s clear that how something is done is more important than just the fact it is done.)

 

Miles mocks Owen for not thinking of the applications of his raptor training, i.e. used by the military or criminal groups for bad purposes. (Essentially, Miles is convincing Owen that he’s naïve and at fault for everything.)

By that logic, that research can be misused, no-one would ever do any research. Anything can be misappropriated by the military or unsavoury people for unsavoury purposes.

Besides, training raptors made them less of a risk to the park’s visitors and employees. This is done with most zoo animals: the more intelligent they are, the more training they get. Hence training the raptors was a sensible precaution.

 

Claire and Owen think this whole situation is their fault. That dinosaurs wouldn’t have be trafficked into a bad life without their help.

But the mercenaries didn’t need their help to find the majority of the dinosaurs. So them not helping wouldn’t have made too much of a difference. Whether Claire and co joined or not, these dinosaurs would end up trafficked. Blaming themselves for the whole situation is dramatic.

The only impact Claire and co had was helping the mercenaries helping save Owen’s precious Blue. If it’s ‘your fault’ that someone’s still alive, surely that’s not a bad fault to carry? Especially when you have a positive relationship with it?

Yet, whilst their thoughts don’t make sense, it does make sense why they have these thoughts. Claire and Owen were duped into aiding criminal activity. They were left to die and if they stayed in their cell, someone would finish the job.

Under dire situations like these, of course they would be doubting themselves. Especially as Miles made them feel guilty! They are doubting if the good things they did were actually good and now they’re re-evaluating everything.

Thus them having self-doubt in the first place makes sense, even if those self-doubts lack logic.

 

 

False Alarms: Indoraptor

 

When the Indoraptor is eating the mercenary, the auctioneer runs to the lift.

He pushes the woman hiding behind the control panel into the centre of the lift so that he can hide behind the control panel instead. Now, if anyone is visible in that lift (such as the exposed lady), the Indoraptor will come for them and hence find everyone else hiding in the lift, too (such as the auctioneer).

Then the woman screams. It’s only now that the Indoraptor sees her that the auctioneer presses to close the lift doors. So, the woman alerts the dinosaur to her location which isn’t a good survival strategy. Also, the auctioneer should’ve shut the lift doors as soon as he got behind the control panel to ensure their safety. (Heck, even the woman should have!)

Nothing in this sequence is rational. However, when people panic, they aren’t rational because they literally cannot think straight. Even when it’s over something minor, panic makes logical thinking difficult. So being in a life-and-death situation? Irrational behaviour definitely makes sense. In this situation, irrational behaviour is a rational expectation.

 

As the star-dinosaur, the Indoraptor also had false alarms, particularly when with Maisie.

Maisie runs away from the Indoraptor when it’s occupied with Claire and Owen. She screams when she does this, something that seems dumb because it then chases her. But perhaps this was Maisie’s intention because Claire was stuck and thus she did this to save Claire. Later on, we hear Maisie scream in fear: it’s nothing like her luring-away-the-dinosaur scream, giving credence to it being intentional and not stupid.

The auctioneer had told the buyers that the Indoraptor has advanced hearing, so it definitely would have heard Maisie pulling the dumbwaiter up whilst it was right by the dumbwaiter’s door. Then the Indoraptor went outside and up, likely checking all the windows as it passed them. So, once it got to the roof without seeing Maisie, of course it would come back down the other side. Perhaps it saw Maisie’s hair. Perhaps its excellent hearing heard her panting. So the Indoraptor finding Maisie post-dumbwaiter makes sense.

 

 

Conclusion

 

This film is good enough to justify a few rewatches.

There were many clever details that I appreciated. The visuals were also pretty spectacular. The humour was good whilst it lasted: the fact there was no humour once they got back from the island was a massive issue.

The problems were very weighty. This film is sci-fi so any instances of real-life science should be accurate. If these basics aren’t accurate, how are the audience to accept any of the fictional science? With that basic necessity out the window, the entire premise of the franchise is blown. Hence this film disregarding this is problematic.

There were eight false alarms. Whilst these aren’t problems, they do initially plant doubt and confusion in the audience’s minds. As such, having so many false alarms isn’t the best approach. Too many things were open ended or unexplained: a bit of pruning wouldn’t have gone amiss.

An enjoyable film, yes, but it was littered with difficulties that needed fixing.