Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom Critique 1/6

*****SPOILERS*****

 

Problem: Scientific Accuracy

 

Most of the Indominus-rex’s skeleton is at the bottom of the mosasaur pen.

But at the end of the previous film, the mosasaur dragged the I-rex under the water. Why would it take the I-rex but not eat it? It was in that pen with no access to food since the end of the last film, so leaving something edible alone doesn’t reflect reality.

Stripping meat off bones could explain this away. However, the mosasaur’s mouth is far too big to have done this. Any such attempt would have broken and scattered the I-rex bones. Considering the I-rex skeleton is intact, bone stripping clearly isn’t the case.

 

Zia says that cavemen, who once lived for twenty years, will in the modern day live to one hundred.

Zia had just said that the t-rex is a clone who’s living in a completely different environment so no-one can predict its lifespan now. But then she talks about another clone living in a different environment (the cavemen), and predicts their lifespan with complete certainty. So Zia just disproves her own theory.

Also, cavemen often lived into their forties. So for Zia to state they only lived twenty years is false.

 

Lava was a massive issue.

Owen rolling away from the lava was funny. However, his proximity to the lava meant he should be burning, if not already outright on fire.

There was another lava issue elsewhere. The tunnel dinosaur has lava fall on its head and it’s only slightly annoyed. This should have at least burnt it! Then a big lava flow washes over its head. Yes, it shows shock and a little pain, but that’s not a serious enough reaction.

All this was so wrong.

 

When the characters are hiding behind the log, a stegosaurus runs into it head first, breaking the log. Yes, stegosauruses are huge and powerful so they would be able to break the log. However, their heads are tiny. The weight of the body and the force of the run would have compressed the head between the log and body: if the log broke, the neck/skull should have, too.

 

 

Problem: Blue’s Transfusion/Genome

 

Blue needs a blood transfusion. Zia gives a description of what the donor dinosaur would look like and says there’s only one onboard the ship.

Then Claire opens a truck and says, “You’ve got to be kidding me?” Now, Claire did see the t-rex being flown on the helicopter, and the t-rex fits the description that Zia gave, so Claire had to know the t-rex is a candidate. So as Zia said there’s only one candidate, Claire would have to know it was the t-rex.

There are many carnivores that match Zia’s compatibility parametres at the Lockwood estate. Clearly, the t-rex isn’t only the only candidate onboard. Perhaps there were multiple ships which carried all other possible candidates? (However, we only see one ship, so this theory isn’t a sensible option.) Perhaps the t-rex was the only one Zia noticed: after all, she is kept right next to Blue, so her potential to notice things would be reduced. But if that were the case, how could she have noticed the t-rex?

 

Henry says he can’t get Blue’s DNA from her blood because it’s mixed with t-rex blood (due to the transfusion).

A pregnant woman’s blood has traces of their baby’s DNA as well as her own. Distinguishing between their two sets of DNA is done every day. The baby shares 50% of their genome with their mother and yet labs distinguish between their two sets of DNA every day.

So for Henry, a clever geneticist, to say he can’t tell the difference between the DNA of velociraptor and t-rex in the same blood sample is bogus. Perhaps he patched up their missing genomes with the exact same genes, so perhaps their genomes are more similar than a mother’s and baby’s are. Yet if that’s the case, he only has to look at the differentiating DNA, meaning he has less information to search for and thus an easier job.

 

 

Problems: Basement

 

A pachy broke through the brick wall of its cell. How was this allowed to happen?

It seems insane to me that they would build these cells without accounting for the dinosaurs’ strengths. After all, they accounted for the size and weight of the dinosaurs when making their cages, lifts and rail tracks. Accounting for the animal’s strength is also a key factor, otherwise the animal escapes. If you allow your equipment to enable escape, what was the point in the first place? So the pachy’s strength should’ve been a factor.

As pachy are small and herbivorous, perhaps everyone just assumed it couldn’t escape. So, they were smart enough to engineer all these systems, get help to get the dinosaurs, genetically engineer Indoraptor, eliminate Claire and co so no witnesses, and organise an international criminal auction without flagging up the authorities. They were smart enough to do all this but they overlooked keeping their assets secure? That’s not something that would have slipped their minds.

Maybe the cells were already in the basement, just not designed for dinosaurs. Even so, Miles would’ve modified these cells so they could actually contain the dinosaurs. If they escape, they can’t be sold, meaning the auction was a waste of time and money. Plus the authorities would be on to them: Miles wouldn’t want to go to jail or face the wrath of these criminals. So there’s no way Miles would fail to make sure the dinosaurs were secured properly.

The pachy also breaks through the gate. All the gates on all the dinosaurs look the same. So if tiny pachy could break one open, surely all the other dinosaurs which are heavier and stronger could, too. (T-rex, triceratops, sauropod etc.) This is an oversight that has all the above issues amplified.

 

Maisie uses the dumbwaiter to descend from Lockwood’s room to the dinosaur basement. This would mean Lockwood would have heard all the dinosaur noises, especially the Indoraptor noises because its cage was right next to the dumbwaiter. This was proven when Miles is by the dumbwaiter shaft and can hear a baby triceratops (who isn’t near the dumbwaiter!) There’s no way Lockwood wouldn’t have had the basement investigated.

 

Modifying the basement for dinosaurs would’ve been a noisy, lengthy affair.

Lockwood, Maisie and Iris must have noticed. They must have asked questions. They must have looked. There were lifts into the basement, plus the basement opened outside, so even Lockwood with his limited mobility could have gone there. For this trio to have no idea is so wrong.

Either the filmmakers didn’t think through the consequences of rebuilding the basement, or the basement was like this beforehand. Perhaps the cells under Lockwood Manor were already there, not built for dinosaurs. (That’s a scary thought: what was Lockwood planning them for?)