***SPOILER ALERT***
I spent the afternoon today in a crowded cinema in suburban Queensland basking in nostalgia watching Jurassic World: Dominion. I haven’t kept up with the overall franchise, but fondly remember seeing the original in the cinema with my father and brother. This instalment sees a return of original stars Dr Alan Grant, Dr Ellie Sattler and Dr Ian Malcolm, played by Sam Neil, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum, respectively. Imagine my surprise then (or perhaps that should be horror) to see a story line full of parallels with recently past, and possibly near-future, events.
The film opens with an unsettling “Now This” voiceover reporting the present-day operations of a biotechnology organisation called ‘Biosys’ seeking to research the entirety of the immune system in order to improve the health of humans through pharmacological means (sound familiar?). This organisation is headed up by Klaus Schwab-style super-villain, Dr Lewis Dodson, complete with remote alpine lair. Oops, I mean dinosaur research facility. Dr Dodson and his minions staff use CRISPR-style technology to identify faulty areas of genes and remove them to cure various diseases and disabilities.
The dinosaurs within the facility which are being used in Dr Dodson’s research have handy little chips implanted in their brains which allow the control of their behaviour in the event of an emergency. For their safety, of course.
As part of his plans for world domination genetic modification-based research, Dr Dodson engineers locusts which are larger, more aggressive and have an insatiable appetite, and promptly releases them in the US resulting in a complete disaster for national, and ultimately global, food supplies (as described dryly by one character by “eating all our food, and our food’s food). When challenged about this action, he calmly and openly says he did it to gain control over the masses (definitely leaning towards documentary now).
Always a pleasure, Dr Malcolm appears in all his Nihilistic wisdom to chastise us for continually ruining the world and failing recognise the lateness of the hour when it comes to chances to repair the damage. His droll observation that we “do what we always do and squander it” when talking about the time remaining to fix our collective mistakes, is topped only by his first guess at an electronic lock code with “over 7000” permutations as ‘1-9-8-4’, and his description of Dr Dodson towards the finale as a “rapacious, rat bastard”.
The film wouldn’t be complete without good-scientist-gone-bad Dr Henry Wu, who despite recognising his devastating contribution to Dr Dodson’s megalomaniacal empire, succumbs to threats regarding funding and his own research when he voices even a sliver of dissent. He redeems himself in the film’s final scenes by designing a pathogen for release in the locust population (seriously?!!!!) to curb their destructive habits and therefore reverse those pesky food shortages - what a hero! This sounds so familiar to me, but I just can’t put my finger on where I’ve heard something like it before. ‾\(ツ)/‾
The film concludes in the same saccharine tones as it begins, with a message from long-deceased Dr Charlotte Lockwood claiming that to survive going forward we must “trust each other” and work together. Sounds an awful lot like ‘We’re all in this together’, wouldn’t you say? But one other aspect must be considered in this review, which is that on the periphery of the main characters, the CIA and Ellie’s connection at the (? New York) “Times” are among the good guys.
I guess that makes it a comedy.
They're laughing at us.