One of my super powers is the ability to ignore plot holes, problematic realities, and whatever other issues can come out of movies like this. This is a movie made for people like me, people who just want to see dinosaurs eating people.  This movie featured enough of that to keep me interested in its outlandish plot.

Had I made this movie, I would have followed through on the implication of its predecessor, meaning dinosaurs rule the earth again and mankind faces extinction. But that likely goes over like a wet fart in church. Even so, fun time at the movies.

First Jurassic Park movie is good the sequals just get worse after that. The latest one is just another movie in the long list of franchises Hollywood keeps trying to milk for nostalgia. 

JohnnyK

Jurassic Park Dominion

Actually, the name of the movie is Jurassic World: Dominion.

I enjoyed the movie. I watched the original movie, Jurassic Park, the day my daughter was born. I read the book a few years before I saw the movie. I bought it at the Stars & Stripes bookstore in Germany. I bought the second book, The Lost World, when I was stationed at Fort Leavenworth in 1996, but only got around to reading it last year. I still had the original sales receipt inside the book.

The bad guy from Jurassic World: Dominion, Lewis Dodgson, had a bit part in the first movie, but was a major player in the second book, The Lost World. The second movie bore little resemblance to the second book. The third movie had more plotlines from the original book. He wasn't in the next two movies, and he dies in the second book.

Actually, a lot of characters that make appearances in the six movies die in the books. Dr. Wu dies in the first book, but plays a larger part in the final movie.

Probably the most absurd part of the movie is the way they've allowed dinosaurs to roam the world, especially ones that can eat people. Smaller ones would be like those iguanas and pythons that infest Florida, hard to eradicate.

But the giant ones and the flying ones would be fairly easy to eliminate.

Hi Rob:

        I only saw the original. Knowing something about the World(Thank You,National Geographic) I saw the average premise, Rogue science makes another Miracle! But, figgured no one in the movie audience remembered from science class that You don't fool with nature. If fish can change sexes for survival so can amphibians! When the Scientist in the movie said they were all Females I knew there was trouble ahead! They spliced Frog D.N.A. Viola'! Eggs get laid and the pressure is off to reproduce, For there are now Males! The premise was interesting though.

Jeff Goldblum's character (the non-dinosaur doctor/mathematician) is the naysayer in the first movie, the star of the second movie (Lost World) and plays a vital role in the 6th movie. He has a cameo in the fifth movie that sort of sets up his appearance in the final/sixth movie.

The biggest "insane" act is the importation of dinosaurs in the second and fourth movies. The second most insane act is dinosaurs deciding to have death matches or eat humans when the world around them is exploding and burning. Normally, survival instinct kicks in for most living creatures and they flee the area.

Yeah, like any government would allow these deadly creatures to be brought into America or European countries.

These are just another spin on the monster movies we grew up with; instead of giant irradiated ants or Tokyo destroying lizards, we're getting "actual" dinosaurs terrorizing humans.

In Jurassic World Dominion there are a number of important references to the previous Jurassic movies. Such as a mosquito biting a dying T-Rex.  Maybe I should watch the previous 5 movies and go see JWD again. It might make more sense if I did that. 

JWD is a good, fun action movie; however, having dinos coexisting with humans is an absurd concept. The opening scene shows a flying dino building a nest on the top of One World Trade Center. WHAT!!!!! A T-Rex is shown walking through an outdoor movie being chased by a police helicopter. HUH!!! 

Maybe I should go watch it again as a toung-in-cheek movie?

JohnnyK

JWD is a good, fun action movie; however, having dinos coexisting with humans is an absurd concept. The opening scene shows a flying dino building a nest on the top of One World Trade Center. WHAT!!!!! A T-Rex is shown walking through an outdoor movie being chased by a police helicopter. HUH!!!

Good grief, where is King Kong when you need him.

disastermaster

 Good grief, where is King Kong when you need him.

 

JohnnyK

 

 

disastermaster

 Good grief, where is King Kong when you need him.

 

 

 

 

Yes, yes!  That would make for a really fun movie. Let's throw in  Baragon, Mothra, and Ghidorah for a really crazy movie. 

 

I think Rob is accurate in his assessment:  the Jurassic Park movies are simply new versions of the old monster movies that many of us enjoyed when we were kids.  Them. Godzilla.  King Kong.  The Valley of Gwangi.  Only with far better visual effects.

Aggieman

 

 

JohnnyK

 

 

disastermaster

 Good grief, where is King Kong when you need him.

 

 

 

 

Yes, yes!  That would make for a really fun movie. Let's throw in  Baragon, Mothra, and Ghidorah for a really crazy movie. 

 

 

 

 

Nah, they already did most of that back in 2019 with Godzilla:  King of the Monsters.

 

I think Rob is accurate in his assessment:  the Jurassic Park movies are simply new versions of the old monster movies that many of us enjoyed when we were kids.  Them. Godzilla.  King Kong.  The Valley of Gwangi.  Only with far better visual effects.

 

Yeah Kong is busy fighting Godzilla! 

The thing with me is Godzilla/Gamera etc are clearly monster films. Dinosaurs were real animals so the over-the-top crazy stuff is a little much for me. Although we've seen the same thing with real world critters like sharks being portrayed as super monsters. Some people argue if 'Jaws' is a 'monster' film or not. Guess it's up to your own viewpoint.  

Well, not only are the Velociraptors oversize but the most recent research shows them being covered in feathers. Though they're kinda limited in having the 'raptors in the original Jurassic Park in the more lizard version so I guess they don't want to change now. 

There are worse films though. Like 1955's 'King Dinosaur'. I know that the technology back then wasn't that great. But still I think most people know a T. rex wasn't a four-legged animal. Using a modern lizard as a stand-in was um well strange. And there were older movies using stop-motion animated T.rex's that were bipedal. 

The Jusassic movies, as well as the source material, are sci-fi fantasy, a dollop of science and a whole lot of fantasy, similar to the Terminator series and just about every space opera, up to and including Star Wars, Star Trek and Avatar and the Alien series. Shortly after the first JP was released, real scientists were explaning how DNA could not be extracted from dino fossils. They need to be viewed as fantasy, just like Game of Thrones  with only special effects relationships to Walking with Dinosaurs. They are NOT in any way, to be seen as documentaries any more than THEM was to be seen as a tome on entomology.

Feathered dinos. When the book was written and the first movie made, the evidence for that had not been discovered. I believe it has been explained away by the use of modern reptile DNA to fill in the blanks.

That said, while I enjoyed the JW:D, it felt much like a James Bond movie with a megabillionaire threatening the world for his profit and included that very Bond-like chase in the middle. 

In short, this movie is best enjoyed while wearing our 9 year old selves' dino-geek shirts. 

Gamera

There are worse films though. Like 1955's 'King Dinosaur'. I know that the technology back then wasn't that great. But still I think most people know a T. rex wasn't a four-legged animal. Using a modern lizard as a stand-in was um well strange. And there were older movies using stop-motion animated T.rex's that were bipedal. 

I'll have to watch that one just so I can get a chuckle.  I'd have a hard time being scared of the female green iguana it looks like they used for the "King" dinosaur...although they can get pretty scary when they're in a bad mood from being gravid.  One of my female iguanas was giving me exactly the look in that photo, and she was normally so sweet that I didn't take it seriously.  I went to pet her on the head to calm her down (which usually worked)...big mistake.  This time she wasn't bluffing...grabbed the tip of my right index finger and de-gloved it.  "Fun" night in the emergency room after that one.  LOL.

As for the new movie, I think the biggest plot hole in all of them is dinosaurs walking the earth again.  After that?  Anything goes.  Love those movies...and I always thought the Velociraptors were cute, especially Blue in the Jurassic World movies.

The whole basis for the series is using dinosaur DNA extracted from amber. This book was written in the 1980s, first book released in 1990. We didn't know as much about DNA back then that we do now.

Dolly the cloned sheep and test tube babies were the hot new science.

JP just takes it to a new level.

Michael Crichton's original novel is excellent, and if you've never read it, I recommend it highly.  I find it to be the kind of novel that I can start and read straight through without stopping.  I did that when I first got it, and I still do now, though I've read it 20 times or more and I know what's coming.

I read it when it was first published, and I thought to myself, "This would make a great movie, if only they could figure out how to animate the dinosaurs realistically."

Crichton drew on the latest interpretations of the fossils, and the work of both Jack Horner and Bob Bakker had a strong influence on his depictions of the animals and descriptions of the science.

Spielberg's movie came out a couple years later, and I saw it, and I was disappointed.  The animation was outstanding, with new techniques and technologies used, both in terms of computer generation and in terms of models. But the changes he made to the story ruined it.  Grant loved children, for example, because they shared his love of dinosaurs.  And in the novel, Hammond is not a kindly little elf of a man, but an arrogant ***, who gets his come-uppance, for screwing with Nature.

I thought to myself, "If they just took out all the human scenes, this would be great!"  And then a couple years later, the BBC brought out "Walking With Dinosaurs", which was pretty much that-a nature show about prehistorical animals.

As far as the sequels go, Crichton hadn't planned on writing one, but he was encouraged to do so by the studio.  And it shows.  Though the novel is relatively fast-paced, the story is pretty much more of the same.  And it bears little relationship to the movie, apart from some characters and dinosaurs.  I did enjoy Pete Postlethwaite as Roland the game hunter, though.

And the sequels got worse from there, in my opinion.  I know there are millions who disagree, but it is what it is.

I've seen the "Lost World" reboot series, and they're entertaining adventure flicks, pretty much, but again, they're formula.

I haven't seen this latest one yet.  I was going to pay to see it in the theater when it premiered, but then decided it wasn't worth the price to do so.  I'll wait till it's streaming or on cable, on DVD, etc.

I have to offer an addendum about the novel.  I work as a quality assurance analyst on a software development team.  I test software, and analyst requirements (aka specs) and offer observations, to improve our product and our process.  "Jurassic Park" is a great example of the value of using quality assurance to reduce the possibility of bugs.  When someone says, "We want to add this feature! It'll be great!", or even worse, "Oh, we don't need to test that-that'll never happen", I'll reply, "Let's build an amusement park, put dinosaurs in it, and have people pay to come see 'em!  What could possibly go wrong?"  Or, "Yeah, the raptors'll never get out of the pen."

Crichton used Malcolm's solilioquies as he gradually succumbs to his wounds to present the main themes of the novel.  It's definitely worth reading.

In fact, I think it's time to re-read it myself...

The one Micheal Chricton movie that I would like for them to make into a movie is Prey

They did ok with the Andromeda strain back in the last century, but I think that was the only movie they made from his stories.  As for the dinosaur movies, I haven't been all that interested since the first J.P. movie and then saw part of the second one.  At that point I pretty much gave up on them.

Thanks guys, I've read the original novel but that was decades ago. I really need to again. 

And the whole feathered dinosaurs thing and the 'Park' novel and movie- I can't remember which came first or when. 

I haven't seen any but the three original 'Park' movies. And I really disliked two and three wasn't that great either. 'Walking With Dinosaurs' was something I've always wanted to see but wasn't crazy about just ordering it cold. So Baron you'd give it your recommendation? Anyone else? 

Eaglecash867

 

 

Gamera

There are worse films though. Like 1955's 'King Dinosaur'. I know that the technology back then wasn't that great. But still I think most people know a T. rex wasn't a four-legged animal. Using a modern lizard as a stand-in was um well strange. And there were older movies using stop-motion animated T.rex's that were bipedal. 

 

 

I'll have to watch that one just so I can get a chuckle.  I'd have a hard time being scared of the female green iguana it looks like they used for the "King" dinosaur...although they can get pretty scary when they're in a bad mood from being gravid.  One of my female iguanas was giving me exactly the look in that photo, and she was normally so sweet that I didn't take it seriously.  I went to pet her on the head to calm her down (which usually worked)...big mistake.  This time she wasn't bluffing...grabbed the tip of my right index finger and de-gloved it.  "Fun" night in the emergency room after that one.  LOL.

As for the new movie, I think the biggest plot hole in all of them is dinosaurs walking the earth again.  After that?  Anything goes.  Love those movies...and I always thought the Velociraptors were cute, especially Blue in the Jurassic World movies.

 

Eagle I have to warn you though it's one of those movies where they glue plastic horns to a lizard and a rubber fin to a young alligator and then poke and harrass them into fighting. It's kinda disturbing to watch but it happened over fifty years ago and there's nothing I can do about it so I can let it slide. Still someone with a lizard pet might find it a lot more annoying. 

I looked it up- there's two copies on YouTube so you don't have to pay for it. And the MST3K version as well- the movie deserves a good ribbing. 

Gamera

Thanks guys, I've read the original novel but that was decades ago. I really need to again. 

And the whole feathered dinosaurs thing and the 'Park' novel and movie- I can't remember which came first or when. 

I haven't seen any but the three original 'Park' movies. And I really disliked two and three wasn't that great either. 'Walking With Dinosaurs' was something I've always wanted to see but wasn't crazy about just ordering it cold. So Baron you'd give it your recommendation? Anyone else? 

Jurassic Park: Lost World and Jurassic Park III, were not very good movies. That's probably why it took another 25 years to reboot the series into Jurassic World.

Lindberg did a very good series of dinosaur kits based on the new dinosaurs from the first movie. The T-Rex (I had her and the raptor) along with the spitter were excellent kits. The movie used Ford Explorers instead of Jeeps and Lindberg just reissued an Explorer with the J-P logos on it. I still have the J-P Explorer in their dunky 1/20 scale.

Then they got even cheaper and rolled out 40 year old dinosaur kits they had in the vault with new J-P boxes.

Revell picked up the license for The Lost World. They did four kits, the Mercedes Benz M Class (I still have one) is a very well engineered kit. The Hummer with capture cages is the same base kit as their civilian/sometimes military Hummer kit in 1/25 scale.

The M Class had "dino-anti-intrusion" bars along the windows and an observation dome in the cargo area and can't be built into a non-J-P kit. The entire roof is a plexiglass piece and does not have protection from dino-attack!

They did the T-Rex and a pair of raptors both on display bases. The two bases will fit together a la the old Aurora Prehistoric Scenes kits.

If I remember, the dinosaurs came molded in tan and the bases were dark green. While the Lindberg kits were huge, like 1/6 scale, the Revell kits were much smaller. I'd guess 1/20.

The M Class is the best of the car models by both companies; albeit very simplified in construction.

Gamera

...And the whole feathered dinosaurs thing and the 'Park' novel and movie- I can't remember which came first or when... 

Crichton published his novel before new discoveries and interpretations about feathers on dinosaurs came out.

There was Archeaopteryx, of course.  But it was around 5 years or a little later after that, that new research came out, making the case for feathers in other members of the therapod group.  That includes raptors and tyrannosaurids, as well as the ancestor of modern birds.  Apart from more fossils showing feathers, what I find very interesting is the structures on bones that indicate the anchor point for the tissue that supports some kinds of feathers.

So, to show raptors with feathers is not unplausible.  But the artists who depict dinosaurs go a little crazy with the effect sometimes, I think.

Gamera

...'Walking With Dinosaurs' was something I've always wanted to see but wasn't crazy about just ordering it cold. So Baron you'd give it your recommendation? Anyone else? 

Rob: Thanks! I've seen lots of the models around at shows, never knew what the quality of them was. Thanks for filling me in!

Baron: I've read a lot about the new stuff and find it really interesting. Big change from what people thought back when I was a kid in the '80s. And yeah I think some people go a little too far. 

And thanks guys for the low-down on 'Walking With Dinosaurs'. As a biologist I find this stuff really interesting. I'm going to have to stream it, or if I can find it cheap I might just pick up the DVDs. 

Gamera

Eagle I have to warn you though it's one of those movies where they glue plastic horns to a lizard and a rubber fin to a young alligator and then poke and harrass them into fighting. It's kinda disturbing to watch but it happened over fifty years ago and there's nothing I can do about it so I can let it slide. Still someone with a lizard pet might find it a lot more annoying.  I looked it up- there's two copies on YouTube so you don't have to pay for it. And the MST3K version as well- the movie deserves a good ribbing. 

Thanks for the heads-up on other parts of the movie, Gamera.  You're right, seeing that kind of stuff probably would have sent me right over the falls.  I don't have much hands-on experience with alligators, but iguanas are extremely intelligent and form a bond with people they trust.  That line in Jurassic Park from Muldoon about the raptors described theirs quite well "They show extreme intelligence...even problem-solving intelligence."  Bugs me to no end to see people doing things like what was done with the alligators to an animal for entertainment purposes.

Hi,

Reading through these posts make me remember that I'm old enough that when I was young, I was taught that dinosaurs were big slow moving (cold-blooded) grey and brown things.  Then later I was taught that they were actually much more agile, and that modern birds were related to them.  Then later I was told that they probably had feathers, and even later that maybe they didn't totally go extinct and that modern birds aren't just related to them, but might actually be them after eons of evolution.

Now I'm just waiting for that Ancient Aliens guy to tell me that they really built the pyramids and flew off into outer space along time ago 

ikar01

They did ok with the Andromeda strain back in the last century, but I think that was the only movie they made from his stories.  As for the dinosaur movies, I haven't been all that interested since the first J.P. movie and then saw part of the second one.  At that point I pretty much gave up on them.

They've made about a dozen movies from Michael Creighton's books. The Thirteenth Warrior with Antonio Banderas (the book was Eaters of the Dead), Congo, Disclosure (Demi Moore, Michael Douglas), Rising Sun (Sean Connery), Timeline (Paul Walker), The Terminal Man and of course the Jurassic Park and Lost World books.

Gamera

Rob: Thanks! I've seen lots of the models around at shows, never knew what the quality of them was. Thanks for filling me in!

Yeah, it seemed like the perfect lead in to talk about the model kits. I got my modeling start with the old Aurora prehistoric scenes Saber-toothed Tiger and Allosaurus. I did eventually "collect them all" between my brother and me, we had most of those dinosaur kits.

So, when Jurassic Park kits were released, I bought the new dinosaur kits by Lindberg and the Explorer. When The Lost World was released, I bought the vehicles for myself and the raptors for my kids.

The old Pyro/Life-Like "Prehistoric Monsters" kits were among the first models I ever built.  I was around 6 or 7 at the time.  No paint, just Duco Household Cement.  I enjoyed them immensely, though even back then, I noticed the poor fit on some of them  I think the head on the ankylosaur was the worst.  Just the top plate and a left and right side, that just formed a V under the top plate.  The kits were right out of the Peabody Museum's mural, and reflected contemporary understanding of dinosaurs at the time.  The Corythosaurus was probably the best of the lot, as far as detail and fit go.

When I was a little older, I built Aurora's Prehistoric Scenes kits, too.  Those were also really cool, and some weren't all that bad as far as details go.  Some bits were recycled, too.  The Cave Bear was apparently the same tooling as the bear from Aurora's wildlife kits.  And I think the vulture from the Tar Pit was used in one of the horror kits.  I built them all, except the tyrannosaur, never got that one.

I never did get to build Tamiya's or Airfix's dinosaur kits from back then.

By the 90s, when the newer research and interpretations were published, we got an explosion of better-researched and well-engineered kits, especially in resin.  Tamiya revamped its dinosaur kits, too, and their second generation and much better than the earlier ones.  I'm building the T-rex kit right now, the diorama set, and it looks like it could have been based on Jack Horner's books.  Fit is less than optimal, with a lot of seams to clean up.  But it should build into a nice model of a rex.