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of course! now... i may or may not have gotten a little carried away curating this. but, like. initial meeting - dominion era is literally 10 years. adding rebirth makes it 15. THERE'S A LOT OF MATERIAL TO COVER. but i digress. listen along here.

like the deariguez/clayla playlists, this is curated in timeline order according to my interpretation of their relationship. which is to say a not so casual sexual entanglement -> the park falls apart -> stick together... for survival -> break-up -> get back together. opening and closing with a thesis and conclusion (uptown girl + good in bed).

i also added several songs i've reference in my work whether that's fic titling or editing. just for fun. and that itself is it's own mini-playlist at this point.

they hired a writer who, admittedly, had absolutely no idea how to write a mainland dinosaur story. "I wanted us to be back in their environment instead of them in ours" he said. despite the fact that the vast majority of us have been absolutely loving chaos theory's take on the world fallen kingdom introduced, and even the lesser known maisie lockwood books. battle at big rock is a beloved short film. the main critique of dominion is that it didn't have enough mainland dinosaur plot points, not that it introduced the concept. and it's a movie that does not like its audience that much, either. edwards stated that it was "honest" to say that people aren't interested in dinosaurs very much. despite the fact that each movie averages 1 billion dollars.

equally egregious is the sheer rushed production of it all. a director was hired just over a year from release. and he stated:

I’m like, ‘Yeah, can we push the release date?’ And they’re like, ‘No, next question.’ We just weren’t allowed to. We weren’t even allowed to consider it.”

nearly everything about it was fast-tracked in a way that makes it clear this is a PRODUCT, not someone's genuine art. in fact, that fast-tracked process prevented them from making series-staple practical effects. mutadons were not even designed until months before release. the movie's first cut was submitted in december 2024, only six months before release. for contrast, the previous world films had closer to a year to do final touches.

but in terms of actual story, rebirth misses the mark in being ABOUT something. when asked what rebirth is really "about" gareth said:

And it felt to me like the dinosaurs were kind of like films. The idea of people sort of slowly not going to the cinema, you know what I mean? They started trying different things to make them more entertaining, they mutated them, they created this stuff that people can’t watch or look at. And I kind of felt like this, in a weird way I was getting a kick out of, it was some strange version of the situation we’re in as filmmakers, where, like, how do you get people excited about this stuff again? And then it got interesting for me when you can find the meat on the bone. The science fiction of it all.

which means... nothing. people aren't tired of movies. they're tired of tickets being the cost of dinner and there's been a once-in-a-life-time mass global disabling event meaning many of us are varying levels of house-bound or more cautious in order to protect disabled community members. people still LOVE movies. look at sinners, KPDH, every disney remake in the last decade, etc. people have ALWAYS been excited. because, again, every jurassic movie except jp3 made over 1 billion dollars. and this is not even mentioning that the original jurassic world trilogy was aiming to critique this kind of baseless cynicism.

but this lack of understanding nuance also applies to darker aspects, such as how it portrays private contracting and the military industrial complex. jurassic world at least offers many levels of critique towards this. rebirth does not.

in empire magazine, zora was talked about as:

The result is a character Johansson described as "a little bit sparkly" despite all the grim stuff she's seen in her life. "I've met with many members of the armed forces and worked with USO [United States Organizations], and the people I've met who are some of the highest levels of security clearance all really share a certain kind of sense of humor, a warmth. So, I wanted Zora to have that.

this is not a critique of power. it is, very clearly, an endorsement of such. zora is framed as a survivor of the violence she committed, instead of a perpetrator in both movie and interview. while i've made a different post about how much it bothers me, it warrants repeating that none of this exists in a vacuum. framing zora, and co, as a victim of yemini terrorism in a world where yemini's are being bombed and starved to death due to US imperialism and resistance to the palestinian genocide is abhorrent. it's in such unbelievably bad taste that it is outright offensive.

i bring this up because, again, there is no critique here. unlike how other movies portray it.

in world 2015, a major subplot is that of military animals. this is portrayed as explicitly wrong as the only person suggesting the idea is a mean, entitled military hawk who dies at the hands of the animals he wants to use. when discussing this plotline, trevorrow stated:

As a writer of the thing, I'm not that interested in militarized dinosaurs, at least not in practice. I liked it in theory as the pipe dream of a lunatic. When that idea was first presented to me as part of an earlier script, it was something that the character that ended up being Owen was for, that he supported, something that he was actively doing even at the beginning. Derek [Connolly] and I, one of our first reactions was 'No if anyone's gonna militarize raptors that's what the bad guy does, he's insane.

there's an explicit critique here. one that says the most hawkish people are the villains. those who want to normalize war and advance it are evil and will die. the animals will turn on them and devour their entire squad of armed men. where as those who don't will be spared.

in fallen kingdom, for instance, the private mercenaries (same job as zora) are portrayed by characters like wheatley. they're needlessly cruel and purposely hateable. they are the cruelest part of humanity. animals used for military purposes is also likened to abuse. in portraying the indoraptor, it is explicitly portrayed as a highly abused animal with us seeing them use cattle prods on it to goad it for aggressive behavior. it argues that war, particularly the for-profit elemeants, is a highly abusive institution. it also argues that even if owen did not directly cause harm, his research being used for the indoraptor IS a point of harm. we get that speech where he says that "this one's on me. i showed them the way".

in dominion, owen is still being held accountable by the narrative. he is described as "seeking redemption" for his complicity in creating the indoraptor and whatever future things will come of his research. he is working alongside the government to help solve a problem his daughter created while keeping the secret of his raptors and clone daughter.

but the more important part of this is that owen is NOT framed as a victim of his own complicity in imperial violence. he is either complicit and must seek redemption (dinosaur intelligence research) or victimized by the military itself (backstory). in extended media, owen's backstory is not losing a friend to imperial war. it's getting fired for disobeying orders to save an animal he worked with then getting fired as a scapegoat. that is an essential distinction. rebirth is an uncritical white tears, brown lives narrative while the other movies take on a more nuanced approach of the military being another wing of animal abuse and human misery. execution can be debated, but only one is at least TRYING to be critical.

and it's like this for most other aspects, too, although they're far less socially damaging.

there's no commentary behind the hybrids. they have been described plainly as monsters. the idea of them begins and ends at "experiments that went wrong" which is particularly frustrating for anyone who's already seen camp cretaceous. we did that plotline. and we did it BETTER (but keopp has, to our knowledge, never actually watched the shows or read the canonical books). there is nothing NEW about what these hybrids bring to the table. they can functionally be rewritten as normal animals, maybe with genetic defects, without losing any core pieces of story.

hybrids before this have ALWAYS offered a critique. the indominus rex critiques corporate greed and the pointless innovation of capitalism. the indoraptor critiques the overlap between capitalism and violence. the scorpius rex critiques the politics of beauty and the unethical nature of hyper-hybridization for profit. what does a mutadon offer in comparison to that? what does the d.rex do that the scorpius didn't critique better?

when it does attempt a critique, you're always left asking "where is the meat of this?" loomis says that medicine should be for all because capitalism bad, and that's the extent of the critique. the question is not grappled with in the same way jurassic park or jurassic world does. jurassic park argues that scientists did something because they could, not because it was a good idea, and the movie spends the next hour explaining why they're right. jurassic world argues that they're so focused on profit that they forget all the bigger picture pieces, then the park is completely destroyed in an evening because of that. rebirth is a movie where you can remove a few lines and nothing fundamentally changes. because it's not a REAL critique. duncan's son didn't die because of medicine he couldn't afford and zora's friend didn't die because insurance wouldn't cover his surgery and loomis' museum isn't closing because covid tanked the profits. because medicine and its affordability fundamentally doesn't matter to the plot. it's an excuse to go to dinosaur island.

as a brief analogy, monsanto created a chemical weed killer called roundup and created genetically modified plants that are resistant to it. in short, when used, everything dies except the monsanto patented crops. the way ramsay describes the locusts is they were meant to “spread genetic modifications to crops. to protect them against droughts, frost, disease— a breakthrough. only, it didn’t work. you made sure they couldn’t eat biosyn seeds. so, they started eating everything else.” the locusts protect the genetically modified biosyn seeds while acting as herbicides for everything else around them. the locusts on the surface are useful to farmers, but under it, they pose a massive ecological risk like the critiques of roundup.

and as ramsay also says, they only affected small, independent farmers at first. the big victims of monsanto were always small, independent farmers. through models such as the pay-to-win single-use seeds and suing any farmers who use their seeds without paying for the patent first. even in their attempts at charity, it’s all a front to get small farmers hooked on their pay-to-win model and gain a stronger foothold in their economies. and like how the farmer ellie visits can’t get help from anyone else, monsanto is a notoriously litigious company. there is very little help when facing them down. it’s only when we help each other and value the planet that we get that chance of winning. and as farmer perez also says, the DFW won’t even spare a glance to anything that isn’t dinosaurs. just like how our governments won’t spare a glance to what big corporations do unless it is massively obvious like a chernobyl or fukushima event. despite these pesticides being known to be extremely harmful on a global scale, nobody cares because it’s not bombastic enough to catch wide public attention nor does it harm to the very white, very rich, and very western ruling class. it’s not dinosaurs.

another notable part is that dodgson deletes and burns any evidence tying him to the scandal. this is another core part of how monsanto continues to get away with their global crimes. in terms of roundup, monsanto actively FAKED evidence that it was fine by funding outright false or highly misleading papers. they currently fund highly biased websites like “the genetic literacy project” which work as pro-monsanto propaganda by spreading their narratives about the herbicides and other projects. during the vietnam war, monsanto had evidence that it could cause severe chemical injuries such as chloracne yet hid evidence and allowed it to be used recklessly to the mass detriment to the people of vietnam and western soldiers. dodgson mirrors this modus operandi to a T. when the locust plague jumps continents, his first concern is first and foremost the future of his company. he destroys his product, deletes all files on it, and goes as far as sentencing ellie and alan to death via dimetrodon or letting kaylas plane go down to keep this secret from getting out. which, also, isn’t even mentioning the implications of kidnapping maisie with the intentions of using her as a genetic guinea pig.

and it’s not the government that stops any of this. the government is actively supporting biosyn because they’re seen as doing good for humanity. they research medicine, sell crops, and take in stray dinosaurs. they’re practically untouchable. it’s a whistleblower who has to use his own resources and intelligence to stop them. ramsay has to covertly recruit ian, alan, and ellie because scientists are the only ones who truly care about the planet. he could’ve gone to the government with this information, but he knows it’s a losing game without major evidence. it’s even more of a losing game because, as stated before, these companies have massive arsenals to try and obfuscate or destroy evidence before it can be used against them. most victims of agent orange, particularly those of vietnamese heritage, will never be compensated because it’s nearly impossible to prove in a court of law that cancer is SOLELY linked to one thing. they’ve spent decades arguing around glaringly obvious, but merely circumstantial, evidence. only internal evidence is enough to damn these companies.

and lastly, the government KNOWS this is happening. franklin discusses it with his co-worker at the CIA. they know they’re in danger, and they’re making jokes about it. because it’s not real yet. they don’t care about stopping a problem before it’s too late, because it’s still not dinosaurs. they have bigger things to deal with, despite how much less important these things actually are (50ish wild dinosaurs mostly contained to one costal region compared to tens of thousands of fast-moving and highly invasive locusts).

what dominion argues is that these companies are unchecked. they operate hand-in-hand with governments. their immunity allows them to do anything they can imagine, no matter the harm. the first people to be harmed will be the smallest voices: the working class, the immigrants (make no mistake that she’s farmer PEREZ from the south). nobody will care because, to be honest, none of us care until a problem is right in front of us, like dinosaurs. most people in the global north, like the US where the plague begins, take necessities like constant food on store shelves for granted because there’s massive privilege to. and, we can’t deny the impact covid played in portraying a government who minimizes an active plague. and even when they begin caring, it’s not enough. as claire said, it takes weeks for them to respond to credible calls about illegal breeding facilities. the people who care will be the scientists researching it. they’ll be the ones sounding the warning and seeing the signs as they happen. it’ll be the people like ellie and her research students. it’ll also be the people they have to hurt to solve the problem, like claire and owen having their daughter stolen and maisie herself (of course, not literally in a real world context. but these are the people who have the chemicals dumped on their land. these are the people who are roped into tests and trials they didn’t consent to). it’ll be the whistleblowers who are always looking over their shoulder because their lives and safety ARE in danger if they don’t play the game perfectly right. and it argues that these companies will do anything from keeping people from finding out. they’ll do dangerous things that will hurt people. they don’t care about the collateral if it means they won’t be held liable for their actions. they will burn their own products and destroy their own research to keep their images clean and their money safe. it also argues that they aren’t even always outright malicious. a herbicide is a fine idea, after all. but they won’t take responsibility when they realize it IS dangerous. they’ll double down and triple down and destroy the world to keep ignoring it.

and, lastly, it argues that you can’t LET them ignore it. what the cast does is functionally a metaphorical class action lawsuit against biosyn. they join forces to save themselves and each other. ellie and alan alone wouldn’t have been able to smuggle it out. they needed their whistleblowers of ian and ramsay to give them their in, and they needed claire and kayla to give them their exit. claire and owen needed kayla to help them reach maisie and needed ellie, alan, and ian to keep her safe until they could get there. they all needed ramsay to give them the key to escaping safely. kayla needed maisie to show her some lines shouldn’t be crossed and she needed claire and owen to give her a chance to redeem herself. and, in a final act twist, WU joins them. they need wu to fix the problem of locusts itself and he needs them all to give him that chance to fix his mistake. the collective is stronger than the individual. everyone has a part to play, and when everyone plays their part, you CAN win against seemingly indestructible corporations.

in the context we receive it, the raptor squad are a project being suggested in a branch of an entertainment company. the indominus rex is supposed to be a global attraction to attract ticket sales, but she’s also being eyed by people like hoskins as a proto-type weapon. in order to expand capital, the park’s most obvious choice is to lean into US militarism. it’s the largest and easiest cash flow in the world. it’s the natural conclusion of expansion. entertainment is being inheriently linked to militarism, reflecting our real world where our games like call of duty are funded by military recruiters and movies like jurassic park 3 feature actual navy men in real navy vehicles with scripts edited to present them in the best light.

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“my toxic trait is that if they opened Jurassic park I would still totally go”