TL;DR – While a clear improvement, those improvements are but like sticking band-aids to a broken bone.    

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Disclosure – I paid to watch this edition of the film

Jurassic World Dominion Review –

Earlier this year, the newest edition to the Jurassic World franchise was released in cinemas. While it went on to make just over a billion dollars at the box office, Jurassic World Dominion fell thematically flat with me. However, the original Jurassic Park still ranks as part of my favourite films of all time, so when I heard the was an extended edition that fixes many of the issues with the film, well, I had to give it a watch.

So to set the scene, at the end of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, the team had a choice to kill all the dinosaurs off or release them into the North American continent, and they chose the latter. We saved them from a second extension, but maybe at the cost of our own lives, which is shown in stark relief as a T-Rex smashes through a drive-in theatre. As the world starts to work out how this new existence will play out, Owen (Chris Pratt), Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard), and Maisie (Isabella Sermon) live a quiet life out of the way, right up until Blue’s child is kidnapped and Owen swears to her that he will get that baby back.

Now, we will not be giving a full review of this film as you can read the original coverage for it HERE. However, we will look at the areas where the extended edition improved the film and where it didn’t.

The significant improvements come at the start of the film. Instead of dropping right into the news story info dump, we get one of cinema’s great explorations of dinosaurs. We get to see them living their lives back in the day. Even though they likely never met in real life, the Giganotosaurus and T-Rex confrontation was a great way of starting the film because it links the introduction with the conclusion, even though it is not technically a rematch. Also, the roving motif of mosquitoes is a good reminder of how we got to where we are.

It also links us to the first major human-dinosaur confrontation at the drive-in cinemas, which is a good reminder of how dangerous dinosaurs are. This is reinforced by the first time we catch up with Blue, and she wastes some poachers. Immediately, all the scenes she is stalking Maisie become tense because she is fine with hunting humans. These additions give the film more space to breathe at the start before we get into the locusts.

However, while this helps, unfortunately, it feels less like a real fix and more of a stopgap measure before the film properly begins. The vast majority of the added footage is at the film’s start, with less and less added until it plays almost identically from Malta to the final moments. This means the whole story that tries to stab at corporate greed but comes off more as a farse is still there. In fact, it is interesting that they cut out some of the more overtly political themes and conversations for the original release. The flaccid confrontation with Giganotosaurus is still untouched, as was the lacklustre ending.

There is also an addition that, while it doesn’t make the film worse, it makes it sillier at a point where they want it to be serious. There is a point in Malta after the Carnotaurus where we have an extended action sequence. However, there is this knife fight where a crowd of people are still betting even after the two large carnivorous dinosaurs broke free and are clearly in the background eating people, and it is frankly ridiculous. The other major issue is that the most significant addition to the movie is the footage they have already released. A good five minutes of the 14 added is from the Jurassic World Dominion prologue, which they had already released to promote the film.

In the end, do the extended edition’s new additions make us recommend Jurassic World Dominion? Sadly no. Is it an improvement? Absolutely. Is it enough of an improvement? No, no it is not. If you liked Jurassic World Dominion, we would recommend to you Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous.                    

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you watched Jurassic World Dominion?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day. 


Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Jurassic World Dominion
Directed by – Colin Trevorrow
Story by – Derek Connolly & Colin Trevorrow
Screenplay by – Emily Carmichael & Colin Trevorrow
Based on – Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
Music by – Michael Giacchino
Cinematography by – John Schwartzman
Edited by – Mark Sanger
Production/Distribution Companies – Amblin Entertainment, Perfect World Pictures & Universal Pictures
Starring – Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Sam Neill, DeWanda Wise, Mamoudou Athie, BD Wong, Omar Sy, Isabella Sermon, Campbell Scott, Justice Smith, Scott Haze, Dichen Lachman, Daniella Pineda, Kristoffer Polaha, Elva Trill, Dimitri Thivaios & Varada Sethu
Rating – Australia: M; Canada: PG; Germany: 12; New Zealand: M; United Kingdom: 12A; United States: PG-13