Flaws and Improvements in Jurassic World: Dominion – Theatrical Cut vs Extended Edition

In this article I give my delayed written review of Jurassic World: Dominion, where I cover both the theatrical release and the extended edition versions of the film.

I hope this article provides some insight into my views on Jurassic World: Dominion. It is very much a summary overall mostly, which I hope will be more insightful than a breakdown of everything wrong and everything good. The review below covers both the theatrical release and the extended edition of Jurassic World: Dominion.

For the purpose of this review, I have decided not to cover the palaeontology of the dinosaurs in the film. I have discussed some of that already in previous Jurassic podcasts and online debates.

It still feels surreal to be able to watch Jurassic World: Dominion whenever now since picking up the 4K Blu Ray release and owning it on digital. The few years up to release were difficult for me to talk about fan theories and story decisions because unfortunately I knew most of the films plot due to a Reddit leak.

This plot leak was only seen luckily, by a few people and dropped online on the evening of the release of the Jurassic World: Dominion prologue back in June 2021. Thankfully, the leaked plot was soon taken down, but by then the damage was done and the film was spoiled for me.

Waiting 2 years for the film to release, I had to be careful not to spoil friends within the online Jurassic fandom. It was a difficult experience because there was so much about the plot I wanted to talk about, but just could not.

I knew key story decisions, some of which ended up being changed slightly due to the Covid pandemic. It was a major bummer having the story spoiled and went some way into impacting my initial cinema reaction of the theatrical cut.

The fact that I can talk freely now is a relief, so I am looking forward to sharing what I thought here on the blog. I have shared many of my views of the film in chats with members of the Jurassic Park/Jurassic World fandom as well as on podcasts, it has been interesting to see what people have issues with and what they love about the film.

Disclaimer: Before I get into it, I want to say that I think Colin Trevorrow did a great job with the Jurassic World trilogy as a whole. I think the cast and crew have worked hard to reinvigorate the Jurassic franchise. Both Jurassic World and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom remain two of my favourite Jurassic films the saga has produced so far.

I have issues with all the Jurassic films because none of them are perfect, even Jurassic Park. My criticisms with Dominion however are many and unlike the previous films this one did not live up to the expectations that Colin, the cast and marketing set it up to be. To me it is not an “epic conclusion to the Jurassic saga” but much more of a “safe conclusion”.

I am going to break this down into segments and I’ll start with the theatrical cut first. I’m going to be as brief as I can, but I have a lot to say so bear with me.

The Theatrical Cut: A Messy Film

 I enjoyed the theatrical cut the first time I saw it. Some scenes I expected, but a lot of it I did not. It felt very choppy though, some of the dialogue just did not land with me.

Alan and Ellie meeting for the first time in Grants tent felt stilted and awkward, it was very badly cut, and you could tell some dialogue was missing. The film jumped around a lot globally and there was not much build up at all to dinosaurs being in our world, let alone build up to dinosaur appearances on screen.

It was not really clear how the locust programme had got out of control and what Biosyns actual motives were. The global threat of the locusts just did not feel immediate, moving the dinosaurs to Biosyn Sanctuary became another secluded spot to place them (like another island but this time in the Dolomites instead).

The end fight between the Tyrannosaurus Rex, Giganotosaurus and Therizinosaurus was also incredibly bland, lacking any real build up. There were no major character deaths (excluding Lewis Dodgson), situations that were set up to be tense (Quetzalcoatlus attacking the plane, Claire facing the Dilophosaurus etc.), just were not because main characters would escape from situations perfectly fine.

Charlotte Lockwood’s backstory and Maisie’s story was also retconned in a major way in Dominion. Making the timeline of events set up in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom confusing. You can read more about that in the 5 bullet points I have presented at the end of the article.

Characters that you would expect to be killed off like Henry Wu and Ian Malcolm were not, a major flaw for the conclusion of the Jurassic World saga and Jurassic Park franchise as a whole. When a science fiction film cannot make you care about the peril that the characters are facing, you know that the situations written for the characters aren’t developed enough and lack stakes.

Killing off much loved characters (who both died in the books, although Malcom did return in The Lost World novel) would have added much needed gravitas and meaning to those characters film journeys.

Later scenes in Dominion went through the motions of copying scenes from Jurassic Park, without any meaningful payoff. I say this as well as someone who enjoyed the old JP cast and new JW cast interact, but even so opportunities were just missed. It’s a mystery to me, how we never see Alan Grant holding a juvenile Pyroraptor in his arms and discussing Raptors more with Owen, or Alan talking to Maisie about the amber in the amber mines etc.

When I came out of my first cinema showing of the theatrical cut my rating of the film was an 8. After subsequent viewings however, my rating of an 8 slipped to a 6/10, as a lot of important story and context is just missing. There is no time to breath in the film, with it jumping constantly to different situations and characters with little connective tissue.

As much as Colin Trevorrow says he always planned to bring the legacy JP cast and JW cast together, I still do not believe the idea of a car crash was it. With a car rolling down a hill and landing in the correct spot to bring the two groups of characters together for the first time. Situations in the theatrical cut of Dominion happen because the plot needs it to happen, a lot of it does not make sense, and when things are explained they are not explained very well.

The Extended Edition

 According to Colin Trevorrow, the theatrical cut of the film was not the version of the film that he wanted to release. We know this from tweets Colin himself posted at the time.

The “original cut” which Colin referred to in one of his tweets is the extended edition which was intended to be released in cinemas, along with the prologue set sixty-five million years ago with the Tyrannosaurus Rex fighting the Giganotosaurus. This version of the film featured additional scenes which padded out the film more, it is a major shame that this version of the film was not released in cinemas.

Universal really shot themselves in the foot with releasing an inferior version of the film theatrically. It tainted the general audiences view of the franchise conclusion and made the Jurassic World trilogy go out with a bit of a whimper, crawling to a poultry $1.004 billion (Covid not withstanding).

Top Gun: Maverick made more with $1.489 billion, for the epic conclusion of the Jurassic saga this could be considered a financial let down when the previous instalment Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom made $1.310 billion back in 2018.

This situation is very much like the release of Batman vs Superman in 2016 which released theatrically in a cut down manner leaving a lot of context and story on the cutting room floor. An extended edition was later released on physical media alongside the theatrical and again, this version of the film was better in every way.

The extended edition of Jurassic World: Dominion is the definitive version of the film, but sadly it feels exceedingly long with the third act at Biosyn really dragging as a result. This will depend on each individual though, but to me the film slows down far too much after the Quetzalcoatlus plane attack and never really recovers.

The film is a major improvement over the theatrical cut though, providing much needed context to situations, making the films plot make actual sense. I am ‘Thankful’ we have this version of the film to watch and take in. It is not a perfect film by any means, but it is a better film overall.

I figured it would be best to cover five of the key scenes in the extended edition of Dominion that make the film better just to give an overview of what stood out to me. I hope this brief breakdown will provide some additional context to what I think worked better this time around in this version of the film.

A Necessary Prologue

 

The prologue and later Rex attack scene at the drive in is a brilliant set up and leaping off point for the film. It is a necessary inclusion as it shows the dinosaurs being animals, living their daily lives. It establishes the eventual rivalry between the Tyrannosaurus Rex and Giganotosaurus later in the film, as well as harkening back to dinosaur DNA being obtained via the sucked blood of mosquitos.

The prologue is pretty great really, it is not palaeo accurate at all, but it doesn’t matter. The prologue sets up a good contrast between the past and the present, which is all that really matters. Which leads into the T.Rex attack at the drive in, a really great sequence which should never have been cut from the theatrical version of the film. We then jump into the NOW This News segment on dinosaurs in our world and the film continues.

A Parasaurolophus Stand-Off

 

The Parasaurolophus wrangling sequence gains some additional scenes that provide more background to what is going on. In the theatrical cut, Owen manages to wrangle a Parasaurolophus and lead it back to the group Owen is with. We never see what happens afterwards though, the film just never explains it.

The extended edition provides much needed context with the group leading the Para back, whilst Rainn Delacourt (posing as part of The Department of Fish and Wildlife) stops the group with a handful of poachers in a stand-off. In the end Owen gives up the Para to Delacourt, saying he has obligations.

Whilst it is still not clear why Owen and the group did not wrangle the remaining Para herd; it at least provides some explanation as to what happened to the captured Para. It also provides a bit more context as to how much the dinosaur is worth now 4 years on from the events of Fallen Kingdom ($500,000). Alongside its potential usage (dinosaur bone powder) and we know it is an acquired asset by illegal market sellers.

Ellie A Bug Scientist?

 

Another additional scene takes place after Ellie is called to the farm where the locusts have ravaged the crops. Ellie enters the farmers house and talks to the children there who have one of the genetically altered locusts captured in a cage.

We then a get a really great scene of Ellie describing what type of scientist she is (Palaeobotanist), along with her using a field sequencer to read the locust DNA. This scene goes a long way to establishing the type of work Ellie is doing now, alongside her science communication with children. To me it makes the locust swarm introduction much better and improves the story motivation for Ellie to seek out Alan Grant for a second opinion.

 

Extended Alan and Ellie Discussion

 

The extended dialogue between Alan and Ellie in the Grants tent is also another additional set of scenes that make Dominion better. Their conversation is a lot less awkward and stilted now. Alan talking about the papers that Ellie wrote on growing algae leads into Ellie talking about her passion to take action and Alan talking about being on his own.

The theatrical cut version of this scene was very cut up and noticeably awkward. These scenes in the extended edition feel much more natural and authentic now.

 

The Lystrosaurus is Bought to Fight

 

The extended scene in the underground sequence in Malta provides some additional details regarding the dinosaur fighting ring. We get some additional details with Kayla selling the Lystrosaurus (a dicynodont, not a dinosaur!) to a man who wants to use it in the dinosaur fighting ring, to make some money.

In the theatrical cut this sequence is completely absent and we just see the man talking to Kayla briefly. It is not even clear in the theatrical version that the Lystrosaurus in the ring is the same one that was in the cage next to Kayla.

In the extended edition we get a comical scene of the Lystrosaurus fighting an Oviraptor in the fighting ring, ending up in the Oviraptor having its head decapitated. This scene is brief, but it shows black market creatures being used in the black-market itself and not just being sold across the globe.

Ramsay Confronts Dodgson

 

The biggest scene cut from the initial theatrical release, which was put back in the extended edition is this one. Where Ramsay confronts Dodgson who is deleting research files. This scene occurs at 1:48:37 in the extended edition of the film and is a crucial plot point. Ramsay confronts Dodgson over the locust’s programme (Hexapod Allies).

Ramsay states that “the locusts were designed to spread genetic modifications to crops, protections against droughts, frost, disease, a breakthrough. But it did not work.”

He explains that Dodgson made sure they could not eat Biosyn seed, so the locusts started eating everything else, something of which Dodgson did not anticipate. Ramsay tries to reason with Dodgson, asking him to take responsibility for his mistakes, but Dodgson declines.

It is quite crazy that this particular scene was not shown theatrically as it doubles down on why the locusts went haywire in the first place, eating everything but Biosyn seed. Biosyn’s motives in the film were never about manipulating the food market, something of which many people assumed was the reason for the locusts, due to Ellies conversation with Grant at the start of the film.

From the discussions I have been involved in and seen online, a lot of people take issue with the film focusing on the locusts instead of the dinosaurs in our world. Whilst I personally love the locust plot, I do agree the film does not focus enough on dinosaur encounters across the globe.

There is a big gap between showing the impact of the locusts and dinosaurs on the ecology. Showing more dinosaur vs human interactions not just regionally but globally akin to the situations in Battle at Big Rock (2019) would have benefitted Dominion so much more.

My main issues with Dominion can be summarised in 5 bullet points which I have detailed below.

1. No major characters die except Lewis Dodgson. Wu and Malcolm should have been killed off at the very least.
2. Charlotte Lockwood’s and Maisie Lockwood’s backstory should never have been retconned. It confuses the events of the Jurassic timeline and makes Benjamin Lockwood look completely unhinged. You can read more about this here.
3. The ecological impact of dinosaurs and locusts in our world, not being shown effectively. Like dinosaurs eating/damaging crops, disrupting daily life, locusts causing ecological carnage across countries. Not showing just one field.
4. The Dinosaur Protection Group and public outrage over dinosaur rights is mostly absent, dinosaur rights and treatment are completely cut from the film, when in Fallen Kingdom they were a major focus. Its a massive disconnect, especially when Biosyn’s dinosaurs have shock implants in their brains and black markets are trading dinosaurs across the globe now.
5. Biosyn should have been established in Jurassic World (2015) and not the third film of the saga.

Ultimately Dominion is a flawed conclusion. It is very safe and re-treads a lot of what the previous films did better. It is by no means a bad film, it is not like Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, it is not a conclusion that tarnishes the franchise in anyway nor has it ended the Jurassic World brand. Its just a film that had a lot more potential and ultimately didn’t live up to it.

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