Jurassic World: Dominion - Blu-ray 3D [Australian Import]

I didn’t hate Jurassic World: Dominion when I saw it in theaters, but I didn’t love it either. After the first Jurassic World movie, the films have been on a downward slope. Hell, you could argue that about the whole franchise after the original and best Jurassic Park. While the action sequences were fun the character arcs were a bit thin compounded by bringing back Jeff Goldblum’s Ian Malcolm, Laura Dern’s Ellie Sattler, and Sam Niel’s Alan Grant. And that there lies the problem with this sequel trilogy - we just wanted to see these three all along. Sure, Chris Pratt’s tough guy but animal-sensitive Owen and Bryce Dallas Howard’s headstrong Claire were nice additions to the series, but they just can’t measure up to the iconic legacy characters of the first film. 

Now with my fourth viewing of this film, it’s steadily growing on me. It’s still messy and unfocused, and the oversized grasshoppers were a missed opportunity to go REALLY big with them like Burt I. Gordon’s classic big bug flick The Beginning of the End. But through its several faults, Colin Trevorrow managed to pull together a decent enough and entertaining send-off for the franchise… for now. If anyone actually believes this is the last Jurassic film you underestimate Hollywood’s ability to dig up another amber-encased screenwriter to resurrect the series for another trilogy. 

Read our previous coverage of Jurassic World: Dominion

• M. Enois Durate's Jurassic World: Dominion Blu-ray Review
• M. Enois Durate's Jurassic World: Dominion 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Review
• Bryan Kluger's Jurassic World: Dominion Theatrical Review

Vital Disc Stats: The 3D Blu-ray
Thanks to Australian label Random Space Media, 3D Blu-ray is alive and well with a new 2-Disc 3D Blu-ray release of Jurassic World: Dominion. This two-disc set offers a region-free BD-50 of the Theatrical Cut in 3D with a Region Free BD-50 offering both the Theatrical Cut and the longer Extended Edition - essentially the same disc offered with the domestic 4K and Blu-ray issued here in the states. The discs are housed in a sturdy two-disc case with separate trays and are not stacked.

While the Jurassic World trilogy on its own was a bit dodgy, each film was at least a terrific offering for Blu-ray 3D and that continues with this exciting release of Jurassic World: Dominion. Even as a post-conversion effort, there is an impressive amount of depth and dimension. There are a few dodgy shots here and there like Owen on the horse in the mountains chasing down a dino or when everyone was trying to run away from the raptors on Malta where the iffy CGI backgrounds don’t come alive in 3D, but those are only momentary sequences. They looked bad in IMAX, they looked bad in 2D 4K Ultra HD, and they look bad here too - not a fault of the transfer. 

Thankfully most of the time the image is packed with plenty of foreground, middle, and deep background objects to give you a lovely “window into a new world” 3-D effect. The scene at the logging camp is a fantastic example of small tiny humans in the left foreground, HUGE dinos in the middle, and more even tinier people in the deep background getting their Spielbergian Wondergaze on. Even a cluttered tent when we first meet Alan Grant is a great example of what this conversion offered up with a tight cluttered location filled with objects all experiencing some measure of depth. This disc easily passes the glasses test. There isn’t much in the way of any “pop-outs” a few effects lend well to that here and there - Owen’s signature “palms up” greeting to the raptor Blue is an example. For big vista shots that Z-axis depth is amazing and once the action moves into the mountains around the Biosyn compound, it’s pretty fantastic stuff and the final dino fight is what great 3-D is made for! 

Overall details are very strong, obviously a stage back from the 4K disc, which is to be expected. Colors are bright and bold with healthy primaries. Black levels are deep and inky and when those grasshoppers catch fire and fly out into the night, it’s a hell of a scene! It’s a bummer the better longer cut wasn’t finished in 3-D, but that’s not surprising. I didn't experience any unsightly parallaxing or "ghosting" effects. If you’re a 3-D fan and have kept your television or have a supporting projector, this 2.00:1 transfer should be another impressive addition to the collection. If Random Space can get their hands on some of the recent Paramount titles in 3D from the last few years I’d be a very happy collector!

For this release, the audio has been backtracked from the very impressive DTS:X track on 2D Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray to a robust and still very impressive DTS-HD MA 5.1 mix. This track hits all the right marks for dialog, scoring, and sound effects to keep an active and engaging soundscape rolling throughout the show. My complaint is that it just doesn’t pack the same oomph in the low-end and misses out on a lot of height dimension atmosphere for the big action sequences. On its own, this is still very good, and switching on my setup’s DTS Neural:X function helped give a little more space to the channels, but you can still feel the difference.

Sadly, but not too surprisingly, this set doesn’t offer up anything new in the bonus features department. What we have here is the same three middling bonus features seen on the domestic 4K and 2D Blu-ray releases stateside. They’re - alight. But considering this is the end of a trilogy and for the moment the entire franchise, I’m honestly surprised Universal skimped so hard on creating any meaningful and worthwhile bonus features. 

• Battle at Big Rock
• A New Breed of VFX
• Dinosaurs Among Us

No, Jurassic World: Dominion wasn’t a great movie and was a rather lackluster way to finish the franchise while pulling in the three fan-favorite legacy characters from the OG Jurassic Park. While a disappointment, it was at least a good bit of big spectacle fun at the theater. As I’ve watched through it a couple more times, much of my dislike has subsided leaving it number four on my scale of the six films - Jurassic Park III has its moments but it was pretty bad, and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is great for a Resident Evil movie but not Jurassic World or Park. Thanks to Random Space Media - 3D Blu-ray fanatics have a reason to power up the dusty old 3DTV or projector and slap on some glasses! The 3D Blu-ray transfer is terrific offering some amazing eye-grabbing 3-D spectacle. The audio may be a downgrade, but it's still strong and holds its own. Bonus features are still the same slim set we already had. For 3-D nuts like me who can’t put those damned glasses away, this was a fun pickup. Recommended.