Jurassic World: Dominion - Turbine Collector Series 3-D Blu-ray (German Import)

It has been a couple of years since I last sat down to soak in Jurassic World: Dominion, and interestingly enough I still find myself enjoying the film more each time I come back to it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a mess with numerous missed opportunities and a weird want to knock Tim Cook down a peg as our corporate techie villain played by Campbell Scott, but it’s fun. Big Hollywood cheeseball sci-fi spectacle fun. The extended cut certainly played a lot better, but that proved the point that the film really just didn’t have a handle on what it was trying to be. Trying to marry the two franchise casts together was interminably clunky with only a few grand payoff moments. But when it comes to dinosaur munching action, this film was certainly exciting in all three dimensions! 

Here’s what I had to say two years ago (note another Jurassic film is already in the works so that wait wasn't long!):

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
After the unfortunate demise of Australia’s Random Space Media, Germany’s Turbine Medien stepped up to fill a big gap for Blu-ray 3-D fans. The first of the new Turbine Collectors Series with spine number #01, we see Colin Trevorrow’s Jurassic World: Dominion returns in all three dimensions as a single-disc release pressed on a Region Free BD-50 disc. No other disc is present. The disc comes housed in a standard clear case with reversible insert art with the English title and teaser poster artwork. The disc loads automatically to a static image 3-D main menu. 

After the unfortunate demise of Random Space, Turbine offers up their own 3-D Blu-ray of Jurassic World: Dominion, and to no surprise, it’s spot on. Flipping between both discs and the presentations are essentially identical. Checking bitrates, Turbine’s disc on average runs a little lower than the Random Space disc - 3-4mbps at most - but is often neck and neck or clocks a titch higher in a couple of sequences. Throughout the viewing, I would swap between discs every ten minutes or so to look for any discrepancies and didn’t see anything of note. It’s virtually the same experience so I’m going to let my previous thoughts stand pat.

While the Jurassic World trilogy was a bit dodgy, each film was 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 a terrific 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 in Malta where the iffy CGI backgrounds don’t come alive in 3D, but those are only momentary shots. 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. Even a cluttered tent when we first meet Alan Grant is a great example of what this conversion offered up. 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. 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.

Now here’s the real selling point for this Blu-ray 3-D release of Jurassic World: Dominion - we now have a banger of an Atmos audio mix that easily overtakes the DTS-HD MA 5.1 mix on the Random Space disc and is at the very least as strong as the DTS:X mix we got on 4K and standard Blu-ray. From the get-go, the mix fills the soundscape with plenty of height, side, and rear immersive effects. There are lots of flying critters so those height channels get a nice workout and aren't relegated to selling the size and space of a scene. Those chittering burning grasshoppers are a real sonic treat for sure!  Dialog and key audio keep to the Front/Center so you never miss a word or scream in all of the on-screen carnage. For those big action sequences, imaging is terrific with distinct sound effects moving throughout the soundscape. That Malta chase sequence is a big highlight in that arena. Likewise, LFE is punches plenty of rumble in the subs so you can actually feel the action beats hit. Flipping between discs, it was very noticeable moving from the Atmos to the DTS-HD MA 5.1 easily making this the superior auditory experience. 

Given that this release maxed out the disc space for the video presentation and a noteworthy audio upgrade, I’m not surprised that it doesn’t feature any bonus materials. Not that there was much to begin with. Universals 4K and 2D Blu-ray sets had barely an hour’s worth of content and most of that not much to report on. The kind of extras where you see them once and you don’t really ever need to view them again. 

Thanks to Turbine, fans have another great reason to keep those 3-D glasses polished and ready. As the format has been all but abandoned here stateside (outside of groups like 3-D Film Archive), Importing has been necessary for Blu-ray 3-D fans to score their flicks on their favorite format. You still have to import, but Turbine fills a big gap left by Random Space Media and their first foray is something to celebrate. Not only are we getting a terrific 3-D visual experience for Jurassic World: Dominion, but we’re also packing in a fantastic Atmos audio upgrade. Considering the film it’s nice to hear this mix get to breathe and not get choked back to a lesser audio format. No bonus features are included for this single-disc edition though to be honest you're not missing much. For fans who need this film in all three dimensions with the best audio package, this disc is the way to go. Recommended

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