Movies

Jurassic World: Dominion: Actual Paleontologist Praises Prologue Footage for Commitment to Science

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While we are still over six months away from the release of Jurassic World: Dominion, last week Universal Pictures released the Prologue for the eagerly anticipated film. The five-minute Prologue takes the audience back to the time of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago and while the video is a work of fiction, a real paleontologist is praising the Prologue’s footage for its commitment to science. Speaking with IGN, dinosaur expert and paleontologist for the Natural History Museum in London and University of Bath Joe Bonsor shared his thoughts about various aspects of the Prologue, noting different details and overall found the footage to have a good bit of realism as compared to previous films in the Jurassic World franchise.

“This prologue feels a little bit different from the previous films,” Bonsor said. “I’m really looking forward to seeing how they translate this footage, which has a bit more realism and some more recent discoveries, into those more modern dinosaurs from the film. It’ll be interesting to see how they strike a balance between actual science and their creations.”

He particularly had comments about the feathers on certain dinosaurs, the theropods.

“For me, the biggest thing is the feathers on the theropods, the two-legged meat-eating dinosaurs,” he said. “The raptors are generally just naked, just skin. Perhaps it’s because they don’t look as scary covered in feathers, but I think it would be quite scary – a six-foot-tall chicken with razor claws chasing you! You’d still run away.”

As described by Universal pictures, the Prologue is “a new, five-minute special prologue to Jurassic World: Dominion, directed by Dominion director and co-writer Colin Trevorrow, is not featured in the film itself but is separate, original content. The Prologue serves as the beginning of a story that will be continued in theaters next summer. The Prologue rockets audiences back 65 million years into the past to experience the world before humans existed and offers a glimpse of a world in which dinosaurs are living among us. The Prologue features seven new species of dinosaurs that have never been seen in a Jurassic film before, created by legendary Industrial Light & Magic, which has created visual effects for every Jurassic film, including Jurassic World: Dominion. The Prologue is scored by Oscar winner Michael Giacchino, composer of Jurassic World, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, and Jurassic World: Dominion.”

Jurassic World Dominion, from Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment, sees the return of director Colin Trevorrow, who also serves as executive producer with Steven Spielberg. Frank Marshall and Patrick Crowley also return as producers. Alexandra Derbyshire joins as executive producer. Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard star as Owen Grady and Claire Dearing and are joined by Academy Award winner Laura Dern, Sam Neill, and Jeff Goldblum, who reprise their roles as Dr. Ellie Sattler, Dr. Alan Grant, and Dr. Ian Malcolm. The film also features BD Wong as Dr. Henry Wu, Emmy nominee Mamoudou Athie (Oh Jerome, No), Dichen Lachman (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), and DeWanda Wise (She’s Gotta Have It). Joining the Jurassic team for the first time is Emily Carmichael, who has crafted the Jurassic World Dominion screenplay with Colin Trevorrow. They worked from a story by Derek Connolly and Trevorrow, who together co-wrote Jurassic World and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.

Jurassic World: Dominion opens in theaters June 10, 2022.