AfterJurassic World Rebirth, it’s essential that the next movie in the franchise redeems one fan-favorite dinosaur species. There are plenty ofdinosaurs inJurassic World Rebirth, some of which have appeared in numerous films, such as the T. rex, the Mosasaurus, and the Spinosaurus. However, the franchise’s newest movie also focused on some brand-new hybrid dinosaurs: Mutadons and the menacing D-rex.
The inclusion of the Mutadons and the D-rex led to many thrills at theend ofJurassic World Rebirth. However, overall, critics and fans were quite underwhelmed by the movie, and manyreviews forJurassic World Rebirthhave been quite negative. This is disappointing, especially since it was meant to start a new era for the franchise.
However, it was undoubtedly a major box office success. As of this writing, it has managed to gross $828 million at the worldwide box office (viaBox Office Mojo), which basically guarantees thatJurassic World 5will happen. Even thoughRebirthwasn’t quite a return to form,Jurassic World 5is still exciting, and hopefully it can finally make raptors scary again.
Raptors Were Replaced In Jurassic World Rebirth
Surprisingly, raptors are barely featured inJurassic World Rebirth. About halfway through the movie, after the Delgado family gets stranded on Île Saint-Hubert, Xavier goes to relieve himself in the middle of the night. Two raptors slowly sneak up on him, butthe deadly dinosaurs never make it since they both get snatched up by Mutadons.
Xavier doesn’t see this happen, so he never really finds out how much danger he was in. As we have seen in previousJurassicmovies,raptors are one of the most dangerous dinosaur species to encounter. One of the series' most iconic scenes is when the pack of raptors is hunting Lex and Tim in the kitchen in the originalJurassic Park.
Rebirthrecreated manyJurassic Parkscenes, but the thrilling kitchen sequence was not one of them. In fact,Xavier going to the bathroom is the only time that raptors are seen inRebirth. The movie failed to portray raptors as some of the most dangerous dinosaurs in the entire franchise, which is a shame.
Jurassic World Rebirthessentially replaced them with Mutadons. Showing the two raptors easily get snatched up by Mutadons immediately establishes that the hybrid dinosaurs are way stronger. Mutadons return at the end of the movie and create many problems for the characters, while raptors are nowhere to be seen.
However, raptors were initially supposed to reappear at the end ofJurassic World Rebirth. As posted byThe Hollywood Reporteron X/Twitter,a group of raptors emerge from the smoke and approach the charactersin a deleted scene that was originally planned to be part of the movie’s climax. Since this scene was deleted, it’s easy to forget that raptors are inJurassic World Rebirthat all.
Even if this deleted scene was featured in the movie, itstill wouldn’t have portrayed raptors in the way they deserve. During this scene,the group of raptors run away from the characters since they are clearly scared of the unseen D-rex, which is making its way towards the abandoned Île Saint-Hubert village. Therefore, raptors were never planned to have a menacing role inJurassic World Rebirth.
The Previous Jurassic World Movies Also Misused Raptors
Compared toRebirth, the previous threeJurassic Worldmovies featured raptors way more. However, they also made them appear far less intimidating than they should be. The firstJurassic Worldmovie showed Owen training a pack of raptors.Owen establishing a strong bond with the raptors, especially Blue, was an interesting storyline, but completely changed how viewers perceived the dinosaur species.
In thefirst threeJurassic Parkmovies, raptors were terrifying creatures that killed many characters. In addition to the aforementioned kitchen sequence,the very first scene inJurassic Parkfeatured a dinosaur handler getting killed by a raptor. They should definitely be one of the scariest species in the franchise.
Instead,the first threeJurassic Worldmovies treated raptors as allies for Owen and the other characters. Obviously, Blue and the other raptors in his pack were still very dangerous, but they never necessarily made viewers uneasy since they would never turn on the main characters. It’s now well past time to make raptors scary again in theJurassicfranchise.
After they were completely underused inRebirth,Jurassic World 5definitely needs to make raptors one of the most prominent dinosaur species. SinceRebirthwas just released, no details are known about the franchise’s next movie. However, it’s possible thatJurassic World 5’s characters will visit Île Saint-Hubert, which could allow raptors to get revenge against the Mutadons.
If it’s instead set on a different island, then raptors should still be shown as terrifying predators. If this isn’t the case, then raptors might never be taken seriously in the franchise again. This would be incredibly disappointing, so I hopeJurassic World Rebirthwasn’t the beginning of the downfall of raptors.
