Jurassic World: Rebirth
- Ben Pivoz
- a few seconds ago
- 3 min read
The Jurassic Park series started in 1993 with a massive high. The original is still thrilling, top-flight entertainment, all these years later. The initial sequel isn’t as amazing, but is pretty good. Since then? The first Jurassic World was kind of fun. Otherwise, there are very few positives. The last entry, Jurassic World: Dominion, was undeniably bad enough that no one would have been surprised if it had killed the entire franchise. Of course, no Hollywood studio is going to give up on a once-successful property that easily. Thus, we now get the follow-up/reboot Jurassic World: Rebirth, which continues the story with a totally new cast.
The title suggests they are going back to their roots, forgetting some of the idiocy of the last two movies. It is certainly not as dumb as those, feeling a little closer in spirit to Spielberg’s originals. It settles the plot down from those ridiculous complications. It is once again just about a group of people trying to survive hungry dinosaurs. It isn’t inventive, with dull creature design and the same types of dino hunting scenes we’ve seen repeatedly from these movies. It is competently made, decently paced and has a handful of effective action sequences. In short, it is the definition of okay. It will probably give audiences what they expect, if not what they’re hoping for.
As a result of the events of Fallen Kingdom and Dominion, dinosaurs roam the Earth, even inhabiting areas where humans are no longer allowed. A pharmaceutical company believes it can harvest their DNA to create a medicine that would make a few people extremely rich. To that end, they send mercenaries and a scientist to an off-limits island to collect blood samples. You can guess how that turns out.
While Scarlett Johansson is technically the star, the real stars are meant to be the CGI creatures. Unfortunately, those are quite unappealing. They are neither scary nor majestic. These mutated beasts are awkward looking and not even remotely believable. The visual effects are not great here. Neither are the characters or dialogue, so the fact that there are some exciting sequences shows the skill of the filmmaking.
Johansson’s Zora Bennett is the most prominent human character. Yet she has almost no backstory and even less personality. Johansson is a charismatic performer. However, as a money hungry mercenary with a heart of gold, she’s just uttering lame one-liners into the void here. Jurassic World: Rebirth (124 minutes, without the end credits) is not witty and has no memorable dialogue. Thankfully, the screenplay limits the exposition (after all, there is very little plot this time). That mostly leaves yelling and running, with conversations probably intended to represent people bonding in between, though it feels a whole lot more like the movie killing time before the next set-piece.
When moviegoers think of Jurassic Park (or World) they most likely think of spectacular-looking dinosaurs chasing humans through a jungle-esque setting, munching on the villains and giving the heroes a good scare. Besides the dinosaurs not looking so impressive here, Rebirth pretty much gives you what you paid for. There is no sense of wonder; it is far more workmanlike. Still, it is prehistoric creatures stalking selfish bureaucrats, trigger-happy soldiers and nice, smart people. There are some amusing kills, several clever moments and absolutely nothing to make the viewer use their brain. It’s a popcorn movie. It is neither good nor bad; it exists to be another entry in this franchise. At that, it succeeds.
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2¾ out of 5
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Cast:
Scarlett Johansson as Zora Bennett
Jonathan Bailey as Dr. Henry Loomis
Rupert Friend as Martin Krebs
Mahershala Ali as Duncan Kincaid
Manuel Garcia-Rulfo as Reuben Delgado
David Iacono as Xavier Dobbs
Luna Blaise as Teresa Delgado
Audrina Miranda as Isabella Delgado
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Directed by Gareth Edwards
Written by David Koepp