Jurassic World Rebirth: More Roar Than Bite (Early Review)

Three years after the supposed “Epic Conclusion to the Jurassic Era” was promised by Jurassic World Dominion, comes the latest in the long running Jurassic franchise. Jurassic World Rebirth posits itself as a fresh start, offering a back to basics approach that leaves behind Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Blue the raptor, and the clone girl plots of the last three films in favour of something far more streamlined, most comparable to Jurassic Park III. Picking up a few years after the events of Dominion, as dinosaurs freely roamed the globe, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they cannot acclimate to our climate. With the vast majority of them already dying out, the few remaining dinosaurs found themselves near the equator where access is strictly forbidden by world governments.

Requiring living blood samples from the three largest dinosaurs (aquatic, land based, and aerial) for medical research, pharmaceutical exec Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend) hires mercenary Zora Bennett (Johansson) and her crew, as well as lowly paleontologist, Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey), to venture into these forbidden lands to secure the genetic material. Commandeering a boat captained by Duncan Kincaid (Ali), the expedition group rescue a civilian family along the way to the island, both parties quickly get split up and would go on separate missions, as the film cuts back and forth between the A plot of the group’s original mission of tracking the three dinosaurs down, and now the B plot of the shipwrecked family trying to survive as they trek towards the abandoned island facilities for rescue. However, this isn’t just any island, as it is the former testing grounds for the original Jurassic Park, where the most horrifying and failed mutated creatures were experimented upon, including a particularly nasty Rancor-looking mutated T-Rex (one that is featured prominently among the film’s marketing).

Rebirth‘s back to basics approach is a welcome relief from the overly convoluted nature of the prior entries, and to its credit, the film hits the ground running establishing the new mutated dinosaur, the mission, and the main characters in quick succession, before audiences are off sailing the seas towards the dinosaur island. After a promising opening, the film grinds to a halt with what feels like nearly half the film just spent on the boat getting to the island. Screenwriter David Koepp returns to the franchise having last penned the first two Spielberg films, but whatever rich characterization and compelling drama he conveyed there is not present this time around.

A particularly bizarre scene in the first act sees Johansson’s Zora and Ali’s Duncan sit down one evening in the ship’s quarters as the two explain each other’s backstories and character traits in a very inorganic and stilted manner, while the rest of the cast largely remains one dimensional in spite of decent performances by the main cast. Bailey, in particular, stands out as the nerdy Loomis, acting as the ethical voice of reason on this mission even if the key dramatic material given to him is a fairly surface level rumination on the need to release their medical research to the world, rather than allowing a large company use it for profit. Of the two main plots between the mercenary team and family, it’s the latter that is arguably more engaging, despite their storyline feeling very tacked on. Despite some truly dire comedic asides and a very transparent attempt at making the Jurassic version of Baby Yoda, the family dynamics of the B plot go a long way to being more emotionally compelling. It also doesn’t hurt when their half contains the film’s strongest set piece with the T-Rex raft river chase.

Ultimately, as with any Jurassic film, the selling point is the dinosaurs themselves but the franchise has come to a point where impressive CGI fails to wow, and the awe inspiring John Williams themes (though Alexandre Desplat admittedly performs a beautiful rendition of them) plays flat to scenes that have been done already film after film. Meanwhile, director Gareth Edwards certainly brings a beautiful look to the film, the first Jurassic shot on 35mm film in quite some time. While, the dinosaur set pieces are all competently rendered, those hoping to see Edwards inject the franchise with his trademark knack for scale should probably temper their expectations. Despite Jurassic World Rebirth being a Spielberg sequel, it’s Edwards’ 2014 Godzilla that truly showcases the Spielbergian influence behind the camera.

“People are growing tired of dinosaurs” is a sentiment oft-repeated throughout Jurassic World Rebirth, and after yet another subpar sequel, most audiences will start to find that line of thinking all too relatable. That being said, diehard dino lovers will definitely get their fix, this effort is all starting to feel very ‘been here, done that’ with little to differentiate itself from what came prior.

*still courtesy of Universal Pictures*

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Alex Josevski

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