Film Review: Jurassic World: Rebirth

Who doesn’t love dinosaurs? The Jurassic Park films and the subsequent Jurassic World films solidified the fact that audiences love these fossilised foes. Making a lot of money at the box office and paving the way for visual effects as well, this franchise just won’t die. It is therefore almost entirely appropriate that the newest film was Rebirth in its subtitle. Now that it is established within this universe that dinosaurs are living amongst humans there have become many possibilities for stories surrounding the co-existence of with this prehistoric species. The question is, does Jurassic World: Rebirth warrant its existence or is this franchise better off dead?

The Jurassic World films felt like big, blockbuster entertainment. There were erupting volcanoes, fugitive mutated dinosaurs and a big adventure about saving the dinosaurs in the previous film. It was funny to see a series so defined for its claustrophobic setting turn into a global set drama. Rebirth aims to recapture the spirit of Spielberg’s originals by taking a new cast of characters back to an island where experiments happened on dinosaurs, for a good reason too.

Rupert Friend plays Martin Krebs, who works for a pharmaceutical company. Krebs recruits Zora Bennett, a covert operative, to help Dr. Loomis get some DNA from some living dinosaurs on a remote island near where the original Jurassic Park was. The reason for capturing this DNA? It could help advance modern medicine. The hook and concept for the film is a rather smart idea and gives audiences a good reason to be immersed in the character development of the story. Having no previous cast returning is a good thing as well as they’re all equally expendable, making the stakes even higher than before in this survival thriller.

The problem with some of the elements of the film is that the big stars take up most of the room on the screen. Scarlett Johansson plays Zora Bennett and it is weird seeing a huge Marvel actor like herself go up against dinosaurs. The best parts of the film come with a side story about a family who get marooned on the island thanks to an attack by a Mosasaurus. Reuben Delgado and his daughters, and his daughter's boyfriend, are the highlight of the film. They feel like us, the audience, as they experience a place that they should not be in. The river sequence where the family escape a T-Rex is one of the best parts of the film, in my opinion anyway.

Taking the reins behind the camera this time is Gareth Edwards, who channels a lot of Spielberg in terms of the way the film looks, feels and even hears. John Williams’ iconic score plays during a few moments in the film and it feels a little pandering to have to rely on nostalgia to get audiences to invest in the film. Edwards is a master at visual effects and that works in his favour a lot of the time with one of the biggest draws being the dinosaurs and they look even better than ever. The ending of the film feels a little needless, but it is great to see the horror elements back in this series. The mutated dinosaur plot returns but it doesn’t add much in terms of the overall story. The film is still entertaining even though we’ve all seen this done before.

★★★☆☆

3/5

Final Verdict:

Jurassic World: Rebirth doesn’t really feel like a rebirth. It feels like a copy of the very first film, with a lot of elements from that film returning to this instalment. It is great to see dinosaurs again in a habitat not too similar to their own. They feel real, almost like they’re animals which just makes them all the scarier in select parts of the film. Johansson tries her best at carrying the film but the best parts of the narrative come together whenever the Delgado family is on screen. They remind us just how scary, but also how beautiful these creatures were. It won’t be seen as the best in the series, but it is a worthy addition to the franchise.

Thanks for reading today’s blog!

Alex Murray, the Head of Eyesight Productions