The Snapshot: Despite boasting an A-list cast and a skilled director, Universal’s latest entry in the iconic Jurassic Park saga stumbles by sidelining its most important characters — the dinosaurs.
Jurassic World: Rebirth
5 out of 10
PG, 2hrs 13mins. Sci-Fi Action Adventure Thriller.
Directed by Gareth Edwards.
Starring Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, Mahershala Ali, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Luna Blaise and Rupert Friend.
For an action movie about an island overrun by dangerous dinosaurs, Jurassic World: Rebirth sure has a disappointing lack of dinosaurs on screen.
If you’re looking for a film about a tropical island survival and rescue well-acted by an earnest cast, this is passable entertainment. But given that this is a Jurassic Park movie, coming from one of the biggest franchises in movie history, the final product should have been so much better.
This is the seventh overall Jurassic film, and fourth since the series relaunched in 2015 with the box office behemoth Jurassic World. Thankfully, its more focused than 2022’s disastrous film Dominion, but that’s not a high standard to overcome.
Read more here: Jurassic World Dominion’s humans let down the dinosaurs – Review
Universal’s latest film — with a subtitle of Rebirth — is expectedly yet another do-over with a new set of scientists and gluttons for punishment, yet again visiting another perilous island of dinosaurs on the loose.
Rebirth features a phenomenal creative team of talented filmmakers, including director Gareth Edwards (of Rogue One fame), three terrific stars in Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali and Jonathan Bailey, and writer David Koepp — who wrote the original Oscar-winning Jurassic Park over 30 years ago.
So what went wrong? In short, the film’s conflict relies too heavily on the humans instead of the creatures. The dinosaurs should always be the star attraction for creating story, stakes and scenes — that’s what the superior original film and Jurassic World understood clearly.
Every other less engaging film in the franchise is some variation on the “island rescue” plot, which is significantly less original. Making things worse for Rebirth is many featured dinosaurs on Ile Saint-Hubert are unrecognizable mutants, so half of them don’t even look like dinos at all, robbing the film of its star attraction.
The good news is the film still offers several tense, exciting scenes between the two plots, and Johannson, Ali and Bailey are a great central trio. These three have great rapport on screen and are extremely likeable (if somewhat generic) characters.
While there’s nothing gravely offensive in Jurassic World: Rebirth’s story, there’s also nothing new on screen that hasn’t been tried in the last six movies to date.
When Universal inevitably makes their next sequel, my suggestion is the central plot needs to find an original idea for its core problem. New peril and more reptiles, with this director and cast? That sounds dino-mite to me.
