For a franchise about once-extinct species, the Jurassic movies just don’t seem to die. It could have something to do with each movie making a billion in the box office despite the varying quality. Jurassic World Rebirth is the seventh iteration in the series and will surely be the start of a new trilogy.
In Rebirth, the world has moved on from having dinosaurs living among us. Disease and environmental issues have essentially killed off most dinosaurs or forced them to migrate to the equator. Yet, the focus of the movie is another island where InGen once experimented with dino-hybrids. This is basically the Jurassic Island of Misfit Dinosaurs.
Enter our human cast, as a new greedy organization is forming a team to collect giant dinosaur DNA to cure diseases. So, they hire Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson), a mercenary who “gets the job done,” and palentologist Dr Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey). Their team has the “easy” task of retrieving a few samples and get out quickly. Yet, randomly a family is sailing off the coast of Jurassic Island and they get swept up in the danger.
Gareth Edwards (Rogue One, Godzilla) generally has a solid track record of quality. Though, you have to wonder how much of this movie is his vision and how much is studio mandated. I’ll give him credit for the intensity within this movie. The story revolves around the major action set pieces and they are quite fun and scary. The highlight of the movie is the boat scene where the passengers attempt to survive against an attacking Mososaurus and Spinosaurus’. This and a few other moments of peril are this franchise’s bread and butter.
There’s just one problem when it comes to the dangers presented in the movie. I hated all of the characters and even rooted against their survival. The script does very little to convince the audience that these people have any sort of dimension. An inital attempt is made to establish the importance of the core three characters (Bennett, Loomis, and Kincaid). But then, the movie falls back on its main crutch – kids. Yes, I know this is a movie for children, but plot-armored children only hurt each movie (after the original) and bring a sense of boring familiarity. The family’s scenes took away any opportunities to expand why we should care about the core three. The dangerous scenes with them (especially the T-Rex/raft scene) are a complete waste because they were in it.
Universal, trust your audience to watch and enjoy a straight-forward thriller about dinosaurs chasing a couple of main characters. That’s it. Forget the super-dinos introduced and quickly forgotten in each movie. Forget the kid who didn’t make the gymnastics team. Just give us a T-Rex, a few raptors (that are hungry), and raise the stakes!
Visually, this is a mixed bag. There are some gorgeous jungle scenes that feel lived in. The dinosaurs, even the strange looking hybrids, are presented in thrilling ways. (Even if one is straight outta Jabba’s Palace). Though, there’s so much of the movie that’s seemingly filmed in the CG Volume. The Quetzalcoatlus cliff scene was especially egregious, and nothing felt real.
Now for the reason that I give this movie the benefit of the curmudgeon’s doubt – I took my 12 year old, and she was hiding her eyes and watching in rapt tension in several of the dangerous scenes. It reminded me what these movies can do for those who aren’t prone to cynicism. These are monsters attacking humans in down-to-earth thrilling moments and it should and could be scary depending on your openness to it. Watching her, as the movie had her complete attention, made my heart grow one size that day.
Jurassic World Rebirth is sadly not the revitalization the series has needed for a long time. It’s not embarrassingly bad. It’s just not a close second to the original Jurassic Park. In the franchise, it would by my 4th favorite (of 7). I hope the franchise learns the lessons of this one and keeps it simple and thrilling for the next inevitable installment. C
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