Movie Review: Jurassic World: Rebirth

At this point it’s very clear that the Jurassic Park / Jurassic World franchise is never going to give us another movie as great as the original. That said, if you want to watch people getting chased by dinosaurs (and who doesn’t?), it’s pretty much the only game in town. So, as long as these movies continue to deliver on that front without veering too far into ridiculous territory, like the first half previous entry Jurassic World: Dominion, most of us are likely to be satisfied.

David Koepp, who penned the first two installments back in 1993 and 1997, returns and comes up with semi-plausible if slightly convoluted reasons to both explain why nearly all the dinosaurs that were roaming free in the previous entries have become isolated to a few remote islands near the equator and why two small groups of people would go there. In a nutshell, big pharma executive Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend) hires covert operative Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson) to escort himself and paleontologist Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) to one of said islands in order to extract live samples from three living dinosaurs. She in turn hires captain Duncan Kincaid’s (Mahershala Ali) boat along with a small crew to get them there.

Meanwhile, Reuben Delgado (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) is attempting to sail across the ocean with his daughters Teresa (Luna Blaise) and Isabella (Audrina Miranda) as well as Teresa’s boyfriend Xavier (David Iacono). Their path takes him into dinosaur territory and everyone winds up converging on Ile Saint-Hubert, where InGen had been conducting experiments to create new, more “interesting” dinosaurs following waning public interest before an accident caused the closure of the facility. From there, things quickly turn to running and screaming as the two groups try to survive long enough to be rescued.

Realistically this is about as good a Jurassic movie as we are likely ever to get anymore. It follows a fairly predictable formula, but it’s one that works and director Gareth Edwards’ adept handling of the dino action keeps viewers in suspense throughout. Even though it’s easy to guess who lives and dies from the moment they’re introduced, everything is framed and edited just so to elicit maximum tension and more than a few successful jolts. The cast imbue their characters with enough personality to make them feel real and easy to root for (or against in some cases) and Koepp’s script adds in some surprisingly effective dime-store philosophizing to reintroduce just a dash of the depth of the original film.

This isn’t going to be looked back on as a masterpiece the way the first Jurassic Park is, but it ably gets the job done. With striking visuals, heart-pounding action, some genuinely frightening new dinos, and well-utilized homages to its predecessors, Jurassic World: Rebirth is a welcome return to form for the series that should entertain most. It’s a blast of escapist adventure perfectly suited for the Summer movie season that, while formulaic, is still far better than the seventh film in a franchise has any right to be. ★★★½