Film Review — Jurassic World Rebirth

Not destined for classic status, but a significant improvement on the last entry, with plenty of exciting dinosaur action

Credit: Universal

Thirty-two years on from Steven Spielberg’s industry-changing smash hit, Jurassic World Rebirth has the honesty to acknowledge that CGI dinosaurs will not, in and of themselves, attract cinema audiences. Although viewers turned up in droves during the golden summer of 1993, these days, outstanding visual effects are a matter of routine. Hence, director Gareth Edwards includes, as one of the opening images, a billboard advertising dinosaurs in zoos being painted over. In the Jurassic World universe, dinosaurs don’t evoke wonder anymore. They merely mean an irritating traffic jam.

In the aftermath of the tepid Jurassic World: Dominion (2022), the newly freed dinosaurs have mostly snuffed it, save for those on islands in equatorial regions, where it’s hot and sufficiently oxygenated for them to thrive. Travel to these islands is prohibited, but that doesn’t stop pharmaceutical interests wanting to harvest live DNA from three of the biggest dinosaurs, in an attempt to create revolutionary heart disease treatments Naturally, they expect to charge for such treatments (this is America, after all), so ex-covert ops Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson) is being paid $10 million for her lucrative role in this extremely dangerous expedition, once she gets recruited by slippery corporate tool Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend).

Zora is joined by mint-crunching palaeontologist Dr Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) and her former colleague Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali), along with various other mercenary types. Additional human meat potentially destined for dino oesophagus passage is presented in the form of the Delgado family. The father, Reuben (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), finds himself shipwrecked, along with his young daughter, Isabella (Audrina Miranda), her older sister, Teresa (Luna Blaise), and her boyfriend, Xavier (David Iacono). Their paths cross with Zora et al, and various dinosaur set pieces ensue.

Edwards and screenwriter David Koepp (who adapted Michael Crichton’s novel for the first film) wisely dismiss questions of why-the-hell-would-they-go-there. Zora and pals need the money. That’s pretty much it, motivation-wise. The only question is, how many of them will survive? Yes, there are character arcs from capitalist greed to altruism, but we’re not here for that. We’re here for the dino action. Thankfully, there’s plenty of it, featuring both regular dinosaurs and the mutant variety that have foolishly been engineered via the genetic scientists of Jurassic World (as seen in an agreeably scary prologue, seventeen years previously).

Spielberg’s fingerprints as executive producer are evident in the many nods to his classic original. Some of these are visual, with gags about objects in the rear-view mirror being closer than they appear and a falling “When dinosaurs ruled the Earth” banner. Others are present in the scoring, as Alexandre Desplat occasionally quotes John Williams’s famous themes. Then there are set pieces that deliberately recall those of the 1993 film, such as the velociraptors in the kitchen scene. In this case, the creatures in question are a peculiar hybrid, but it is clear what is being referenced.

Regular velociraptors do make a brief appearance, in the film’s most genuinely suspenseful moment, when one of the party goes for a pee in the jungle. It’s quick but effectively menacing. As for the bigger set pieces, one involving rock climbing to get to a Quetzalcoatlus nest is suitably vertiginous, another sea-based one recalls Jaws (1975), and I’m pleased to report this features the best T-Rex sequence since the clifftop attack in Jurassic Park: The Lost World (1997); a much-underrated entry in the series.

In contrast, the finale is a bit murky and drags on a bit, despite the unveiling of the biggest carnivorous dinosaur (another mutant). The obligatory “awe” sequence, this time involving a herd of Titanosaurus, merely makes one wistfully recall the brachiosaurus sequence in the original, with audiences new to CGI gasping at the quantum leap in visual effects. It’s impossible to recreate that sense of wonder, but Edwards and co do their utmost to twist your arm until you admit you’re impressed under a certain cinematic duress.

On the plus side, it’s rarely boring (aside from a few pointless attempts at inserting tragic backstories), Scarlett Johansson is as amiable as ever, and it’s a significant improvement on the last film. Although hardly destined for classic status, Jurassic World Rebirth wears its tribute to Spielberg’s genius unpretentiously on its sleeve, delivering a modicum of monster thrills despite the weaker moments. I doubt it will wind up on any serious list of the best films of 2025, but for now, if you want a few blockbuster thrills, it will do nicely.

(Originally published at Medium.)

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