‘Jurassic World: Rebirth’ is Disappointing
Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Bailey in Jurassic World: Rebirth | Credit: Universal Pictures
An unlikely crew embarks on a dangerous journey to extract DNA from some of the largest dinosaurs to walk the earth… and things, predictably, go wrong in the process.
I have to start this review by saying that I recently rewatched Jurassic Park, which seemed like a good idea at the time, but definitely made this new film harder to watch. The first film, the one that started it all, is pure magic. Every aspect of Jurassic Park works together beautifully to create one of the most iconic films of all time. For decades now, people have been trying to recreate that same magic, often with subpar results.
Jurassic World: Rebirth had a lot of promise. I really love the premise of the film. It builds on the previous movies, without being beholden to the exact same park-centered storyline that we’ve seen so many times. In this film, the characters are grappling with the after-effects of living in a world with dinosaurs. Unfortunately, interest has waned in these creatures, and climate change has made much of the earth inhospitable for them. I think this is a fantastic set-up! It confronts so many of the same themes that are at the heart of the first film, while also updating the story to reflect much of what we are grappling with today.
At the beginning of the film, I started feeling a little optimistic—maybe this wouldn’t be as bad as I was prepared for it to be. Unfortunately, the story goes downhill from there. Sadly, the premise and the score are the best parts of the film. Even the fantastic principal cast couldn’t save what ends up feeling like an uninspired script.
Initially, it seemed like this would be a film that contained good action, some light-hearted moments, and something real to say about our world and how we interact with it. Sadly, once the film gets going, all of that kind of falls by the wayside. There are some creative choices that the film makes that make no sense to me, and whole characters that contribute almost nothing to the plot. While there are a few cool dinosaur moments, I wanted more from this film.
I knew that this would never live up to Jurassic Park, but I had hoped for a better movie than this. It’s fine; it gives a few thrills, has some emotional moments, and even generates some laughs. But it could’ve been so much more. With the amount of talent involved in this film, I really hoped that we would get a good or even great film, rather than a mediocre entry into an already pretty tired franchise.
I will get into some of my biggest issues with the film next, but that will require spoiling a few things. If you haven’t yet seen Jurassic World: Rebirth and don’t want it spoiled, don’t continue reading.
Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Bailey in Jurassic World: Rebirth | Credit: Universal Pictures
My biggest issue with Jurassic World: Rebirth is the inclusion of the family in this story. This father, his two daughters, and his daughter’s boyfriend are all attacked by some water dinosaurs and end up being rescued by our crew. Then they are stranded separately on this island and are forced to survive. They seemed to be there just to create more tense moments and to explore additional parts of the island. My problem was that I wasn’t interested in them. Because they are people, I wanted them to survive, but I didn’t want to follow their story. Instead, I wanted to be with our main cast, who are on a mission to extract this dinosaur DNA.
I wonder what this film would be like if it either omitted the family entirely or better integrated them into the story. How would the experts on this mission respond to having children along for the ride? How would an injured person change how they went about getting their job done? That might’ve been more interesting than what we ended up getting. Because the two storylines were so separate from each other, I kept getting frustrated when I was pulled from the storyline I was more interested in (collecting DNA) to watch a family try to survive on the island.
However, I must say that the T-Rex chasing the boat scene was absolutely thrilling. I think it’s one of the best scenes in the film. From Teresa (Luna Blaise) sneaking onto the dock and seeing the (cute) sleeping T-Rex, to inflating the raft, to them white water rafting their way to safety—the whole thing was thrilling. (Also, what was that raft made of that made it basically indestructible?)
One of my other issues with this film is that there wasn’t enough dinosaur smarts from Dr. Loomis (Jonathan Bailey). He really effectively captures the wonder and awe that someone would feel when interacting with these dinosaurs for the first time, which is great. But he doesn’t directly contribute much to the plot. Honestly, I think his character could’ve been an email.
He could’ve just given Zora (Scarlett Johansson) and Duncan (Mahershala Ali) the tech, shown them pictures of the dinosaurs, and where they are most likely to be found, and let the retrieval specialists do their job. Since he was long for the ride, I wanted more moments of Loomis using his knowledge of dinosaurs to help them on this adventure, but there’s not very much of that.
The film is trying to make him like Alan Grant or Indiana Jones, but he contributes so little to the plot that the comparison is almost laughable.
Mahershala Ali in Jurassic World: Rebirth | Credit: Universal Pictures
Jurassic World: Rebirth attempts to take the series in a new direction, but ends up falling into some of the same pitfalls that so many of the other sequels do. The film is burdened with too many characters and subplots, which add runtime that makes it feel like a much longer movie than it is. Instead of focusing on our three main characters, we go on these side quests that, for me, didn’t add much to the plot.
There are some cool dinosaur moments, but I didn’t feel a lot of tension in them. It was almost predictable which members of the group would be eaten and when. I was really longing for this movie to break out of the mold and do something different or innovative in this film, but instead, it feels a little safe and a little tired.
Maybe my expectations were too high for this film, but the more that I’ve thought about it, the more frustrated I’ve become. I almost wish that studios would stop remaking films like this and instead just show us legacy IP on the big screen. Re-release the 1993 film, and I feel like people will flock to the theaters to see it on the big screen, either again or for the first time.