by Charles Kirkland, Jr.
A pharmacist, a researcher, and a group of mercenaries go on an internationally illegal trip to an island where dinosaurs rule the land in Jurassic World: Rebirth.
Dinosaurs are dying. After over thirty years of existence, most of the dinosaurs around the world have died out. The only remaining dinosaurs now live within a few miles of the equator, where the tropical conditions mimic those of the era when they flourished. Because of the danger the dinosaurs pose, all the countries of the world have made travel to and or through the dinosaur zone illegal. One day, a pharmaceutical company, ParkerGenix, entices Zora Bennett, a “retrieval specialist,” to take a team to the zone to retrieve DNA samples from the three largest existing dinosaurs. One lives in the sea, one lives on the island, and the third flies the skies. When the enticement reaches the double-digit millions, Zora loads up her team and takes on the top-secret mission.
Jurassic World: Rebirth is written by David Koepp, based on characters created by Michael Crichton. The movie stars Scarlett Johansson as Zora Bennett along with Mahershala Ali, Jonathan Bailey, Rupert Friend, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, and Ed Skrein. The film is directed by Gareth Edwards (Godzilla, Rogue One, The Creator). Rebirth is the sequel to Jurassic World: Dominion, but does not have any of the characters from that movie. It is the fourth Jurassic World sequel and the seventh movie in the Jurassic franchise.
From a cinematic standpoint, Jurassic World: Rebirth is a marvel. The cinematography is very well conceived. The scenes are well shot, colorful, and vibrant, even in the night scenes. The majesty of the dinosaurs set against sweeping landscapes and even breaching the water like enormous whales is beautiful to behold. The score of the movie is grand and powerful. It is easy to be swept up in childlike wonder when watching this movie.
Then your mature brain settles in. Suddenly, you realize that this is the seventh movie in this franchise, and short of a few mutant dinosaurs, you have seen all of this before. Almost from the beginning of the movie, the audience marvels at the sheer hubris of everyone involved in this top-secret and completely illegal excursion to the most deadly part of the world. I think that David Koepp understands this feeling and attempts to remedy it by involving an unsuspecting and unlucky shipwrecked family. Unfortunately, the idea didn’t make it any better. The family has the prerequisite cute kid that no one wants to get eaten. The problem is that secretly, there is hope that the child does get eaten for the change of pace.
The point is that while Jurassic World is lovely to look at and at times thrilling, we’ve seen almost all of it before. There are a couple of new dinosaurs and one very ugly one called the D-Rex, but ugly doesn’t translate to scary. It’s hard to be scared when you know what’s coming.
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence/action, bloody images, some suggestive references, language and a drug reference, Jurassic World: Reborn is a predictable slog of a film. It’s family-friendly and fun but very familiar and forgettable.
Grade: C+