Movie Review: 'Jurassic World: Rebirth'

We thought that 2022's Jurassic World: Dominion would be the last we'd see of this beloved franchise, at least for a while. Alas, Universal took it upon themselves to churn out seventh instalment, and should they have? In short, no.

Jurassic World: Rebirth picks up sometime after Dominion, with Rupert Friend's pharmaceutical exec, Martin Krebs, calling on a team of experts to help him in obtaining biomaterial samples from yet another island inhabited by dinosaurs. The team of course includes Scarlet Johansson's Zora Bennett and Jonathan Bailey's Dr. Henry Loomis. It is on their mission that they bump into a travelling family and some mutated prehistoric monsters and things begin to get pretty rocky.

Now we all love Scar Jo. She's class act with an impressive catalogue of work behind her, which obviously includes her time in the MCU as Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow. With this in mind, it's just unfortunate that her presence in this film makes little to no impact. Johansson's portrayal of covert op expert Zora isn't exactly a standout performance for her, with her part in the film feeling more like a need to put a big name in the movie to build up hype.

However, the same can't really be said for the rest of the cast. Rupert Friend plays his part well as a power hungry Krebs and does play the balance between professional businessman and selfish a-hole pretty well. We then of course come to Jonathan Bailey, who is arguably the stand out performance of the movie. Bailey is a name British viewers may already be aware of thanks to projects such as Broadchurch, but it was 2024's Wicked that firmly put him on the map. His big Hollywood break coming right before his first appearance in the Jurassic franchise mirrors Chris Pratt's similar career shift a decade earlier, with his big blockbuster break in 2014's Guardians of the Galaxy, followed by Jurassic World in 2015. It all feels familar in the way that they both didn't have a huge amount of star power behind them at the time, but you're starting to see the incline.

As for the rest of the cast, as I say, we can't really complain. Mahershala Ali, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo and David Iacono all serve their purpose, and they don't feel out of place in their roles. Even newcomer Audrina Miranda hits her notes perfectly as she takes on the usual part of the youngster often in mortal peral at the claws of the creatures surrounding them.

The plot of the movie itself on the whole does take the franchise in a new direction. It's hard to believe that out of seven instalments we've not seen it cover a group trying to rob dino DNA to benefit mankind in some way. The only major downside is that the story is just too predictable. Without going into it too much, all of the story beats are ones you can see coming from a mile off, right down to where Friend's character ends up. At least the majority of the other movies in the franchise had you second guessing what could happen here and there.

The story also doesn't really deliver on the title. "Rebirth". It's not even something you can really read between the lines to decode the meaning. If it's some kind of wink to the mutated dinosaur element of the story, then this really wasn't the subtitle to go with.

Something else the plot doesn't deliver on is the main characters of the franchise not getting full appearances until around an hour into the runtime. Again, we don't want to spoil too much in case you haven't seen it, but we got a lot of Jaws-like moments with our dino-creatures in the first part of the movie. It does give that suspense-building feel, but this is a Jurassic World movie. It was the duty of the first Jurassic Park movie to properly build up the anticipation so that we got had the same feeling as Alan Grant during that epic moment of first seeing the CGI dinosaurs in 1993. But ever since, we've seen these creatures pretty early on and not danced around them. Something that this film pretty much riverdanced around for too long. Overall, writer David Koepp, a Jurassic veteran having written the first two movies back in the 90s, should know better than to fumble this much.

Not to harp on about the story for too long, but we also just had to sit through quite a few scenes that dragged out way longer than they need to. Namely scenes between Johansson and Ali, plus Garcia-Rulfo and his familial characters. There was some splicing and dicing needed to get the pacing better and not have us tapping our foots waiting for soem action to kick off or decent exposition.

The film of course isn't all that bad, especially with director Gareth Edwards at the helm. This guy was behind Godzilla and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, so he knows how to aim the camera and take you on a thrill ride. Unfortunately, in comparison to his previous work, he doesn't quite hit the mark with this outing. It does fall a bit flatter than expected, but again, when he cooks he really cooks. Some of the dinosaur chases and the big action in the third act standout definitely.

Cinematographer John Mathieson turned up to cook with gas for sure. This is the guy behind visuals for the likes of Ridley Scott's Robin Hood and James Mangold's Logan to name a few of his bigger jobs. Although the plot has some daggers in it, there is definitely healing knowing that some of the frames captured in this movie are golden. There's one particular moment of Bailey's Henry Loomis with a flair and the villainous D-Rex lurking in the background during the third act that is a chef's kiss piece of cinematography.

This all blends perfectly with usual special effects that we get from this franchise. Jurassic Park was definitely ahead of it's time in this area during the early 90s. Has the film series continued to hold up the stakes? For sure. Does this film continue to do so? absolutely. There are a few moments where you can tell green screens were involved. There also may be a few dodgy human CGI shots that Edwards thought he'd get away with due to them being long shots (you didn't, Edwards). But overall, the effects aren't going to get marked down too much considering what some CGI-heavy movies are churning out nowadays.

But for this type of film, the visuals are only as strong as the sound that pairs with them in certain moments. At the end of the day, again, this is Jurassic movie. The sound needs to be on point from start to finish. Whether it is to shock or get your seat rattling from the roar of a T-Rex, you need to get the full pelt of the audio, and this to does deliver. If you're still due to see this movie, I'd recommend iSense and upwards. Don't miss out.

That then takes us into a particular aspect of sound that is iconic for this franchise; the score. The iconic Alexandre Desplat was on composing duties this time around, and we expected big things considering his career. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Parts 1 & 2. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Philomena. All fine examples of his work. Sure, there's a few misses, but we could expect big things for his first outing in this franchise. Sadly, it's another miss. This score is pretty forgettable, with only John Williams' iconic themes saving it.

On the whole, this does sit as one of the more disappointing instalments in the franchise. With a bland lead and a predictable plot, those main ingrediants can't be properly saved by all the other elements that score it points.

If the Jurassic World movies wish to continue in a more successful, fan-pleasing fashion, it would be best to treat this new trilogy like an anthology series and give us a new cast/scenario each time. If the movie's surviving characters are meant to be in for the long run, then it's not going to capture the same magic as the previous two trilogies.

For an overall score, it's got to be a mediocre 5/10.

Jurassic World: Rebirth is now in cinemas everywhere.