Jurassic World: Rebirth - A Fan's Review

Last night I entered the theater for the latest installment of the Jurassic Park franchise. I’ve been hyped for this film since I saw the first sneak peaks and trailers come out – especially since Jurassic World Dominion left me wondering what had happened with the series.

Needless to say, there will be plenty of spoilers ahead. So, if you want to see the film for yourself without knowledge of what’s going to happen, I suggest you book your ticket now. For those that have seen the film, or simply don’t care for spoilers, strap in.

The film is reminiscent of The Lost World and Jurassic Park III – the latter of which wasn’t the best movie, but Sam Neill as Alan Grant will always have me coming back for more.

The plot is easy enough to follow: Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson) has a team of special operatives, the co-leader being Duncan (Mahershala Ali), to recover genetic material from living dinosaurs to create life-altering medicines. The man behind this medicine, Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend), is a stereotypical rich guy who’s also clearly a bad person. The team recruits Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) for his knowledge of dinosaurs as well.

A rescued family also makes an appearance, though for much of the movie the two groups are split up and forced to survive the mutant dinosaur infested island alone. Right. The mutants. Turns out this film took the same route as the rest of the Jurassic World films and decided that regular dinosaurs weren’t enough, they needed to be mutated monsters as well.

It’s a cliche happy ending with all the good named characters surviving despite the odds and the dinosaurs are once again left to themselves on the island.

Overall, Jurassic World: Rebirth isn’t a bad movie, though it isn’t a great one either.

As mentioned there’s a huge focus on mutants in this movie: the Distortus Rex, or D. Rex for short, and the Mutadon are failed hybrids created by InGen that were too horrific to be put on display at the main park. I didn’t hate the Mutadon’s, they were basically like Velociraptors with wings, and I love raptors. The D. Rex though? That was harder to like.

Some of the scenes involving the creature were absolutely horrifying. The initial sequence where an InGen employee is trapped in a chamber with the D. Rex is chilling, and seeing the dinosaur grab Martin with seemingly opposable thumbs made my heart jump. However, there were several issues with the design and CGI. Throughout the D. Rex scenes I couldn’t help but think it looked too similar to the aliens in Alien. It didn’t appear very dinosaur-esc like several other mutants in the series like the Indominous Rex or the Indo Raptor. These creatures still had that signature dinosaur look about them that made them even more frightening. The D. Rex lacked that.

The CGI for the dinosaur was questionable at times. I found it hard to pin a distinct size on the creature since it seemingly appeared to change at random. In its enclosure, it looks huge, but not any bigger than a Tyrannosaurus or Spinosaurus would be. Then, in a scene where it takes down a helicopter, the dinosaur seems to grow twice as large.

Instead of focusing on mutants, the film had a great opportunity to utilize the T-Rex, though clearly mutated as well due to its large size, and let the Velociraptors have their own sequence before getting killed off by the Mutadon unceremoniously.

Another issue with this film is its plot. The first quarter of the film is rather slow with little action or great importance. The characters attempt to be two dimensional by referencing their pasts and getting teary eyed, but very few of these emotional scenes have any connection to the wide story. Plenty of the characters are only there as bodies to later be killed off – such as Nina and Bobby, both characters that I forgot the names of and later had to research. This was a failing of the later Jurassic Park movies, and it’s apparent that Jurassic World: Rebirth didn’t learn its lesson.

The plot is horribly predictable too. Perhaps it’s because I’ve seen these films so many times, but as I sat in the theater, I could turn to my sister and joke about what would happen next. Of course, the exact event would come to pass. The villain dies. The kids survive. Zora and Henry have a blossoming romance. Practically every beat was hit perfectly.

Additionally, the plot armor that some of these characters had was unmatched. I truly believed that Duncan would die to the D. Rex. It would have been painfully ironic for him to die in the jungle – as previously in the movie he state’s that he refuses to – but the set up was there. Then he survives. Somehow? The movie never explains that. Nor does it explain why the D. Rex isn’t attracted to the flare that Duncan lights anymore. Plenty of plot holes with little filler.

Despite some of the downsides, I still found parts of this movie that I truly enjoyed.

One of the biggest questions, and kind of complaints, I had about much of the Jurassic World franchise was that the possibility of dinosaurs living in the normal world would be impossible. There wouldn't be enough food for them, it wouldn’t be warm enough, and their bodies couldn’t survive with our current oxygen levels. That isn’t even beginning to touch on how entire ecosystems could be destroyed if living, breeding dinosaurs got out. The film remedies some of the more fantastical elements by bringing the series back to reality – a direction I for one appreciated.

Jurassic World: Rebirth also made me feel true fear, which I haven’t felt in a Jurassic World movie in quite a while. The jump scares got me, even the Mutadon and Velociraptor one that left me feeling sad. The final sequence of the group trapped between the D. Rex and the Mutadon was nail-biting as well. One of the most graphic and mind blowing scenes was Leclerc’s death to the Quetzalcoatlus. The movement of the animal, it’s refusal to give up, and finally how it toys with Leclerc before finally swallowing him down – all of which is shown on screen – made squeamish in the best way. The horror element is something that a lot of Jurassic World and Jurassic Park movies missed. In the original novels, things are far more graphic and tense then the films portray them to be.

If you’re in this for the scares, I highly suggest checking them out.

Though I can rip into this movie for its designs of the mutants, the designs and behaviors of the other dinosaurs left me breathless. One scene in particular, with a herd of Titanosaurus left me breathless. There aren’t many times in this franchise where dinosaurs are shown as just that – dinosaurs. The creatures weren’t mindless killing machines bent on destroying humanity, they were just like any other animal trying to survive. This sequence showed just that. Though some may say that the mating behavior was out of place or disturbing, I thought it was beautiful. As the Jurassic Park theme played in the background, I was once again the little kid watching Jurassic Park for the first time, falling in love with all things prehistoric.

On a smaller note, design wise, the choice to add feathers to some of the dinosaurs, vibrant colors, and even the amphibious nature of Spinosaurus was another gold star. I loved that even in a world that is clearly not the most historically accurate, there were still inclusions of reality.

Jurassic World: Rebirth isn’t the best film in the entire franchise, but its ability to get back to the basics, and be set on an island – even if it isn’t one of the five deaths – was enough to satiate me. The chase scenes were tense and the references to the original films, such as the gas station paralleling the kitchen scene in Jurassic Park, were well done. I’m not sure I would want another addition to the series after this. I’ll still be strapped in for season four of Jurassic World: Chaos Theory of course, but as for films, this might be the sign to let the series end.

Will that happen?

Definitely not. After all, corporations find a way.