Film Review: Jurassic World Rebirth

Jurassic World Rebirth
Director: Gareth Edwards 
Amblin Entertainment
In Theaters: 07.02.25

The geneticists and the people who fund them in the Jurassic Park movies never quite seem to learn that just because something was big and amazing and people remain fascinated with it to this day doesn’t mean we need to make more. The same thing can be said of Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment, who are on their sixth sequel to the 1993 classic, all of which have been more about trying to hold on to an era and sense of wonder that can never be matched. So while it goes without saying that we didn’t need Jurassic World Rebirth, the question simply becomes: Does it pack enough nostalgic thrills to be worth the effort to see it in theaters?

Jurassic World Rebirth takes place five years after the events of Jurassic World Dominion, and while dinosaurs still exist, they haven’t exactly taken over the earth. In fact, they’ve struggled to survive in Earth’s modern and ever changing ecosystems, gravitating toward remote tropical regions that resemble their ancient habitats. Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson, Black Widow, Jojo Rabbit), a high-priced mercenary, is recruited by Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend, Asteroid City, Obi-Wan Kenobi), an executive from a pharmaceutical company, to join paleontologist Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey, Wicked, Bridgerton) and team leader Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali, Moonlight, Green Book) on a classified mission to Ile Saint-Hubert — a restricted island in the Atlantic once used by InGen as a dumping ground for failed experiments in creating dinosaur hybrids. The team is there to get in and get out with the DNA of a select few species whose unique biomaterials (specifically, their abnormally large hearts) could lead to a groundbreaking breakthrough, revolutionizing the kinds of life-saving medical care that can be rendered inaccessible to millions of Americans. That is, if the least evolved monster in America gets his Big Bundle of Bullshit signed into law. The team sets out on their journey, but what starts out as a smooth operation quickly goes south when the team discovers a shipwrecked civilian family and learns the island is overrun by grotesque, mutated dinosaur hybrids — failed experiments that have adapted and thrived in isolation.

The Jurassic series has always worked best when it focused on a basic premise and situation: filmmakers create dinosaurs, actors play characters, characters get chased by dinosaurs. The second and especially the third Jurassic World got heavily bogged down in convoluted and silly plot elements that didn’t hold together and got in the way of the simple joy of watching dinosaurs chomping on human beings. Rebirth has brought back David Koepp, the screenwriter of the original film, who brings the franchise back to basics, streamlining it into a simple setup and the chaos that ensues, with some clever and quotable dialogue along the way. When you add on the director of the 2014 Godzilla, you’re really on the right track. While I’m personally quite hesitant to classify Jurassic Park as a horror film, at least in the modern connotation, it was undeniably scary, which is something that the series had lost. Koepp and Edwards provide plenty of nail-biting moments mixed in with spectacular action, finding a pretty solid balance of “oooh, ahhh” and “running and screaming.” It’s not a great story and for the most part, the characters are only serviceable, but we like them enough to care whether or not they survive. The greatest strength lies in a number of memorable sequences, the best of them being an homage to Jaws as the team chases down a mosasaurus on the open ocean.

Johansson, a lifelong Jurassic Park fan who has been obsessively trying to get into the franchise for decades, adds plenty of star power and makes for a more convincingly fearless macho man than Chris Pratt did in the last three films, especially when she’s standing in for Robert Shaw on the bow of a boat. Surprisingly, at least for someone like myself who has been a fan of Johansson for almost as long as she’s been a fan of Jurassic Park, is that she’s only the second best of the leads. Bailey’s Dr. Henry Loomis brings back a key element by giving us not only a science nerd who is passionate about dinosaurs and respect for nature, but is also a bleeding heart with a strong moral and ethical compass. Bailey’s performance gives us a character through which to experience both the wonder and the danger, and his mix of introverted awkwardness and enthusiastic charisma easily makes him the standout. 

The ever-reliable Ali finds a wonderfully understated yet all-consuming pain to a character who has suffered a great loss and struggles to keep going. This trio ties the movie together like a good Persian rug can do with a living room. Manuel Garcia-Rulfo (The Magnificent Seven, The Lincoln Lawyer) does very solid work as Reuben Delgado, the leader of the stranded family, but as they become separated from Zora and her team, the constant danger that the movie is going to collapse under the weight of trying to carry both plot threads is almost as palpable as that of the dinosaurs. And speaking of the mutant dinosaurs, the good news is that they are often very scary. The bad news is that some of them are, to put it bluntly, a bit too ugly, and they never reach the levels of endearing majesty of the T. rex or the velociraptors from the original film. However, the design of the big bad Distortus rex does memorably evoke both the Rancor from Return of the Jedi and John Hurt in The Elephant Man.

Jurassic World Rebirth is a thoroughly unnecessary sequel that obviously pales in comparison to Jurassic Park, though it delivers enough thrills, cleverness and nostalgic fun to be well worth the price of admission. This franchise has avoided extinction against all odds, and Edwards and Koepp bring enough of the spirit back after a rather rough evolution, to make a solid summer getaway movie — even if it’s just another footnote to classic. As long as you go into it simply looking for a good time in the jungle and enjoy jumpscares and action, then my friend, welcome to Jurassic World Rebirth. —Patrick Gibbs

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