That sequence felt like something Spielberg directed himself, and it wouldn’t feel out of place if it were cut into the original film.
Back in 2022 Jurassic World Dominion was released and billed as the ‘epic conclusion’ to the Jurassic saga. Fast forward three years and we already have another film in the franchise. This time it’s helmed by Gareth Edwards the director of 2014’s Godzilla and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
Jurassic World Rebirth follows Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson) who along with Dr Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) and Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali) venture on an expedition orchestrated by Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend), to extract DNA from three massive dinosaurs in order to aid a groundbreaking medical breakthrough.
The initial narrative set up is serviceable but it’s the character work that had me engaged at the beginning. Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali and Jonathan Bailey combine to create the most likeable cast since the original. They deserve a lot of credit for what they bring to their roles. Scarlett Johansson is a great lead who reminded me she is a movie star in her own right. It’s nice to see her in a blockbuster role where it feels like she is able to be a bit more charismatic and playful. It made me reflect on how the MCU had mishandled her for so long because she came across as quite wooden in some of those films. Zora is a covert operations specialist who is motivated by money, but is perhaps using her profession to mask wounds from previous missions and relationships.
Mahershala Ali left a strong impression on me as Duncan, Zora’s friend in charge of escorting the team to the island via his boat. This character had a small layer of emotional substance written within the script. Mahershala was able to mine that detail for all it’s worth to create an empathetic and endearing character, which is the opposite of what you typically see for characters such as his in films of this ilk. Jonathan Bailey is very likable here as a palaeontologist who is the most informed person on the expedition. He has a childlike sense of excitement and passion for the dinosaurs which Jonathan was able to capture through his performance. Rupert Friend had a more one dimensional character to portray. You could see the direction he would go right from the beginning so in that sense he was cliche. During the first act a family of characters are introduced who grew on me as the film progressed. It consists of a father, his younger daughter, teenage daughter and her boyfriend. That dynamic served the film well and those actors were good in their roles.
Once the main plot is set in motion it somewhat stagnates which results in the film being light on story development. It makes up for it with a variety of dinosaur set pieces, each involving a different species that are worth the price of admission. The river raft sequence with the T-Rex is the showpiece with expertly crafted peril and suspense. The biggest compliment I can give is that sequence felt like something Spielberg directed himself, and it wouldn’t feel out of place if it were cut into the original film. The story forces the characters to confront the dinosaurs via land, sea and air which keeps the plethora of sequences exciting.
Gareth Edwards is a director I admire who I think is under appreciated, I love his Godzilla film and his contribution to Star Wars with Rogue One. His strongest directorial qualities transfer to the Jurassic franchise with ease. He is able to capture the scale and intensity of these dinosaur encounters, and ratchet up the tension when it’s required to create a thrilling experience. Jurassic World Rebirth was shot on film and its filled with beautiful textured imagery. The cinematography is rich with warm tones that help to visually convey the climate of the location. A lot of the film was shot on location which makes a noticeable difference, compared to the CGI laden efforts in some of the more recent films in the franchise. These locations look and feel real because they are.
The script swiftly kickstarts the story and I appreciate how it chains the dinosaur sequences together, but with David Koepp (co-writer for the original classic) returning to write I expected more depth and development within the narrative. It’s not that the film lacks substance, it just needed more of it. There’s small details about medicine being made private and the impact of that, but it comes across as a footnote instead of a theme that is actually explored in the story.
This brings me to another element of the film, the heavily marketed mutated dinosaurs. For a start it would’ve served the film better if their reveal was preserved for when you watch it for the first time. This aspect of the narrative is a strange because it feels like it was either cut heavily during editing process, or it was just an after thought within the script. The story opens with a scene showcasing the lab where these genetic monstrosities are being created, but beyond that no development is given to this plot thread. The mutated dinosaurs just appear in the third act with little build up. There is one scene half way through that briefly introduces one of these mutated species, but it’s not enough and it would’ve been interesting to see these creatures interact more with the other dinosaurs on the island. How would that impact the food chain and pyramid of apex predators? That is a compelling question that is not explored.
The mutated D-Rex is one of the weakest elements of the film. It just felt like a monster instead of anything that resembles a dinosaur and I know that is kind of the point, but it felt out of place and didn’t evoke the feeling of wonder and fear that you got from the other dinosaurs. The genetically enhanced dinosaurs in Jurassic World and Fallen Kingdom clearly resemble a dinosaur in both appearance and behaviour, so they didn’t seem too far removed whereas the D-Rex does. The unique wonder of these films comes from seeing dinosaurs that once walked the Earth, when it’s a creature that is fictional it creates a disconnect between what evokes that feeling as a viewer. At that point it forfeits the essence of Jurassic Park and becomes closer to something you’d see in a Kaiju film. The other mutated dinosaur was more of a success because it posed more of a palpable threat. It basically occupied the space in these films that are usually taken by the raptors, who are unfortunately absent from this film aside from a brief moment.
Jurassic World Rebirth evoked the wonder and adventurous peril that reminded me of my childhood experiences with the original films, and other favourites of mine such as Peter Jackson’s King Kong. It’s a near night and day difference to Dominion which felt like a Fast & Furious film with dinosaurs, and a messy “final” instalment comparable to The Rise of Skywalker. Rebirth is a palette cleanser. If the franchise ends here, it went out on a high note.
★ ★ ★ ★
This review was written by Terrelle Graham.
Jurassic World Rebirth. Starring Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, Jonathan Bailey, Rupert Friend and Ed Skrein. Directed by Gareth Edwards. Runtime 133 minutes.