Jurassic World Rebirth: A Middling New Installment Packed With Some Old Thrills

Jurassic World Rebirth delivers familiar thrills and nostalgia, but lacks depth in storytelling and character.

Scarlett Johansson in a still from Jurassic World Rebirth

(Photo Courtesy: YouTube) 

Over 30 years ago, Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park (1993) revolutionised the summer blockbuster and monster movie genre. Its incredible and unprecedented use of computer-generated imagery (CGI) defined the visual effects practices of contemporary cinema for decades.

At the same time, the film’s effective writing and sound directorial choices ensured it was not solely dependent on the spectacle to entertain audiences. Jurassic Park’s widespread commercial and critical success spawned an unstoppable franchise with its newest offspring just taking its first breaths in the proverbial box office.

Released in Indian theatres on 4 July, Jurassic World Rebirth is the fourth Jurassic World film and the seventh in the Jurassic Park franchise. Directed by Gareth Edwards, the film is a standalone sequel to the particularly disastrous Jurassic World Dominion (2022), where dinosaurs lived alongside humans across major cities worldwide. 

Rebooting the Franchise

While the scale and special effects have achieved Jurassic heights (pun intended) over the years, becoming more and more grand with each installment, the narrative stakes appear to be getting smaller and the storytelling lazier, especially in the Jurassic World franchise.

With Dominion, the franchise had moved so far away from Jurassic Park’s initial premise—of humans and dinosaurs clashing on a remote, dangerously exotic island where the ultimate battle for survival between man and the ancient wild plays out—that a reboot was clearly necessary. 

Consequently, Jurassic World Rebirth is written by David Koepp, the co-writer of Spielberg’s seminal film.

It's perhaps why the latest edition is visibly closer to the ethos of Jurassic Park and significantly scarier than the recent outings, with a distinctly more coherent screenplay. 

It also emphasises, perhaps too didactically, the classic messaging of Jurassic Park: warning against corporate greed, environmental damage, and human hubris. 

All said and done, Jurassic World Rebirth offers nothing new and depends on several dated narrative cliches. At 2 hours 13 minutes, it is also runs a bit overlong, with recurring moments that drag in between action sequences.

But for those seeking fun and familiar thrills, the film offers an extremely watchable star cast, and many deadly dinosaurs.

Jonathan Bailey in a still from Jurassic World Rebirth

(Photo Courtesy: YouTube) 

Big Stakes, Familiar Setup

Jurassic World Rebirth opens with a prologue in 2010 in a laboratory on the island of Ile Saint-Hubert in the Atlantic Ocean, where scientists are creating genetically mutated dinosaurs. A particularly malignant "Distortus” or D-Rex escapes and wreaks havoc on the facility, causing it to close down.

The film then cuts to 17 years later - and five years after the events of Dominion - to the present day, wherein dinosaurs are now restricted to residing in specific islands around the equator. 

These islands are not to be entered by humans, maintaining clear boundaries between dinosaurs and people. This makes the conditions ripe for the franchise’s primary concept.

Enter Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend), a dodgy executive at a pharmaceutical company, who wants to retrieve blood samples from three different dinosaurs​​—of land, sea, and air—to develop a new life-saving treatment for heart disease. 

He hires Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson), a confident covert operations expert, along with Dr Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey), a nerdy paleontologist sincerely committed to prehistoric life. 

Mahershala Ali in a still from Jurassic World Rebirth

(Photo Courtesy: YouTube) 

A Quest, an Accident, and Familiar Tropes

Together with Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali), Zora’s friend and boat captain, the four venture to the forbidden island to obtain the samples. They’re all motivated by selfish reasons: Martin to patent the drug and make billions of dollars, Zora and Duncan also to make millions, and Henry for the glory, career fame, and thrill of seeing dinosaurs in their natural habitat.

The screenplay also gives each of them just enough back story and character traits to make us connect with and root for them. Zora, for instance, is grieving a personal loss and still recovering from her previous mission. 

It’s certainly superficial and tropey, but Jurassic Park Rebirth does it with a degree of self-awareness that makes it acceptable—like it not only knows what it’s doing and but also knows that you know what it’s doing, so let it just get through the checklist quickly so we can make our way to the island and get to the dino-action. It does not feign to be anything more.

Case in point, as the group is making their way to the island, we meet Reuben Delgado (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), a father going on a boating adventure with his two daughters, Teresa and Isabella, and, much to his chagrin, Teresa’s laid-back boyfriend, Xavier. They get into an accident and find themselves marooned alongside Zora and her team on the island. 

Tension, Thrills & Terrifying Dinosaurs

Most of the film flits between the civilian family and the team on a mission on the island. Jurassic World Rebirth contains several moments of tension that are immensely enjoyable and remind you why you love the franchise. 

Like when Xavier goes to take a leak in one scene and encounters not one but two surprise guests, revealed in a nice homage to Spielberg’s original. Or when a monstrous T Rex is awoken from a slumber by a blow-up raft and chases the Delgado family down a river.

Even an extended sequence of rappelling, retrieving material from Quetzalcoatlus eggs, and dodging the flying creatures is quiet fun.

The visual effects and cinematography are stunning. Many of these moments build tension and fear similar to the early Jurassic Park movies, with slow camera movements and Alexandre Desplat’s effective music score. 

The sense of being trapped on the island comes through quite well, too, making us feel fairly immersed and stuck with the characters for the most part.

Rupert Friend in a still from Jurassic World Rebirth

(Photo Courtesy: YouTube) 

Actors Deliver, Even if the Writing Doesn’t

Jurassic World Rebirth stumbles most in the moments in between the action, when the formulaic storytelling catches up to the film.

You find it impossible to care enough about these characters beyond the situation they’ve found themselves in and the need to survive.

None of the characters make much of an impression, despite the impressive cast. The actors each bring what you’d expect of them for their roles: Scarlett Johansson has perfected the brave, badass woman. 

Jonathan Bailey of Bridgerton and Wicked fame is endearing and sweet; he’s the film’s moral compass with some of the best lines. Besides the dinosaurs, his chemistry with Johansson is one of the highlights of Jurassic World Rebirth.

Mahershala Ali brings requisite charm and charisma to his role, while Manuel Garcia-Rulfo (aka The Lincoln Lawyer) is earnest as a protective father—though there’s only so many times you can watch him hold his sweet younger daughter, Isabella, and reassure her that everything’s going to be alright before it gets very stale. 

The most disappointing character, however, is Martin, who ends up being flat and inert as the villain, never presenting much of a threat in the proceedings.

A Thrill Ride That Doesn’t Stick

Moments of humor work well to bring some lightness to the story, but many jokes are juvenile and don’t fully land. It’s all strictly serviceable and immediately forgettable, but who cares? Does anyone really come to watch Jurassic World movies for memorable, complex character development and a poignant, thought-provoking plot?

A few hours after leaving the cinema, the only thing I remember from Jurassic World Rebirth is that the D Rex, who emerges for the key climactic setpiece, looks less like a dinosaur and more like a strange cross between Godzilla and a beluga whale.

Part of me wishes the film had more depth and substance to chew on, but part of me embraced this middling ride back to the Jurassic world. It works for cheap thrills, even just to momentarily reminisce about the magic of Spielberg’s unmatched masterpiece.

(Kaashif is a writer and film critic from Mumbai, currently based in London. He is the Assistant Culture Editor of The Polis Project.)