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Jurassic World Rebirth is the latest entry into the beloved dinosaur film franchise, following its revival in 2015 where we were introduced to Jurassic World for the first time. The first movie was great and I loved being back, but since then, it’s definitely gone downhill.
By far the worst installment to date is Jurassic World Dominion, which has so far received a very low Rotten Tomatoes score of 29% from the critics, making it the lowest rated film in the franchise.
With audiences left frustrated by the direction that movie went in, there was a lot of pressure on filmmakers to restore it to its former glory, ironically, not unlike their efforts to revive a jurassic theme park as seen in the movies, following the collapse of the original.
It may be reassuring for me to begin by saying Jurassic World Rebirth is nowhere near as bad as Jurassic World Dominion, and is a much better made movie, even though I’m not sure if it really adds much to the story, as it seems to go off doing its own thing once again.
I’m likely not alone in missing the original Jurassic World cast, even though the stars in Jurassic World Rebirth were very strong. With so many big names attached to the project like Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali and Jonathan Bailey, if you’re after star power, you’re definitely going to get it here. They give it their all, even with a script that doesn’t have much substance.
Having said that, it does feel strange not following the characters we’re used to seeing in the Jurassic franchise and with no returning faces from older movies, this may come as a disappointment for fans wanting to see some familiar names.
An entirely new cast was a gamble I’m not sure was worth taking, though there’s likely going to be some division here from fans. Some may argue that it’s nice to see a fresh set of characters, but they didn’t grip me the way Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas-Howard did when they dominated the screen in the very first Jurassic World movie.
Still, if you’re looking for a fast-paced, loud, exciting trip to the cinema you’ll definitely get it here. The action set pieces, when they happen, are great and make good use of a cinema sound system. The sound design is epic as are the visuals, so it’s a real bit of escapism.
One thing that disappointed me was that the dinosaurs felt underused. Audiences are flocking to a movie called Jurassic World to be thrilled by the dinosaurs, so it’s frustrating when we don’t get to see a lot of them. I’ve had similar criticisms of monster movies like Godzilla v Kong, which took entirely too long for the big monsters to start punching each other. While I’m not asking for a movie devoid of any plot, it’s sad when the dinosaurs do seem to take a back seat, when they should be front and center of a movie like this.
The best action movies are ones that don’t hold back. These movies don’t lull in the middle, whereas I did struggle with some of the pacing issues throughout Jurassic World Rebirth. The script felt weak in places and it’s a real shame – I suppose trying to fix the mistakes of Jurassic World Dominion was no easy task, I’m sure.
It’s certainly not the worst in the franchise, but for me, even something like Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, which received divisive reviews, entertained me more than Jurassic World Rebirth.
I liked the way Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom leaned into darker topics and borrowed from the horror genre, for example, and there was nothing quite that memorable here, save for one stand out scene involving a T-Rex and a raft, but even then they could’ve done so much more.
There are worse ways to spend an afternoon at the movies, though, and this one will help you switch off and escape into some beautiful visuals and a good score, but it does make me worried for whether or not this franchise has a future, or if its at rapid risk of extinction just like its subject matter.
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