Jurassic World: Rebirth, directed by Gareth Edwards, brings audiences a different continuation of the famous series of films featuring cloned dinosaurs and the humans who create, study, and fight them. Meant to be a stand-alone sequel to Jurassic World: Dominion, this film focuses on a clandestine operation to retrieve DNA from remaining species now living freely in remote equatorial locations.
There is a completely new cast and a new island. This version takes place 5 years after Dominion. We’ve watched dinosaurs be created, captured, and sent to zoos, catching and then losing the interest of the public. As the dinosaurs die out from exposure to the modern environment and the museums and exhibits are on the verge of closing down, an unscrupulous pharmaceutical company called ParkerGenix, has found a new way to exploit the formerly extinct animals.
The remaining dinosaurs live in equatorial islands and the surrounding waters, and 3 of the species have DNA that could be turned into a miracle drug to cure heart disease. It’s illegal to go to these islands, and shipping companies are advised not to enter the waters around them. The sleazy company representative, Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend), hires a mercenary covert ops type to put together a team to go extract the DNA for the lab. Scarlett Johansson plays Zora Bennet, the mercenary in need of money and is attracted by the enormous paycheck offered by ParkerGenix.
Their destination is Isle Saint-Hubert, home to the 3 species: Titanosaurus, Quetzalcoatlus, and Mosasaurus. Zora recruits fellow black ops pal Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali) and his small crew. He runs a “charter” service with his boat, no questions asked. Since they need a scientist, Krebs hires paleontologist Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey), whose museum is about to close. Loomis has concerns but puts them aside to get the opportunity to see living dinosaurs in the wild.
While they are setting up operations near the island, an unexpected emergency strikes a civilian family trying to sail a small boat across the Atlantic Ocean. The fairly annoying father, Reuben (Manuel Garcia-Ruflo) is accompanied by his older daughter Teresa (Luna Blaise), his younger daughter Isabella (Audrina Miranda), and Teresa’s boyfriend Xavier (David Lacono). Actually, they’re all pretty annoying, but the boyfriend has some truly hilarious moments. The little kid isn’t all that appealing, but the family is necessary for the theme of human kindness, which is secondary to the survival theme.
When they send out a distress SOS, Zora hears it and insists that they detour and pick up the shipwrecked folks. Everyone else objects, but she shames them into it. That’s how they all get stranded on the island. I’ll leave it to you to discover how that happens.
There’s really only one plot for these Jurassic films. Big, scary dinosaurs chase humans who barely escape, or who don’t escape. In this film, the human body count starts early, and one gets the feeling that the survivors are being considered for a possible sequel. We’ll see.
The movie was filmed mainly in Thailand, with opening scenes filmed in New York. The creatures were created through a mix of animatronics and CGI. They are appropriately terrifying, and the scenes showing the humans trying to escape both the animals and the island are quite intense.
Johansson, Bailey, and Ali give excellent performances even though they are saddled with a weak script. There is, of course, a lot of screaming and roaring, but the musical score, infused with the original Jurassic Park motif, makes up for it.
I do not think the film is a great one, but it’s going to be popular. The last quarter of it is the best. I found my mind wandering in the middle. This could have been fixed by less time in the jungle. That said, it’s a Spielberg production, so it’s full of crowd-pleasing moments. In my personal opinion, none of the sequels have matched the excellence of the original film, but many young people won’t remember it well. Scarlett Johansson actually approached Spielberg about acting in it as she had been obsessed with the franchise since childhood.
It’s a good summer popcorn movie experience, and you’ll enjoy it. It’s just affected by the repetition of the same old plot with a slightly different set-up. – JoAnne Hyde
GRADE: B
