JURASSIC WORLD REBIRTH – This Franchise Isn’t Extinct Yet!

JURASSIC WORLD REBIRTH is directed by Gareth Edwards. The movie stars Scarlet Johansson, Ed Skrein, Rupert Friend, Mahershala Ali, Jonathan Bailey, and Manuel Garcia-Rulfo.

Five years have passed since the events of JURASSIC WORLD DOMINION. Many of the revived dinosaurs are dying off in a world that’s proven to be inhospitable, with what few species remaining living in an area near the equator. A pharmaceutical company recruits a group, including covert ops veteran Zora, to hunt down some of the remaining dinos for blood samples that could be useful in synthesizing beneficial medications. Their expedition involves rescuing a shipwrecked family, with everyone finding themselves stuck on an island with dangerous predators, including several genetically engineered abominations considered unfit for the park that John Hammond was building three decades ago.

The JURASSIC PARK/JURASSIC WORLD franchise simply won’t go extinct. Despite hit and miss sequels, the franchise has continued to be a massive moneymaker for Universal. It’s unlikely anyone knew back in the day Michael Crichton’s novel would spawn a massive multimedia franchise of (to date) seven films, two animated series, and tons of merchandise, including toys and video games. For this moviegoer, however, no movie in the series has come close to the 1993 original, directed by Steven Spielberg. In particular, the latter two installments, JURASSIC WORLD FALLEN KINGDOM and JURASSIC WORLD DOMINION, both received very mixed reviews. Will REBIRTH, penned by screenwriter David Koepp (who write the first two movies’ screenplays), and directed by Gareth Edwards (GODZILLA ’14, ROGUE ONE), keep the series from dying off?

REBIRTH is no masterpiece, but it is the best film in this series since the 2015 JURASSIC WORLD film, taking the franchise back to basics. It’s the first sequel in the franchise to not bring back characters from any prior films, instead giving us a cast of all new faces. This stripped-down approach takes the series back to its roots, which was long overdue. Many of the problems from prior movies are still prevalent here, but as far as exciting, suspenseful summer blockbusters go, REBIRTH gets the job done.

REBIRTH’s opening scene (set nearly two decades before the bulk of the film) immediately builds the suspense. It’s followed by a completely pointless “text wall” intro with information we’re all told via exposition in the film proper within the next five minutes. Fortunately, the movie doesn’t waste time getting down to business, and once our heroes are on their way, there’s seldom a scene that lacks suspense. Some of the best moments in the movie are en route to the island, with a sequence involving mosasaurs that’s reminiscent of JAWS (hardly surprising given that Steven Spielberg, who directed the first two JP movies, is still on board as a producer.) REBIRTH restores a sense of horror and terror that the series has been lacking since its early days.

Probably the single biggest problem I’ve had with the sequels to JURASSIC PARK is that they lacked the human element missing from the original 1993 film. While none of REBIRTH’s characters are going to score points for originality, there is a least a bit more humanity here than in the more recent movies, including a shipwrecked family who finds themselves along for the ride, and Scarlet Johansson as a mercenary who finds herself facing an identity crisis of sorts. It’s good to see that the movie doesn’t rehash existing characters (there’s only one name drop of a classic JURASSIC PARK character I noticed) and instead focuses more on the here and now, and doesn’t try to set up further sequels. The standalone nature works to the movie’s advantage.

Of course, there are a few elements keeping the movie from greatness. One of the biggest problem is that the main characters usually seem to have “plot armor” and never have anything bad happen to them directly. Of the following groups of people, which is the one you think will be protected/not die off?
a) The core cast of heroes
b) The secondary and tertiary folks with the heroes
c) The corporate villain
If you know the answer to this question, you already know what’s wrong with REBIRTH. And by that extent, most of the JURASSIC movies. It would’ve been nice to have a product that wasn’t afraid to take more risks. Likewise… in terms of this film series’ storyline, how many random islands are there that have dinosaurs/were experimenting to create dinosaurs? The franchise has tried to shoehorn in some pretty heavy retcons over the years, and it’s still an issue here, even if this movie is at least a modest improvement over the most recent installments.

JURASSIC WORLD REBIRTH is no masterpiece, but it’s at least the best movie this franchise has had in years, not addicted to nostalgia, cameos, agendas, or setting up more movies, and these elements work to its advantage, largely helped my Koepp’s screenplay and Edwards’ direction. There’s certainly enough here to recommend the film, shortcomings aside.