It’s easy to forget just how popular the Jurassic Park franchise remains in pop culture today. Despite being disliked by critics and audiences alike, Jurassic World: Dominion still managed to gross over a billion dollars worldwide. Jurassic World: Rebirth feels like a soft reboot for the franchise, introducing new characters, new stakes, and most importantly, new dinosaurs. At the head of this soft reboot is a face who’s familiar with breathing new life into old franchises, Gareth Edwards. Following the success of his two previous franchise works, Godzilla (2014) and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), it makes sense to give him the reins in this new attempt. Edwards’ fingerprints, both the good and the bad, are prevalent throughout this new addition.
Jurassic World: Rebirth picks up three years after Dominion, returning to a world where dinosaurs roam freely. Over time, the creatures have migrated toward Earth’s equator—the only region where the prehistoric ecosystem can sustain them. This zone is now off-limits to humans… which is exactly where our characters come in. Eccentric millionaire Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend) hires a team of mercenaries, led by the no-nonsense Zora (Scarlett Johansson), to infiltrate the area and extract DNA from the three largest dinosaurs of sea, land, and air. His goal? A potential cure for cardiovascular disease. Along for the ride is dino expert Dr. Henry Lomis (Jonathan Bailey), tasked with tracking and identifying the colossal targets. What begins as a by-the-numbers expedition is thrown off course by the arrival of the Delgato family, who find themselves stranded in the danger zone. It’s at this point that the story starts to lose its footing.
It’s clear Edwards intended for the Delgato family to carry the emotional weight of the film, but each character was surface-level and made every interaction drag on. While they did provide a few humorous moments in the runtime, my theater tended to take its restroom break whenever they were on screen. Unfortunately, on the other side, our characters don’t provide much more. Zora, Duncan (Mahershala Ali), and Dr. Lomis essentially all get one line of dialogue about their characters’ backstory, which is almost completely ignored throughout the film. What’s supposed to be a close-knit group feels so disconnected due to some choppy dialogue. These problems aren’t anything new to Edwards’ work. The lack of interesting characters and emotional depth has held back his previous films from being great, and Rebirth is no exception.
That being said, most audiences don’t walk into a Jurassic World movie expecting groundbreaking writing; we’re here for the dinosaurs. In that department, Rebirth delivers. It’s easy to forget filmmakers don’t have real reference footage, because the dinosaurs have never looked more realistic. The incredible CGI, combined with Gareth Edwards’ skillful use of scale, displayed in Godzilla and The Creator (2021), makes for some sequences that will give you chills. Edwards is at his best behind the camera, creating such a vast and colorful world that still feels realistic. At times, it felt he gave more thought into what’s being shown on the screen rather than the characters within it, a trait especially prevalent in some action set pieces.
While the dinosaur designs were a blast, this might be the most restrained they’ve ever felt. Scenes that were meant to be stressful lacked adrenaline and urgency, as if the creatures were moving in slow motion or forgot how to hunt. Characters could do the bare minimum and manage to easily evade what’s supposed to be the most deadly creatures on the planet. Even the scenes that were meant to echo the first Jurassic Park lacked the flair and tension that made them so iconic.
Based on early box office predictions for this Fourth of July weekend, it’s safe to say this won’t be the end of the Jurassic World franchise or Gareth Edwards’ involvement with it. Rebirth tries so hard to be a love letter to the original Jurassic Park, unfortunately, it reads like a sloppy rough draft. Musically, the score is especially underwhelming, with the only memorable parts being the note-for-note recreations of the iconic John Williams score. In a stacked blockbuster lineup, Jurassic World: Rebirth lacks the bite to stand out this summer.
