‘Jurassic World: Rebirth': Reviews are split on whether a ‘stripped-down' sequel can be too stripped-down

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It's been three years since Jurassic World: Dominion, the successful-but-well-liked trilogy capper, and in the timeline of movie studios, that's practically an eon. So the dinosaurs are once again walking the earth, this time with stars Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, and Jonathan Bailey.
The seventh installment in the Jurassic series finds director Gareth Edwards and original Park adapter David Koepp attempting a more back-to-basics approach — to mixed results, according to critics, who have just begun to weigh in.
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"Jurassic World: Rebirth serves as a reset of sorts, bringing back not a single one of its former cast members, but instead allowing screenwriter David Koepp to restore what worked so well about the original film," write Variety's Peter Debruge.
But to what extent those efforts were successful is where the reviews are divided. Some, like The Hollywood Reporter's David Rooney, can appreciate a strong cast, even if they're working with some recycled (but still effective) thrills.
"Returning screenwriter David Koepp cowrote the 1993 Spielberg original with sci-fi author Michael Crichton, on whose books the movies were based, as well as the 1997 sequel, The Lost World: Jurassic Park," Rooney writes. "While Koepp did not write Jurassic Park III, he had a hand in shaping the plotline. It's predominantly the first and third installments that yield the abundant déjà vu moments in Rebirth.... But whatever the new movie lacks in originality, it makes up for in propulsive narrative drive, big scares and appealing new characters played by a terrific cast — even if they are mostly cut from an existing mold."
Others, like IndieWire's David Ehrlich, found the pulled-back scale of the story as somewhat vacuous, possibly the result of an over-involved studio.
"Rebirth certainly isn't any better than the previous five sequels that have already hatched from the original (though I'm relieved to report that it's less bloated and self-impressed than the last three), but the sheer nothingness of its spectacle — combined with a complete non-story that feels like it was 65 million studio notes in the making — allows it to become a singularly perfect legacy for Steven Spielberg's classic about how people lack the power to control their own creations," he writes.
What sort of "nothingness," you ask? It's a thread that Vanity Fair's Richard Lawson picks up in his review, which found Rebirth's attempts at both horror and wonder to be lacking.
"That mellow tone becomes ever more of a problem as the film unfolds," he write. "Nothing is terribly urgent. The new genetically modified creatures are dull, needless modifications, including one that looks exactly like the Rancor from Return of the Jedi. There's some grief stuff thrown into the mix, because that is just part of the screenwriting equation these days, but otherwise this is a decidedly unserious movie. Edwards, a master at visuals but perhaps less keen as a storyteller, manages some grand imagery. Nighttime scenes are lit with beautiful washes of color; our intrepid heroes are surrounded by lush, primordial flora. But there is no real sense of consequence, not even when Edwards crassly trots out composer John Williams's gorgeous main JP theme from 1993 — hoping and failing to summon the ghost of an old wonder."
The film currently has a middling score of 56 percent on review-aggegation sites Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic. While the critics may be divided on things like character and story, there's one thing that most people in general can agree on: Jonathan Bailey.
"Bailey has the purest, most moving moment in the film," writes Entertainment Weekly's Maureen Lee Lenker. "His electric joy and overwhelming awe at getting to actually touch a dinosaur after studying them for years are so earnest and charming that they have the power to make the entire audience feel like a child again. The scene and Bailey's abundant rapture serve as a poignant reminder of the movie-making magic that made Jurassic Park a hit in the first place."
Jurassic Park: Rebirth opens in theaters on July 2.
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