‘Jurassic World Rebirth' Review: Scarlett Johansson In Spielbergian Reboot That Is Part ‘Jaws', ‘Skull Island' & ‘Indiana Jones' Mixed With The Pure DNA Of 1993 Original

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4 days ago

I am not quite sure why the latest spinoff of Steven Spielberg's enormously popular Jurassic franchise is using the Jurassic World moniker of the past trilogy rather than the Jurassic Park handle of the first trilog. Jurassic World Rebirth looks and feels somewhat retro, like it could have been a direct sequel to one of the earlier films that Spielberg himself directed, rather than simply executive produced, as is the case again with this one. But even with that EP title, make no mistake, Spielberg's fingerprints are all over it. He and his Amblin team including director Gareth Edwards reunited with screenwriter David Koepp, who wrote the first two Jurassic World films, have concocted another winner with all the elements that made this such a blockbuster series in movies and Universal theme parks.
Proof of that is just to look at the box office of the past three entries, ending with 2022's Jurassic World Dominion, each one a billion-dollar-plus grosser. No wonder they had to find a way to keep this cash cow going, but I have to say it was a bit inspired to get Koepp (who also wrote Spielberg's untitled film and return to the director's chair that's due for release next summer) back on board as it has the unbridled feel of a rousing adventure, another journey into the unknown of a franchise we think we know all too well. Turns out there's still gold to be mined even in mixing the Jurassic DNA with that of other movies, notably Jaws, Kong: Skull Island, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and I would even add others much older like King Solomon's Mines and The Lost World (not necessarily Spielberg's 1997 The Lost World: Jurassic Park but Irwin Allen's cheesy but primitively fun 1960 movie).
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These filmmakers have found a way to mix the time-honored adventure movie genre with that of horror to satisfy contemporary audiences but also spark some nostalgia for a brand we don't see as often in this Marvel/DC superhero era. In this case, it is five years since the cloned dinosaurs of Dominion were running untethered, and now with climate change and other worldly events we find them headed for extinction once again. They are able to exist only in tropical climates near the equator, basically forgotten by a jaded populace who have moved on to other diversions, and are relegated to a largely deserted island named Ile Saint-Hubert, just a couple of hundred miles off South America. It is completely verboten and forbidden to any human being.
This particular jungle setting last was used as an initial research and development location, headquarters still intact, for the first iteration of these cloned dinos. Now man's very greed is going to interrupt the animals' peaceful existence yet again as Big Pharma has discovered that many of the ancient creatures regularly lived to over 100 due to strong hearts. With the idea that a massive drug company could not only revolutionize modern medical science for the world's leading killer, heart disease, but also stand to make billions of dollars, an aggressive executive for one of them, Martin Krebs (a slippery Rupert Friend), enlists the services of a team led by extraction covert operations expert Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson, back in action) to obtain the DNA of some of the worst of the worst of these dinos. Notably they include the avian Quetzalcoatlus, aquatic Mosasaurus, and terresstrial Titanosaurus. Sure, why not? She is driven by a big payday to boot.
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She is joined by devoted paleontologist Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey), a past student of Sam Neill's Dr. Alan Grant who shares in his enthusiasm for studying and celebrating the majesty of the dinos and is eager to see them in action in person for the first time in his life. Add to the mix the team of the seagoing Essex including skipper and soldier of fortune Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali) and his crew (Ed Skrein, Philippine Velge, Bechir Sylvain) as they travel to this remote island to get the three key DNA samples through special injections. And they have clever ways of doing just that. What Krebs doesn't tell them is this isn't a Disneyland ride; he downplays any risks to the humans involved because the end result and riches for his company are what matters most to him, not job safety.
There is a complication, though, when the Essex encounters and rescues a shipwrecked capsized sailing vessel with Reuben Delgado (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), his two daughters (Luna Blaise, Audrina Miranda) and one of their boyfriends (David Iacono), who have barely survived an attack by the roaming underwater Mosasaurus clan. This takes up much of the first half of the picture, and you wouldn't be wrong to think you were suddenly watching Jurassic Jaws as it allows the franchise to hit the open sea for a change and unquestionably resembles that 1975 Spielberg classic for a long while — that is until they all wind up on shore in what has the feel of a kind of Skull Island meets Swiss Family Robinson.
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Edwards, joining the franchise for the first time, clearly gets the idea of where this should go as his past films like Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, 2014's Godzilla and the underpraised but riveting 2023 sci-fi film, The Creator show he is up for the task. Working from Koepp's smart script, the results offer much to chew on — not only for the hungry dinos but also the moviegoers, who will eat this up. The blend works well with lots of action, PG-13 gore and some sensational new dinosaurs to savor, giving this seventh iteration of the idea spun off (and still spinning) from Michael Crichton's bestseller a fresh reboot.
One of the best set pieces this time is a river encounter with a sleeping T-Rex awakened to wreak havoc came from Crichton's novel but not feasible to film in 1993. It clearly was now, judging from the results, as modern technology has caught up to it so we get a nice T-Rex cameo as a big bonus. And let's face it, as in every Jurassic pic, the real stars we come for are the dinos, and this current bunch are dino-myte (sorry, so sorry). Credit the effects wizards who worked overtime to deliver, and they do.
Unfortunately, some of the humans aren't as compelling, even if their main purpose is to be a potential entrée for our beastly stars. In fact, the attempt to add the Delgado family, supposedly just out for a normal journey in their catamaran on the way to Capetown, is an unnecessary distraction and tends to stretch credibility (if it needed any more stretching) by slowing down the action and the main event to focus on their own family issues, rather than the task at hand. I get that Koepp and Edwards wanted to include some normies to interact with the beastly native population, but this plot device really could have been left on the cutting-room floor and the nifty attack of Mosasaurus gang relegated instead to the Essex.
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Still, the overall effect with well drawn, if clichéd, characters for Johansson, Ali, Friend and particularly Bailey (sandwiching this change of pace in between Wicked installments) makes for one of the better Jurassics; it's no match for the one that started it all 32 years ago but is a cut above standard summertime fare. It also is comforting to see Alexander Desplat niftily merge his stirring score with just the right amount of John Williams' original theme, one of the great themes in movies ever, on a par with what the maestro did with Jaws, Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
It might sound like a challenge to believe these humans would sign up to visit a forbidden jungle for guaranteed encounters with truly frightening and gigantic creatures out of another time in order to essentially get blood samples, but if you are game to go with that premise, a good time will be had for all. If there is to be an eighth installment, count me in.
Producers are Frank Marshall and Patrick Crowley.
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Title: Jurassic World RebirthDistributor: Universal PicturesRelease Date: July 2, 2025Director: Gareth EdwardsScreenwriter: David KoeppCast: Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, Jonathan Bailey, Rupert Friend, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Ed Skrein, Luna Blaise, David Iacono, Audrina Miranda, Philippine Velge, Bechir Sylvain. Rating: PG-13Running time: 2 hr 13 mins
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