‘Jurassic World Rebirth' pits ScarJo against T-Rex in a frustrating franchise entry
Since then, we've been treated to 2018's 'Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom' and 2022's '
Koepp has been quite busy as of late, doing double duty for Steven Soderbergh with last year's ghost story, '
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The Quetzalcoatlus in 'Jurassic World Rebirth."
Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment
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It's been 32 years since dinosaurs have made their comeback, an opening screen reveals. But now they only exist somewhere at the Equator. People became bored once the creatures were commonplace, causing not only theme park bankruptcies but also the reemergence of dinosaur extinction.
In an attempt to juice up interest, a group of scientists tried to reboot dinos by creating a slew of new species. This goes horribly awry, forcing a worldwide ban on visiting the island that currently holds these mutations. In the film's tense opening sequence, an errant Snickers wrapper causes an unlikable scientist working on this project to get devoured. Product placement just isn't what it used to be, though one could argue that this sequence was akin to the candy bar's 'you're not you when you're hungry' ads.
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Scarlett Johansson as skilled covert operations expert Zora Bennett.
Jasin Boland/Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment
Enter another brand that begins with S, ScarJo. She plays Zora, a mercenary whose latest assignment is to go to the aforementioned off-limits island for a secret mission. A Big Pharma bro named Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend) is willing to pay big bucks for the job, so Zora enlists her most trusted colleague, Duncan Kincaid
(Ali), to accompany her.
Also on hand is nerdy paleontologist, Dr. Loomis, played by actor du jour, Jonathan Bailey ('
Speaking of the Master of Suspense,' 'Jurassic World Rebirth' introduces a MacGuffin so preposterous that even Hitch would find it implausible—and he coined the phrase that describes the ultimately useless thing everyone in the plot is concerned with in a movie. This time it's a heart disease drug that can save millions of people's lives. Krebs wants to be the first to manufacture it, so his company can corner the market.
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That idea doesn't sound far-fetched until you get to the part where the drug ingredients include DNA samples from live dinosaurs, one each from the classes of earth, sea, and air dwellers. The collection device is actually quite clever, and Edwards and Koepp craft more than one effective action sequence involving its use.
From left, Xavier Dobbs (David Iacono), Reuben Delgado (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson), Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali) and Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) in 'Jurassic World Rebirth."
Jasin Boland/Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment
Had 'Jurassic Park Rebirth' stayed solely with this team and their impossible mission, it might have worked as a summer action movie. But Koepp introduces a family of stranded boat passengers who are so one-dimensional and obnoxious that the film stops dead whenever they're onscreen.
I'm willing to believe that ScarJo and company would risk their lives on the Equator, because they're greedy and it's their job. I do not, for one second, buy that Reuben (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) would drag his college-age and grammar school-age daughters (Luna Blaise and Audrina Miranda) across the Atlantic in a boat barely bigger than the Orca from 'Jaws.' Nor do I buy that Reuben would do so with his eldest daughter's companion (David Iacono) on board, as he's best described by a word that rhymes with 'buckfoi.'
Kincaid saves these characters from their vessel after it's been decimated by an ocean-dwelling dinosaur, saddling us with them for the rest of the movie. Weren't they aware that the area they were sailing in was declared forbidden by every country in the world?
Every character in this film is paper-thin, but Koepp gets more mileage from the camaraderie between Zora and Kincaid than Reuben and his kids. We get the obligatory scene where the two mercenaries catch up with one sentence descriptions of their prior individual traumas. Ali does a more convincing job as a hired gun than Johansson, but they're both upstaged by Bailey, who brings a refreshing take on the science geek.
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Jonathan Bailey as paleontologist Dr. Henry Loomis in 'Jurassic World Rebirth."
Jasin Boland/Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment
Bailey's expressions of wonder as he discovers his newfound bravery on this mission are delightful. The film's best scene occurs when he touches a new dinosaur for the first time. Alexandre Desplat's impressive score, which incorporates John Williams's familiar motifs, swells underneath the moment. Believe it or not,
Even more surprising, the plot ultimately boils down to a battle between capitalism and socialism. You'll never guess which side wins.
The true stars of 'Jurassic World Rebirth,' the dinosaurs, are often left unidentified; we're not sure if they're real or some genetically engineered, made-up monstrosity. The film is so disinterested that it simply throws them onscreen with occasional bits of human beings stuck between their teeth. Rather than chew on disposable characters, those dinosaurs should have eaten their agents instead.
★★
JURASSIC WORLD REBIRTH
Directed by Gareth Edwards. Written by David Koepp. Starring Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, Mahershala Ali, Rupert Friend, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Luna Blaise, Audrina Miranda, David Iacono. At AMC Boston Common, Landmark Kendall Square, Alamo Drafthouse Seaport, AMC Causeway, suburbs. 134 min. PG-13 (dinosaurs are messy eaters)
Odie Henderson is the Boston Globe's film critic.
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New York Times
3 hours ago
- New York Times
‘Jurassic World Rebirth' Review: Wonder, Gone Extinct
In the 32 years since dinosaurs started roaming the earth again — that is, since 'Jurassic Park' opened in theaters — a list of required ingredients for entries in the franchise has evolved. They always center on scientists and adventurers, usually bickering with one another. There's always some shadowy billionaire, or billion-dollar corporation, lurking in the background. Kids are always in peril. And of course, there are always dinos. Save for the dinosaurs, this could describe pretty much any summer Hollywood blockbuster. But the 'Jurassic' movies — of which the new film, 'Jurassic World Rebirth,' is the seventh — have a particularly distinctive quality, something I rarely encounter in big-budget cinema. They're action-packed and filled with peril, yes. But each movie also gives way, however briefly, to a sense of quiet awe. Cinema is well-suited to provoking wonder. In the art form's early days, just seeing moving images left viewers astonished (and, in some cases, panicked). It has always felt a little like magic, the experience of watching another world emerge, drawn with lights, through a frame hung on a wall. Adding sound to the experience made it even more amazing, and most cinematic innovations over the past century — everything from Smell-o-Vision to 3-D to 4DX — try to wow the audience even more. But mainstream movies have often leaned more on spectacle (a shark chomping in the water, superheroes zooming through the air, Tom Cruise hanging off the side of a plane) than awe, which is a quieter thing. Awe makes us feel small, and it feels good. The first 'Jurassic Park' movie introduces the dinosaurs in a way that makes the characters, and the audience, stop talking and thinking about anything else and just stare. These giant, stately creatures — the franchise is especially fond of the sort with long, curving necks — are tremendous to behold, and John Williams's score swells to symphonic heights. Yeah, you know that's not a real dinosaur. But who cares? You feel small and hushed in the presence of something great, and ancient, and achingly beautiful. Every 'Jurassic' movie has repeated this moment, trying to re-evoke in the audience that feeling of awe, with somewhat diminishing returns. But sometimes they still manage it. For instance, the 2022 installment, 'Jurassic World: Dominion,' is not a very good movie. But it succeeds on this one specific front by moving the big dinosaur moment to a wintry landscape. Two Brachiosauruses have wandered into a place where loggers are working. They're being slowly led away from the spot, and the burly men are silently watching. These animals can't move quickly, but they're not in a hurry either. Their ancestors were here long before ours, and their bodies carry the memory of a land before time. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Tom's Guide
3 hours ago
- Tom's Guide
'Jurassic World Rebirth' review: an action-packed sci-fi sequel that should stave off franchise extinction
"Jurassic World Rebirth" couldn't come with a more fitting subtitle if it tried. Even if ultra-dull predecessor "Jurassic World Dominion" still made a ton of money at the box office, it was, in my opinion, anything but exciting viewing (an opinion reflected in that unenviable 29% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes). It functioned as an unsatisfying cap to a sequel trilogy that suggested this once-thrilling franchise really did deserve to go the way of the dinosaurs. Thus, "Rebirth" has a Titanosaurus-sized task on its hands: justify returning to the dino-well once more, and serve up more of the suspenseful thrills and spills we want from a "Jurassic Park" sequel. The big question is this: can "Rebirth" actually prove the "Jurassic" movies should stick around? Can "The Creator" director Gareth Edwards find the fun again? After really disliking "Dominion," I wasn't sure, but the answer for this lifelong "Jurassic Park" fan is ... yes. Yes, he can. "Rebirth" leaves Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) and Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard), and the original "Jurassic Park" cast behind for a new adventure set five years after the end of "Dominion." Most of planet Earth — save for some tropical climates around the equator — has proven inhospitable for the dinosaurs roaming the land, and these dino-rich regions are now deadly no-go zones. However, the DNA of the three biggest dinosaurs holds the key to a drug with life-saving benefits for mankind, and Big Pharma rep Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend) wants to get his hands on it. To do so, he recruits covert ops specialist Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson) to lead a team that includes trusted teammate Duncan Kinkaid (Mahershala Ali) and paleontologist Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) on an off-the-books mission within that biosphere to extract that DNA from the most colossal fossils of land, sea, and air. And when things go south on this already-perilous adventure (which they obviously do), that team and a family of unlucky sailors whom they rescue en route come face-to-face with deadly dinosaurs. They make a startling discovery stranded on an island that once housed a research facility for the original park. Back in December, EW spoke with the "Rebirth" team and learned the plan here was to go "back to basics," and that Edwards viewed the sequel as a "giant love letter to Steven Spielberg" — and that's honestly what the team has achieved. Writer David Koepp (who also penned "Jurassic Park" and "The Lost World") has delivered a lean, fairly propulsive adventure. Despite clocking in over two hours, it rattles along once things pick up, it boasts plenty of action, and even harks back to some of the original's most memorable sequences. The tone is just right; it feels more like a "Park" sequel than a "World" sequel. Sure, the script doesn't always work; it takes a little time to really pick up steam, and some of the jokes and dialogue fall flat, but as a rollercoaster ride, it succeeds, especially after the team finds them stranded in the dinosaurs' tropical home. Cast-wise, it's Jonathan Bailey who impresses the most; his wide-eyed enthusiasm for these creatures (and growing love of the adventure) is infectious. I also enjoyed Rupert Friend's callous, deep-pocketed turn, and Ali's arc, though I would say Johansson (a self-confessed franchise fan) has been better elsewhere. Let's move on to the real stars, though. The dinosaurs look and sound fantastic on the screen; this is a colorful, frequently impressive-looking film, staged to make the most of these larger-than-life lizards. Encounters with them come frequently once the adventure kicks into gear, and you can expect them to feel like genuine threats (and to off members of our expedition in sufficiently grim fashion), injecting the adventure with a real sense of jeopardy. If I have one dino disappointment, it's that I'd have liked to spend more time with and see more types of the promised mutant dinos than I did (they felt a bit of a superfluous addition, even if their scenes are fun). The actual dinosaurs present, though, are better deployed here than they have been for years. And what more could you really want from "Jurassic World Rebirth" isn't the best movie I've seen this year, but it is a handsomely presented, thrilling sequel, and a movie that I had a lot of fun with. It boasts some seriously striking visuals, has actual, palpable stakes, fun dinosaur action, and is, in my opinion, a solidly entertaining summer adventure. It's a movie that confidently clears the (low) bar set by "Dominion" with ease, and one that I'm more than happy to recommend to would-be moviegoers.
Hamilton Spectator
13 hours ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Movie Review: ‘Jurassic World Rebirth' puts a wobbly franchise back on track with superb installment
If you've lately been feeling that the 'Jurassic Park' franchise has jumped an even more ancient creature — the shark — hold off any thoughts of extinction. Judging from the latest entry, there's still life in this old dino series. 'Jurassic World Rebirth' captures the awe and majesty of the overgrown lizards that's been lacking for so many of the movies, which became just an endless cat-and-mouse in the dark between scared humans against T-Rexes or raptors. 'Jurassic World Rebirth' lets in the daylight. Credit goes to screenwriter David Koepp, who penned the original 'Jurassic Park,' and director Gareth Edwards, who knows a thing or two about giant reptiles as director of 2014's 'Godzilla.' Together with director of photographer John Mathieson, they've returned the franchise to its winning roots. 'Jurassic World Rebirth' has nods to the past even as it cuts a new future with new characters. It's a sort of heist movie with monsters that's set on the original decaying island research facility for the original, abandoned Jurassic Park. Scarlett Johansson and Mahershala Ali — both very unshowy and suggesting a sort of sibling chemistry — play security and extraction specialists — OK, mercenaries — hired to get what everyone wants from dinosaurs in these movies: DNA. In return, there's $10 million. The movie is set five years after 'Jurassic World Dominion' and some three decades after dinosaurs were reanimated. They've lost their public fascination — a subtle nod perhaps to the films in the franchise — and have struggled with the climate, gathering at the equator. The Big Pharma company ParkerGenix has come up with a blockbuster idea: Take DNA from three colossal Cretaceous-period creatures — the flying Quetzalcoatlus, the aquatic Mosasaurus and the land-based Titanosaurus — to cure cardiac disease. Wait, how does that work? Don't ask us, something about hemoglobin. The trick is this: The dinos have to be alive when the DNA is extracted. Why? Because then there'd be no movie, silly. It would be a 10-minute sequence of a guy in a white coat and a syringe. This way, we celebrate three kinds of dinosaurs in three separate chapters. It may seem a little far-fetched, but may we remind you about the last movie, which involved a biogenetic granddaughter, a global pharma conspiracy, the cast members from both trilogies, a Giganotosaurus, giant locusts on fire and had the ludicrous decision to have Chris Pratt make a promise to bring home a baby dino — to its mother. The three-part quest at the heart of 'Jurassic World Rebirth' is interrupted by a family — a dad, his two daughters and a sketchy boyfriend — in a 45-foot sailboat that is capsized and need rescuing. They bring a dose of not-always-working humor and humanity to the extraction team, which also includes a too-easily-telegraphing baddie played by Rupert Friend — 'I'm too smart to die' — and a museum-based paleontologist played by Jonathan Bailey. The filmmakers include clever nods to other blockbusters — 'Indiana Jones,' 'Star Wars,' 'Jaws' and 'ET' — and thrillingly create a dinos-hunting-in-a-convenience-store sequence like a tribute to the original film's dinos-hunting-in-a-kitchen sequence. The shots overall are beautifully composed, from silhouettes on a boat in twilight to almost feeling the burn of the ropes as actors rappel down a 500-foot cliff face. The creatures here are made glorious — from a dozing T-Rex along a river bed to the ones twisting in the sea, pure muscle and heft. A highlight is a pair of long-tailed Titanosaurus entwining their necks as John Williams' familiar score plays, two lovers with thick, knotted skin utterly oblivious to the pesky humans who want some DNA. For some reason, candy is a touchstone throughout the movie, from the opening sequence in which a stray Snickers wrapper causes incalculable harm, to licorice fed to a baby dino and one character's fondness for crunching Altoids. Edwards' pacing is perfect, allowing dread to build with just the rustling of trees, and letting characters deepen between breathless, excellently filmed action sequences. The gorgeous landscape — Thailand's waterfalls, grassy plains, shoreline caves and mangrove swamps — should be used for a tourist campaign, well, as long as they remove the rapacious dinos. As if all this wasn't enough, there's a bonus bit at the end. The research facility that was abandoned years ago was cross-breeding dino species and making 'genetically altered freaks' that still roam around. Some look like a turkey-bat-raptor hybrid — gross and scary — and one is a 20,000-pound T-Rex with a misshapen head and a horrible roar. It's like getting a free monster movie. In many ways, the folks behind 'Jurassic World Rebirth' are trying to do the same thing as their mercenaries: Going back to the source code to recapture the magic of Steven Spielberg's 1993 blockbuster original. They've thrillingly succeeded. 'Jurassic World Rebirth,' a Universal Pictures release that opens in theaters Wednesday, is rated PG-13 for 'intense sequences of violence/action, bloody images, some suggestive references, language and a drug reference.' Running time: 133 minutes. Three and half stars out of four.
