Jurassic World Rebirth is out to Rex the gaff
Thirty-two years and seven films in, this particular Franchise That Time Didn't Forget is still in good nick and now sees Johansson fulfil her childhood dream of joining the Jurassic jamboree.
As the title suggests, Rebirth is a standalone adventure and doesn't require you to have seen the recent trilogy - Jurassic World (2015), Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018), and Jurassic World Dominion (2022). It's a mission movie that picks director Gareth Edwards (Monsters, Godzilla, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, The Creator) as the right man for the job behind the lens. And Johansson is the right star to have in front of it.
She plays Zora Bennett, a covert ops specialist who is hired by a pharmaceutical company to bring a team to a no-go island where dinosaurs still roam. The goal? To get blood and tissue for planned heart drugs that could save millions. Bailey is the conscience of the group as paleontologist Dr Henry Loomis; Rupert Friend plays smarmy suit Martin Krebs, and Mahershala Ali is Bennett's old comrade Duncan Kincaid. Sure enough, they should have gone in a bigger boat...
Aiming to recapture the spirit of Steven Spielberg's 1993 original, Rebirth also seeks to channel a rager from the previous decade, James Cameron's Aliens, as Johansson finds her inner Ripley (sleeveless vest and all) and Edwards goes all out to give the audience something they haven't seen before. Although he doesn't hit the heights of the aforementioned classics, this is still strong summer fare with loads for creature feature lovers - including a 'Baby Yoda dinosaur'. Remarkably, Edwards only began filming in June 2024.
Some bits of the CGI feel a little desktop at times and double Oscar winner Mahershala Ali is underused, but Edwards does deliver tension amidst the giant footprints. The last third, another nod to Aliens, is a race-against-time treat.
All in all, two hours to make you feel young again.
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Jurassic World Rebirth review: All-sprinting, all-leaping Scarlettsaurus bites back in winning revival
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