All of the ingredients were there for a smashing Jurassic movie. You have a new group of fresh actors on the scene with Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, and Mahershala Ali. Add into that a visionary director who knows filming big franchises in jungles and other landscapes like the back of his hand with Gareth Edwards. Finally, you have the original screenwriter of Jurassic Park returning in David Koepp. It all should have been a smash, and yet, Jurassic World: Rebirth feels a bit flat. The story picks up five years after Jurassic World: Dominion. Now, don’t worry if you didn’t see that one, or you haven’t seen it since its release in 2022, you just need to know that dinosaurs still walk parts of the Earth. They do a pretty good job of recapping at the beginning of this movie.

Like most things, humans don’t give a crap about the dinosaurs anymore. The fad is over, museums are starting to shut down, and the new climate is wreaking havoc on dinos. That means they’re really limited to the equatorial areas of the Earth, the hottest, most temperate places. A medical company represented by Martin Krebs (played by Rupert Friend) wants to get a team together to harvest blood and DNA from these dinosaurs to help make a revolutionary new heart drug.

He first finds Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson), someone who is really good at infiltration and getting the job done. They then track down Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey), an expert in dinosaurs who would know the different species and how they operate. Finally, Duncan Kincaid (played by Mahershala Ali) completes the team. They make a team, use Kincaid’s boat, and they’re off to get the dinosaur DNA without a hitch, right?

Well, like everything, there’s a snag in the plan and in the movie’s plot. A family on a sailboat crossing part of the ocean is attacked by large ocean-dwelling dinosaurs and they’re capsized. Kincaid and his crew choose to rescue them instead of pushing on with the mission. The family includes Reuben, the dad (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), his oldest daughter (Luna Blaise), her boyfriend (David Icacono), and the youngest Bella (Audrina Miranda). So naturally, the entire plan does not go as smoothly as you’d think, and the two groups are forced to work together to get off the island of misfit, dangerous dinosaurs.

The Good Of Jurassic World: Rebirth

Gareth Edwards knows how to shoot a blockbuster movie. The movie *feels* like a Jurassic movie. It looks and sounds like one. The entire package just feels right to watch. It’s a beautifully shot movie with the same wonder and whimsy, in parts, as the original film. When the score wells up and there are dinosaurs running around, it’s a wonderful cinematic experience. It still makes me emotional to hear the original score all these years later.

The action scenes here are also thrilling. The extended setpiece on the boat at the beginning that’s a huge part of the marketing is smashing. Scarlett Johannson gets to flex those action muscles here once again, and she’s magnificent in this movie. Her and Mahershala Ali combine for some electric chemistry of old war buddies. Rupert Friend is slimy and skeevy as an executive “yes man” that’s only here to get the “money” (dino DNA) and run. Jonathan Bailey also gets to nerd out over dinosaurs and his scene with the biggest of them all is the most emotional moment of the movie.

The dinosaurs themselves look fantastic. It’s very clear that a lot of detail and love went into the look and feel of the dinosaurs on screen. They look like they’re actually there, which is a testament to how Gareth Edwards films these movies, and the VFX teams doing great work.

The Bad Of Jurassic World: Rebirth

It’s clear that a lot went into the dinosaurs of the film, but not as much went into crafting and expanding the relationships of the characters in the film. We get some good character work from Johansson and her co-stars, but their actual characters are a bit lacking. We learn very little about what makes these people who they are and why they’re here. There’s a bit in the beginning before all the action starts between Kincaid and Zora, but that’s just enough to let us know that they’re more than mercenaries for hire. It would have benefited from more time with these characters, but there’s a big roadblock in the way to that (more on this in the ugly section).

The central dinosaur of the movie and the marketing isn’t even in the movie all that much. The massive, hulking, D-Rex, which is easily the most terrifying and menacing, is barely in the movie. We get a tease of it at the beginning and then it shows up at the end. In all the other films with the various T-Rex adjacent dinosaurs, we got plenty of looks before their big action scenes and then some. There is the obligatory T-Rex scene in this movie, because it can’t be a Jurassic-film without one, but that’s all we get from everyone’s favorite dinosaur.

The Ugly Of Jurassic World: Rebirth

There really was a great Jurassic Park/World movie in here. But, the family that shows up to throw a wrench in the whole thing, tanks the movie. I get it, it’s a Jurassic-movie, it needs kids and families coming together. But the family in this movie simply acts like a roadblock to the plot and the pacing of this film. You go from a thrilling action sequence with Zora to the family walking along acting funny. Then you go back to the A-plot with more dinosaurs, emotional moments, and then you’re yanked back to the family. Along the way, they do get the big scene with the T-Rex, which should be thrilling and exciting, but it’s just sapped all of the energy chasing around this family and particularly Bella, who is one of the most annoying child characters I’ve seen in recent memory.

They’re here to break up the action, but they don’t actually give the audience any sort of relief of tension, they just make for more of an annoyance. A tired, run-down plot of a family coming together is contrived and overused. We don’t need to see another dad getting to know his kids better. The film could have used much more time with Kincaid and his crew and still have given the audience a release valve with some comedic relief there. Instead, his crew are merely nameless dinosaur bait.

Predator With Dinosaurs At Some Points

There’s still a lot to like about Jurassic World: Rebirth, but through it all, it’s as mixed as they come. Dinosaurs are cool, the action is great, but the plot and some of the other characters in the film let this one down. There’s still some magic in having dinosaurs walk the Earth, but this film definitely lost some of that magic. It’s a shame because we get great performances from the A-team of the film, and Gareth Edwards shot a beautiful movie, but this one could have used some more work on the script and the plot to keep it from going extinct.

Jurassic World: Rebirth releases in theaters on July 2nd, 2025.

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