Jurassic World Rebirth is an interesting choice for a title. For while I see its purpose for marketing and franchise reconfiguring, from a strict story perspective – what the hell is being reborn? Going back to the 2022 snoozefest known as Jurassic World Dominion, that film ended with the new cast and the OG crew just kind of riding off into the sunset, while also combating an evil and environmentally harmful company in court. However, the world itself didn’t see much change – the movie started with dinosaurs living amongst humans, and that’s how it ended. It’s 3 years later, and in what is one of the quickest turnarounds for a franchise reboot, Universal has realized that the increasingly omnipresent Chris Pratt isn’t in their budget anymore opted for the next name on their Avengers dial, enlisting Scarlett Johansson as the new face of this IP. Thus showcasing Universal’s desire for Jurassic Park to be a forever franchise – as long as dinosaurs are popular, the Jurassic films will be here to stand as the official genre of dinosaur movies. The people who inhabit these movies? Largely interchangeable with the exception of whatever pop culture cache a star can bring to the table.
With that said, I think the knowledge of that pretty much kills whatever remaining investment could have possibly been left in the Jurassic films as an ongoing narrative since 1993. The stories that helped make the franchise popular are slowly becoming irrelevant with time, at least in regards to their connection with each new installment. Thus, what remains is just the desire and hope that each new entry will be a good movie, forget the investment into whatever long-form storytelling Rebirth will attempt to set up. But speaking of story, we should at least be aware of what’s going on this time around, as I’m sure the dinos have to be tired of humans bothering them by now:
Five years after the events of Jurassic World Dominion, Earth’s environment has largely proven inhospitable to dinosaurs and other de-extinct prehistoric animals. The surviving creatures now reside in remote, tropical locales, reminiscent of the environments where they once flourished. Zora Bennett, a covert operative, is recruited by a pharmaceutical company to collaborate with paleontologist Dr. Henry Loomis and team leader Duncan Kincaid on a top-secret mission.
I could have kept going and posted more. No joke, the official synopsis for this movie is like 2 big paragraphs; it’s the longest synopsis I’ve seen in my life. The jist of the rest of it is Zora (Johansson) is enlisted in a mission to break into an abandoned Dinosaur research facility, where this team hopes to find the materials for a group of radical pharmaceuticals that can save human life. This puts them in opposition to the dinosaurs still roaming the island of this facility. The trailer itself paints the visuals of this plot in action:
Look, almost anything can be a step up from the last 2 Jurassic World sequels, so this looks like it has the potential to at least clear that admittedly low bar. While these films are known for having a great deal of whimsy and family-friendly fun, I like it when the Jurassic films lean more into their horror side. The best scene in the original is the extended rain sequence when the park shuts down. It’s not just well shot, with astonishing special effects, but also frightening, and one of the best scenes of Steven Spielberg’s filmography. There’s nothing on that level here, both in terms of creativity and scope, but I like the potential of Rebirth sending this cast of characters on a specific mission, yet they have to deal with being terrorized by the dinos in the process. The film incorporates some plot lines reminiscent of Jurassic Park III (2001), not just in its location on an isolated island, but also as an innocent family who ends up being trapped with the deadly reptiles. Director Gareth Edwards is helming the film, and his work on Godzilla (2014) instills some confidence that he can bring some grit, chills, and terror back to this franchise.
Edwards’ presence on the flick is one of the film’s biggest selling points, as his qualities as a filmmaker match up well with the strengths of the franchise thus far. While he’s not perfect, very few filmmakers ever have understood scale within shooting larger-than-life sequences as well as Edwards. Put on a Blu-ray of Godzilla or Rogue One (2016) for the most visually arresting examples of this. However, the scripts in his films? Not really their strengths, it’s a mixed bag. Which may actually make him even more perfect to helm these dino chase movies. Depicting moments seen in the trailer such as our humans coming under attack while traversing the island’s waters is right in this director’s wheelhouse. Edwards has shown the potential to make scenes like this feel majestic yet terrifying, but we’ll see if that magic transfers to the final product.
Rebirth is a fresh start, but may still fall into the same trap of serving more of the same. The various similarities to things done in previous Jurassic films raise that concern immediately. These films have occupied a similar space as the current state of the Godzilla x Kong IP, where the movies are struggling to remain fresh and innovative, so they continue to throw wacky and over-the-top shit at the wall to see what sticks. Perhaps Rebirth can maintain some integrity in appearing as an actual movie. But if the dinosaurs start putting Sock’em Boppers on their fists, it might be time to dip.
Jurassic World Rebirth attempts to set up its permanent IP residency on July 2, 2025.
