The last time we visited the Jurassic universe, Colin Trevorrow shot his blockbuster career in the foot once more with a lethargic, dull legacyquel. Wasting our time with locusts when we thought dinos were supposed to be at the center of these plots. In Jurassic World: Rebirth, the dinosaurs return to center stage at last, in a sequel that attempts to throw a bone at those desiring a more just and forgiving Healthcare system. A step up from the previous conflict, but exactly how far up the ladder? Who’s to say…
Scarlett Johansson is the big name on the marquee this time around, starring as Zora Bennett – a grieving covert ops specialist, still recovering from the death of her colleague and friend. However, her skills are soon sought after to assist with a top-secret mission at an abandoned Dinosaur laboratory, with an array of dinos still roaming the island. Surrounded by the likes of the bombastic Dustin Kincaid (Mahershala Ali) and Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey), the team sets out to capture a vital group of biomaterials that could be used to cure heart disease.
It’s interesting to me that Zora’s characterization is accompanied by the aforementioned backstory of her deceased partner – because it doesn’t really need to be in the movie. We don’t know this person, the significance of their death playing no discernible role on the proceeding events. It seems it’s included simply as window dressing for “depth”, an attempt at character development upended by the shallowness of its execution. No, Rebirth does not have very complex characters, almost all of which are archetypes of tropes we’ve seen before. Instead, these archetypes serve what is essentially a MacGuffin movie. The characters show up to retrieve a thing, and the climax hinges entirely on whether or not they’re successful at obtaining the thing. It’s a simplistic plot, but at least it’s more straightforward than the locusts.
As a result, Rebirth doesn’t have much story going on at all, instead relying on vibes, playing the old hits, and celebrity appeal. There’s a family that ends up shipwrecked, and eventually in league with our main protagonists. Their whole deal is a disappointed father, hoping for one last great trip with both his teenage daughter and young girl, but he can’t seem to warm up to the teenager’s nonchalant boyfriend. Things get better on that front, but we’re only mildly interested. As far as the actual draw of this movie, that being the grand spectacle, the effects are well done and some of the dinosaurs are as ferocious and intimidating as ever. Although, I can’t say that there’s much new here in terms of scares or cinematic money shots. If you did a re-watch of the whole franchise, from start to finish, by the time you got to this movie you’d be seeing a lot of familiar sequences.
Even the film’s Ace in the Hole, a mutated monstrosity, is less a new gimmick and more a consistent trend in the Jurassic World era of this franchise. The only thing that’s fresh is the faces on the actors’ bodies. Scarlett Johansson and Mahershala Ali have some surprisingly good chemistry as long-term friends, extracting a likable and caring energy between the two out of… not a lot of material to work with. Jonathan Bailey plays a good nerd, with a couple of humorous quirks, but his impact on the film is limited. Rupert Friend’s portrayal is that of just a slimy dude – the type of greedy corporate sleezebag we’ve been seeing since Aliens (1986), although James Cameron pretty much always does it better. The family is… cute, I guess. They don’t have the depth or the stakes of the equivalent family in Jurassic Park III (2001). In fact, contrary to Jurassic Park III, they’re not even integral to the plot and I’m not sure they needed to be here. I get why they’re here – their part of the film feels like the Disney Channel original movie portion, and that helps draw in more families, but you could pretty much have this same premise without their presence.
With that said, the movie is easy to sink into. Since the stakes are not just shallow, but practically 1-Dimensional, all that’s left to care about are the vistas and the countdowns to the next dinosaur sequence. Gareth Edwards, behind the likes of Godzilla (2014) and Rogue One (2015), understands scale and photographing tiny humans with giant creatures perhaps better than any director in Hollywood. The midpoint of the film feels less like the narrative is increasing in intensity, and more like just a series of barely stitched-together sequences. Where characters run into cute dinosaurs, are nearly eaten by horrifying dinosaurs, run into seemingly dangerous dinosaurs that reveal themselves to actually be cowardly (how the mighty have fallen in one particular scene that calls back Jurassic Park), all while narrowly avoiding death as the science gang invades the creatures’ habitats to steal their biomaterials.
By the end, we don’t zoom past the finish line, we just cross it casually and suddenly, looking back to say “wait, did we pass it?” Overall, the movie is fine, at least on the big screen; I’m not confident it would be nearly as engaging on television. But if Universal is going to make more of these, they will need a rescue squad of creatives with fresh ideas – because they’re clearly fresh out. After Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018), the one where the dinosaurs are freed to roam the earth across the globe, I was told the ending’s dramatic twist would open up new possibilities for the franchise now that the dinos would be part of civilization. That has led to two films in a row that are mostly listless, treading water, and struggling to find a narrative reason to exist. Rebirth may be a step up from Dominion (2022), but barely. The latter is so business like in its mediocrity, whereas Rebirth at least wants to have a bit of fun. And some fun was had, with a cast of characters that do appear to be enjoying their roles.
But this film ultimately comes off as a backyard get-together without a central theme or purpose, causing the party guests to engage in earnest but shallow conversation that all trail off with a whimper. I don’t know how you reinvent Jurassic, but I fear they’ll keep trying. Usually at this point, some cheeky writer would half-sarcastically suggest the next installment should send the dinos into space, or that they should meet the Fast & Furious folks (OK I’m still holding out hope for this). But I don’t know if we need that – just write a character with a story arc, some goals, and try to make them interesting. You know, like a screenplay. And maybe other characters come into the fold with their own complex goals and opinions, and let those personalities bounce off each other. And maybe someone we thought was good is actually bad, but make it really dramatic because they’re so convincing. Then have some heartbreak, but then the main character overcomes that heartbreak, and their ambition changes the Jurassic world. Or something. But less movie on autopilot, more movie with heart and brains.
Our Rating:
