Jurassic World: Rebirth is now on Digital and VOD, and I finally had the chance to watch it, and I have some thoughts to share.
I will confess that I am a massive fan of the franchise. I own the movies, shirts, and pajamas, and even my dogs have official Jurassic World toys. Needless to say, what I’m about to say hurts me to admit.
Warning Spoilers
The film stars Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, and two-time Oscar winner Mahershala Ali. Luna Blaise, David Iacono, and Audrina Miranda co-star along with Philippa Velge and Ed Skrein
Rebirth picks up years after the earth-shattering events of Jurassic World: Dominion. Johansson stars as Zora Bennett, a highly skilled covert operative on a top-secret mission to extract crucial dino DNA. But, as we’ve come to expect in Jurassic movies, things take a wild turn. Zora’s team stumbles upon a family whose boat is attacked by a mosasaurs. (my favorite scene). The group then finds itself stranded on an island teeming with dangerous dinosaurs.
A Let Down
I was excited to finally see Jurassic World: Rebirth, only to be met with disappointment. Let’s start at the beginning. The movie opens with a pharmaceutical bigwig hiring Johnason’s character to fetch the DNA of three dinosaurs. During the scene, it’s made a huge deal that the escaped dinosaurs are dying except on a few islands. This leads to a part of the story that genuinely pissed me off in the end, but we’ll get back to that in a minute.
The movie follows the same worn-out pattern that we’ve seen repeatedly in the franchise. People venture where they don’t belong, mayhem ensues, some people are eaten, and in the end, the main characters survive. Yes, it has worked in franchise time and time again. However, in Rebirth, the seventh film in the franchise, things have gotten way too predictable. I expected more from writer David Koepp, who wrote the original Jurassic Park.
The Villains
Jurassic World: Rebirth has two villains, Martin (Reubert Friend) and the D-Rex. Martin, who is funding the trip, is a basic bad guy at best. He’s in it for the money and will do anything to see the mission through to completion. The other is the freak dinosaur, D-Rex. D-Rex looks ridiculous. The creature is big, clumsy, deformed, and has a big ass forehead. It’s also pretty dumb. It’s not scary, and I couldn’t take it seriously.
Back to the beginning, when I mentioned that the part of the plot made a big deal about dinosaurs not being able to survive in most of the world, the kid in the movie decides it’s a great idea to take her little dinosaur buddy off the island anyway. This pretty much guarantees its death. This irritated me. It’s just one more sloppy thing about the movie.
As for the special effects, I won’t complain much. All of the dinosaurs look great; however, I didn’t see a single dinosaur on the ground that had feathers. Scientists have already proven that many dinosaurs, in fact, had feathers.
A Character Problem
While several actors’ performances were commendable, especially those of Mahershala Ali, Jonathan Bailey, and Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, the star, Scarlett Johansson, delivered a less-than-impressive performance. Her character comes across as stiff. It almost seems like she’d rather be anywhere other than in the movie.
There are too many characters to keep track of, and it leaves little time for character development and for us to become attached to them. It’s evident from the get-go that several characters are just there to die.
The entire storyline about the stranded family was distracting. The way the film switches back and forth between storylines breaks any of the tension that has been built. The film would have been completely fine if they hadn’t existed.
The Dinos
One of the main reasons I love the franchise is simply that I adore the dinosaurs. I felt a little disappointed with Rebirth because it doesn’t feature a wide variety of breeds. However, I was delighted by the aquatic dinosaur scenes.
I will give Rebirth props for the effects. The island backdrop and most of the dinosaurs look fantastic, except for D-Rex. It just looked ridiculous.
The Verdict
Overall, Jurassic World: Rebirth, directed by Gareth Edwards, was neither a terrible movie nor a great one. It’s formulaic as hell. It drives home the message that humans shouldn’t play God, because it never ends well. We’ve seen this in every single Jurassic movie. It’s also about greed from Big Pharma, which wants the samples to develop a miracle drug that will only be available to the wealthy. In real life, they’d rather line their pockets than make medicines available to everyone.
Ultimately, I must admit that I was not impressed. The people behind the franchise are clearly into recycling. It’s the same plot we’ve seen repeatedly from the franchise. I was hoping for something fresh and new, and didn’t get it.
If you want to watch Jurassic World: Rebirth, it is now available on VOD and Digital Platforms. Just don’t go into it with high expectations.
