Every once in a while I get an actual Hollywood blockbuster to set my putrid peepers upon… they sure ain’t my beastly bread n’ butter, but nevertheless here we are with Universal Pictures Home Entertainment’s release of Jurassic World: Rebirth… expect my normal nonsense…
In the name of a medical breakthrough, hard-ass Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson) and her rag-tag crew of other hard-asses… along with a meek scientist and shit-heel businessman… are charged with extracting DNA from three of the largest dinos roaming about after the events of the previous Jurassic World trilogy.
Complicating matters is the insertion of a hapless family stranded at sea that eventually become the problem of Zora and the gang… oh, and a selection of mutant dinosaurs… because the last batch of hybrids turned out totally fine and didn’t rip half the cast of O.G.J.W. a new ass-hole or two…
I can say one thing (hold your applause… I’m actually going to say lots of things), director Gareth Edwards (Rogue One, 2014’s Godzilla) and screenwriter David Koepp (Jurassic Park, Raimi’s Spider-Man) certainly know how to deliver a creature feature that cooks right along… so much so, the ending had arrived before I even realized it…which beats the alternative and meant my arcane ass was well and truly entertained!
The narrative certainly doesn’t hurt in that department… it’s light, punchy, and seems as if it was the script for a ’90s video game adaptation of the material (the fetch quest and boss battles only accentuate that fact) and honestly that is a great direction to take these pictures… the high fantasy of human/dinosaur interaction is gloriously pulpy subject matter to begin with, and the inclusion of ever-more bizarre mutant dinos only hammers that home right into the ol’ Sauropod (and beyond) sweet spot!
Speaking of which… this film’s highly-touted new toothy terror on the block, the D-Rex, is a multi-limbed, xenomorph-style headed, nightmare often bathed in suitably crimson light to give the entire beast a hellish feel that is nothing short of pure awesome!
In the “no shit” department, the acting here is solid, and the picture present on this Blu-ray is crisp, clear, and full of detail… which is to be expected from a shot on digital film released on a digital format…
Special features accompanying the feature include an alternate opening, a selection of deleted scenes, some behind-the-scenes featurettes, a gag reel, a glimpse at the Easter Eggs to be found in the film, and a duo of audio commentaries featuring Edwards, production designer James Clyne, and first assistant director Jack Ravenscroft on one track and Edwards, editor Jabez Olssen, and visual effects supervisor David Vickery.
All in all, Jurassic World: Rebirth is one hell of a monster-filled romp… not afraid to be ridiculous and over-the-top in the best ways possible, this is comfort food for Monster Kids through and through!
