The Plot: Things have changed in Jurassic World. It’s now five years later and the dinosaurs have died out once again, with human interest in them subsequently waning. They now solely exist in a remote equatorial region where human contact is outlawed by all governments. That’s not about to stop pharmaceutical company man Martin (Rupert Friend), who spies an opportunity to extract dino DNA for ground-breaking scientific research. He puts together a small team including mission specialist Zora (Scarlett Johansson), palaeontologist Henry (Jonathan Bailey) and skipper Duncan (Mahershala) to get in, get what they need and get out. Easier said than done…
The Verdict: When a franchise has been going for over three decades and seemingly has nowhere else to go… what next? Let’s be honest. Jurassic World: Dominion was a crushing disappointment. As this reviewer noted at the time, director Colin Trevorrow may have just pushed the extinction button on this franchise. It did seem to put an end to any further instalments as it sought out a rather twee agenda of human and dinosaur co-existence (hint: not a good idea). But life, as does Hollywood, finds a way to milk the cash dinosaur one more time. However, this time it’s more of a standalone film that comes across as something of a semi-hard reset for the franchise. While there’s a fleeting reference to Dr. Alan Grant, this film is less concerned with franchise legacy and more concerned with being a thrill ride – with the brakes off. Hold on to your butts.
The secret weapon here is screenwriter David Koepp, who returns to the franchise after previously writing the first two films from Michael Crichton’s source novel. Bringing in the old guard was a smart choice as Koepp knows how to keep the plot taut, straightforward and deliver on both the action and emotional fronts. He’s stripped out a lot of noise about the co-existence element to show that nature has a way of balancing things out, to return the world to some semblance of order. It’s quite a different direction to take this story in, but it makes sense given Koepp’s pedigree with the franchise. He’s brought back that sense of awestruck wonder about the dinosaurs combined with sheer terror that made Steven Spielberg’s original so ground-breaking, not just on the CGI front but as one of the great summer blockbusters. He then brings the story forward into the 21st Century, built a likeable cast of characters around it and propelled the plot forward into a breakneck survival thriller.
Monsters and The Creator director Gareth Edwards dropped everything he was working on when he was offered the film and his love for the franchise is evident throughout. He occasionally tips his director’s megaphone in reverence at Spielberg, but doesn’t lean too much on that legacy. He finds visually interesting ways to shoot a dino encounter, like a tense over and underwater encounter with a T-Rex on a tropical river rapid which shows the toothy predator toying with his human prey before moving in for the kill. A T-Rex encounter is of course an essential element in any Jurassic Park/World film, but that’s just a build up to a far leaner and meaner dinosaur – the mutant D-Rex for which Edwards said ‘some Rancor went in there, some H.R. Giger went in there, a little T-Rex went in there’. It’s one mean-looking beast and is the focus of two frantic and well choreographed set pieces which book-end the film.
One of Edwards gifts as a director though is to always keep the human characters on point so they’re not lost in the frame. Lifelong Jurassic fan Scarlett Johansson is a solid anchor for the film in a frequently physical role, while Rupert Friend does a good line in displaying Carter Burke-style loyalty to his fellow explorers. Adding in a family of civilians also ups the ante and provides some welcome humour at times (taking a leak in the jungle is never without danger). While the action is well-staged and the film rattles along at a decent pace, if there’s a fault here it’s that the film doesn’t try to point the way forward for the franchise. It just does its own thing, content to be a survival film with the potential for life-changing results for people in this new Jurassic World. That’s a noble aim to go for on this back-to-basics film, but maybe these standalone stories could be the way forward. Legacy will only get you so far after all. As a result, Jurassic World: Rebirth is a rebirth of the franchise itself while also being a rousing, entertaining popcorn film.
Rating: 3.5 / 5
Review by Gareth O’Connor
In short: Hold on to your butts
Directed by Gareth Edwards.
Starring Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, Rupert Friend, Mahershala Ali, Ed Skrein.