Jurassic World Rebirth
Five years after the events of "Jurassic World: Dominion" where dinosaurs roamed the earth, uninhabitable climates have isolated those remaining in equatorial areas. But it has been discovered that the colossals of sea, land and air have something in their DNA which can be used to save human lives and so covert operations agent Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson) is tapped to lead a team to extract it. Of course, the mission goes south and Zora's team and civilians from a boating trip end up stranded on the island housing InGen's research facility where, unbeknownst to them, a secret lab holds a shocking secret in "Jurassic World Rebirth."
Laura's Review: B
Original "Jurassic Park" writer David Koepp hasn't come up with a rebirth so much as a greatest hits package, one which encompasses every beat from the original while sins of its past continue to reverberate. There is nothing new to be seen here, but director Gareth Edwards ("Rogue One: A Star Wars Story") gives us a good old adventure yarn carried by a game cast. Yeah, you might roll your eyes a few times at some of the film's sillier developments, but "Rebirth" is far better than any of the other sequels.
In this world, no one cares about dinosaurs anymore, a fact made obvious by a crew removing a giant, dying beast creating a Manhattan traffic jam as if it were a rolled over bus. One annoyed driver is Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend), the pharmaceutical exec surprised when Zora jumps into his car. She hears his pitch about leading a team into an illegal travel zone to gather dinosaur blood samples, but isn't interested, still depressed over the recent loss of a colleague and partner, but when he offers her $10 million, she gets that 'one last job' itch. The two meet up with paleontologist Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey, "Wicked"), glumly engaged on dismantling museum dino exhibits (complete with that original "Jurassic Park" banner!), to join the team as their expert, coaxing him with visions of the animals in the wild.
Before they meet up with Zora's favored boat captain, Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali) and the crew of Bobby (Ed Skrein), Nina (Philippine Velge) and LeClerc (Bechir Sylvain) in Suriname, we'll meet the Delgado family, dad Reuben (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, "A Man Called Otto") taking his teenaged daughter Teresa (Luna Blaise) along with the boyfriend, Xavier (David Iacono), he has little use for, and his much younger Isabella (Audrina Miranda), on a cross Atlantic sailing trip before Teresa heads to college. They'll pass right through that forbidden zone at the onset, a run in with a Mosasaurus the other team is searching for capsizing their boat. It is telling how those on the Essex react to their SOS signal, Kincaid overriding Krebs for a rescue mission only to traumatize the Delgados once more as they hunt down the big beast. They get their sample, but the Mosasaurus has hunting partners in Spinosauruses and Kincaid is forced to shipwreck on a rocky island while most swim in, the Delgados separated from the rest for a separate adventure and the requisite endangerment of children. At this point, it should be noted that two crew members have already been dispatched, one snatched from the boat, another from the shore.
According to press notes, Koepp discovered dinosaurs had incredibly long lifespans due to low incidence of heart disease, the larger the species the better, although his sea, land, air approach is a transparent device and the scene in which Zora and Loomis encounter the second of those, a Titanosaurus herd, is right out of "Jurassic Park's" brontosaurus introduction, complete with awe-inducing score (Alexandre Desplat sparingly sprinkles in John Williams leitmotifs, but otherwise goes for action beats). Their hunt for a Quetzalcoatlus leads to rappelling down a cliff face to secure an egg, but there's one crew member left who hasn't won an Oscar, so you can guess what happens next.
Meanwhile Reuben, who was injured getting to the island, sees Xavier in a different light after the young man jumped into the water to save his daughter, but her efforts to secure a raft waken a slumbering T-Rex for some fun in the rapids (after that T-Rex chomps on that inflatable numerous times, the raft doesn't have as much as one tear, a lucky if quite unbelievable break). And Isabella has befriended an adorable Aquilops she coaxes with licorice whips and names Dolores - expect some to arrive on toy shelves just in time for Christmas. They'll all meet up at that long-abandoned research facility where Zora has assured all a helicopter patrol should spot them, but there's something lurking there that looks like it had some "Alien" Xenomorph DNA added to its mix. That all this was unleashed because of an errant Snickers wrapper is one of the film's more amusing absurdities (and probably homage to "Park's" Dennis Nedry).
We'll get the return of glass vials rolling into precarious spaces; the spitting, crested Dilophosaurus and a mutation called Mutadons, on hand to recreate "Park's" kitchen scene in a gas station convenience store. And, as ever, there will be a philosophical moral argument settled in the closing scene. "Jurassic World Rebirth" may not give us anything new, but it has its share of clever segues and sound cues, Johansson and Bailey share subtle chemistry and Isabella and Dolores are cute as buttons.
Robin's Review: C+
Universal Pictures releases "Jurassic World Rebirth" in theaters on 7/2/25.
