An Honest Review of Jurassic World Rebirth

Andrew R. Duckworth

One of the first films I saw in theaters was Jurassic Park. It was so long ago, but I still have vivid memories of actually being in the theater and seeing the raptor-kitchen scene. And, for many, that film changed them. For me, it turned my childhood love of dinosaurs into an obsession. To this day, I still have a hobby of keeping up with paleontological research and discovery. And there will never be a film with “Jurassic” in the title that I do not see. So, naturally, the day it came out, I went to see Jurassic World Rebirth, hoping that it could regain ground from the last film (Jurassic World Dominion) which many rightly point out was a mess… to say the least.

To be fair, in some ways, Jurassic World Rebirth does bring us back to a certain tone that has been missing for some time in the Jurassic franchise. Recapturing the magic of the original Jurassic Park, at this point, seems an impossible task. After all, that was the first time we actually saw believable dinosaurs on the screen, dinosaurs that seemed more like animals than just movie-monsters from past films. While Jurassic World Rebirth does at least recapture a certain essence, it comes nowhere close to Jurassic Park, and, also to be fair, no film ever will. But, apart from this, how well does Jurassic World Rebirth fair? Unfortunately, not well…

Going into the theater, there was so much promise. Gareth Edwards, in my opinion one of the greatest film directors of our time, was in the director’s chair. David Koepp, who adapted Michael Crichton’s novels, was back to write the screenplay. In my mind, nothing could possibly go wrong… but then it did. I will attempt to keep this review as spoiler-free as possible, as I feel that each person needs to make up their own mind about films. What I think might be terrible another person can see a lot of value in. It wouldn’t be fair for me to give the whole story away. However, there are certain elements that can’t really be avoided if I am to discuss this film critically. Most of what I will be discussing has been revealed in previews for the film (another issue that seems to plague the franchise, but all for another day).

It seems to be impossible to go into these films without high hopes. After all, this is a classic franchise that I deeply respect. I can’t help but go into each film thinking it will blow all of the others away. This slightly changed with Dominion. But Jurassic World Rebirth had so many respected actors, an excellent writer, an amazing director, a tonal shift that could be sensed by just the trailers alone… so, what in the hell went so horribly wrong? As it turns out, quite a lot.

The Death of a staple

Throughout the franchise, there have been plenty of staples as far as dinosaurs are concerned, appearances that practically must occur to be considered a “Jurassic” film. So, with this film, I was awaiting the appearance of a particular dinosaur (which will not be named here… although, if you’re a die-hard fan, I’m sure you might be able to manage a guess). And we get this appearance… only to have it last little more than five seconds. They are blurry, appearing behind one of the characters in the film. The worst part of their appearance is that they only serve to introduce their replacement in this film. I think most fans could do without the Mutadons, yet, here we are. Functionally, the Mutadons in this film (a wild splicing of velociraptor and pteranodon) hold practically the same purpose as a particular dinosaur of the past films, only they feel much more out of place, even on this new island in the Atlantic where genetic experiments took place for so long. This brings me to my next point.

The Atlantic?… Really?…

Admittedly, this point is rather nit-picky, but I feel like there is a point to be made here. Remember how the previous islands were in the Pacific? Isla Nublar off the coast of Costa Rica and Isla Sorna and the rest of the five deaths a bit further off from Nublar? Apparently, we are to believe that they would conduct experiments on an island in the Atlantic, Ile Saint-Hubert, presumably to be able to introduce them to the park on Isla Nublar at some point. But then, why even have another island when this sort of research can take place on Isla Sorna? And how were they supposed to transport these animals? Panama Canal? Going all the way around South America? This seems like a lot of trouble, even if they are “sparing no expense.” I just don’t buy it.

Another issue with this island is that it is unarguably much more in the open and noticeable given its location compared to the other islands InGen owned. This brings back the question of why conduct this research and experimentation on an unneeded island in the Atlantic when one already exists, largely out of reach and out of notice, in the Pacific?

Mutants… Just as bad as Hybrids…

In 2015, Jurassic World introduced the Jurassic-verse to Hybrids with the Indominus Rex. While it was interesting and a bit different than what we had seen in past films, after the novelty of it wore off, it was just a bit… blah… Hybrids were not a new concept. Scripts of a possible Jurassic sequel had featured hybrids since 2004. Finally, in 2015, they became a reality, and THANKFULLY not in the dinosaur-human type (this would have affectively ended the franchise as far as I’m concerned. I would have no longer been able to take it seriously). Fallen Kingdom, in 2018, brought the Indoraptor. And, it was around this time that literally everyone became tired of hybrids. Their absence from Dominion was one of Dominion’s only strong points. So, where do you take a franchise from this point? Apparently, mutants. To be fair, the D-Rex actually is decently interesting. It certainly isn’t something that destroys the franchise. But the D-Rex doesn’t feel fresh. It feels like a cheap rehash of the hybrids from years earlier. The design of the D-Rex is really well done and it is one of the scarier designs of the franchise. But it doesn’t really offer anything new.

What might have saved Rebirth here would have been scrapping the mutant idea, both the D-Rex and the Mutadons, in favor of dangerous actual dinosaurs that we have not yet seen in the franchise. Substitute the Mutadons for Utahraptors and the D-Rex for a Carcharodontosaurus, and we already have a better film.

Pacing…

At times, Jurassic World Rebirth feels as though it is trying to fit three films into one film. At times, it feels as though they have trouble getting one film off the ground. There are moments that seem to drag on forever and there are moments that shoot by in a blink. To say that the pacing is impossible to nail down is an understatement.

The Characters… Oh, boy…

Scarlett Johansson, Rupert Friend, Mahershala Ali, Jonathan Bailey… with such a promising cast, how can the characters go wrong? Well, as it turns out, in quite a few ways. The cast, I should point out, did an amazing job with what they were given to work with. I never doubted Jonathan Bailey as the paleontologist Dr. Loomis. He seemed spot-on, like a dinosaur obsessed kid who never grew out of it. Still yet, there isn’t an extreme amount of depth to his character. He is still the archetypal and obligatory Paleontologist, a bit like Grant before the dinosaurs tried to eat him. It certainly isn’t anything new.

Honestly, the film suffers from archetypes and a massive lack of depth concerning characters. There are the tough military characters, the throwaways (those that are eaten and largely unexplored), the paleontologist, the big bad capitalist, and the broken family unit (which the franchise has suffered from since forever…). If you go into the film with those in mind, congratulations, that is pretty much the depth we get concerning characters. The characters of Zorah Bennett (Johansson) and Duncan Kincaid (Ali) seem to have baggage from their past military backgrounds, but you only get a slight taste of it with Bennett. It is hinted at with Kincaid, but largely unexplored. Considering all of the characters, the character with the most depth, in my opinion, is Duncan Kincaid, but even this character is lacking a lot. The actors themselves did a great job bringing these characters to life with the exception of one thing.

Does anyone even care?

There are several throwaway characters in this film, characters that last just long enough to be eaten. They are all from Duncan’s crew. Yet, when these characters meet an untimely end, no one seems to care. It reminds me of that GIF, the “oh no… anyway,” clip. Granted, throughout the franchise as a whole, this has been a bit of a problem. This is nothing unique to Rebirth. There are moments in the film when there simply is no time to mourn, such as a moment on the beach of this new island when one of the characters meets their fate. The characters, understandably, have to make a quick getaway. Yet, afterwards, it’s as if it never happened… as if the character had never existed. And this continues into one of the scenes with the Quetzalcoatlus (watch the film if you want this explained). After this, the characters meet up and practically laugh off the entire situation. The characters seem so disconnected, and the film suffers from it.

The plots do not work together

In Rebirth, we have two plots. One involves a family sailing the open ocean who happen to get attacked. The other involves the extraction of DNA from the largest prehistoric animals from land, air, and sea. The odds of these two coincidentally crossing are, precisely, 1 in 66 million… I don’t buy it… and a lot of others, apparently, do not buy it either. The inclusion of both of these, at best, feels forced. At worst? Lazy. It feels like a jarring way to cram two stories together and somehow make them work. But they don’t. It seems convenient to a level that makes a deus ex machina device blush.

I could use Ian Malcolm about now…

The films have suffered from a lack of philosophy for some time. The main point of the original novel and film was a deeply philosophical one: just because we can, does it mean we should? (No, those are not the exact words from the film and a far cry from the exact words from the novel, but it is a summation). The closest this film, Jurassic World Rebirth, gets is the now old and tired “capitalism bad.” Sure, there are elements of this all throughout the franchise, but usually always accompanied by something else. For example, Jurassic World at least explored the ambition of Henry Wu which the Jurassic Park novel fleshes out. Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom furthers an exploration of using animals in military scenarios. Dominion… oh, wait… never mind. Well, Jurassic World Rebirth really goes no further than “capitalism bad” and “big pharma evil” which, at times, feels like a didactic slap to the face than something that can be explored or pondered over.

The Score

No, I’m not talking about a critic score. The film’s score is actually fairly well done. It doesn’t rely heavily on past scores, only enough to connect the film’s music to past films in the franchise. The music feels fresh, and perhaps the freshest part about the film. It stands on its own. Alexandre Desplat does a great job in making the frightening elements of the film pop in a way that brings about the film’s darker tone. The lighter moments in the film are well composed. Perhaps this was the “rebirth” they were speaking of.

The Setting

I’ve already discussed the setting to a certain degree, but now to dive into the scenery. The new island is lush and vibrant. Filming in Thailand was an excellent choice… and a poor choice all the same. It is excellent in that it brings to life a lush and vibrant island. It is a poor choice in that it just never really feels “Jurassic.” Let’s face it, we were spoiled with Isla Nublar and Isla Sorna. The locations, the scenery of those two settings are unforgettable. The dinosaurs set against this new island seem a bit… out of place… this seems to be a theme throughout the film. The tall grass of the Titanosaur valley is not the velociraptor tall grass of Sorna. The abandoned labs of Saint-Hubert are not the abandoned labs of Isla Sorna. As much as they have done to capture that Jurassic feel, they just don’t completely capture it in this setting.

That having been said, this is at least a return to an island location, which is the best setting for a Jurassic film. When the dinosaurs are everywhere, as they have been at the end of Fallen Kingdom and all throughout Dominion, the characters do not feel as closed in. An escape feels too easy. At least with this film, we get back to that mystery and danger that accompanies the island setting. The characters are, once again, isolated and in danger.

The end

I’m not talking about an end to this review, although that is coming… the ending to Jurassic World Rebirth is easily the most anticlimactic ending to a film in the franchise. Something was extremely off about the ending. It’s hard to explain. But I will say that literally everyone else in the sold out theater thought so as well. When the credits came on the screen, there were a few audible groans as if the credits were not expected. The ending makes sense in a way that the ending of both Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III make sense. But it just seemed as though there was something extremely off about it as well, perhaps with the score, perhaps with the ending shot… something. This will take another watch from me to really pin down.

So… what now?

I would rate this film a two out of five… and a part of me feels as though that is a bit generous. It pains me to even write that. The Jurassic franchise is my favorite film franchise and always will be. But with this film’s all over the place pacing, dual and convenient plots, shallow characters, unneeded mutant additions, etc, I can’t justify any more than a solid two.

So, what now? Is it time for the franchise to end? Would it be better if the franchise just ends at this film? Obviously, no.

Michael Crichton’s work is fantastic. While we finally got that long-awaited river sequence with this film, there are still plenty of ideas waiting to be explored from both novels.

One such idea was one that I was sure they were going to use for Dominion (until I realized they were going with the locust idea, which was dumb… objectively…). The idea of ancient viruses is one that can be brought to the franchise, particularly since these animals have been on the mainland. Why not explore the idea of an ancient virus that lies dormant for a while? And then, how do characters fix the issue? Perhaps bring them back to Sorna. After all, it was Crichton’s The Lost World that explored an ancient virus on Isla Sorna running rampant through the scavenger populations. Audiences have been yearning for a return to Isla Sorna for some time.

There is also the idea of going back… all the way back. Not 17 years back, but back to the beginning. Perhaps we explore lives of individual InGen workers on Isla Nublar or Isla Sorna before the incident on Isla Nublar in the first film. If this were to happen, I would suggest Isla Sorna. It is the more mysterious of the two islands as far as story is concerned.

Wherever the franchise goes from here, it will need to do better than Jurassic World Rebirth. When I first watched Jurassic World in 2015, I remember thinking to myself “all it needs to be is ‘okay.’” If it was at least okay, the franchise would revive. Unfortunately, it seems as though we have never left that mentality concerning the Jurassic Franchise, as an audience or as film-makers. “Okay” simply won’t cut it anymore. The franchise has to move away from cookie-cutter plots, characters, and stretching to make a story work. It is time for something “amazing,” rather than the complacency of “okay.”