JURASSIC WORLD REBIRTH (2025)

Gareth Edwards and David Koepp Bring the Thrills Back from Extinction.

Grade: A-

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Ah, Jurassic Park. That bestselling novel by Michael Crichton turned Oscar-winning blockbuster by Steven Spielberg which spawned one of the biggest franchises in cinematic history. Though the series seemingly ended in 2022 with Jurassic World: Dominion, Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment decided to bring it back by recruiting screenwriter David Koepp (who wrote the first two movies) and director Gareth Edwards (who had helmed 2016’s hugely popular Rogue One: A Star Wars Story). The end result is not much more than what it appears to be-a cash grab-albeit one that earns our cash by delivering on what we came for. Did it need to happen? No. Is it full of stock characters? Yes. Is the story formulaic? Definitely. But is it entertaining and filled with exhilarating dinosaur-related thrills which keep us on the edge of our seats? Most certainly.

            The world in Jurassic World Rebirth is no longer hospitable to the de-extinct dinosaurs which have been roaming free for a long time. Most surviving species now live close to the equator, including on an abandoned island which was once the site of hybrid dinosaur experiments for Jurassic World. It is on this island that a pharmaceutical company led by Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend) wishes to extract DNA from three of the largest species to create a life-saving drug, albeit for purely financial purposes of course (In the Jurassic universe, rich types are almost always greedy villains). Krebs recruits mercenary Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson), ship captain Duncan Kincade (Mahershala Ali), and paleontologist Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) to lead an expedition to the island. En route, they rescue a family marooned in the sea by the aquatic Mosasaurus-one of their targets-and are soon stranded on the island, where they are separated and forced to fight in order to finish their mission and escape alive.

            It shouldn’t be too hard to guess the fates of the characters early on: every minor character and the villain must get gobbled up by dinosaurs, and every main character-especially the kid-must live. And the story is pretty much the same as the first four movies: humans struggle to get off an island filled with flesh-hungry dinos. But while one-note, most of the characters are likeable enough, thanks to the compelling performances of their actors, and they fill the quiet moments with witty jokes to keep us entertained while we wait for the action. And the set-pieces are so well-made that it doesn’t really matter that we’ve seen this sort of thing many times before.

            And what awesome set-pieces they are! Edwards brings his characters from one hair-raising situation to another, from the treacherously rocky island coast where the protagonists’ boat tries to outrun the Mosasaurus and Spinosaurs, to an ancient temple on a cliff, where Zora and Henry encounter a gigantic, winged Quetzalcoatlus, to the nighttime attack by the mutant hybrid Distortus Rex, which makes the most of its limited screen time to establish itself as a truly nasty and terrifying monster.

And, of course, there’s the much-anticipated sequence on an island river where the rescued family flees from a Tyrannosaurus Rex. This chase was in the original novel Jurassic Park and was initially planned for the first film but ultimately dropped, so fans have had to wait until now to finally see it-and it does not disappoint. From the well-rendered CGI of the T-Rex to the suspense and execution of the situation, this scene alone must have been a dream come true for Edwards, whose love for Jurassic Park inspired him to become a director.

Although terror and excitement are the main feelings the filmmakers are going for, they also allow for a few moments of warmth and wonder. The scene where two long-necked Titanosaurs cuddle is sweet, and it sort of recalls the finale of Edwards’s first feature, Monsters (2010). There is also a subplot where the youngest girl of the family befriends a cute ceratopsian Aquilops. All of this is set against the breathtaking sea and the steamy jungle, courtesy of cinematographer John Mathieston, who makes everything look beautiful.

Rebirth could have been completely soulless. The filmmakers could have made it obvious that they were only interested in money by milking the series for all its worth. Instead, it is Edwards’s homage to both the original and its director, Steven Spielberg. Could it have been better written, with more compelling characters? Maybe. But we don’t go to the movies for perfection, we go to be entertained. The filmmakers clearly knew this when they made Jurassic World Rebirth.

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Director: Gareth Edwards

Screenplay: David Koepp (Based on characters by Michael Crichton)

Producers: Frank Marshall, Patrick Crowley

Cast: Scarlett Johansson (Zora Bennett), Mahershala Ali (Duncan Kincade), Jonathan Bailey (Dr. Henry Loomis), Rupert Friend (Martin Krebs), Manuel Garcia-Rulfo (Reuben Delgado), Luna Blaise (Teresa Delgado), David Iacono (Xavier Dobbs), Audrina Miranda (Isabella Delgado)

Rated: PG-13 (for intense sequences of violence/action, bloody images, some suggestive references, language and a drug reference)