Jurassic World Rebirth: The Off-Balance Review.
Survival of the fittest.
If any one film franchise over the past decade has teetered more-and-more towards total creative bankruptcy, all cards on the table, Jurassic Park has come pretty close to holding that undesired crown.
Sure, the sequel trilogy Jurassic World outings pulled in their money, and sure, they reinvigorated the brand and sure, they are competently-made action films well enough but come their conclusion, with 2022’s Dominion, they were almost completely devoid of anything resembling honest artistic weight.
So on paper then, the franchise’s seventh film, Jurassic World Rebirth, which arrived in theatres last week, should be a reset.
The name alone, meant to signal, though inescapable, an apparent shift away from what came before, while the hiring of director Gareth Edwards (he of prior action film success) and screenwriter David Koepp, who co-wrote/wrote both the original film and The Lost World, equally so, suggests another attempt to return the series to some semblance of its roots.
But the end result is low on character work, pulls on too many weakly-supported storytelling threads and drenched in corporate-mandated predicability as it is, struggles to deliver genuine thrills befitting the franchise’s long-entrenched standing.
Approached by a shadowy pharmaceutical executive (Rupert Friend), mercenary Zora (Scarlett Johansson), is asked to travel to a heavily-secluded island in the Caribbean, where, years following the events of the previous film, the world’s dinosaur population is now predominantly based.
Zora’s mission, alongside her long-time black-ops partner Duncan (Mahershala Ali) and paleontologist Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) is to reach the island and retrieve three dinosaur samples in the hopes of, from them, potentially creating life-saving heart medication.
Meanwhile, a family on vacation led by father Reuben (Manuel GarcÃa-Rulfo), thrown off-course, crosses paths with the group and eventually, all find themselves on the island, racing against the clock for both rescue… and their lives.
Visually, Rebirth is solid.
Shot on film, primarily in Thailand, in the immediate sense, it doesn’t feel too bogged down by the necessary CGI supports or having been entirely washed away by green screen work, which given the usual operating mode for such blockbuster films, is appreciated. The titular dinosaurs, similarly, while they don’t hold too many surprises and though totally absent physical animatronics, see their sheer scope, tension-driven power and even occasional beauty appropriately communicated.
It is baseline but after Dominion’s split focus on killer locusts, putting the spotlight squarely back on dinosaurs is a win. Edwards, alongside cinematographer John Mathieson and the larger VFX teams were clearly banking on these centrepiece elements and their effort, in that respect, is apparent.
But beyond this, the film just can’t keep up.
It comes with a degree of understanding, naturally.
The draw of the Jurassic films, where billions will be made despite any one case of individual indifference, is in the raw spectacle. And legitimately expecting anything more serious than that, in a franchise three decades in, no doubt, it is somewhat foolish.
Raw spectacle alone, however, does never a strong film make.
Rebirth’s most prominent misstep, outside of the checklist-feel of the dinosaurs, comes structurally and character-wise, in keeping its two protagonist groups separated for the vast majority of the story. Their personal motives, explained briefly as they are, are already pretty paper-thin but they aren’t given any room to expand or evolve dynamically between each other, siloed (with one exception) and as a byproduct, the film’s main beats feel tremendously procedural.
Lacking legitimate stakes or any character-based tension that might arise from having its myriad of actors spend more time together, further than what was deemed, apparently, absolutely necessary.
It is as though two different scripts were written, only to be brought together well into filming, long after any real changes could be made. Needing to keep the dinosaur budget tight, so then limiting everything else as a result.
This, a disconnect, a lethargy, that extends to some of the performances, as well.
On the high end, Ali, though filling out little more than a stock archetype, is his usual charismatic self and he carries all that he can despite relatively minimal amounts of screen time, considering, to the entire operation’s deterrent, while Bailey delivers well on his fish-out-of-water portrayal, limited though the character is.
But Friend’s antagonist, even if neatly filling out the, as-expected, wealthy villain role is a wash and while GarcÃa-Rulfo is believable enough, as a father who just wants to see his family safe, it is a deeply one-note role. Though perhaps most surprisingly, Johansson, despite her well-established action film credentials feels completely absent any of her usual star power.
Character-wise, it is given some credence (Zora, upon her arrival on the island, is struggling with compounding personal tragedies) but too often, as the protagonist proper, Johansson feels as though she is two shades away from simply going through the motions. A performance that, if not completely listless, is as phoned-in as it can possibly be.
That, more than anything, encapsulating the film to a tee.
For any Jurassic Park/World outing can coast by the presence of the dinosaurs alone, that is undeniable. But without effective narrative weight behind those sequences, without even the tongue-in-cheek prodding that would see it stand out in the popcorn space, Rebirth feels stuck on the assembly line.
Tired, stagnant and boxed-in, with hardly anything to show for it.
Great breakdown of the movie! You nailed several things that I felt similarly about, but couldn't quite put into an articulate argument