The Media Man Reviews: Jurassic World: Rebirth

To think this franchise went from three films, then going into Development Hell for years, then they had another trilogy and now they're here again with another movie showing they've still got plenty of prehistoric fun for us all.

Jurassic World: Rebirth is the seventh instalment in the Jurassic Park/World franchise, coming out about three years after Jurassic World: Dominion, which I reviewed back then. I felt Dominion was a pretty meh conclusion to the Jurassic World trilogy due to not delivering on its premise and treating the whole "dinosaurs on the mainland" concept as an afterthought and instead making the plot about genetically altered locusts for some reason, but it did deliver some of the most action-packed and awesome action scenes in the movie and some wonderful fanservice for fans of Jurassic Park and Jurassic World as he old cast and new cast come together to save the day in the end. I still wish the movie was more about what the trailers promised instead of being about something completely different, but whatever.

When Rebirth was coming out, I wasn't overly enthusiastic about it. It felt like it was re-treading old ground again and seemed to be undoing the progress made in the previous films while also having me question why are we getting another movie. Does this franchise really need to continue? I think the Jurassic movies have pretty much covered all the story it can at this point.

As is, I was still pretty curious to check it out for whatever reason, so I gave it a watch. Does this film bring new life to the franchise the same way that InGen gave new life to the dinosaurs? Or should we leave this movie stuck on an island to be eaten by dinosaurs? Let's dive in and find out...

Section 1: The Story

The story is set three years after Jurassic World: Dominion and is focused on a group of mercenaries as they travel to the island Île Saint-Hubert, a closed of sanctuary for what few surviving dinosaurs are left in the world, in order to obtain blood samples from three giant specimens in order to make a cure for heart disease. But as is traditional in this franchise, the missions doesn't go as planned and the crew are in for the fight of their lives as they have to brave treacherous waters and dangerous dinosaurs that await them around every corner...

The biggest problem I have with the story is that the whole thing feels like a glorified remake of Jurassic Park III. No joke, it's note-for-note near enough the same movie! The plot involves a group of mercenaries going to an island for a specific goal (in Jurassic Park III, they were looking for a lost kid while in this movie, they're collecting blood samples) and they get chased and menaced by dinosaurs along the way with one of the biggest threats they face being a dinosaur that's bigger and scarier with the T-Rex. It's even to the point where like in Jurassic Park III where the Spinosaurus is never defeated in the end, the Distortus Rex is never defeated at the end of this one! This is why this franchise needed to move forward and focus on its new ideas of dinosaurs on the mainland instead of backtracking like they did here, because we can't just keep making movies where it's people on an island with dinosaurs! It's formulaic and stale at this point and it needs to be dropped!

And this leads in to my second biggest problem with the movie: the fact that it rendered everything from Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Jurassic World: Dominion completely meaningless in the end. The whole "dinosaurs on the mainland" concept is just quickly brushed aside and we're back to square one where it's dinosaurs on an island again. This really hurts the previous films for now whenever I rewatch them, they won't feel like fulfilling watches anymore since everything they set up ultimately goes nowhere now. One of the cardinal sins a sequel can commit is when it makes previous movies worse with its existence, and that's what this movie has done here.

And the worst part about it is that they don't even do anything all that cool or creative with the concept either. It's just very paint-by-numbers and we have concepts like mutant dinosaurs that feel very surface level in their execution to the point where some reviews question the point in their existence. For example, why do the Mutadons exist when raptors could've done their scenes perfectly fine? Or why did we have the Distortus Rex when any big carnivore could've filled its spot without changing anything? They could've used this moment to give the Giganotosaurus a better outing from last time after Dominion wasted its presence, or brought the Spinosaurus back or even given us a new carnivore the franchise hasn't really shown much of yet. If you're going to have mutant dinosaurs in your story, then give them a reason to exist! Don't have them in there just because!

And don't even get me started on that stupid, stupid scene at the beginning where the security system in a hi-tech lab does down because of...a discarded Snickers wrapper. No, I am not making this up. This is 100% a real scene in the movie! Every word of what I just said is true! What the hell were the writers smoking when they came up with that asinine idea? What, did they have a bet on who could come up with the stupidest way for a dinosaur to escape in these films and the winner's idea got put into the script? Surely they could've come up with a better idea than a discarded Snickers wrapper! It's a shame too, because if you ignore that part, the opening was really solid with a suspenseful, horror-like tone and a scary first impression of the Distortus Rex. That friggin' Snickers wrapper just killed what could've been one of the best opening scenes to a Jurassic World movie and it should've been taken out entirely!

So yeah, it sounds like I really hate this movie and think it's a cinematic disaster, right? Not so fast readers, I've just finished talking about the bad points. Now I'm done, we can talk about the good points. Yeah, believe it or not, the movie isn't completely terrible. XD

Despite my criticism of the movie being a rehash of Jurassic Park III, I actually think this movie is a BETTER version of that movie. For starters, the tone is more consistent than it was in the latter movie and does a better job on giving us suspenseful dinosaur action and not killing the mood with some goofy moments. Also, we have a more capable cast of characters that are considerably less stupid than the characters of Jurassic Park III and the plot also feels better centred around the dinosaurs this time around as it's about getting three specific blood samples to make a cure that'll benefit humanity. Hell, it's something that makes it an improvement over Dominion as well, especially since the dinosaurs are actually the focus of the story this time instead of being window dressing. While I still hate how the films are going back to basics instead of going forwards, at least they told a better version of this story than previous instalments and showed that you can make a story about dinosaurs on the mainland thrilling and exciting, even if it's a formulaic concept.

Also, I'd say tonally this movie is the closest we're going to get to the original Jurassic Park. It has everything that made the original movie such a classic: the whimsical tone, the suspenseful action scenes, the scenes of awe and wonder and of course, biting commentary on capitalism and how we shouldn't put profit above human lives. It ain't a Jurassic Park movie without those moments! Anyhow, the action scenes in this are some of the most thrilling, intense and suspenseful you'll see in this franchise. Compared to the previous Jurassic World movies where they were more fast paced and about big action set-pieces, these action scenes go for slow, suspenseful build-up and a big scary payoff. The raft scene with the T-Rex or the scenes at sea with the Mosasaurus and the Spinosaurus's are two such examples. They don't have the dinosaurs just show up immediately and attack, they slowly build up to it so the moment when they attack ends up feeling more impactful and frightening when they do happen. And they REALLY make the stakes feel high here! The fact several of these characters end up dead before the end really helps as it ends up feeling like anyone can die here, which helps make for an engaging watch. I read that director Gareth Edwards is a fan of the franchise, and you can feel it with his direction here with how he executes so many of these scenes.

Another point of praise I have is the dinosaurs themselves. Even if most of them get a single scene at best, they make those scenes count and the dinosaurs leave a memorable impression at the end of each of them. The fact several of them such as the Spinosaurus, the Quetzalcoatlus and the Distortus Rex get to kill some of the characters or the Titanosaurus are treated to one of the most beautiful moments of the movie really helps. Speaking of the latter, the scene with the Titanosaurus couple making love together was the best scene in the movie for me. It was so wholesome and sweet and brought back the whimsical moments of the original movie. Add in a beautiful score and John Williams's iconic theme and you had one really wonderful scene that makes the movie worth watching just for that alone.

I also like how we have child characters in the movie, but they don't make them feel like a load or just a convenient excuse for the characters to get into trouble. No, even the child characters get their moments to be useful from time-to-time here and help save the lives of the adults. I question if we really needed them here, but I can let it slide since they were handled pretty well. It is rather ludicrous in hindsight though that this entire civilian family makes it out alive in the end while the trained mercenary group ends up with some of its members dead. If this was real life, that family would've all been dead. XD

So yeah, this is a very flawed movie that feels like it's backtracking and comes off as a rehash of previous movies while also wasting its mutant dinosaurs concept, but it does have its redeeming moments such as the tone that's faithful to the original movie, the fantastic dinosaur action and some great directing that helps make the scenes greater than they could've been. If they instead followed on from what came before instead of going back to basics, we could've had a really interesting sequel...

Section 2: The Characters

With this being a distant sequel to the Jurassic World movies, we have an entirely new cast of characters to follow. Yep, not a single character from the previous movies returns here, not even Ian Malcolm or Owen Grady. Sadly, I don't think these characters will leave as much of an impression as the previous ones did.

Let's cover the mercenary group first, starting with Zora Bennett (played by Scarlett Johansson). Zora was pretty unlikeable at first due to being only in it for the money and how she seemed rather flippant towards a lot of the other characters, but she does show some redeeming traits such as showing signs she cares about human lives and will put them above profit and then by the end, she's more than willing to share the cure with the world instead of giving it to a single company to monopolize. Her arc was very straightforward and pretty uninteresting if I can be honest and her personality can be best described as "generic action girl". Still, at least she's a step up from previous female characters in the franchise where the most they'd do is scream and be incompetent. It's nice to have a really capable and level-headed female character in Jurassic Park for a change.

I honestly found myself liking Henry Loomis (played by Jonathan Bailey) more than Zora. He's a nice guy who has some endearingly dorky moments like how even when he's in danger, he can't help but show fascination by the dinosaurs he sees and how seeing the Titanosaurus herd is enough to bring him to tears. He also shows how he's the brains of the group by giving a bitingly harsh but true statement about how humanity is racing towards its own extinction with how stupid we are and that dinosaurs will always be more successful survivors compared to us. It also helps how he's not in it for the money or the thrill of the hunt too, he wants to do this mission in order to help people and make a cure that'll save millions of lives. So yeah, he was fine.

I also quite liked Duncan Kincaid (played by Mahershala Ali). He was a cool guy and also one of the nicer members of the team given that he was always the must gung-ho about saving the Delgado family, especially the kids. It helps that it's stated he lost his own son a while back, which explains why he's so protective towards the children. It seems I'm not the only one who liked him for apparently, people were cheering when it turned out he survived in the end. To think he was apparently going to die but they changed it at the last minute. Good thing too as Duncan deserved to live in the end.

The rest of the team are nothing worth talking about. Martin Krebs (played by Rupert Friend) is a generic bad guy, Bobby and Nina exist just to die before we even get on the bloody island and LeClerc is just another member of the team who exists just to die, but he at least lasts a little longer than the other two do.

And then we get the Delgado family consisting of father Reuben (played by Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), his two daughters Teresa and Isabella (played by Luna Blaise and Audrina Miranda respectively) and Teresa's boyfriend Xavier Dobbs (played by David Iacono). I'm curious why these characters exist in the movie since it feels like they take away screentime that should be going to the mercenary group. I guess their reason for being here is to raise the stakes since now civilians are in danger of dying as well as the group, but it just made the cast feel a little crowded in the end. It doesn't help either that the Delgado family's plot doesn't really tie-in to the main plot that well and you could've taken them out of the movie without changing much. As is, I'm glad they made the most of their screentime and made them useful in some scenes so they didn't feel completely shoehorned in. I especially thought having Isabella be the only one small enough to get through the gate so she can open it on the other side was a clever way to make her feel useful. As is, I think they should've been dropped so we could've better focused on the mercenary group.

As for the dinosaurs, they were mostly used well here. A good chunk of them show up for a scene at best and then never appear again, but whenever they DO show up, they give us the best scenes in the movie whether it's the scene at sea with the Mosasaurus and the Spinosaurus pack, the Titanosaurus herd making love to each other, the T-Rex raft scene and many more. If there are any dinosaurs I wish had more focus though, it'd be the mutant dinosaurs. Why they even exist here, I'll never understand since their scenes could've been filled in by any other dinosaur. When we do see them, they mostly do what other dinosaurs do anyway, so why did they have to be mutant abominations here? What in the script required them to be mutants in order for this story to work? The Distortus Rex was especially disappointing. They gave it a pretty scary first impression in the prologue and then...we don't see it again until the last five minutes of the movie. Why even have it at all if they were going to do nothing with it? It's not like Indominus Rex or the Indoraptor in previous movies where they were necessary for the plot, the Distortus Rex is just a nothing character that exists...I dunno, to sell toys or something? That thing should've either had more screentime or it should've been replaced with another dinosaur. Like I said, this could've been the movie's chance to give the Giganotosaurus a better showing than what we got in Dominion instead of giving us this nothing creature that is vaguely developed and explained to the point it feels like an afterthought.

Overall, I'd say this film has the weakest cast of characters in the entire franchise and I doubt they'll be well-remembered by the time the movie comes and goes, unlike big names like Alan Grant, Ellie Settler, Ian Malcolm, John Hammond, Owen Grady, Claire Dearing and more...

Section 3: The Cinematography

While these recent Jurassic movies seem to have debatable writing quality to them, the one thing they've been very consistent with is the fact they're able to make the visuals look incredible. This movie is no exception.

In terms of the scenery, we get a lot of scenes where the cast are sailing out at sea but we also get a lot of scenes on land too as we reach the island of Île Saint-Hubert and go on this dinosaur hunting trip. The island especially looks very beautiful. I can imagine the filming crew filmed those scenes in some of the prettiest jungles they could find in order to get the scenery they needed for this story. The whole place just has this feeling of a paradise for wildlife everywhere with little signs of humanity anywhere. It isn't entirely untouched by man of course for we see signs of old temples that used to be there, suggesting old civilizations once populated the area, and there's also the old laboratory where the Distortus Rex was being created. When we see it in the opening prologue, it looks very pristine, hi-tech and clean with not so much as a speck of dirt to be seen. When we see it later in the movie, it's completely in ruin, which not only sells how it's been 17 years since the incident happened, but it's been untouched since then. It really helps in giving the old lab a creepy appearance that fits the horror-like tone that this movie has going for it.

The film also makes good use of the environment when it comes to the action scenes with the dinosaurs. The scenes out at sea provide plenty of opportunities to show off the Mosasaurus and the Spinosaurus swimming and hunting down our heroes and menacing any boats that get in their way, the scenes on the island use the jungle setting to their advantage by providing a lot of different ways for the dinosaurs to stalk the humans or chase after them and also provide the humans ways to fight back or get away from the dinosaurs and the scenes in the old lab make use of a lot of places to hide as the humans try to avoid death at the hands of the dinosaurs. One thing I can't help but notice is that part of the climax involves a convenience store and I'm wondering how horrid and gross all the food in that store must be since the island's been abandoned for 17 years. You'd especially think all those packets of crisps would look discoloured and aged is what I'm saying, but that's just nit-picking on my part. XD

Now onto the effects. The animatronics and the CGI are top-notch here, as they always are in these Jurassic Park/World movies. The dinosaurs are the big show-stealers as always and they look so cool here. They even depict the Spinosaurus with its anatomy and appearance closer to what recent studies think the animal looked like compared to how we used to think it looked and they still make it look very cool. While some shots are clear that the dinosaurs are CGI, they do make them look very convincing for the most part. They especially have a good number of scenes where the actors touch the dinosaurs to better sell the illusion that these things are real with moments like Henry touching the Titanosaurus's leg or Isabella interacting with the dinosaur she names Dolores. It's hard to tell when the dinosaurs are animatronic and when they're CGI because the two effects blend together so well. The lighting and the textures help to make them look more convincing and realistic too. Even the mutant dinosaurs look convincing, although I'm not a big fan of the Distortus Rex's design. I get that it's supposed to look like a hideous abomination and all, but they went too far in that regard to the point it looks more like an unused concept design for the Rancor from Star Wars than a dinosaur. I get it, it's a flawed prototype so it's going to look monstrous, but it should still look like it belongs in the same universe as everything else we've seen! They did it with Indominus Rex and the Indoraptor and even the Mutadons we see in this movie still look like they came out of the Jurassic franchise, so what's their excuse with Distortus Rex looking like it belongs in another movie?

The directing is at its best when it comes to the dinosaur scenes. They really show off a lot of cool stuff with them and make the scenes they're in either intense and thrilling or heart-warming and awe-inspiring, which is only staying true to what made us love the original Jurassic Park in the first place. They especially spare no expense in showing how much danger our heroes are in when the dinosaurs attack. At least two of the mercenaries die before they even reach the island at the jaws of the Spinosaurus, one of them gets swallowed whole by a Quetzalcoatlus and we actually SEE it happen no less(!), the T-Rex shows itself to be a cunning and persistent predator as it's able to swim after the Delgado family on the raft (we never saw the T-Rex do that in previous films so that was cool to see), the Mutadons are constantly pecking at the humans and following them around every corner and the Distortus Rex shows how much of a menace it is to the point it destroys the helicopter that's meant to be rescuing everybody. The direction here excels in build-up and payoff and really makes all the scenes with the dinosaurs feel even more impactful and suspenseful than they had any right to be.

The one exception to all this is a scene with Xavier and the raptors. As he's taking a moment to relieve himself, two Velociraptors creep up on him, only to get ambushed by a Mutadon and...the scene is mostly focused on Xavier and his reaction to what's happening behind him with him mostly obscuring the Mutadon while it's attacking the raptors. I can't even...who thought that was a good idea? This was our first impression of the Mutadon and they make it so you can barely see what's going on? This is like Michael Bay levels of weird priorities on what to focus on. That was so weird and so unnecessary since all the other dinosaur action focuses on the dinosaurs completely, so what was that all about?

And of course, there's that stupid scene with the Snickers wrapper causing a systems failure. Even in execution, the scene doesn't look any less dumb than it sounded. How pathetic is the security system in this lab where a SNICKERS WRAPPER getting sucked up into a door causes the whole thing to fail? I just can't understand how somebody got paid to type this into the script and someone got paid to edit said script and approve it!

As is, the visuals are where the most amount of praise I can give this movie will go to as they're the best thing about the movie. Too bad the writing wasn't as strong as the cinematography was here...

Conclusion

Jurassic World: Rebirth is the most OK movie in the franchise for me. It's not good by any means, but I can't really call it bad either. It'd rank it above Jurassic Park III and Jurassic World: Dominion by any means. As is, it's still one of the weaker movies for me thanks to its paint-by-numbers plot, its undoing of the set-up from previous sequels and pretty bland characters. But it is saved from being terrible thanks to some fantastic scenes with the dinosaurs, a suspenseful tone that keeps the tension rising, beautiful direction and eye-catching cinematography. I'd only recommend this to the really, really, REALLY die-hard Jurassic Park crowd. If you're a casual fan of the franchise, you can skip this one as I wouldn't say it's that important you see it. For me, I'll be happy to end the franchise here for now. No more movies for me, I think they've done all they can and we're just going to keep rehashing the same thing over and over if they keep on going at this point. Am I quitting the franchise entirely? Hell no! I'm going to check out the animated spin-offs Camp Cretaceous and Chaos Theory and I'm highly anticipating the release of Jurassic World: Evolution 3 when that comes out. I'm done with the movies, but I'm not done with the franchise by a long shot...

And that's it for this review. I hope you enjoyed it and I invite you all to share your thoughts down below. Did you enjoy Jurassic World: Rebirth? Did you not enjoy it? Do let me know.

Next week, I'm reviewing the next summer blockbuster of July, Superman. See you then media fans!

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