Star Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, Mahershala Ali, Rupert Friend, and Manuel Garcia-Rulfo.
Director: Gareth Edwards
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What’s Bad: The script is shallow and incoherent, while the CGI feels unfinished in the worst possible ways.
Loo Break: The boat ride feels like it will never end, so you can go and take a break right there if you need it.
Watch or Not?: This is a pass and one of the most disappointing franchise installments of recent times.
Language: English (with subtitles).
Available On: Theaters
Runtime: 134 Minutes.
User Rating:
When the original Jurassic Park came out in 1993, it became a phenomenon, showcasing the latest advancements in computer-generated imagery and animatronics. However, not even the film’s director, the legendary Steven Spielberg, was able to replicate the film’s success with its sequel. Since then, every single film in the franchise has felt somewhat of a let-down, maybe not at the box office but totally on a creative level. Jurassic World: Rebirth might finally be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
Jurassic World: Rebirth was written by David Koepp, the original film’s writer, and a Hollywood filmmaking veteran. You could say this is the ideal scenario, but the result speaks for itself with a movie that has no logical progression of its plot, lacks character development, or even interesting characters, and also tries to push social commentary that feels awkward and out of place. It feels like Koepp has run out of ideas, and so he goes back to the source, the original book by Michael Crichton, but cannot pull off the imagination of the original author.
Most of the characters feel like walking ideas instead of characters that will receive proper development throughout the story, and it doesn’t feel right because there is no one to latch onto in this new journey to the island. Every action sequence feels empty as there are no real stakes at work. There are also too many characters, with the script dividing our attention between two groups of characters, and none of them are interesting.
The script also does a lot of harm to the world-building that has been created for this universe since the original film came out. Now, in this universe, nobody cares about dinosaurs, and because of it, the film doesn’t care either, showing very little of the original creatures and deciding to go into a more “monster movie” route, which could be cool, but it is just not the Jurassic Park franchise.
There are also a lot of things happening in the movie with no real connection between them; themes are mentioned but never developed, characters get severely injured but then those injured are forgotten, and a lot more things that don’t make sense. It is really outstanding that a script like this passed through the review process and wasn’t given back to Koepp for a couple more drafts before shooting.
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The performances might be the film’s best part, with Scarlett Johansson serving as a great lead. The actress shows her experience in this kind of film, but, of course, the script brings her down, and she can only do so much to make things feel natural or believable. The same goes for Mahershala Ali, who brings his A-game as always, but it isn’t enough. There is just a lot of wasted potential here.
Rupert Friend makes his best caricature of a villain, and he does a good job at it, making his character easy to hate, but too ridiculous to take him seriously. Jonathan Bailey, on the other hand, tries his best, but his character is a downer, while Manuel Garcia-Ruflo and his family feel like something that was attached to the movie just for diversity’s sake, as it makes no sense for them to be on the island in the first place.
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Gareth Edwards made his name by delivering precisely this kind of monster movie, including his controversial take on Godzilla. However, while Edwards has proven to be a master when it comes to doing great visual sequences on the cheap side, his execution on Jurassic World: Rebirth feel lacking with too many homages to the original film, not allowing Rebirth to find its own identity, and also not caring very much for the script he was shooting, apparently.
The visual effects are also lacking. The Creator, Edward’s previous film, was a visual feast made with a budget under $100 million, so it is a surprise that a film with a budget of $180 million has such bad CGI. The dinosaurs feel weightless, and they feel like cut-and-paste over the live-action footage in the way that films from two decades ago did. It isn’t acceptable, and audiences will notice how fake and uninteresting the dinosaurs look.
Jurassic World: Rebirth is a disappointing blockbuster and a bad way to start the summer movie season. The technical side of the film lacks polish, and the script just doesn’t care about delivering a good or even coherent story. Scarlett Johansson and the rest of the cast do their best, but they have no chance when working with such weak material. This might be it for the Jurassic Park franchise for a while. Let us let the dinosaurs rest.
Jurassic World: Rebirth released on 04th July, 2025.
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