The original Jurassic Park film is a classic, one that fans have deemed perfect in every way. Which has made sequels a hard thing to master. And yet with each new film in the franchise, it somehow gets worse. Luckily, Jurassic World Rebirth is a new kind of fun.
Rebirth brings us a new set of characters, trying obtain DNA from three different dinosaurs to try and help create a new kind of medicine. The catch is that an incredibly wealthy man named Martin (Rupert Friend) wants to take those resources to benefit big pharma. He hires Zora (Scarlett Johansson) and her team to head to the equator, where the dinosaurs now live, and the rest is Rebirth history.
Frankly, I think this is the most cohesive of the new films. While Jurassic Park was very much a cautionary tale about man and science, Rebirth takes the idea of scientific exploration and shows that they could use the science that Hammond brought them all to their advantage. But man is, as always, out for himself and so it isn’t an easy choice.
Zora brings her friend Duncan (Mahershala Ali) along with her on the ride and Martin asks Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) to come along for the trip. With the team set, the film hits all the typical beats of a Jurassic movie: There are scary dinosaurs, life-risking hikes, and a lot of callbacks to the original franchise. All of that really ended up working for me with Rebirth.
Nostalgia works, guys!
There are moments throughout Rebirth when you think “oh this is a callback to this.” One such being Ali dressed in a black button down shirt with a flare in his hand, much like Jeff Goldblum’s Dr. Ian Malcolm in the first film. The entire film does feel like a nod to Jurassic Park III with a bit of The Lost World mixed in and it all led to me thinking about how this felt like a rightful successor to those films.
Yes, Rebirth does make you remember that dinosaurs are just living in the world thanks to Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. But it isn’t completely tied to what the other three Jurassic World movies were doing, which is for the best.
I don’t think that Jurassic World Rebirth is a perfect movie. Far from it. But it is fun, which is part of what made Jurassic Park and Jurassic World such great movies. They understood the balance between the seriousness of the story while also having a bit of fun with their characters and the dinosaurs they were introducing to audiences.
Gareth Edwards made a fun summer blockbuster. It isn’t reinventing the franchise but it does show a clear path forward. After Jurassic World Dominion, it did seem as if the franchise maybe should have stopped. But luckily, Rebirth gives it a chance at a new life. It is imperfect but it does understand that these summer blockbusters can be fun so why not enjoy a new dino movie and just have a good time?
(featured image: Universal Pictures)
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