Jurassic World Rebirth (M)
Directed by: Gareth Evans
Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey
Review by: Julian Wright
It has been five years since the events of Jurassic World: Dominion – the dinos are dying out and people are bored of them anyway.
Surprise, surprise – 65-million-year-old species find it difficult to thrive in Earth’s current climates and eco-systems.
There are, however, species that have survived on a collection of islands near the equator (much closer to the climate they experienced back in the day), an area that is off-limits to humans.
But dino DNA could be a major key to medical breakthroughs that can save millions of human lives. Cha-ching!
So pharmaceutical representative Martin Kreb (Rupert Friend) dangles mega bucks to recruit covert ops specialist Zora (Scarlett Johansson) – plus her trusty crew with their own particular set of skills – and palaeontologist Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) to gather DNA from the three biggest dinos.
Thrown in for extra measure and run-time, is the family on a yachting holiday in dangerous waters who end up on the same deserted island as the DNA collectors.
Unfortunately, that island is home to an abandoned lab where a hybrid mega-dino was created – and escaped.
After an overblown trilogy of World films featuring Chris Pratt and a little clone girl (what were they thinking?), the series takes it back to basics and the Spielbergian tone of the Parks films.
Despite the plot set-up and multiple characters, this is a fairly straight forward action adventure with the usual moral food for thought mixed in.
Rebirth is not a bad effort as a stand-alone instalment, setting up characters that are unrelated to the previous stories, allowing a clean slate, fresh start and new canvas.
Unfortunately, the characters and actors are mostly charmless – Johansson is peculiarly low-key, her “do less” approach would be dull even in a thoughtful drama, let alone a run-for-your-life action/thriller.
Ditto for the immensely talented Mahershala Ali as her team leader, who, despite given a heroic arc, barely stands out among the action and carnage.
But we are here for the dinos, and dinos we get.
Director Gareth Evans (who visually references his own 2014 Godzilla film) crafts some of the series’ hairiest, most thrilling white-knuckle dino sequences (water raft vs T-Rex and abseiling vs Pterodactyl).
Even though Evans has come in at the seventh film, he still manages to excite and play with our nerves with these fascinating but deadly animals.
On the scale of Jurassic films, Rebirth sits slightly closer to the Parks than the previous Worlds – it is a rollicking time passer though unlikely to be revered like Spielberg’s classic.
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