Despite the impressive scale and a few heart-in-the-mouth moments, too many flimsy characters make it all seem rather toonish. On the other hand, the script also fails to hit the right notes
Jurassic World: Rebirth review
Film: Jurassic World: Rebirth
Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, Jonathan Bailey, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Luna Blaise, Audrina Miranda, David Iacono, Rupert Friend
Director: Gareth Edwards
Rating: 2.5 stars
Runtime: 134 min
This latest installment in the decadent franchise is directed by Gareth Edwards and is a messy markup of thrills, adventure, and mutant dinosaur mayhem. Jurassic Park writer David Koepp returns to the Dino board with a script that doesn’t quite hit the right notes or create a believable polemic. The scale is impressive, and there are a few heart-in-the-mouth moments, but too many flimsy characters make it all seem rather toonish.
The main cast, consisting of reputed, critically acclaimed actors, behave as though they are game for this big-ticket adventure, but their conversations leave you bored, and the plodding first half can really test your patience. The movie does perk up from time to time in quick bursts of kinesis. Some of the sequences are racy - particularly the one in an abandoned convenience store and the other in a giant, cliff-side nest.
It’s five years after the incidents of Jurassic World: Dominion (2022). Dinosaurs are no longer as threatening as they once were. You would even find one lurking in the waters of a New York City river, and no one would be surprised or wary. A Big Pharma Parker-Genix’s Rep Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend) hires Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson) to lead a team consisting of Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) a paleontologist, Bobby Atwater (Ed Skrein), Nina (Philippine Velge), Leclerc (Bechir Sylvain) and Duncan Kincaid (Mehershala Ali) who is to captain the boat that will take them to the Isle Saint-Hubert, where they are expected to trek through isolated equatorial regions to extract DNA from three massive prehistoric creatures for a groundbreaking medical breakthrough.
Koepp adds unnecessary characters so that the Dinosaurs can have a variegated potential kill. Zora’s team ends up adding a father (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), his two daughters (Luna Blaise and Audrina Miranda), and the older daughter’s vagabond boyfriend (David Iacono), fresh from a sailboat wreck.
Zora’s team enters the island and realises it was once used for creating mutant hybrids for the Jurassic World park. A Distortus rex a mutated Tyrannosaurus rex with six limbs, poses a grave threat to the team. They also see Mutadons which are not as scary as the D-Rex.
Rebirth has majestic, aerial, sweeping shots of mountains and valleys. But there’s no wonder in the focus. There’s an emotional disconnect that cannot be overlooked. The survival thriller feels overloaded by half-baked ideas and indifferent characterisations.
Jurassic World: Rebirth” looks good visually, thanks to beautiful imagery by veteran cinematographer John Mathieson. Alexandre Desplat’s score makes the adventure invigorating. A few sight gags add moderate excitement to the proceedings. You don’t get a variety of dinosaurs, the focus is concentrated on a few. The CGI is good. The scenes involving the Mosasaurus and the T-Rex were well done. The action doesn’t feel original even though some of it is thrilling. Rebirth doesn’t do much to be different from its earlier franchise installments, but it manages to generate a few high-tension, scary moments.
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
