Jurassic World: Rebirth (2025)

Score: 4 / 5

In an age when everyone wants to shove their opinions down your throat -- most of them negative -- find your joy. Jurassic World: Rebirth had me in jubilation most of the summer, and its simple pleasures I hold dear to my heart. Anyone who loves dinosaurs, adventure, and this franchise will find boons here. Skipping the self-explanatory narrative, then, let's just hit on the major points of interest.

With Gareth Edwards (Godzilla, Rogue One, The Creator) at the helm, and boasting a return to the series by master screenwriter David Koepp, the latest installment in the long-running series strips us of characters and locations we already know. Apart from general "vibes" and the adventure-gone-awry loose narrative structure, Rebirth feels less like one of the original Park films and more like a love letter to both Steven Spielberg and Michael Crichton. That might be appropriate, as its science fiction trappings are taken to an extreme here only previously hinted at: many of the dinosaurs in this film are the result of genetic experimentation, underscoring the ungodly methods used by wealthy men playing God.

Its setting is worthy of note: this film relocates the action to a new island, Ile Saint-Hubert, in the Atlantic. While I don't mind the globetrotting in principle or in practice -- look at Dominion for proof that it can work, though this film skips right ahead to a time when many of Earth's dinosaurs have died or migrated to remote, protected tropical regions -- it's bothersome here that the island houses an abandoned InGen factory. Why, I've asked before and apparently must again, why doesn't this franchise simply capitalize on the other islands in the archipelago Las Cinco Muertes, established in The Lost World seemingly for just this purpose? Why must we illogically move now to an island in the Atlantic that looks suspiciously like Thailand (where it was actually filmed)?

Edwards seems more constrained by studio dictates here, and eager to play it safe with the thrills and violence in this story. Few and far between are real scares here, as Edwards and Koepp work hard to instead increase character depth and development. We're encouraged to better identify with these characters than most in the series, and we sit with them through highly dramatic dialogue for lengthy bits of time. While this works to emotionally invest us in their experience, it does so by limiting our exposure to rampant death (contrasted with Jurassic World, for instance). There's also something lost, viscerally, by a complete (or, perhaps, near-complete) lack of animatronics and an overreliance on computer-generated creatures, and you can absolutely sense it this time around.

Thus it felt somewhat ironic that the film's central theme is the corrupting influence of capitalism; arguably, indeed, that capitalism is itself the real monster at work in this franchise. It's been part of the Jurassic cosmology since its inception, of course, but this film beats us over the head with the message. To that end, while the characters build up and riff off this central conceit -- and, admittedly, in believable and compelling ways -- there are so very many characters, and all new, that the theme begins to feel a bit overwrought. Thankfully, the characters are played off each other well enough that we never feel bogged down, as we know that soon enough they'll stumble into another dinosaur to cause some action.

The adult cast is uniformly excellent, as I don't think anyone would have doubted. The three leads -- Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, and Mahershala Ali -- are exceptionally convincing together, and you can feel their joie de vivre at being part of this romp. There is a curious and, to me, often unwelcome subplot involving a young family who unwittingly get caught up in monster mayhem and need to be saved. It feels tacked-on and unnecessary, inexplicably stupid, and distractingly under-baked; the father, his two daughters, and the elder daughter's boyfriend are obnoxious and melodramatic, scraping for laughs and mostly unable to get them. I can't even say the actors perform well in these terribly misconceived roles. Thankfully, we get to experience Rupert Friend's villainous side, and that's always welcome.

Where the film skimps in its worldbuilding -- and I do mean that, because the prologue is profoundly, shockingly stupid, and ripped from the prologue to Edwards's Godzilla -- it makes up in sheer beauty and awe. Alexandre Desplat's score pays homage to John Williams while crafting moments of stirring sentiment and rousing aural spectacle. Accomplished cinematographer John Mathieson captures the towering monoliths of the island jungle with sweeping pans, gorgeous helicopter views, and some golden hour photography now seared into my brains. The film relishes in its daylight, and though it features its share of nighttime sequences, the best are bravely and wisely in clear illumination. And several sequences rank firmly among the best of the franchise, including an extended boat chase and a later sequence in an inflatable raft on river rapids. Melodrama is more palatable when it's interrupted by such masterfully suspenseful set pieces.

Your mileage on this film -- and on this series -- may vary, but do the rest of us a favor and bellyache about it to yourself. We know the CGI, the monstrous dinos, and the child actors are subpar (although I detest the "Distortus Rex," I love the "Mutadons," and there ain't no way to convince me otherwise on that count). We know the illogical jump in time after Dominion wasn't wise and sparks more questions, and we know there are plenty of other ways entries could (and should) be made for this franchise. But some of us are just here for beautiful people running from beautiful dinosaurs that eat them, and that's our joy. Let us have that.