‘JURASSIC WORLD REBIRTH’ Review: A Franchise Refurbished Yet Not Restored

Courtney Howard // Film Critic

JURASSIC WORLD REBIRTH

Rated PG-13, 2 hours and 14 minutes

Directed by: Gareth Edwards

Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, Rupert Friend, Mahershala Ali, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Luna Blaise, Audrina Miranda, David Iacono, Ed Skrein, Bechir Sylvain, Philippine Velge

There are two nail-biting, white-knuckle sequences tucked deep inside JURASSIC WORLD REBIRTH. The trouble is making it to the picture’s midway point requires patience and enough stamina to stay awake. While director Gareth Edwards and writer David Koepp manage to keep their audiences’ desires in mind by delivering epic, dino-mite mayhem, their attempts at pulling human stakes and conflicts into focus aren’t nearly as successful. Their joint effort emptily channels film references without innovating nor improving upon them and, worse, their character constructions and dynamics are weightless and reductive of others in the franchise.

Years after running rampant all over the world, dinosaurs are, once again, facing the harsh reality of extinction, dying off due to age, disease and our planet’s inhospitable ecological changes. God forbid anyone explicitly says the words “climate change” in a summer tentpole (a la TWISTERS, who couldn’t do it either so as not to alienate conservatives). Those remaining are relegated to a territorial band around the equator where the tropical temps are habitable and, as a precautionary measure, humans have been banned from traveling. Naturally, one of those deserted islands that houses an abandoned InGen research facility, in addition to a new crop of colossal cuties, is where we’re headed.

Slick, morally-shifty Big Pharma rep Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend) recruits whip-smart former special ops agent Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson), her trusted ex-military pal Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali), neurotic paleontologist Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) and arrogant chief of security Bobby Atwater (Ed Skrein) to conduct an under the radar mission. Zora and her assembled teammates are to gather blood and tissue from three of the biggest beasts – the seafaring monster Mosasaurus, the airborne Quetzalcoatlus and the land-dwelling Titanosaurus – as these samples might be the cure for heart disease. However, their plan goes haywire once a shipwrecked family of 4 – Dad Reuben (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), his cute-as-a-button youngest daughter Isabella (Audrina Miranda), headstrong teen Teresa (Luna Blaise) and her slacker boyfriend Xavier (David Iacono) – shows up and those easy extractions prove perilous.

This franchise’s fresh restart doesn’t exactly herald a restored glory befitting the original’s legacy. The filmmakers shamelessly play the hits. Instead of trusting the audience to understand homage, these references are pushy, hoisting nostalgic fan service upon us, from the utilization of John Williams’ iconic theme (played three times when once is truly enough) to the sequences that pull an almost 1:1 riff on JURASSIC PARK (like the Titanosaurus’ mating ritual replicating the brachiosaurus reveal and the mini-mart stalking by Mutadons replicating the harrowing kitchen stalking by raptors). Whether it be the scenarios or production design, audiences will have an incredibly easy time spotting allusions to JAWS, ALIEN, ALIENS and RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. Yet none of these tributes go beyond the superficial as the filmmakers forget to put their own ingenious spin on them.

Characters are also refurbished models from previous incarnations. Krebs seemingly shares DNA strains with the 1993 feature’s cowardly lawyer, psychotic zookeeper and Wayne Knight’s crooked opportunist. JURASSIC WORLD’s Han Solo-inspired persona is now a gender-swapped version, albeit far more palatably performed by Johansson than the wise-cracking charmer role was ever played by Pratt. And the stranded family’s strife pulls wafts of influence from JURASSIC PARK II and III.

Koepp clunkily establishes that half of our heroes are shouldering trauma. Zora’s PTSD over her partner’s death, Duncan’s grief over the loss of his toddler son, Henry’s disheartening dwindling career and Rueben’s ill-advised adventure to keep his family together post-divorce are all introduced without much finesse and few payoffs. The character drama adds tangible lulls in energy and not much else, which is frustrating as with a sharper polish, these folks’ dynamics could’ve been genuinely emotionally resonant.

Worst of all, the picture talks out of both sides of its mouth. Rueben clearly wants to teach his kids responsibility, however he’s irresponsibly taking his family into a well-publicized danger zone. A quick chastising by the equally morally compromised crew (which feels like a studio note barely being addressed) aboard the Essex lands with a dull thud. The filmmakers falter in adding any depth surrounding the inhumane experiments on these frightening behemoths, coming up short in terms of animal and environmental advocacy. Its sentiments speaking to man’s hubris playing God as helping humanity’s survival instead of harming directly negates JURASSIC PARK author Michael Crichton’s version of the Frankenstein Myth.

Though the humans frequently clutter the building momentum, the dinosaur action doesn’t disappoint. Koepp’s adaptation of the author’s hyper-intense river raft sequence is the show-stopping number. Editor Jabez Olssen’s cuts, composer Alexandre Desplat’s soaring score, and the visual effects team’s handiwork on the terrifying T-Rex brilliantly work in chorus, causing us to grip our armrests. The propulsive tension is electrically-charged. Henry and Zora’s jagged cliffside adventures, getting tangled up in their rock climbing gear and losing their grip on their procured sample mixes thrills and a little slapstick comedy, demonstrating Edwards’ fearless approach to sustaining tension in a “spinning plates” Big Action Set Piece.

Still, its magic act distracting us from our real world woes wears thin before the inevitable climactic escape off the island. Edwards and co gently step over the low bar with their entry, ranking better than our last outing in this universe – JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION – which sidelined the dinosaur antics in favor of a story focused on a tween clone girl and locusts. But rehashing Steven Spielberg’s creature feature in the most basic of ways fails to transport us back to the glory days of the original feature where we first experienced gob-smacking awe and wonder seeing these regenerated prehistoric creatures tower on screen. This rebirth needed a bit more reconsidering about whether it’s the right time for a return.

Grade: C-

JURASSIC WORLD REBIRTH opens in theaters on July 2.