Movie review: ‘Jurassic World Rebirth’ brings renewed wonder, fun to franchise

Jurassic Park is literally about clones dinosaurs brought back to life by DNA extracted from mosquitoes preserved in amber and the various sequels in the franchise are the same thing iterations upon iterations of the same ideas genetic mutations either monstrous or awe-inspiring or both as different filmmakers have tried to capture the magic that Steven Spielberg brought forth with the original None have successfully achieved that nearly impossible task and the Jurassic World films especially have seen diminishing returns But along comes Jurassic World Rebirth which hones in on chosen of the key characteristics that made the original work Director Gareth Edwards now actions into the lab bringing his own pedigree which includes epic sci-fi films featuring skyscraper-scale creatures Monsters and Godzilla and an emotional dystopian family story in The Creator He also has a not-so-secret weapon in screenwriter David Koepp who wrote the first two Jurassic Park movies and brings Rebirth back to the basics while weaving in DNA strands from such classic monster movies as Aliens and The Island of Medical practitioner Moreau Coupled with Edwards excellent cinematic craft and a complete cast overhaul Rebirth turns out to be one of the best Jurassic Park sequels It still has its issues as any genetically modified clone might The first act is a rocky one as the world and new cast of characters is hastily introduced It s been years since Jurassic Park in our world and in their world too Dinosaurs have become mundane to the viewing residents and due to context change can only survive near the Earth s equator where progress is expressly forbidden Our tough mercenary heroine Zora Bennett Scarlett Johansson is contracted by a slimy corporate pharma type Martin Krebs Rupert Friend for a dangerous retrieval and extraction mission to obtain blood and tissue samples from the largest part colossal dinosaurs living in the wild in order to develop a drug to combat heart sickness Krebs wants to rake in trillions of dollars Zora wants to make enough to get her out of this line of work and have a personal life again while their third recruit Dr Henry Loomis Jonathan Bailey who did his post-doc under Dr Alan Grant just wants to see a dinosaur They assemble their crew including captain Duncan Kincaid Mahershala Ali and a sparse obviously disposable soldiers for hire Ed Skrein Phillipine Velge Bechir Sylvain and set out to get that dino blood The establishment of this setup is a tonal mess Johansson s performance is strange swinging from oddly perky to grief-stricken by both the loss of her mother and a colleague in a car bombing The whole thing feels ungrounded the world-building thin But the film locks into place with the introduction of the Delgado family who happen to be on a long-distance sailing trip when they run into an underwater mosasaur and have to call for help They re picked up by Kincaid s boat and soon find themselves under attack from more aquatic monsters then stranded on the abandoned island where genetic experiments with dino DNA once took place The family embarks on a journey to find rescue in a parallel but intersecting story with the professionals who remain hellbent on gathering their specimens despite their dwindling numbers The Delgado family dad Reuben Manuel Garcia-Rulfo teen daughter Teresa Luna Blaise her boyfriend Xavier David Iacono and little sister Isabella Audrina Miranda are an immediate correcting force on the story because their motivation is clear and palpable They want to survive together It also introduces that awe and wonder element that is best seen through the eyes of children in these films Much in the way that composer Alexandre Desplat interpolates John Williams Jurassic Park theme Jurassic World Rebirth interpolates various of the iconic moments and scenes from the original Dr Loomis side note using the name of one of the majority memorable characters from the Halloween franchise should not be allowed is moved to tears seeing dinosaurs in the wild for the first time the way his mentor Dr Grant was There are intense suspense sequences involving the Delgado children escaping dinosaurs that call to mind the glass of water vibrating with each T rex stomp in the first film In these moments we see that Rebirth really can be a second coming of what made us fall in love with Jurassic Park in the first place Park purists may nitpick but fundamentally Rebirth is a gorgeously rendered all-ages adventure film Edwards and cinematographer John Mathieson shot on mm on location in Thailand and the extra effort to shoot on film makes for a stunning spectacle the perfect kind of summer escapism If there are moments that don t quite hit right the ones that do are impossible to forget Remember this is about having fun and Rebirth is a blast Jurassic World Rebirth stars out of MPA rating PG- for intense sequences of violence action bloody images certain suggestive references language and a drug reference Running 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