Jurassic World Rebirth Is Missing One Vital Element That Improved Every Other Movie In The Series

This post contains spoilers for “Jurassic World Rebirth.”

The “Jurassic Park” and “Jurassic World” movies have been by far the biggest name in dinosaur cinema for more than 30 years. Dating back to director Steven Spielberg’s original blockbuster classic in 1993, these movies have been associated with their groundbreaking technology. In particular, “Jurassic Park” is known for pioneering CGI in filmmaking, but it didn’t rely entirely on computer-generated dinosaurs — the key was its blend of CGI with impressive, practical animatronic dinosaurs which helped the whole thing feel tangible. It’s in that area that the latest entry in the franchise, “Jurassic World Rebirth,” is sorely lacking.

Directed by Gareth Edwards (“Godzilla,” “Rogue One”), the new film is set five years after the events of “Jurassic World Dominion.” The planet’s ecology is largely inhospitable for dinosaurs, and the majority that remain now exist in isolated environments near the equator, far removed from humanity. A team is sent to Ile Saint-Hubert, a former research facility used by Jurassic World scientists, to collect dino DNA that holds the key to a drug that could bring miraculous life-saving benefits.

The film is overflowing with dinosaurs, including some new ones, such as the mutant D-rex. The problem? Every single one of them was created through CGI. There’s not a single practical dinosaur puppet in sight, and no animatronics to speak of. While some of the CGI is admittedly impressive, the lack of those practical dinos is noticeable.

“Dominion,” for all of its faults, had quite a few puppeted dinosaurs in the final film. Some of those animatronics were rather impressive, including in several shots of the Giganotosaurus. Those moments almost make the ride worth it. (Almost — there are many amongst us who still aren’t ready to forgive the whole “giant locusts” thing.)

Even though the films absolutely relied more heavily on CGI, all of the previous entries in the “Jurassic World” era included animatronic dinosaurs. At one point, producer Frank Marshall boasted that “Fallen Kingdom” had more animatronics than any of the other sequels. Again, one is entitled to their own opinion on these films, but it’s fair to say that the presence of those practical animals was welcome.

So why did “Rebirth” skimp on practical effects as it relates to the dinosaurs? /Film’s Jeremy Mathai spoke with Gareth Edwards and asked him about that very thing, with the filmmaker offering the following explanation:

“My background was computer graphics, visual effects. The thing you learn the hard way, I guess, on some of these movies is you go to a lot of trouble doing something practical and sometimes you end up replacing it in the computer. It can be really worth it, because it was a great reference, it gave the actor something to react to on set, and it can all be great. But we had a year and a quarter, and so it felt like we didn’t have time to do pre-vis, all that animation that people do before with the stunt sequences and set pieces. It also felt like animatronics — like big, cool, crazy animatronics — were not going to happen in time and all would’ve been a lot of resources and time and we could probably [not] have got through this one with just puppets and stuff.”

Edwards made great use of CGI to create the various kaiju in 2014’s “Godzilla.” He also used CGI to make his feature directorial debut, “Monsters,” feel cinematic on the cheap, and of course he directed “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” which used a brilliant combination of practical effects and CGI, making for a much better final product. That unfortunately wasn’t the case with his entry in the “Jurassic” saga.

As for the director’s explanation? There’s a lot to examine there. I’m not a filmmaker, so I can’t speak to how often practical effects don’t work out. What I do know for sure is that this movie seemed to come together very quickly. It wasn’t even announced that “Jurassic Park” screenwriter David Koepp was coming back to pen this movie until January 2024. An 18-month turnaround time for a blockbuster of this size is very short.

More than anything, it seems like that time crunch prevented Edwards and the rest of the filmmakers from being able to rely on animatronics. These things take lots of time to build, and they can be tricky. The T-rex in “Jurassic Park” famously kept breaking because of the rain during its most important scene. Spielberg had to work around that, but the end result is perhaps one of the most thrilling scenes in the history of popular cinema.

Alas, Universal wanted this movie to happen quickly in order to meet this summer 2025 release date. That’s the nature of the business sometimes — it’s just as much about commerce as it is about the art of filmmaking. In this case, Edwards and his team had to do what made sense on a shorter timeline and that meant relying much more on CGI. The Spinosaurus from “Jurassic Park III” may be one of the greatest animatronics in the history of the series, but here? The Spinos are all CGI creatures, and one would be hard-pressed to say they look as good.

Unfortunately, that’s something the audience can feel. Just to put my cards on the table, I did like “Rebirth” a whole lot more than “Fallen Kingdom” or “Dominion,” but by far the best moments in those movies involve practical creature effects. Granted, practical puppets alone can’t fully redeem a movie, but one can’t help but wonder how much this movie might have benefited from some of those practical touches that improved every other film in the history of this franchise.

“Jurassic World Rebirth” is in theaters now.