This Back-To-Basics Dino Flick Gets Stuck In The Mud

Someday, assuming we’re not all extinct by then, future film historians will be able to look back at the “Jurassic” franchise and chart a pretty clear trajectory of studio filmmaking across thirty-odd years of fits and starts. Like a fossil perfectly preserved in amber, Steven Spielberg’s 1993 classic stands out as one of an elite few that helped defined summer blockbusters in the first place. What followed over the next several decades, in stark contrast, would be a number of attempts to recreate the same magic to increasingly diminished returns. Despite no obvious sequel setup, “The Lost World: Jurassic Park” begrudgingly returned to another dinosaur-infested island retroactively crowbarred into the canon. Joe Johnston then took a B-movie approach to “Jurassic Park III” for a throwback adventure flick that was rushed into production without a final script. And as for the “Jurassic World” films, well, let’s just say you don’t need a PhD in paleontology to figure out how those bloated monstrosities showcase the worst of modern moviemaking.

In that light, it’s both fitting and maddening that “Jurassic World Rebirth” turns into a Frankenstein’s monster amalgamation of seemingly every previous installment put together. Caught between picking up the pieces after the locust-ridden trilogy-capper “Dominion” and forging a new path for the franchise, this merely becomes the latest in a uniquely 2020s trend of “requels” — a missing link in the evolutionary chain of big-budget brand extensions that simply can’t stand on their own two (er, four?) feet. On some level, that’s understandable. You’d have to search far and wide to find anyone on the planet left untouched by the original “Jurassic Park” and the intimidatingly long shadow it casts. But, by the same token, at what point do we finally acknowledge the awkward titanosaur in the room and make a concerted effort to actually do something, you know, new?

The most complementary and damning aspect of “Rebirth” is that it comes closer than most of its predecessors to pulling it off … but not quite. Compared to the high highs and low lows of all the previous movies (somehow, that infamous talking raptor from “Jurassic Park III” represents both at the same time), director Gareth Edwards’ newest film is content to shift to a lower gear of narrative drive and remain there for much of its 134-minute runtime. To put that in more generous terms, this stripped-down approach feels like the perfect response to a story that hadn’t so much as flown off the rails as it had annihilated the entire rollercoaster and surrounding theme park from orbit. “Rebirth” keeps things simple, stupid, by contrast — and almost to a fault. Where does that leave us with a series with carte blanche to take things in any number of directions? Ultimately, this creature feature shoots for the skies and ends up stuck in the mud … though not for a lack of trying.

Set five years after the events of the previous film, “Jurassic World Rebirth” begins with a ponderous opening act that mostly resembles force-feeding broccoli to audiences so they can get to the dessert. After a horror-tinged prologue that feels like Murphy’s Law and chaos theory smashing together to create one big, ugly, mutant dino-spawn, we’re introduced to Rupert Friend’s pharma-bro company man Martin Krebs. Possibly the most deliciously slimy human antagonist since Dennis Nedry in the original (think Martin Shkreli by way of Elon Musk), he pitches mercenary Zora Bennett (a perpetually stoic and almost impressively unemotive Scarlett Johansson) on the mission of a lifetime. A possible cure to heart disease is within reach, though only if Krebs’ researcher pals can get their hands on DNA belonging to three ancient creatures living within a narrow band of habitable environments near the equator: a long-necked Titanosaurus by land, a fearsome Mosasaurus by sea, and a massive Quetzalcoatlus by air.

This deceptively simple setup, courtesy of “Jurassic Park” screenwriter David Koepp, is both a gift and a curse for “Rebirth.” The good news? Director Gareth Edwards quickly proves himself to be the first and last line of defense, bringing his typically majestic sense of scale and intuitive understanding of visual effects so wonderfully on display in 2014’s “Godzilla” and “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.” Under the steady hands of Edwards and director of photography John Mathieson (“Gladiator,” “Kingdom of Heaven,” “Logan”), this at least boasts more richly-colored, cinematic, and dynamic visuals than anything we’ve seen from the property since the last time Spielberg sat in the director’s chair. Setting the action amid three completely different biomes works wonders, giving Edwards, the stunt team, and the production design ample opportunity to set up all sorts of spinning plates in the air before gleefully knocking them down. And, most impressively, “Rebirth” has just enough of a mean streak and merciless kills to give kids a horror-sized jolt — not too dissimilar from what Spielberg once did for us. Between the three main set pieces, the river raft sequence that truly makes the T-rex scary again, and a riff on the raptors in the kitchen sequence from the original, there’s plenty to sink your teeth into (pun unfortunately intended) here.

And now for the bad news. All the well-staged action in the world can’t make up for some of the most paper-thin protagonists you’ll ever come across in a mainstream movie. I suppose you could describe the various souls served up as dino-fodder throughout “Rebirth” as “characters,” but only in the broadest possible terms. Even as we follow our main cast of mercenaries journeying to the island, already a fatally flawed decision that sort of feels like making the mustache-twirling whale hunters in “Avatar: The Way of Water” into the good guys, a second storyline unfolds centering on divorced father Reuben (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) taking his daughters on a yacht outing across the most treacherous waters in the world. Audrina Miranda as young Isabella (who ends up befriending the cute baby dino named Dolores splashed all over the marketing) and Luna Blaise as Teresa make a compelling enough trio with their distant dad, but the frequent intrusions of Teresa’s lazy and obnoxiously cocky boyfriend Xavier (David Iacono) might as well be the cinematic equivalent of a pebble in a shoe. You’ll be wishing for his death every step of the way, believe me.

What’s frustrating is that, for all the flaws of “Rebirth,” they’d be easy enough to overlook if only the script trusted audiences enough to handle a movie that wasn’t constantly making us think of the various “Jurassic” sequels. Whenever we seem to be settling into the idiosyncratic rhythm and tone of this sequel, which feels like an intentional (and refreshing) swerve back to early 2000s adventure movies, we’re hit with almost nonstop references or winks and nods to the movies that came before. No, nothing’s nearly as distracting as seeing our aged trio of original characters forced into the action as in “Dominion,” but “objects in mirror” riffs, distinctive red flares, and shameless recreations of John Williams’ famous cues abound. Take the premise of “The Lost World,” mix it with the (relative) minimalism of “Jurassic World III,” and add a heaping dose of the forgettable humans from “Jurassic World,” and it can’t help but feel like “Rebirth” itself resembles the Mutadons or D-rex — a mutant created in a lab derived from other, occasionally better ideas.

It’s a shame, too, because the ingredients were there for as unique a dino flick as we’ve seen since Spanish filmmaker J. A. Bayona had the inspired idea to turn things into a haunted house of horrors two-thirds of the way into “Fallen Kingdom.” Alexandre Desplat’s rousing and almost tribal-music score is a fantastic addition to the franchise, as are several sight gags and visual sleight-of-hand tricks that Gareth Edwards deploys to killer effect. Elsewhere, you can practically sense “Rebirth” clawing against the constraints of blockbuster filmmaking these days. The dialogue feels too slick and rapid-fire by half, even as Edwards tries his best to allow certain moments the time and space to breathe. Unfortunately, the clunkiest instance of this comes when Zora and boat pilot Duncan (Mahershala Ali) bond over their shared trauma early on by, uh, literally spelling out their shared trauma. What little arcs our main heroes get comes from the cynical Zora and idealistic paleontologist Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) sparring over what to do with the invaluable DNA: hand it over to their pharmaceutical overlords to make ungodly amounts of profit, or “open source” it for the world to truly benefit. Beyond that, don’t expect much of substance from this popcorn movie.

As is so often the case, your expectations going in will ultimately dictate your response coming out. On paper, a “Jurassic” sequel paying homage to “Jaws” and “Indiana Jones” by the director of “Godzilla” feels like nothing short of a win. And, to his credit, Edwards immediately injects “Rebirth” with a sense of stakes and tension that the entirety of the previous trilogy struggled to depict. But every time the plot kicks in again and writer David Koepp’s script goes through the motions of a standard “Jurassic” movie, those dizzying peaks soon begin to flatten out into overgrown valleys. For those simply hoping for a watchable movie on the heels of the disastrous “Dominion,” your wish has been granted with a safe rehash punctuated by a handful of genuine thrills. For everyone else curious about whether this was the ticket to teaching old dinos new tricks? The inherent limits of the “Jurassic” IP are as glaring as ever.

/Film Rating: 5.5 out of 10

“Jurassic World Rebirth” hits theaters July 2, 2025.