The dinosaur novelty is wearing off, if it isn’t already completely gone.
A decade ago, the “Jurassic Park” franchise was revived after its original trilogy ended unceremoniously with “Jurassic Park III” in 2001. Similar to the original trilogy, the sequel “Jurassic World” trilogy began with warm critical reception but stumbled along with two sequels and came to an underwhelming conclusion with “Jurassic World Dominion.”
It seemed like a time to let the series take a break — perhaps not as long a break as between the first two trilogies, but enough to let audiences get over being dinosaured-out and build up a craving for the franchise’s novelty. Instead, just three years later we now have yet another “Jurassic” movie with a new story, new characters and new dinos.
“Jurassic World Rebirth” does its best to go back to the series’ formula of using dinosaurs as horror-type characters that create tension, which the previous movie lacked. The premise of “Rebirth” is that a group of colorful characters — including mercenaries, a scientist and a corporate executive — venture to retrieve dinosaur DNA from one of the last places the creatures are able to sustain life, an island named Ile Saint-Hubert, to which travel is forbidden by governments worldwide.
The island is also the site of a previous InGen lab used to create genetically mutated dinosaurs. Seventeen years before the movie takes place, a six-limb mutant dinosaur called “Distortus rex” escaped from its captivity and terrorized the lab, forcing InGen to abandon the island. After being introduced in the opening-credits scene, its presence lingers as the main characters traverse the isle.
This premise is a solid foundation for a tense and action-packed movie, and at times “Rebirth” does prosper from the dino-based thrills that give these films their allure. However, we’ve simply seen this story too many times now, rendering a lot of the thrills in this outing cheap.
Audiences have already seen the genetically modified dinosaur trope in two out of the previous three films, so its enjoyability is reliant on its execution. The execution here is lackluster — after the opening scene, the D-rex is seldom even suggested until the final 20 minutes, and there’s nothing particularly noteworthy about the mutant itself. It’s big and has six limbs and a beluga-like head, but otherwise it’s no more distinct than other mutant dinosaurs from the series.
The story and happenings that build up to the final D-rex encounter are so-so at best. Compounding the effect of worn-off novelty is the movie’s mediocre script, which makes the dinosaur scenes often feel cheesy and the expositional scenes feel stale.
Character depth is another concern, as despite each person’s theoretical uniqueness, their dialogue is frequently eye roll-worthy and their backstories are superficial. The cast features some very charismatic actors, but the subpar lines force them to overcompensate and come off overly quippy. Mahershala Ali’s character is probably the best among the bunch, as Ali naturally exudes charm and his lines are usually not the expositional type that are easy to overdo.
The movie isn’t all bad — given that CGI generally gets better as time passes, the visuals in this film are effective, and the abandoned-island setting allows for some beautiful landscapes. The pacing is also reasonably effective; the film takes its time before the characters get to the island, but once there things move at a more dynamic rate.
The bottom line is that what viewers get out of the movie directly correlates to what their expectations are going in. “Rebirth” comes too soon after the other “Jurassic World” movies to hope for a sense of newness, and in it there’s no awe-inspiring story to be found. On a very fundamental level, however, it’s an in-the-moment fun movie with plenty of dinosaur action to boot, and for many that’ll be adequate.
Until a long break or a fresh type of story and style, “adequate” might just be the bar these movies are trying to reach.
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