Jurassic World Rebirth review: formulaic reboot with thrilling chase scenes
The dinosaurs are the real stars of this movie ... which means that actors Jonathan Bailey, Scarlett Johansson and Mahershala Ali don’t need to try very hard.
“Keep running! They’re amphibious.” This is where a scientist comes in handy when you’re on an illegal mission to extract blood from dinosaurs. The scientist in question is Henry Loomis (English actor Jonathan Bailey) and the amphibious beast is a carnivorous Spinosaurus.
He’s part of a team led by mercenaries Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson) and Duncan Kincaid (dual Oscar winner Mahershala Ali) who have decided to go where the wild things are. “No-one’s dumb enough to go where we’re going,’’ Duncan remarks as he heads exactly in that direction.
Welcome to Jurassic World Rebirth, the seventh film in the franchise inspired by Michael Critchon’s 1990 novel Jurassic Park. It’s directed by British filmmaker Gareth Edwards, new to the series, and written by American screenwriter David Koepp, who co-wrote the first film with Crichton.
You don’t need to have seen any of the previous instalments to watch this one. Here’s the set-up: three decades since they returned to the world, dinosaurs are old hat with the ticket-buying public. Most of them have returned to extinction but some still live in the wild near the equator.
A pharmaceutical company (aka the baddie) run by Martin Krebs (British actor Rupert Friend) believes blood samples from three colossal dinosaurs the aquatic Mosasaurus, the airborne Quetzalcoatl and the land-based Titanosaurus - will lead to a heart drug that will let humans live longer and make “trillions”.
The dinosaurs are chosen for their longevity. They live up to 100 years. So do Galapagos tortoises, as Dr Loomis should know, but there’s no Hollywood movie in hunting them down.
So Krebs, Dr Loomis and the mercenaries head into equatorial waters and Mosasaurus and Spinosaurus turn up and decide to rock the boat. Ditto to a yacht skippered by a man and crewed by his daughters, one late teens, one younger, and the older one’s boyfriend. This means we now have civilians involved.
Some of the action is spectacular, especially the water-based scenes involving the Mosasaurus. There’s also a terrific chase sequence in which a Tyrannosaurus shows it can swim and bite at the same time. The dinosaurs are the stars of the show and the actors, talented as they are, don’t have to try very hard.
Overall this is a formulaic – no prizes for guessing who will and won’t be a T-Rex’s amuse bouche – piece of light entertainment. As the M rating suggests pre-teens may find it a bit scary, but older kids may well find it funny, as this senior viewer did.
Jurassic World: Rebirth (M)
134 minutes
In cinemas
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