Despite the general consensus very much being that the last two Jurassic World features – 2018’s Fallen Kingdom and 2022’s Dominion – were vastly underwhelming in the manner in which they pushed the story forward, audiences pushing each film to over a billion dollars each at the box office meant that they ultimately didn’t seem to mind. It was a “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me,” type situation with the World sequels, and though this critic knew to enter the latest Jurassic World entry with far more caution, it was difficult to not be enticed by its proven director, the promise it was going to return to its scarier story origins, and an ensemble cast of tested charisma.
Thankfully, for both myself as a burned fan and the general audiences who want a change of pace from the Chris Pratt-led series, Jurassic World Rebirth, fittingly, breathes new life into proceedings by, ironically, embracing the beats that made the original Jurassic Park such a success. Director Gareth Edwards, no stranger to helming creature features (Godzilla), franchise titles (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) and stories around technological mishaps (The Creator), evokes the Spielberg spirit across this film’s 134 minutes, blending moments of spectacle with surprising intimacy and emotion.
The world that was initially created in the original Jurassic World trilogy still feels untapped, and after Dominion finished on the rather unexplored note of what a world would look like where dinosaurs truly roamed free, screenwriter David Koepp, who wrote the original Jurassic Park and its sequel, The Lost World, turned to author Michael Crichton‘s words and leaned into his science-based premises, deciding on a new age of human-dinosaur co-existence that wouldn’t last long due to most of the modern world proving inhospitable, if not toxic, to creatures indigenous to the Mesozoic Era. And so, in Rebirth, dinosaurs are in danger of extinction once more; the only places they continue to thrive are the tropical climes along the equator.
A tropical island separate from civilisation, where dinosaurs thrive no less, doesn’t seem like a place any human should go, but, this being a Jurassic movie means there will be such a group who make the trek; all in the name of science, of course. It’s 227 miles off the northeastern coast of South America, in Ile Saint-Hubert, that Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend), a pharmaceutical rep, has plans to momentarily inhabit. He’s the smarmy, though no-less handsome face of pharma giant ParkerGenix, and they believe the cure for heart disease lays within the DNA of a trio of considerable dinosaurs. Krebs knows he’s not making the trip solo, and with deep pockets to spare he calls upon covert operations expert Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson) and her skilled team (including Mahershala Ali‘s trusted Duncan Kincaid) to lead the charge.
Because Friend has expert villain face, we know he isn’t totally forthcoming with all of the risks at bay for Zora and co. – which also includes the sweet natured, wide eyed paleontologist Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey, complete with those slutty little glasses) – and so we’re entirely unsurprised when things go south because, you know, dinosaurs. Zora also has another set of humans to protect in the Delgado clan (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo as well-meaning father Reuben, Audrina Miranda and Luna Blaise as his daughters, Isabella and Teresa, respectively, and David Iacono as Teresa’s boyfriend, Xavier), who become shipwrecked in the middle of the ocean following a Mosasaur attack that capsizes their sailing boat. Ultimately, Koepp conjures up enough narrative threads to come together so that when dino-sized shit hits the fan, there’s a multitude of potential victims on hand for Edwards to place in peril.
And peril he does indeed create. Whilst Spielberg’s original is the only movie in the entire franchise that perfected the action stakes with its story and characters, each sequel has admittedly brought about its own sense of tension and dread with a variety of set-pieces. Edwards comes the closest yet in how he executes a certain lingering fear of dread, with a plethora of action sequences that speak to each of the three main forms of transport the dinosaurs favour: by sea, by air and by land; a hopeful saved-by-a-raft scene centering around the Delgados, a rapid river and a not-so-sleepy Tyrannosaurus Rex arguably emerging as Rebirth‘s highlight.
Whilst Rebirth shares the Jurassic World moniker – and it makes sense due to where it sits in the built-in universe of the action – its personality feels more in tune with the Jurassic Park films that have come before. It’s still a wild action film centering around dinosaurs and the humans that don’t know how to quit them, but it feels a little more grounded in its intentions compared to where the Jurassic World sequels went, where human cloning and the one percent purchased dinosaurs for sport became narrative endgame. There’s more of a care for the majority of the characters here, and whilst it may feel like there’s too many cooks in the kitchen at times (there’s no less than 11 characters on the boat when it’s at its most “alive”), Koepp’s script mostly has a hold on proceedings, managing an organic fashion as to how to then separate the group and amplify the anxiety going forward.
Bolstered by Johansson’s movie star ease and Bailey’s adorable every-man quality, as well as earning cute dinosaur points off the inclusion of a little creature dubbed Dolores (you’ll see what I mean), Jurassic World Rebirth brings a sense of classic blockbuster mentality back to a series that was in danger of driving itself far too off the edge with no acceptable return in sight. Edwards lets Rebirth exist on its own accord – though there is a neat shout out to a Jurassic Park player at one point – and it’s his singular approach to the story that ironically brings a sense of excitement for where it could go next.
THREE AND A HALF STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Jurassic World Rebirth is screening in Australian theatres from July 3rd, 2025. It will release in the United States on July 2nd.
