Jurassic World: Rebirth (2025) Dir: Gareth Edwards

Instagram post:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DLsBsu6tFdu/?igsh=OHR3bGF0NDhkem44

The 'Jurassic World' trilogy has been a very mixed bag, on the whole, and, generally speaking, trended down in quality from film to film. However, when this new film was announced, and I saw that it was being directed by Gareth Edwards; a man who has made some pretty decent films, most notably the 'Star Wars' spin-off; 'Rogue One', I couldn't help but get excited. My excitement only grew when I saw the first trailers for it. It looked, dare I say it, like a good film. Unfortunately, early reviews have planted this film firmly in the mediocre zone, which lowered my expectations a fair bit, although I was still looking forward to watching it.

The amount of product placement was diabolical, and the lack of subtlety about it was so unashamed. This film was basically one big advert. Even the new dinosaurs introduced were so clearly designed to justify loading the shelves with new toys and merchandise. The film literally says a number of times 'people don't care about dinosaurs anymore', and half these 'Jurassic World' films have spent their time pointing out the negativity of capitalist organisations and trying to profit off of everything. It is hypocrisy to the highest degree. I know this isn't the first of these films to do this, but it felt like the most glaring and lazy example of it.

There was some beautiful cinematography on display throughout the film. The only problem was that most of this had been and gone by the time the characters stepped foot on the island. There was only one particularly memorable shot from there on in, and it involved a flare, which is, of course, riffing on the iconic sequence in 'Jurassic Park'. Considering the amazing environment that the story was taking place in, I can't help being disappointed by how much it underutilised the setting from a visual standpoint.

In regards to the narrative, the best thing I can say about it, is that it leaves 'Dominion' and 'Fallen Kingdom' in the dust. With that said, it is a far cry from what I had hoped it would be. It was far too long, the second act was virtually never-ending, which made the film feel very sluggish, and I spent half the film thinking about how much this felt like 'Kong: Skull Island'. I will admit, in fairness, that I was very entertained by some of the dinosaur set pieces, but several of them felt awfully random, and some went on for quite some time. I also think a lot of the events were extremely predictable, particularly the deaths, which is always a little bit annoying. It is also worth pointing out that the name 'Rebirth' makes no sense within the context of the story - nothing is reborn at any point.

The aspect of this film I enjoyed the most, and comfortably so, was its characters, and the respective performances of the actors playing them. Scarlett Johansson and Mahershala Ali ran the show, with two very charismatic and endearing displays, which were helped even more by the two actors very strong on-screen chemistry, something that made them both extremely likable. I did enjoy Jonathon Bailey's acting too, but I have no doubt in my mind that he got overshadowed his two aforementioned co-stars. I think Bailey's character could've done with a bit more personality.

Rupert Friend successfully made himself very detestable, although his character made some very dumb decisions, which frustrated me a lot. His character was essentially a walking neon sign for 'Big Pharma', which was as subtle as a doctor during a prostate exam. In fairness, it was supposed to make him unlikeable, and it definitely worked, so I guess, from that perspective, it was successful.

I didn't expect the group of Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Luna Blaise, David Iacono, and Audrina Miranda to have quite as much screentime as they did, but I'm honestly not mad about it. The character dynamic between Garcia-Rulfo and Iacono was quite interesting, albeit it made Blaise feel like a distinct afterthought. Miranda was undeniably very cute, but her character's only purpose seemed to be to provide that factor.

Overall, I thought this was another very up and down film for this very up and down franchise. This film was at it's best when it leaned into the horror side of its identity, but it didn't do this nearly enough. It also needed cutting down in a big way. It was trying to do way too much, and was too sloppy because of it. I almost wish they'd cut the family arc out of the film, for the sake of pacing and purpose. It would have made for a far punchier and more intense film. This was another missed opportunity for a franchise that seems to suffer greatly from its owners need to pump it full of adverts and new monetisable dinosaur designs. As the character Ian Malcolm famously said; the studio executives behind this "were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."