REVIEW — Jurassic World: Rebirth. The Thrill Is Gone
Just after the opening, requisite dinosaur mauling of the latest installment of the 32 year old Jurassic Park film franchise, Jurassic World: Rebirth, viewers learn that in the present day, humans have grown bored with dinosaurs. It’s an art-fueled revelation that mirrors life. Unlike even the worst of the franchise’s prior films, Jurassic World: Rebirth doesn’t have many leap out of your seat moments or scenes you’ll talk about the next day.
That reaction’s not for lack of effort on the filmmakers’ part. JWR’s CGI is, as expected, stunning, all but convincing viewers that prehistoric beasts walk, swim, and fly among us.
It’s also not reflective of the performance by the film’s stellar cast, led by Scarlett Johansson, Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali, and Jonathan Bailey. That trio, along with strong performances by a quartet of relative unknowns who portray a family unit thrown into the mix, elevate a decent plot that drives the clan to isolated equatorial regions in search of a medical miracle. All they need to do is extract blood samples from three living dinosaurs, two of which are carnivorous.
All of that, bolstered by executive producer Steven Spielberg’s pedigree and solid direction from Gareth Edwards, should be enough to lift this seventh installment to critical and commercial success. The latter’s all but a given, although I was surprised that my 7pm show during the film’s opening weekend had so many empty seats.That said, the film will undoubtedly do well at the box office. But that’s not the problem.
Despite Universal Pictures’ best efforts, a generation who has only seen the original Jurassic Park on their phone or via clips on YouTube will never experience the awe of that first glimpse of an immense on-screen herbivore with the backdrop of John Williams’ majestic score, as audiences did in 1993.
Since then, each Jurassic sequel has had to ramp up either the size of each animal, the size of each herd of them, or (as was noted in a former installment) the number of teeth in each beast’s mouth. Jurassic World: Rebirth does all three, offering a stunning shot of a herd of animals traversing a meadow, and a final battle with a mutant monstrosity designed to elicit nightmares or, at the very least, water cooler conversations.
They don’t. Jurassic World: Rebirth offers no lawyer-on-a-toilet-eaten-by-a-T-Rex moment that will be talked about for weeks, or raptors-hunting-kids-in-a-kitchen segment, or even an assets-out-of-containment assault…although it does offers scenes that are direct shout-outs to those films, as well as to E.T. The Extraterrestrial and the Alien franchise.
Even with the advances in CGI that this film showcases, the wonder of celluloid dinosaurs that Jurassic World: Rebirth promises is, sadly, extinct.
Connect with freelance writer Michael P Coleman at michaelpcoleman.com.
