Jurassic World: Rebirth (2025) Review

 "Survival is a long shot."
-Dr. Henry Loomis



Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend), an executive at a pharmaceutical company, assembles a team to retrieve DNA samples from three dinosaurs on a remote island to create a treatment to eliminate heart disease.  Unfortunately, the team needs to collect samples from three of the biggest dinosaurs ever, and the island also contains mutated dinosaurs from genetic experiments gone wrong.  


Spoiler alert below!


What Works:

As opposed to the last two movies in the series, Rebirth gets a very important element right.  The dino sequences are a lot of fun.  Most of the dinosaur stuff in Fallen Kingdom and Dominion was boring and stupid, and don't get me wrong, there was some stupid stuff in this movie, but the action still managed to be fun and even exciting at times.

My favorite sequence is the Mosasaurus hunt.  It reminded me a lot of Jaws, which I'm guessing was the idea.  When the Mosasaurus flips a sailboat, it's genuinely thrilling because it felt like most of the characters were at risk of getting eaten.  That's more than I can say for any not-evil character in the last two movies.  Then we get the attack of the Spinosaurus, which is actually awesome.  It's a fast-paced, action sequence with one of my favorite dinosaurs, plus it's all at sea, which is something we haven't really seen in the series before.

I know not everybody loves the mutant dinosaurs, but I didn't mind them and I actually like their designs.  The Distortus Rex is especially cool, though I do wish it had been in more of the move.  I know some people will say, "Dinosaurs, wow enough," and I think that's fair, but I'm okay with crazy, transgenic monsters as well.

Another solid scene was the moment with the Titanosaurus.  Each one of these movies has a moment where the character slow down and take in the beauty and majesty of the dinosaurs.  Some work better than others, but the best one is and will always be in the original Jurassic Park when our characters see the Brachiosaurus for the first time.  I think Rebirth may have the second best.  Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) approaches a herd of Titanosaurus and can only stand there and watch the affection the dinosaurs seem to have for one another.  It's a beautiful moment that could have come across as silly, but Bailey nails his performance here.  It's the best acting in the movie and gives us the most genuine emotional moment this series has had probably since the original.

Finally, while I have some issues with the characters, there are two I actually like.  As I mention, Jonathan Bailey does a great job as Dr. Loomis.  There isn't much to the character, but I'm glad he wasn't really the fish-out-of-water nerd I thought he was going to be.  He genuinely wants to go to the island just to see the dinosaurs and isn't completely helpless when he gets there.  We also have our comic relief character, Xavier, played by David Iacono, who I thought I was going to hate.  He's a lazy bum that I thought looked a lot like dino food.  However, he genuinely got me to laugh a few times and I wasn't expecting that.


What Sucked:

Just like every previous Jurassic movie post The Lost World, the biggest problem is the characters.  Luckily, they aren't nearly as offensive as past characters.  They're mostly just a bunch of nothing.  I didn't dislike any of them, but I also didn't really care about any of them.  I would have liked a longer 1st act to get to know more about some of these characters, especially Zora (Scarlett Johansson) and Duncan (Mahershala Ali).  Their backstories are told to us, but it would have been more effective if it was shown to us.

The minor characters get absolutely no development, so it's plainly obvious who is going to get eaten.  It's a minor improvement over the last two movies, where only the bad guys died.  We need good guys to get eaten as well so the movie has some tension.  It's like the franchise is scared to kill off anyone likable.  The best death in the series is Eddie's (Richard Schiff) from The Lost World.  It's a well done sequence on it's own, but it helps that Eddie is a likable character and he dies a heroic death.  It makes you feel something.  Sure, we need unlikable characters so we can cheer when they die, but we need our heroes to suffer losses as well.  We need to feel like these characters are in danger and I never really felt that for any of the developed characters in this movie.

Finally, the 3rd act feels a little rushed.  Most of the characters get nothing to do in the finale.  It could have been a bit longer so we could have gotten more of the Distortus Rex and the escape could have been more of a group effort.  Duncan and Isabella (Audrina Miranda) are the only ones who got anything truly meaningful to do in the escape.  I know the movie is already two hours, but this is a rare case where I think the movie should have been longer.


Verdict:

Jurassic World: Rebirth is a breath of fresh air for the franchise, even if it does feel unnecessary.  It gets the framework right, with some great dino sequences, cool designs for the mutant dinosaurs, a well done emotional moment, and a couple of good performances.  However, the characters were lacking due to little development in the 1st act and being underused in the 3rd.  It makes me wonder if we're going to get an extended cut that will flesh out the movie more.  It's miles ahead of Fallen Kingdom and Dominion, but not as good as the rest of the series, for me.  I would probably put it in the same tier as The Lost World and III personally, which I would define as very flawed, but good.

 7/10: Good 

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