I’m a huge fan of the Jurassic Park series, and while there’s some sequels in the franchise that I hold in lower regard (III in particular), the simpler fact of the matter is that our family has watched them all many times and always enjoy returning to this world.
Which is why it’s felt a little odd this time around to have ambivalence about a new upcoming entry in the franchise. The last film, Dominion, seemed to tie up all the loose ends and finish the franchise in a good place with a “bringing the gang back together” last hurrah with the stars of both trilogies, together at last. Symbolically, I finally picked up a 4K box set of the now completed series.
But this is a big-money franchise, and as long as that’s true we can probably expect more. Maybe that cynical truth is why it’s getting harder to care.
And yet.
And yet, the new film, Jurassic World Rebirth, directed by Gareth Edwards (Godzilla) and written by original JP scribe David Koepp (who wrote the original Spielberg entries in the series), is a blast. I went in pretty blind and was a little surprised at how much I enjoyed this entry, which, returning to a theme from the Spielberg films, is clearly inspired by King Kong, and introduces a new set of characters who are compelling and fun to watch.
For anyone (and I know there are many of you out there) who has ever wanted the series to get away from the established characters and park-related incidents and just tell a new story in this world, well, this is exactly that.
Scarlett Johansson and Mahershala Ali are among the small team of mercenaries, along with a scientist (Jonathan Bailey), hired by a biotech developer (Rupert Friend) to journey to a dino-inhabited island to obtain samples from three of the island’s largest species, for developing a revolutionary new drug. A hefty payday, and to a lesser extent the chance to do something good for the world, are motivation enough to stake out on a dangerous and illegal mission to the highly restricted area.
Early on though, an unexpected wrinkle changes things significantly: they come to the rescue of the Delgado family, whose boating vacation was cut short by a mosasaurus encounter, adding four civilians – a worried father (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), his teen and primary-age daughters (Luna Blaise and Audrina Miranda), and the older girl’s boyfriend (David Iacono) to the mix. The younger girl, who totes a backpack and befriends a baby dino, seems deliberately – and sincerely, not as a joke – modeled as a tribute to Dora the Explorer in the same way that Indiana Jones’ fit was a wholesale copycat of Harry Steele.
Interestingly, the film feels like a one-off adventure. Whereas Jurassic World was clearly dropping breadcrumbs and Fallen Kingdom and Dominion ushered in a new era delivering on the “World” element of the franchise’s new title by releasing dinosaurs into the wild, Rebirth feels like a relatively self-contained chapter in the saga, more along the lines of the entries of the original Jurassic Park trilogy. We could totally see surviving characters returning, but it doesn’t feel deliberately set up as the first chapter of a new trilogy, if indeed that’s what it is.
Critical to this direction is a narrative scaling back of the world established in the last couple of films: the reintroduction of dinosaurs to the planet proved unsustainable to them, and after a few years most have died out – those that remain are largely concentrated in equatorial regions. On the one hand, this feels like a walk-back of the of promise of the last couple films, but putting the genie back in the bottle allows once again for more specific storytelling where the planet isn’t teeming with dinos – picking up on a theme for the summer, 28 Years Later notably performed precisely the same kind of refocus (and with a far less satisfactory explanation).
Rebirth gets off to kind of a slow setup with some expository “boat time” establishing both parties getting to the island and, frankly, I kind of mentally checked out for a bit, but once they approach the island (while being attacked by a swarm of hungry predators), the action picks up and for the rest of the movie, this thing cooks.
While it’s never referred to as a “Site C”, that’s exactly what this island is: an offsite InGen research lab from the early 2000s supporting Jurassic World – the park, that is. However with mounting failures from various testing and experimentation, it became a Dr. Moreau’s Island of misfits and monsters where genetic failures and abominations were stashed away, alongside an assortment of more recognizable dinosaur species.
With its Thailand shooting location and a new spin on an old franchise, Rebirth actually feels pretty fresh despite rebooting a film series that’s now past 30. The gorgeous Southeast Asia environs are more evocative of Kong: Skull Island (which was shot in Vietnam) than of past Jurassic movies, the new crew is pretty likable, and there’s more of a sense of “going on an adventure” than has been true of the other movies which were more about crisis response.
Aside from the slow start, my other big criticism might come off as little mean-spirited, but I stand by it. Rebirth has too few characters and, relatively speaking, too many survivors. Spielberg understood that part of the appeal of these movies is the horror aspect – watching people get killed by dinosaurs. The Lost World, which is stylistically and narratively the closest parallel to Rebirth, was teeming with idiots and schmucks to serve up as t-rex fodder, often as a humorous comeuppance. By focusing on a smaller cast, Rebirth just doesn’t have as much opportunity for carnage (especially of the “he had it coming” variety which is sorely lacking).
Overall, though? We had a great time. I’m not a fan of the utterly absurd “people are bored of regular dinosaurs” premise posited by Jurassic World and Fallen Kingdom which prefaced the lab-created “Indominus Rex” and “Indoraptor” species, and while Rebirth also has a “fake dinosaur” as its reptilian kaiju heavy, its explanation as a “yeah, that thing didn’t go as planned” is a simpler but far more satisfying origin.
And while the film is channeling a new direction, it’s also chock full of franchise lore and love, with little visual Easter eggs which fans will absolutely pick up on, like a neat tribute to creator Michael Crichton that rolls by within the first few minutes.
I had zero expectations entering Jurassic World Rebirth, but left pretty satisfied. It’s a great one-off adventure with big action and suspense set-pieces that we’ll doubtlessly be adding to the rotation.
A/V Out
