A worthy sequel 65 million years in the making finally comes to fruition with Jurassic World: Rebirth. The return of Jurassic Park screenwriter David Koepp to pen the story, and the addition of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story director Gareth Edwards prove a perfect genetic splice, placing Michael Crichton’s novels under the microscope once again and evolving Jurassic World: Rebirth into one of the top entries in the franchise.
Several years after the events of Jurassic World: Dominion, the dinosaurs have once again faced a mass extinction, dying out due to an inhospitable climate everywhere except in areas near the equator. Pharmaceutical executive Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend) enlists the help of covert ops specialist Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson) and her team of mercenaries to extract DNA from the three largest dinosaurs ever to exist (being the Titanosaurus, Mosasaurus, and Quetzalcoatlus). Due to their relatively long lifespan and enormous size, Krebs‘s company ParkerGenix believes the keys to a cure for heart disease exists within their massive circulatory systems.
The group collects paleontologist Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) and Zora’s team including leader Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali) and journeys to Ile Saint-Hubert, an island known to still house dinosaurs. Along the way, they collect the shipwrecked Delgado family (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Luna Blaise, David Iacono, Audrina Miranda) after their boat capsized in an encounter with the Mosasaurus. The mission quickly falls apart, and the group becomes stranded on the island.
“[…] one of the top entries in the franchise”
Krebs neglected to mention the island was once InGen’s (Jurassic Park’s parent genetics company) research facility for the second attempted theme park, Jurassic World, before a laboratory accident led to the island’s abandonment. Seventeen years prior, crossbreeding experiments took place to create more exciting “attractions”. However, what resulted were creatures so hideous and dangerous that InGen deemed them unacceptable for the theme park. The shipwrecked crew regroups, setting out to collect the DNA samples and survive the mutant cast off’s the world was never meant to see.
.Jurassic World: Rebirth succeeds in balancing on the same thin wire that it’s earlier Jurassic Park ancestors did – refining the science fiction horror of the source material into a film that both kids and adults will enjoy. Writer David Koepp, who co-wrote the screenplay for Jurassic Park and solely for The Lost World, returned to the gold mine that the Jurassic World trilogy abandoned – Michael Crichton’s novels. The more you know about them, the more you’ll enjoy Rebirth. Koepp expertly cherry picked character traits, plot points, dialogue, and even full scenes left over from both books for this script. Rather incredibly, these longtime elements never feel like forced fan service. Instead, they capture a type of organic feel that is rarely felt seven films into a franchise.
Koepp impressively manages to tether to the best elements of Jurassic Park lore while untethering from the unbearable weight of franchise cannon. Rebirth doesn’t retcon anything from the previous six films, but it could absolutely operate as a stand alone film as it abandons most of the plots and characters from every prior film in favor of a fresh story. This is bound to annoy some fans, but I remind you, we are seven films deep. Cannon never ceases to be a massive burden the further franchises are stretched, and even more troublesome when trying to reach new audiences. The fact that Koepp was able to make the seventh film in the Jurassic franchise feel like a direct sibling to the original Park trilogy and not a tacked on fourth entry to the World trilogy is a true feat of filmmaking.
Turning to the work behind the camera, it’s known to those who followed the early production of Jurassic World: Rebirth that Gareth Edwards was not first choice for director. David Leitch, who is known for helming action heavy movies such as Deadpool 2 and Hobbs & Shaw, reportedly turned down the gig due in part to a lack of creative input on the script. We’ll never know what Rebirth would’ve looked like with Leitch in the director’s chair, but what a happy accident that sights turned to Edwards. Best known for directing 2014’s Godzilla and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Edwards was no stranger to monster flicks, and it certainly shows here. Rebirth boasts not one, not two, but several of the best dinosaur action/horror sequences in the entire franchise.
Gareth Edwards shares credit with Koepp for bringing the old school Jurassic Park feel into Rebirth. The CGI work is absolutely brilliant. While I am a longtime defender of practical effects, a script based upon the three largest dinosaurs to ever exist obviously restricts their use. This becomes even more true when talking aquatic scenes (just ask Spielberg about Jaws). Yet, the CGI is much more integrated into actual scenery than in previous Jurassic entries, blending sometimes flawlessly, thanks to clever camera tricks taken straight from the early 90’s playbook, when CGI was at it’s best! still in its infancy.
Jurassic World: Rebirth stacks so many good decisions upon good decisions that this review could quickly turn into a rambling essay, but I cannot end it without recognizing two other elements – the cast and the musical score. Easily boasting the best cast since The Lost World, the entire lead ensemble nail their roles, avoiding the cartoonish caricatures the human cast of Jurassic World movies often become. Scarlett Johansson proved the perfect choice for the lead, her self-admitted love for the franchise perhaps aiding in grounding her character into a believability that was lost in the characters of previous. Jonathan Bailey’s Dr. Loomis (a tip of the cap from the horror community) brought back the sense of awe and wonder dinosaurs should evoke. And those responsible for blundering the new Blade film should be issuing daily apologies to Mahershala Ali until production begins.
“boasts not one, not two, but several of the best dinosaur action/horror sequences in the entire franchise”
Tapped to score a Jurassic film for the first time, French composer Alexandre Desplat’s delicate blend of John Williams’ iconic score with exciting new material overlays Jurassic World Rebirth like a warm blanket, accenting and enhancing scenes as a film score should. As tempting as it surely is to incorporate Williams’ work, Desplat uses it just enough to remind us what movie we’re in before placing his own signature on the franchise. The new score’s brilliance is on full display during the action sequences and the more tender character-centric scenes, both of which are bound to stick around in the minds of Jurassic fans awhile.
Jurassic World: Rebirth is a bit of an oddity in the world of film today. There’s no cliffhanger, no promise of a sequel. Some might decry that it really doesn’t move the franchise forward. but it’s certainly a step forward in quality. Admittedly, in terms of the overarching story, there’s no clear direction from here. Instead, it stomps those big dinosaur feet back into the early days of the beloved franchise, and for that, I adore it.
Jurassic World: Rebirth is in theatres now! Whether you’re a life long fan of the Michael Chrichton novels or you’re just a dino-obssssed film fan, let us know what you thought of this late stage franchise reset over in the Nightmare on Film Street Discord!
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