Jurassic World: Rebirth Attempts Depth, Delivers Oversized Fun

With the release of Jurassic World: Rebirth, the Jurassic Park franchise is starting to feel a bit like ten-film-in phenomena Fast and Furious.

Key points:

Rebirth marks the seventh movie – not counting the 2019 short film Battle at Big Rock which is technically part of the franchise but remains largely unwatched – from the Jurassic Park Universe.

It relies as much on dropping proverbs about genetic manipulation to make it “deep” as Dominique Toretto does about family.

That said, as a reviewer who appreciates the farce of Fast and Furious, that doesn’t have to be a bad thing.

Jurassic Park: Rebirth tried to espouse the value of universal healthcare, the risks of playing God and what happens when money is our motivator.

Rebirth stars Scarlett Johanssen (The Avengers, Her) as Zora Bennett, a “skilled operative” of unspecified origins who leads a team of similarly skilled mercenary types to secure genetic material from dinosaurs whose DNA could cure prevalent human illness.

The only dilemma is, in this version of our Jurassic future, it’s illegal to visit regions populated by dinosaurs and there’s dangerous secrets Zora’s team don’t know about.

Its real success is delivering good jump scares and keeping your shoulders tense.

As you can guess, this means even bigger teeth to contend with and cinema-worthy shots of screaming, running, jumping and generally trying not to die.

The movie is peppered with social commentary: there’s reflections on humanity’s boredom of dinosaurs despite their magnificence, the lost art of awe, faulty big pharma and prejudice faced by immigrant families.

You can tell the writers wanted to make Rebirth thoughtful, but some points are as lost in the action as an under-your-breath comment at Christmas dinner.

Again, do we care? Depends on your views on such masterpieces as Sharknado.

For fans of the original three Jurassic Park films, Rebirth feels the most removed from the innocent curiosity and excitement of that era, milking the nostalgia more so than making us believe the authenticity of these characters as science-loving pioneers.

It’s nice Jurassic Park: Rebirth tried to espouse the value of universal healthcare, the risks of playing God and what happens when money is our motivator, but its real success is delivering good jump scares and keeping your shoulders tense.

Jurassic World: Rebirth is in cinemas now.

Feature image: Universal