JURASSIC WORLD REBIRTH

 

Jeri Jacquin

Coming to theatres in time for the Fourth of July weekend from director Gareth Edwards, Amblin Entertainment and Universal Pictures is the story of JURASSIC WORLD REBIRTH.

It has been several years since the last take on the dinosaurs and Earth is becoming a problem for the creatures. The cause of it is that the environment, air, weather etc., just do not help their survival. One place where they are managing to survive are several tropical locations are similar in many respects to what they need, be can thrive and it be forbidden for anyone to go there.

Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend) meets with Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson), a woman with a certain set of skills that Krebs needs to take on a special mission. He asks that she go to the dinosaur island to obtain blood samples that can create medicine to save lives. After striking a deal, they go to the one person who would know how to find the exact dinosaurs needed – Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) who agrees to go along. Zora finds help, and a boat, from longtime friend Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali).

Out in the ocean, dad Reuben (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) is sailing with daughters Teresa (Luna Blaise), Isabella (Audrina Miranda) and Teresa’s boyfriend Xavier (David Iacono). As the boat glides through the water, they are bumped by something strange. What they could never have imagined it what was circling them! Kincaid hears a distress call coming from Reuben and makes the decision to go and rescue them. It takes no time before the boat becomes the new target.

Racing to get to the island, if they thought they were any safer on land, they would be wrong as Reuben and his family are separated from those on the boat once again. Knowing they are under a serious time constraint, Zora, Krebs, Duncan and Dr. Loomis continue on to get their samples are met by some amazing animals but they are different dinosaurs, genetically different. In the jungle, Reuben and his family remember hearing the others talk about a village and believe it might by where they can meet up with the others.

Each step they take brings them closer to creatures who do not want them on their island and survival means staying one large step ahead of anything chasing them, including a Distortus Rex!

Johansson as Zora is a woman who, for the right paycheck, can be bought for covert missions. Quick with a sample weapon, she spends time watching everyone around her come face to face with dinosaurs. Johansson gives us a straight forward character who wants to get the job done and get as many people out alive as possible. That being said, there is just something missing here that didn’t reach like Ellie Sattler or Claire Dearing did, maybe it’s mercenary thing.

Bailey as Dr. Loomis is an Alan Grant type character who is disappointed that people seem to have lost their curiosity for dinosaurs. That, in itself, took the story into that unbelievable realm because there isn’t a kid (or grown up for that matter) that wouldn’t be all over dinosaurs living in the world. Bailey gives us a man who agreed to help find creatures that will help medicinally but I don’t get why he actually agreed to it in the first place. The character of Dr. Loomis just didn’t seem like one who would do this just because he is out of a job. His whole reasoning for going just seemed so murky. That’s not to say Bailey isn’t charming in this role, he just seems out of place in what he’s being asked to do.

Friend as Krebs is a familiar character in his actions and reasons for finding the mutant dinosaurs. His eyes roll with dollar signs and no one is going to get in his way, and I mean no one. Happy to see Friend on the screen even if his character is one I’d have thrown overboard early in the film (kidding). Ali as Duncan knows and understands Zora having worked together before. He may be on a dinosaur mission but he isn’t willing to sacrifice any one or anything and I like that about his character.

Garcia-Rulfo as Reuben is a father who obviously is clueless to the world around him. On a boat with his kids (in a forbidden area) and a boyfriend that would make excellent dino-bait, it’s just one disaster after another. Blaise as Teresa screams and runs extremely well. Iacono as Xavier is the dude all parents are afraid to find next to their daughter, he has his moments and a few of them bring laughs. Miranda as Isabell is very cute and even cuter when she meets Dolores.

Other cast include Philippine Velge as Nina, Bechir Sylvain as Leclerc and Ed Skrein as Bobby Atwater.

Director Edwards says of the film, “There is an aesthetic I’ve been chasing my whole career, that the 70s, 80s and 90s look. Now you can film with a 360 camera, put it into software and get a 3D environment. The quality is so good that it is nearly photo-real perfect.”

Okay, this is going to be as honest as I can get here as I’m actually quite disappointed in this film. In 1993, JURASSIC PARK hit theatres and just literally roared at the box office. It was and still is an amazing film filled with excitement, drama, dinosaurs, screaming and yelling (and a lot of it from the viewing audience). Audiences couldn’t get enough of the film seeing it time and time again and, like me, have it as part of a home entertainment library of films. That is followed by THE LOST WORLD: Jurassic Park (1997), JURASSIC PARK III (2001), JURASSIC WORLD (2015), JURASSIC WORLD: Fallen Kingdom (2018), and JURASSIC WORLD DOMINION in 2022. Where does this leave JURASSIC WORLD REBIRTH?

A mish-mash of easter eggs dropped here and there that really aren’t that impressive. The film seemed more focused on the human story and those stories were not that interesting. It didn’t draw me into their characters because there wasn’t backstory to characters that I could tell. Instead, it had me making comments under my breath like “Really? It’s forbidden to go into that area yet you go there with your kids?” or “Really? You fire off a flare signaling a boat that’s right in front of you?” followed by my head shaking. That is just two of many, many more times I talked to myself.

Equally disappointing are the dinosaurs themselves (sorry dinos, I know it wasn’t your fault). Trying to find a new way to tell the story shouldn’t involve creating more genetic tampering to creature dinosaurs that I didn’t fall for, especially the alien looking T-Rex. There are one or two dinos that are recognizable but the rest gave me the big meh!

If you are a die-hard fan of JURASSIC PARK then the film will be a summer joyride but if you are a JURASSIC PARK purest, one might be like my family finding a mixture of good and not-so-good about the ride. There is a bit of humor, there are characters that might seem familiar in behaviors to past characters and a few jump moments and that might be enough but it felt like maybe the franchise needs to wind down. The drink cups and popcorn footprint ‘bucket’ are pretty awesome though!

In the end – a new era is born!