REVIEW: Jurassic World: Rebirth Is Another Rerun BUT At Least It's A Fun Time

Five years post-Jurassic World: Dominion (2022), an expedition braves isolated equatorial regions to extract DNA from three massive prehistoric creatures for a groundbreaking medical breakthrough.

I have mixed feeling on the Jurassic franchise. The original movie is one of the all time great blockbusters. Revolutionary, fun and the definition of a blockbuster. The five following movies? Not even in the same stratosphere. Especially the last two insanely stupid sequels to Jurassic World. Just really dumb movies that get caught up in convoluted human plots that forget to highlight the stars of the show: The god damn dinosaurs. 

So when this latest sequel got announced, I was over it. I was actually frustrated because dinosaurs are cool and it seems like, for whatever reason, the Jurassic franchise has a monopoly on the genre and can't do shit with it. Then I read that Gareth Edwards signed on to direct. Among SciFi directors, he is one of the few guys that really seems to have a handle on visual quality control outside of Denis Villnueve and Neill Blomkamp. Then I read that David Koepp, who wrote the original (and sequel), signed on to write. Both big pluses! 

After seeing the movie, I think this the best individual execution since the original. Why? They kept everything so much simpler than their predecessors. They limited humans, highlighted dinos and, like I hoped Edwards would do, a ton of effort was put into production value including on-location shooting. What you end up with is a basic but fun blockbuster which is what summer at the mvoies is all about. 

I won't pretend that this is some banger on the level with the original because it's not. The plot is the exact same thing as every other installment in this franchise after the original. Generic bad guy CEO of EvilCorp wants to use the dinosaurs for immoral purposes. Shocker! On top of repeating a plot that is now on the 5th mouth of a human centipede, they also addded in faceless mercenaries which have become the ultimate cop-out for action movies. All of that is not great. 

However, it is all about the execution here. Again, it's simple, fun and avoids a lot of mistakes made in the other movies. If you like the Jurassic movies, this is probably the best one since the original which makes it worth checking out. My biggest takeaway is that I really like the way Edwards directed this and I'm very interested in him making a sequel. If he does, though, he needs a new writer and an original story. We can't watch the same plot AGAIN. D