If you've recently felt like the "Jurassic Park" franchise has leapt to an even older creature—the shark—don't dwell on its extinction. Judging by the latest installment, this ancient dinosaur series still has life.
"Jurassic World Rebirth" captures the wonder and majesty of the enormous lizards, absent from so many films, which became an endless game of cat and mouse in the dark between frightened humans against T-Rexes or raptors. "Jurassic World Rebirth" lets the daylight in.
Director: Gareth Edwards
Writers: Michael Crichton, David Koepp
Stars: Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, Rupert Friend
Credit goes to screenwriter David Koepp, who wrote the original "Jurassic Park" film, and director Gareth Edwards, an expert on giant reptiles after directing "Godzilla" in 2014. Together with director and photographer John Mathieson, they have returned the franchise to its triumphant roots.
"Jurassic World Rebirth" has nods to the past, but also presents a future with new characters. It's a kind of monster heist movie, set on the run-down original research island from the abandoned Jurassic Park.
Scarlett Johansson and Mahershala Ali—both very low-key and with a kind of sisterly chemistry—play security and extraction specialists—well, mercenaries—hired to get what everyone wants from the dinosaurs in these movies: DNA. In return, there's $10 million.
The film is set five years after "Jurassic World Dominion" and about three decades after the dinosaurs were revived. They've lost their public fascination—a subtle nod, perhaps, to the films in the franchise—and have battled the climate, gathering at the equator.
The big pharmaceutical company ParkerGenix has a bombshell idea: extract DNA from three colossal Cretaceous creatures—the flying Quetzalcoatlus, the aquatic Mosasaurus, and the terrestrial Titanosaurus—to cure heart disease. Wait, how does that work? Don't ask us, something about hemoglobin.
The trick is this: The dinosaurs have to be alive when the DNA is extracted. Why? Because then there wouldn't be a movie, what a load of rubbish. It would just be a 10-minute sequence with a guy in a white coat and a syringe. This way, we celebrate three types of dinosaurs in three separate chapters.
It may seem a bit improbable, but we remind you of the last film, which featured a biogenetic granddaughter, a global pharmaceutical conspiracy, the actors from both trilogies, a Giganotosaurus, giant flaming lobsters, and the ludicrous decision of Chris Pratt promising to bring a baby dinosaur home... to its mother.
The three-part adventure at the heart of "Jurassic World Rebirth" is interrupted by a family—a father, his two daughters, and a suspicious boyfriend—on a 43-foot sailboat that sinks and needs to be rescued. They bring a rare dose of humor and humanity to the extraction team, which also includes an all-too-predictable villain, played by Rupert Friend—"I'm too smart to die"—and a museum paleontologist, played by Jonathan Bailey.
The filmmakers include clever nods to other blockbusters—"Indiana Jones," "Star Wars," "Jaws," and "ET"—and thrillingly craft a dinosaur hunting sequence in a convenience store, as an homage to the kitchen dinosaur hunting sequence from the original film. The shots across the board are beautifully composed, from silhouettes on a boat at sunset to almost feeling the burn of the ropes as the actors rappel down a 500-foot cliff.
The creatures here are glorious: from a T-Rex slumbering in a riverbed to those writhing in the sea, pure muscle and bulk. A highlight is a pair of long-tailed Titanosaurus intertwining their necks as John Williams' familiar score plays, two lovers with thick, knobby skin, completely oblivious to the pesky DNA-seeking humans.
For some reason, candy is a staple throughout the film, from the opening sequence in which a stray Snickers wrapper causes untold damage, to licorice being fed to a baby dinosaur, to a character's penchant for chewing Altoids.
Edwards's pacing is perfect, allowing the terror to build with just the creaking of trees and allowing the characters to deepen amidst thrilling and superbly shot action sequences. The magnificent scenery—Thailand's waterfalls, grassy plains, coastal caves, and mangroves—should be used for a tourism campaign, as long as they eliminate the predatory dinosaurs.
As if that weren't enough, there's a bonus feature at the end. The research center, abandoned years ago, was cross-breeding dinosaur species and creating "genetically modified monsters" that still roam the area. Some look like hybrids of a turkey, a bat, and a raptor.
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