“Survival is a long shot!” Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey)
Jurassic World: Rebirth is framed to be forgotten, a concoction meant to please the whole family and certainly not discerning film-literate folk. The plot is simple, the characters underdeveloped, and the dinos less impressive than ever. With a family trying to survive a seafaring school of dinos and a raging Rex, enough home-centered action should make it an enjoyable actioner for low summer expectations.
The lead mercenary advisor on the rambling search for dino DNA is Zora, played by Scarlett Johansson as if she has a much better script to go to in a much better movie but probably not a better salary, which was purported to be around $20 million when she made Black Widow. If she has more than 2 lines at one time, I can’t remember. She mostly minds resident scientist, Dr. Henry Loomis, who is as stereotypically out of it as you’d suspect, but a quick learner.
They are seeking dino blood samples to use for human medicine to curb heart disease. In that regard, Jurassic World: Rebirth redeems itself by abjuring the usual lust for profit to do something for mankind, at least supposedly even though chief capitalist rep, Martin (Rupert Friend), has a portfolio worth multiples of Johansson’s salary to make sure his company becomes super wealthy from the expedition. That Martin may be dino meal seems a given under the immutable blockbuster formula laws.
The little family that gets connected to the original team is as forgettable as the film itself, slowing down action to focus on their petty squabbles that do little to advance even the humanistic plodding subplot. Only when Johansson and former right-hand mercenary, Duncan (Mahershala Ali), exchange does the script match the talent of the two real movie stars.
The cinematography, less crisp and less realistic than previous iterations, as if Canadian fires were plaguing the filming, is fuzzy, and at times less impressive than the dino movies of the early 20th century, making it almost found footage but not nearly as interesting. Alexander Desplat’s John-Williams-derived score gives impetus to the action while reminding us of the great Jurassic movies of yore.
Jurassic World: Rebirth is an action film nowhere near the expertise of a Mission Impossible, but a pleasant air-conditioned amusement through the heat of summer. Where, oh, where, are Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, and their scripts?
Jurassic World: Rebirth
Director: Gareth Edwards (Godzilla 2014)
Screenplay: Michael Crichton (based on characters created by), David Koepp (Mission Impossible)
Cast: Scarlett Johansson (Girl with the Pearl Earring), Rupert Friend (Pride & Prejudice)
Rating: PG-1
Length: 2h 14 m
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts NPR’s It’s Movie Time and Cinema Classics as well as podcasts Back Talk and Double Take (recently listed by Feedspot as two of the ten best NPR Movie Podcasts) out of WCBE 90.5 FM, Columbus, Ohio. Contact him at JohnDeSando52@gmail.com