The summer of sequels continues with a return to the land of resurrected dinosaurs. If giant prehistoric beasts aren’t your thing, don’t fret, Superman will soon be popping in for a visit, as will a new crew of Fantastic Four representatives, a fresh squadron of comic cops in “The Naked Gun,” and a group of friends terrorized by a psychopath in a remake of “I Know What You Did Last Summer.”
I recently went to see “F1,” a race car movie starring Brad Pitt, which theoretically wasn’t a sequel, but it progressed so much like every other race car movie I’ve seen, albeit infinitely louder, that it lacked a reason for me to be celebratory.
Look at it this way, I’ll give you a dozen automobile racing titles, three of which star Elvis Presley and two about the Ferrari, and then debate with anyone as to why “F1” lacked originality to its core. The films are: “The Racers” (Kirk Douglas, 1955), “Viva Las Vegas” (Elvis, 1964), ‘Grand Prix” (James Garner, 1966), “Spinout” (Elvis, 1966), “Speedway” (Elvis, 1968), “Winning” (Paul Newman, 1969), “Le Mans” (Steve McQueen, 1971), “The Last American Hero” (Jeff Bridges, 1973), “Bobby Deerfield” (Al Pacino, 1977), “Days Of Thunder” (Tom Cruise, 1990), “Ford v Ferrari “ (Matt Damon, 2019), and “Ferrari” (Adam Driver, 2023).
Can a dinosaur outrun a racecar? Probably, although I assume that depends on the car. We now have the seventh “Jurassic Park” feature. There is a lot of backstory to be found in the series, and frankly, I think you do need to know what came before in all six of the previous entries, including the most excruciatingly dreadful production, 2022’s “Jurassic World Dominion”
“Jurassic World Rebirth,” which is now crowding out everything else in movie theaters, can’t hold a candle to the magic of 1993’s original “Jurassic Park.” What could? The film is entertainment perfection.
Here’s the kicker. Or a kick in the head if you’re a dinosaur. “Jurassic World Rebirth” is set a number of years after the events of “Jurassic World Dominion,” and there are two hooks on which director Gareth Edwards and screenwriter David Koepp are hanging their story, which is set in the present. The first is that most of the dinosaurs roaming the world are dying because of the incremental destruction of the Earth’s climate. The second hook is that almost all of the general public is bored with dinosaurs. I kid you not. Edwards and Koepp have made a movie in which the citizens of the planet are so uninterested in dinosaurs that they are willing to let them disappear — again. I find this to be a poor reason to crank out a 133-minute, $180 million film, especially one as unimaginative as the one we’re watching on the screen. They’ve downgraded the dinosaurs, and they expect you to be interested in the goings-on.
The story is straight out of James Bond. A nefarious corporate tycoon (Martin Krebs played by Rupert Friend), who is a pharmaceutical wizard, believes that dinosaur blood will cure heart disease. There is one place on the planet where dinosaurs are still thriving and that’s in the tropical zone. Krebs sends a team to the region to get blood samples. The adventurers include a covert operative. The phrase “covert ops” usually applies to spies; therefore, Zora Bennett is a mysterious lady. However, we get the sense that she is a warrior fully able to conquer the jungle and get the dinosaurs to cooperate. She’s acted by Scarlett Johansson. Bennett has a longtime associate, an aide-de-camp type named Duncan Kincaid, who is nicely played by Mahershala Ali. And a very intelligent paleontologist named Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) is along for the thrill of discovery.
Here’s where everything gets iffy. There has to be some dramatic tension that includes children. We all know that a child-in-jeopardy is a mainstay of the Jurassic Park universe. Bennett and her team encounter a fellow named Reuben Delgado (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), his two daughters, and his eldest daughter’s obnoxious boyfriend. I’ll let you find out on your own why the family is there. Needless perhaps to write, primarily because everything in this movie is absurdly obvious, the most dangerous dinosaurs are lurking around ready to chomp away and chomp they will. Of course, there are also mutations among the creatures. The Mutadon is interesting. While you’re at it, count the arms on what’s known as the D-Rex. How many appendages does a dinosaur need?
The addition of the family is an oddball intrusion because the story will eventually travel along two separate paths. There’s the scientific component, and there is the scratching your head wondering why Delgado and his kids were roaming around component. Here’s a hint of the silliness. Why go into obviously infested waters? This is as lazy as screenwriting can be. If you don’t know who Koepp is, he wrote the original “Jurassic Park.”
There is one wonderful surprise in all of the occasional lethargy and repetitive shenanigans. The acting from Johansson, Ali, and Bailey is superb. Naturally, you’re not going to this kind of creature feature for the acting, but the performances are a welcome surprise. The three main characters share some deep-rooted emotional nuances that help overcome the by-now overly familiar tropes found in the film series. There is even a dash of romantic frisson between Bennett and Loomis. They both have motion picture charisma to spare. Johansson plays the leadership role expertly and Bailey is one of the most believable on-screen scientists I’ve seen. As the villain, Friend delivers a quality bounty of reasoning warped by his character’s nasty nature.
As expected, and as it should always be – depending on the experiences and inclinations of an audience member– there are a variety of frights to be had. The dinosaurs have never looked better. John Mathieson’s cinematography is outstanding. There are some moments of utter visual poetry. Do I believe that the majority of the people on Earth would toss aside the prehistoric beasts like so many bad streaming series? I do not. I certainly don’t think the smarter ones would. This puts a damper on the proceedings. “Jurassic World Rebirth” doesn’t live up to its title. The best that could have been done regarding the film wasn’t carried out. This is unfortunate because it’s a long slog to the ultimate goal of the picture.