If you squint hard enough, you can see director Gareth Edwards’ feature debut, Monsters, and its sense of scale and wonder nestled in Jurassic World Rebirth. The plots, more or less, are essentially the same, in which humans are hired to retrieve something precious that requires heading into a quarantined zone due to dangerous, behemoth creatures. In the case of Rebirth, a greedy pharmaceutical company wants to retrieve dino samples for profit, requiring a dangerous mission into an off-limits area that’s been taken over by the most dangerous species and more. The seventh installment of this franchise is at least an improvement over the last, thanks to pared-back simplicity, but it quickly runs out of ideas.
Part of that is due to the way the previous trilogy backed itself into a corner. Rebirth picks up five years after the events of Dominion, quickly erasing the spread of dinosaurs across the globe with the opening reveal that the prehistoric beasts have been dying out in our modern ecosystem. The exception is the oxygen-rich islands near the equator, where dinosaurs are thriving, along with some abandoned genetic experiments. That’s where the humans come in, with hired merc Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson) leading a ragtag crew easily identified as survivors or dino food based on where the needle points on their moral compass. Nervous dino expert Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) and Zora’s trusted right-hand Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali) mark themselves with heroic potential early on, while sleazy Big Pharma rep Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend) all but begs for a brutal demise.
L to R: Luna Blaise and the T-Rex in JURASSIC WORLD REBIRTH, directed by Gareth Edwards
The unlucky but wholesome family who sails too close to the quarantine zone only to run afoul of a Mosasaurus and need rescuing from Zora’s crew? Also predictable in fates, of course, though original Jurassic Park screenwriter David Koepp at least wields them to create a separate survival adventure from the scavenger hunt Zora and crew are tasked to accomplish. Both splintered factions encounter a variety of dangerous reptilian enemies and close escapes, but Rebirth designates its nastiest off-screen PG-13 kills for the morally dubious or red shirts.
Edwards is more than capable of delivering stunning set pieces, which is good news considering that Rebirth is essentially just a series of impressive action sequences that showcase the dinosaurs and the great digital effects bringing them to life. Koepp’s script wisely bypasses the heavy-handed callbacks that plagued the previous installments, therefore giving us a reprieve from the velociraptors in favor of focusing on variety instead. Rebirth attempts to make a big deal about its genetic experiments, like the Distortus Rex but gets too skittish to explore them beyond standard dino attacks. Worse, the glaring product placement gets more attention; it’s all too easy to get distracted here by the prominent showcase of Mars Inc. candy and Dr. Pepper over dinosaurs when there’s no real sense of danger for those not marked as fodder.
The Mosasaurus and Spinosauruses in JURASSIC WORLD REBIRTH, directed by Gareth Edwards.
The overt commercialization continues with the dinosaurs themselves, including a new cute little mascot named Dolores, an adorable juvenile Aquilops to be sure, but one so implausibly forced into the proceedings in a way that’s purely designed to sell toys. Rebirth doesn’t really want you to dwell on that, though, but rather just sit back and enjoy the easy, breezy ride. That’s essentially what this sequel is: a safe but fun enough theme park ride.
Rebirth acknowledges that humanity has largely grown bored of dinosaurs and attempts to reset with a pared-back plot meant to remind us why dinosaurs are terrifying. The glaring flaw with that approach is its reluctance to get too scary or intense for the younger viewers who make up the target demo for Jurassic World merch. There’s a great movie buried somewhere beneath the slick, commercialized polish. Enough of it cuts through the artifice to deliver summer escapism fun, but not enough to come close to capturing the awe and intensity of the original that began it all. Rebirth takes a step in the right direction, but the previous trilogy backed this franchise so thoroughly into a corner that it may be time to let this go extinct.
Jurassic World Rebirth releases in theaters on July 2, 2025.
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