FILM REVIEW - Jurassic World Rebirth
By The Masked Medic
The summer of film continues! I’ve been working quite hard recently, and it’s been hard to get a break. That has also meant that organising a date night with my wife has been tricky. I did however, manage to get a weekend free and I somehow convinced her that the best thing for us to do together was watch a bunch of dinosaurs scare the crap out of some humans - not including us!
‘Jurassic World Rebirth’ is a sort of standalone film set in the ‘Jurassic Park’ universe. I’m not sure when in the timeline it takes place, but I assume that it’s after ‘Jurassic World Dominion’. In a world that has become accustomed to the presence of dinosaurs, pharmaceutical company ParkerGenix is seeking to harness their blood to create a medication that will cure heart disease once and for all. How noble. Their representative, Martin Krebs, sets out to get a crew. He recruits the help of Zora Bennett, an expert in carrying out difficult missions, i.e. a mercenary and Dr Henry Loomis, a palaeontologist who trained under the great Dr Alan Grant. They’ll need a crew, and Zora’s friend Duncan Kincaid steps up to lead a team, on his boat, to the dangerous island of Ile Saint-Hubert to get what they need. Added to the mix is a family who have been shipwrecked in the waters around the island. Despite strong concerns from Martin that they need to complete the mission, Duncan intervenes and decides they must rescue the family in trouble. Naturally, disaster strikes, and they all end up on an island full of dinosaurs. Can Zora and Duncan help to keep all the members of their team and this family alive to get back to safety? And just what is this island, and why did InGen never come back for their creations here?
Let’s talk about casting. The lead Zora is played by Scarlett Johansson. This may be a controversial opinion, but I’m not sure she can act well. A lot of people reading this will probably be shouting film titles at me, but I sincerely hope you’re shouting things like ‘Marriage Story’, which I have yet to see, and not ‘Iron Man 2’. I think they bought her in because they needed a big name to pull audiences. Playing Duncan Kincaid was the impressive Mahershala Ali. Now, he is a man who can definitely act, but I worry that projects like this may bring the overall average quality of his performances down. He’s certainly likeable, but had as much character development as that mosquito embedded in amber that started this madness in 1993. Rupert Friend plays the enigmatic but smarmy Martin Krebs, and his performance is perfect for a character like that. The only thing I’ll say is that it did feel a bit stereotypical having the guy who cares about business to be unlikeable. Mix it up over there, guys, ha! I’m not commenting on that stranded family. Unnecessary. Right, standout performance? Easy; Jonathan Bailey as Henry Loomis. I’ve recently had the pleasure of watching ‘Bridgerton’, and Jonathan Bailey is by far my favourite actor on that show. He brings a natural charm to all his characters, and Loomis is no different. What I really appreciated was that he wasn’t a stereotypical meek scientist; this guy was more than okay in getting involved in the action, and seemed to be the chief architect in the moral objection of what ParkerGenix was attempting to do. Overall, decent acting, but needed a slimmed-down cast!
I will tell this to anyone who takes the vaguest interest in reading, ‘Jurassic Park’ is one of the best books I’ve ever read. And I’m longing for the day that Hollywood is like, okay, let’s make an accurate Jurassic Park film. The first two acts of this film had glimpses which really scratched at this itch of mine. There was genuine tension; you weren’t sure who was going to survive. That being said, the final act of the film opened with one of my favourite scenes in the film, only to proceed with this overused and stereotypical ending that likened it to the ‘Jurassic World’ films. I get that it was supposed to be set after that, but they really should have learnt their lesson. Although the story differed from the standard, ‘we’ve built a park of dinosaurs. It can’t go wrong. Oh no, it’s gone wrong’ formula of its predecessors, the story leaves a lot to be desired. It gave us attempts of backstories that aren’t elaborated on in the slightest, and with this film being a standalone film, won’t ever be explored?! It’s tough because this film wasn’t the worst film I’ve ever seen, but after thinking about it, I really struggled to find redeeming qualities about it. This may be my hot take, but films that aren’t necessarily about human beings don’t need as many human characters in them!
Okay, so cinematography. I can’t argue with this one, the Jurassic Park films, and ‘Jurassic World Rebirth’, is included in that, do dinosaurs better than any other series. That being said, what the hell was going on with that final dinosaur? I don’t want to give you spoilers, but I’m done with hybrid dinosaurs. Just give me regular ones, please, they are scary enough. Thankfully, when it came to music, I have no complaints about this film. They used the classic soundtrack effectively, and there’s really no point in changing something if it works perfectly. Overall, this was not a roar-some success; it was more like di-no thank you!
Rating:
Story: ★★½
Acting: ★★½
Cinematography: ★★★½
Music: ★★★★
Enjoyability: ★★½