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Warning: This review contains spoilers for Jurassic World: Rebirth
Jurassic World: Rebirth was a very highly anticipated film this summer, bringing audiences of all ages to the movies to see a T-Rex chase a family throughout a jungle. Even while being the seventh installment in the Jurassic Park franchise, Jurassic World: Rebirth made $322.6 million globally in the opening weekend. Although the film is nowhere near perfect, it goes to show that audiences love a blockbuster.
The Struggle for Exposition
The film's exposition is a bit rocky. The audience is given very little information within the first act. After the opening scene of the D-Rex escaping the facility, there’s about a minute and a half of text on a black screen explaining the aftermath of Jurassic World: Dominion, and the integration of dinosaurs in society. Sometimes, natural storytelling can be hard, so some text to fill in the blanks for the audience is understandable. However, there is too much information given through text, taking away from the point of visual storytelling. In comparison, Superman, which also released this summer, opened their movie with a bit of text on the screen as well. This worked out much better, using the text to ease the viewers into the film. In Jurassic World: Rebirth, it feels as though they’re using it as a crutch because the filmmakers couldn’t find a better way to start the story. It felt unnecessary to put that much text at the beginning.
The film also has a hard time introducing characters. Zora (Scarlett Johansson) is the film's main protagonist, yet is probably given the least amount of characterization and development. She’s described as a covert operations expert, being hired by Martin (Rupert Friend), a representative of a pharmaceutical company, to take her and her team to Ile Saint-Hubert and collect samples from dinosaurs. Within the first act, it’s said that both her mother and mission partner died within a short time of each other. She grieves their deaths very briefly, then they are never mentioned again. The rest of the first act is oversaturated with character introductions, making it hard to connect with the characters and their motives. I didn’t know Henry’s (Jonathan Bailey) name until the last 30 minutes because his introduction is so brief. The film either needed fewer characters so the exposition could be focused on a small group, or more time on its exposition.
The only character who seemed to get fair treatment in his exposition was Duncan (Mahershala Ali). His character is cold from the beginning, finding out he used to have a wife and a kid. As the film progresses, he opens up and becomes softer to everyone around him, making it even more heart-wrenching when he attempts to sacrifice himself to get the attention of the D-Rex at the end of the film. Although he survives, the few moments when the audience is convinced he’s dead are emotional. That is how audiences should feel about characters.
Dinosaurs and Plotlines
Moving past the exposition, the plot is really solid. The concept of having to go to a new island full of experimental dinosaurs and getting samples from three species was very entertaining and felt like a very classic plotline for a Jurassic Park film. The previous Jurassic World trilogy started to get out of hand with its convoluted plots that didn’t match the franchise's core values, but this film did not disappoint. Having highly trained characters like Zora and her team playing opposite Henry made for a very fun dynamic as well. Henry is a paleontologist who’s soon to be out of a job due to the public’s lack of interest in dinosaurs, but he’s extremely useful for the mission in Ile Saint-Hubert. There are a lot of serious parts throughout the film, but Henry is always there to lighten the mood.
The idea that Ile Saint-Hubert was used as a site to create dinosaurs that would be seen as entertaining for the public was very interesting, and I wish they had gone deeper into that aspect of the island. In Jurassic World, it shows the direct consequences of making dinosaur hybrids too big and dangerous, and having a full island of these dinosaurs roaming freely is such a cool concept that could have been explored further. The full D-Rex reveal gave me chills. A dinosaur that large, with six legs that resemble multiple species, was incredible. However, I wish there were more scenes of how it interacted with the environment, being that size. For a film all about dinosaurs, it felt like they could have shown more dinosaurs throughout.
The Nostalgia Factor
One thing that the Jurassic Park franchise has over other franchises is its nostalgia. No matter the quality, there will always be a large audience flocking to the theaters to see a new film. I was one of those people who saw Jurassic World: Rebirth because of the nostalgia surrounding it. Growing up on both the original and newer films, there were so many parts that I enjoyed purely based on nostalgia. There’s a scene where the group finds a herd of Titanosauruses and spends the next couple of minutes in awe of their size. This scene was so captivating and instantly reminded me of the original film. I got goosebumps in the theater hearing the score over this lovely scene. It was probably the best part of the film. This happens a couple of times throughout—scenes that slightly remind the audience of the previous films—and some may find it tacky; I thought it was delightful. It really paid homage to the original films and why so many people come back to watch a new part of the franchise. Including the T-Rex was also a nice homage to the original film. The filmmakers knew how to get audiences, new and old, to care about this film.
Overall
The film itself was a fun watch. I always enjoy a good summer blockbuster that gets mass audiences to the movies, and Jurassic World: Rebirth was perfect for this summer. There were definitely some choices made in the film that had me turning my head, but overall, the movie was entertaining and added a lot of substance to the franchise. It possibly paved the way for a future film that I will be sure to see whenever Universal decides to make another. After all, who could say no to a dinosaur movie?
Sources: IMDb, IMDb, IMDb, IMDb, IMDb, IMDb, IMDb, IMDb, IMDb, IMDb
Images: Jurassic World
Contact Sam Jasionowski with comments at samantha.jasionowski@bsu.edu or @s.jasionowski on Instagram.
