‘Jurassic World: Rebirth’ Swaps Out Dino Horror For Corporate Placating [Review]
The Jurassic series, whose seventh entry, Jurassic World: Rebirth, stomped into theaters this week, is in desperate need of some new DNA. Not the Rancor/Xenomorph kind spliced into Rebirth’s heavily touted, barely featured Distortus rex, but a simpler kind; the base. Rebirth doesn’t have one, and more than three decades after Spielberg’s monstrous classic first bowed, it’s more obvious than ever that this franchise has no idea who it’s for.
At its core, Jurassic World: Rebirth lives up to the marginal expectations of its title. While no, this is not a franchise reinvention, there is an admirable, matter-of-factness about its sequestered tale of dinos run amok. Eschewing the dense lore and incredulous world-building of the Jurassic World trilogy, director Gareth Edwards and returning scribe David Koepp tap into the same fossilized amber of the original—a haphazard group of strangers are stalked by giant, killer monsters.
That includes Scarlett Johansson’s Zora Bennet, a covert operations expert, her work buddy, Duncan (Mahershala Ali, regularly reminding audiences he’s too good for this sort of thing), Alan Grant stand-in Dr. Loomis (Jonathan Bailey), and pharmaceutical executive Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend) continuing the franchise tradition of plastering “Bad Guy” across the bad guy’s forehead. They’re all fine, if one-note, and they’re all given David Lindsay-Abaire Rabbit Hole melodramatic backstories to cultivate just enough interest in their well-being. The rest of the cast is just fodder, often quite literally, dying off-screen for the exclusive purpose of upping the body count.
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A B-plot surrounding a marooned family is a conspicuous effort to throw more children into the mix, spotlighting Jurassic World: Rebirth‘s greatest weakness. Rather than endeavoring to capture the spirit, thrill, and majesty of Spielberg’s original (or even Michael Crichton’s novel), Jurassic World: Rebirth instead concedes to a greatest hits mixtape of scenes we’ve already seen before. Franchise low Jurassic World: Dominion at least had the moxie to try something new, misguided as that was, and it’s telling that Jurassic World: Rebirth‘s legacy origins feel more pronounced than Dominion’s actual legacy casting. Remember the velociraptors in the kitchen? Here’s that scene again, just a touch worse.
Maybe it’s growing pains. Jurassic World: Rebirth was famously focus-grouped to death, with Edwards brought on after negotiations with filmmaker David Leitch broke down. Universal and its band of producers already knew the movie they were going to make, and they just needed a proctor. Edwards confidently manages the scale, even if the periphery is painfully evocative of the movie he might have made had he been given a little more franchise flexibility.
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For better or worse, core to this new Jurassic era is the innate idea of the audience. Who are these dinosaurs for? Jurassic World: Rebirth continues the thematic throughline that unleashed the Indominus Rex back in 2015. Dinosaurs aren’t cool anymore, so to bring in a crowd, they need to be bigger and scarier than ever. Yet, at the same time, overt consumerism for the kiddie crowd seeps out of every sequence. How cute is that Aquilops Dolores? Now you can buy the licensed LEGO set for your tween.
So, all at once, Jurassic World: Rebirth attempts to satisfy base shareholder needs with as benign a corporate blockbuster as possible while teasing, and never fully delivering on, the promise of a world truly besieged by monsters. Jurassic Park was, after all, a horror movie. A glossy one, dolled up with big effects and an even bigger budget, but it was still Halloween for the prehistoric crowd. Juan Antonio Bayona’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom was the closest the series has come to rebirthing its horror roots, though Jurassic World: Rebirth more often gestures toward genre rather than fully embracing it.
What remains is fine. Like so many kids, Jurassic Park was everything. And if there are dinosaurs, even of the Jurassic World: Rebirth variety, I’ll be there. They’re still pretty cool, and even I’ll concede that seeing a mosasaurus capsize a boat is the stuff of wonder. If Jurassic World: Rebirth intends to course correct, it’s going to need to strap in for a brief tour hosted by Mr. D.N.A. What is this park all about? Who is it for? I’m desperate to care about these creatures again. Tear off another arm and get my palms sweating, and who knows, maybe I will.
Jurassic World: Rebirth is out now in theaters.
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Jurassic World: Rebirth
Summary
If you’ve ever wanted to see a corporate executive’s idea of a dino horror movie, Jurassic World: Rebirth is your chance.
Categorized: Reviews
