Review of the New Jurassic World Film — Did Rebirth Fail to Meet Revival Expectations?

On paper, everything looked like a triumphant return: the iconic music, the T-Rex logo, Universal Studios' promises to bring Jurassic Park back to its roots. Rebirth was marketed as something more than just another sequel — as an event. However, reality proved more mundane. Critics were divided, audiences too. Why didn't a film about dinosaurs with a decent budget become the summer's biggest premiere? Is the movie itself to blame, or did it simply fail to bear the weight of viewers' inflated expectations? Let's try to figure it out in our review!

Should we jump straight into the film breakdown? Ha! Not a chance. In an era of remakes, reboots, and sequels, it's worth clarifying first: what exactly are we watching? Rebirth is a soft reboot made within the franchise. The action unfolds five years after the events of Dominion, but the studio deliberately abandoned the old characters. No familiar faces, no attempts to "unite generations" — instead, new heroes, new conflicts, fresh presentation.

At the helm is a powerful duo: the screenplay was written by David Koepp — the same one who worked on the first and second parts of the original trilogy, while director Gareth Edwards sits in the director's chair. He prefers extensive on-location shooting in stunning natural locations with moderate CGI — all to create the effect of a real, tangible world. In theory — strong foundations. In practice — somehow a repetition of not-so-successful experience. After all, Dominion also tried to be a legacy sequel — connecting Park with World, passing the baton to new heroes. The result was... lackluster. Fan service diluted with plot chaos.

Now — to the point. In recent years, the dinosaur franchise has lost its own identity. From a story about scientific ethics, the risks of progress, and human arrogance, it transformed into a series about yet another disaster with cloned reptiles. The mechanics repeat, emotions dull, scale doesn't save it. To break out of this cycle, Jurassic Park needs to either return to its philosophical roots or — take a risk and find a new, unique idea.

But Universal chose the safe path: global appeal of dinosaurs, mass audience, proven moves, PG-13 rating. It feels like the creators were boxed into the framework of commercial compromise. Rebirth is oriented toward the entire world — hence the diverse cast, absence of cultural references and deep subtexts. The plot is maximally universal: mercenaries and corporate types hunt three unique dinosaurs whose DNA could save humanity from heart disease. Billions of dollars are at stake and big business won't stop at anything. No moral dilemmas, no difficult questions — but with action and spectacular views.

If we set aside complaints about the plot, Rebirth confidently wins in spectacle. The dinosaurs, the franchise's main stars, are in place. Moreover — they're presented freshly, diversely, and with genre understanding. The film can be mentally broken down into three levels: nature, dinosaurs, and their interaction. And on each of these levels, it works without fail.

All scenes featuring ancient reptiles are built with imagination — whether peaceful observation of majestic Titanosaurs, brief encounters with Ankylosauruses, or full-scale action with the mutant D-Rex. The creators try not to repeat themselves: locations change, threat configurations shift, and the dinosaurs themselves don't act according to template. Water chase, night hunt, claustrophobia in ventilation shafts — the director clearly understands how to create variety.

The separation of reptiles by habitat worked well: aquatic, terrestrial, aerial — each with unique behavioral patterns and visual presentation. The group of heroes has to find approaches to them, study, improvise, lose people — this isn't just fighting a monster, but contact with a living, albeit not very intelligent creature. But the mutants — Mutadon (hybrid of velociraptor and pteranodon) and D-Rex (roughly crossed tyrannosaurus with additional limbs) — balance between revulsion and pity. You can see this is a product of an experiment that went wrong.

The downside of all this staging is exactly one — the limited rating. Not a single scene reaches truly shocking violence. Dinosaurs sometimes catch up to humans, but tearing them apart in close-up — sorry, PG-13. We work by the 1925 formula: loud sound, lots of screaming, sharp editing, everyone gets scared. And the nameless unfortunates have already vanished without a trace.

If the visual aspect is the first contact, then shooting technique is its foundation. And Rebirth doesn't disappoint on this front. The editing is dynamic but not hysterical. The camera stays steady, scenes are given room to "breathe", the pace hardly sags. The picture is not only beautiful but also meaningful — color, light, and focus are built to both support the narrative and beautify simultaneously.

The best decision here was the choice of locations. Principal photography took place in Thailand, where nature reserves (Khao Phanom Bencha, Ko Kradan, Ao Phang Nga) gave the film lush, "pristine" landscapes — forests, waterfalls, islands drowning in greenery. For water scenes, the studio chose Malta with its huge reservoirs, ensuring realistic underwater scenes, including dangerous episodes with marine dino-predators.

Edwards deliberately shot the film on 35mm Kodak film with Panavision anamorphic lenses — not only out of respect for the original, but for the texture that a digital sensor can't provide. Light grain makes CGI less plastic, adding the effect of living cinema. This move is justified: dinosaurs look convincing precisely because they blend with the background. There's no sense of overlay, no cut-out objects — everything looks cohesive.

Graphics and practical effects are balanced: scenes have enough live objects and digital magic, but to the eye — not a single glitch. Even in the most loaded shots, contrasts of light, shadow, and relief are readable. Use of drones, unconventional angles, reflections, multi-layered composition makes the image deep and rich — watching on the big screen is pure pleasure.

Special respect — to the sound. The sound design of Rebirth is quality; the roar of D-Rex or T-Rex isn't just loud, but with tension through which you feel strength and mass. Alexandre Desplat, the composer, carefully and precisely combines John Williams' original themes with new motifs. The soundtrack doesn't distract but amplifies: when needed — fills with anxiety, when needed — releases.

The actors here don't carry the film — they work in it. Almost everyone understands the material's boundaries and doesn't try to act against the script: told to play functional action — it will be, need a short emotional response — please, said we're now shooting a horror section — and tension appears on the heroes' faces. Professional work, but without ambitions for more.

Scarlett Johansson as Zora Bennett — a confident center of gravity for the film. Her character is the commander of a group tasked with collecting dinosaur genetic material. Johansson plays a pragmatic heroine with notes of charisma, sometimes still overdoing the "woman leader" or "mother of the whole squad" cliché. Paired with Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey), she looks convincing: you can see the characters trust each other, even when they disagree. Loomis — a biologist and second mission participant, he combines intelligence and "nerd" anxiety, so his reaction to events is always more emotional than the others'. Bailey as an actor feels rhythm and intonation well, doesn't slip into parody and enlivens every episode with himself.

Mahershala Ali as Duncan Kincaid — a reliable but faceless figure. His character initially appears as a typical mercenary with cold calculation, but by mid-film switches to "moralist-mode", abandoning the mission to save civilians. The impression is that he and his team are playing a genre function, expendable material.

Rupert Friend as Martin Krebs, representative of the pharmaceutical company sponsor, played more of a symbol than a character. His performance is cold, and the role is emphatically rational — and he categorically fails to reach the image of a corporate overseer, turning into a loud fool who couldn't even buy the mercenaries' loyalty. The finale is somewhat predictable.

The Delgado family — father Ruben (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) and two daughters, Teresa (Luna Blaise) and Isabel (Audrina Miranda) — are clearly introduced into the plot with an eye toward family audiences. Everything here is predictable: kind, warm, good ordinary people. Ruben isn't an action hero, but a person caught in extreme conditions: he panics, makes mistakes, but tries to protect the children. The children behave naturally: get scared, show cleverness, "assert their rights" or go into defense using the "I'm offended" template.

Jurassic World: Rebirth is made simultaneously for two different audiences and doesn't try to overcome this divide. In the context of genre — summer blockbuster about dinosaurs — one can forgive format shortcomings with plot holes, strange character decisions, and forced story turns — blockbusters live on spectacle, not logic. But two storylines repeatedly tear the film into different and not even composite parts.

One line — the mission on San Heber Island, where Zora Bennett's team, Duncan Kincaid, and Henry Loomis hunt for dino-DNA. This is pure action-blockbuster: jungles, lairs, traps, explosions, giant creatures and heroes crawling along cliff edges. Everything is built on dynamics and risk. A strong, cohesive, driving line.

The second — the story of the Mexican Delgados, who ended up on the same island after their yacht broke down. Here everything is built on emotions, dialogue, experiences, attempts to survive in an extreme situation. This part is noticeably softer and addressed to an audience expecting not only adrenaline but also empathy. This is where the low rating fits, by the way — box office receipts are only higher if families can come to the cinema together.

The plot leads the viewer from scene to scene, showing sometimes one group of unfortunates, sometimes the other. It seems well-glued: both groups encounter prehistoric monsters one-on-one, unite, separate, intermingle, gather back together. Characters constantly remind the viewer of their motivation — for someone money is important, for someone relationships, someone has personal drama in their heart, someone needs fame. And everything seems fine, but the output is — genre mush.

With persistence worthy of better application, the creators combine the incompatible: family drama with a frightened little girl and driving action episodes of DNA theft, teenage toilet humor with Raptors and Pterodactyls, corporate gloss and rural island ingenuity. The viewer can't switch between all this set of directorial decisions on emotions alone; willy-nilly you start engaging your brain, and there you notice the absurdity.

The main trouble with Rebirth is its attachment to the legendary brand. One shouldn't expect a new Jurassic Park: this is just another modern blockbuster, and nothing more. As an independent work, Rebirth works honestly — it has successful finds: visual rhythm, sound work, competent fear dosing. However, excellent work with dinosaurs and locations doesn't compensate for genre uncertainty and weak screenplay. It'll do for casual viewing, but the franchise continues to mark time.