Film Review: Who Let The Dinosaurs Out?

Jurassic World Rebirth continues the franchise began many moons ago by the late Michael Crichton who wrote the first novel, Jurassic Park. This is now the seventh film in the franchise, and my mixed reaction is likely not going to be surprising.

Gareth Edwards is the director of this film which was written by David Koepp. Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, Jonathan Bailey, Rupert Friend, and Manuel Garcia-Rufo are included in the cast.

This story begins with a flashback in which an isolated island is the site of some questionable experiments involving the breeding of hybrid dinosaurs are being conducted. Of course, it all goes a bit awry when one of the experiments escapes and tears the laboratory to pieces before dashing off into the jungle.

Some years later, a team comprised of a couple of scientists, a snobby rich guy, and a few hired guns head out to the island to get some blood samples from various dinosaurs that could help cure some kind of heart disease. The team come across a family on a boating excursion who are attacked by some unfriendly and hungry prehistoric ocean dwellers. Everyone makes their way to the island after another harrowing attack to get to the lab where some hope of escape awaits.

Scarlett Johansson is in the lead as some kind of mercenary. Even though she spent some years playing Black Widow for Marvel Studios, I had a little trouble with being convinced that she was the right choice for this part. I guess I didn’t find her as intimidating as what the script seemed to call for.

The special effects were pretty cool, and dinosaurs were pretty well realized on the screen.

The film seems to have a slow start. but it does get somewhat better when the group makes it to the island. The family with Garcia-Rufo as the father actually got me more interested in the film. In recognized Garcia-Rufo from the Netflix series The Lincoln Lawyer, so it was kind of cool to see him in something a little different. He’s a decent actor and did well in this film.

The film does follow a familiar pattern established in the earlier installments. There are some new bells and whistles when it comes to the visual effects and set design, but the plot did not feel all that unique.

There is an innocent family in the mix, and a child who keeps getting threatened by the big, scaly beasts. Fortunately, I start to like the family. Even the slacker boyfriend of the elder daughter started to grow on me a bit.

The film manages to avoid being utter garbage, but it still isn’t one of the better ones of the series. It has some moments that are redeemable, it overall made me question the wisdom of the studio execs who keep on beating a dead raptor.