Jurassic World Rebirth (2025) Review!!

Synopsis – Five years post-Jurassic World Dominion, an expedition braves isolated equatorial regions to extract DNA from three massive prehistoric creatures for a groundbreaking medical breakthrough.

My Take – I think we all know by now how in 1993 director Steven Spielberg and his team of visual effects artists not just awed the world by bringing dinosaurs to the big screen, but also made everyone realize the true magic of cinema.

Though subsequent entries, The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) and Jurassic Park III (2001), couldn’t re-create the same amount of success, the franchise got a much needed shot in the arm in the form of Jurassic World (2015), a blockbuster by all means, and even switched gears fascinatingly in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) by veering into mild horror territory.

However, the closing installment, Jurassic World Dominion (2022), despite much promise, proved to be a damp squib by adding some unnecessary gibberish into the mix. Shifting away from creature-feature horror to ho-hum adventure.

But for its seventh installment, which revolves around a new set of characters and sees writer David Koepp return to the franchise, it goes to back to tried-and-true formula. It takes all the franchise hallmarks, elements and aspects viewers have loved over the last 32 years, and works them into one film. Simply told, if you’ve seen any of the six previous Jurassic films, you’ve pretty much seen this one.

Yes, it delivers an entertaining ride with the kind of dinosaur action that keeps us coming back for more, but also comes with an obvious message that the franchise has absolutely run its course and that Universal Pictures & Amblin Entertainment don’t seem to know where to move this giant machine.

If you are looking to simply witness dinosaurs doing their thing and the narrative employ all tactics associated with the series, this Gareth Edwards (Godzilla, Rogue One) directorial can be that easy popcorn watch. But if in case you are looking for fresher approach, as the title hints, the derivative nature of the script is sure to leave you underwhelmed.

Beginning with a prologue set in 2010, the story moves seventeen years ahead, where dinosaurs have proven ill adjusted to the climate of most modern countries with those that have survived clustering around the equator, and follows Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johannson), an ex-special forces operative, now a private contractor in situational security and reaction, who is hired by Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend), an ambitious executive who represents the scientists of the pharmaceutical giant ParkerGenix, to put together an illegal expedition.

An expedition which will see them head to the island of Ile Saint-Hubert and extract DNA from the three most gargantuan species inhabiting land, sea and air. Samples which contain the key to revolutionary heart disease medication, worth trillions to whomever lands exclusive control.

Joined by Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) as the scientific expert of his expedition, Bennett and Krebs also enlist Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali), and his crew Bobby Atwater (Ed Skrein), LeClerc (Bechir Sylvain) and Nina (Philippine Velge), to use their a repurposed military patrol boat that to get to the island island. Elsewhere, Reuben Delgado (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), and his daughters, college-age Teresa (Luna Blaise) and 11-year-old Isabella (Audrina Miranda), are on a family sailing trip.

The vacation being Reuben’s attempt to reconnect with his girls, since they have been living with their mother following their divorce. Though he’s not thrilled to have Teresa’s lazy stoner boyfriend Xavier (David Iacono) along for the ride. Unknown to all of them, the island to where they are heading was InGen’s genetics experiment hub, which due to a massive incident has been abandoned all these years.

As mentioned above, the film just feels like a tribute to the tropes of the original. Though at times it feels more like a horror film that relies on the usual jump scares, literally every step is read in advance. Right from the Titanosaurs grazing peacefully on a grassy meadow and the cat-and-mouse game with the predatory inhabitants of the island to the fate of the suitcase with its important contents and the survivors proudly swimming away towards symbolic dawn. Every beat feels like a repetition of what we have seen before. The film actually starts strongly enough as director Edwards knows how to create real terror with scale on screen.

The opening scenes are reminiscent of a classic Universal monster flick and it’s accompanied by a score that has none of that trademark John Williams flavor of wonder. It’s all creepy creature feature vibes that seemed to promise a new flavor for the franchise. And then the film pivots into comfort zone with its straightforward plot. Already hinting at who is going to become dinosaur meal and in what order.

By comparison, there’s a familiarity to the dynamics of the Delgado family: the issues they’re dealing with have all been seen before and they’re all charismatic enough that viewers might enjoy spending time with them. The bad news is, there’s no good reason for them to be there. The CGI is top-tier, but these over-designed monsters lack a lot of the tangible, visceral punch that made the original 1993 so memorable.

Thankfully, director Edwards has a fairly good hand on the spectacle. In the first of the many extended action set-pieces, we see the sail boat getting sideswiped by a Mosasaurus and capsized, and later when the family boards the bigger boat, it comes back with a group of Spinosaurus and attacks them much harder. The scene is excellent and pure joy.

We even see franchise star, a Tyrannosaurus Rex, with its bilious roar and tiny hands, makes a welcome return. Woken from sleep on the banks of a river we see the Delgados attempt a raft escape over rapids, but the massive therapod thunders after them and even swims. A scene that reaches peak nail-biting suspense when Isabella is separated from the group. Personally, I loved the design of the the new deformed six-limbed T-Rex final boss dubbed D-Rex, and wish we could have seen more of it.

The performances are decent enough, even if they are mostly cut from an existing mold. Scarlett Johansson is able to pull off a typical mercenary role that requires an amount of heroics and coolness. Jonathan Bailey brings the necessary charm and humor to the proceedings. Maharshala Ali gets to be his usual tough guy.

Rupert Friend is believable as the typical greedy corporate guy. Manuel Garcia-Rulfo is great as a dad crossing the Atlantic with his daughters. Luna Blaise, Audrina Miranda and David Iacono are likable, while Ed Skrein, Béchir Sylvain and Philippine Velge don’t have much to do here. On the whole, ‘Jurassic World Rebirth‘ is a decently entertaining but forgettable installment that simply rehashes everything iconic from the franchise.