Film Review: Jurassic World - Rebirth

 

Sexuality/Nudity Mature

Violence Acceptable

Vulgarity Acceptable

Anti-Catholic Philosophy Mature

When it comes to the Jurassic Park franchise, hope springs eternal.  I think it is safe to say that most of the movies in this series are not very good.  And yet people keep coming back again and again hoping for the thrills and the awe of the first.

And while Jurassic World: Rebirth is not the worst in the series, it isn't great either.

The story takes place after the events of Dominion.  Most dinosaurs have died and the ones that survive are in tropical places along the equator.  Martin Krebbs (Rupert Friend) hires mercenary Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson) to go to a defunct research island to get the DNA from the three largest dinosaurs so that they can unlock the key to fixing heart disease.  The bring along Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey), a dinosaur expert, to come along with them.  They then charter a boat with Zora's friend Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali).  However, divorced father Ruben Delgado (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) is sailing with his young daughter Isabella (Audrina Miranda), his teenage daughter Teresa (Luna Blaise) and her boyfriend Xavier (David Iacono).  But when they are attacked by a Mosasaur, Zora and her team rescue them and take them on the mission where things go wrong quickly.

I will say this, I got my money's worth because of the thrills the movie provided.  When Ruben's sailboat gets attacked and someone is plunged underwater with the giant Mosasaur, that hits me on a primal level of fear.  Watching that same person swim for their life as the dinosaur gives chase also gripped me.  This and the sequence where a T-Rex comes after people doing down river in a life raft was something right out of the original book.  In 3D, there is a cliff rappelling scene that also put a pit in my stomach.  3D is great for giving a sense of height and I am terrified of heights.

For those reasons alone, I enjoyed myself while watching the movie.

But the movie has serious flaws, many of which may be too much for the average viewer.

First of all, the acting is very flat.  Johansson is a very good actress, but it feels like she is sleepwalking through this movie for a paycheck.  The same is true for most of the cast.  I wouldn't say that the performances are necessarily bad, but they are also nothing exceptional.  That's not entirely the fault of the actors.  The characters have no real depth.  Evil guy is obviously evil.  Good-guy scientist is there to be the Jiminy Cricket of the group.  He even goes so far as to say that it is a sin to kill a dinosaur.  Which, if you will pardon me, seems like much less of a sin than allowing a human being to be eaten.  

Plot-wise, when they get to the island, the Delgados are separated from the main group and the two stories have almost nothing to do with each other.  It's almost as if they are two separate movies that are woven together, but don't mesh very well.  

This is also one of those sci-fi movies where characters do things that make no sense for the sake of the plot.  As they are racing towards the island, their boat is being chased by predator dinosaurs.  Teresa falls into the water and Xavier dives in after her.  Ruben then tells Isabella that they have to jump into the water because the boat is going to crash and Teresa is in the water.  

Excuse me?

Replace dinosaurs with sharks and tell me what human being would ever jump into those waters with his little child because the boat is going to crash (on the beach)?  How does that make any sense?  It was done purely so that they two groups can be separated.  

Also, a Snicker's bar wrapper destroys an entire security system.

One of the biggest drags on the story for me is Xavier.  He is so inherently unlikeable.  But then he will suddenly become heroic because that's what the script needs him to do in that moment.  I don't mind characters with contradictions, because people are messy and complicated.  However, Xavier's actions don't comport with his character at all.  He is not a deep person with a shallow persona, like Tony Stark.  He is a shallow person who inexplicably acts heroically.

Okay, this last part is something that may be very particular to me, but it soured me a lot on the characters.  When we are first introduced to the Delgado family, it is very heavily implied that Ruben's teenage daughter Teresa is having sex with her boyfriend on the same boat that Ruben has also brought his young daughter Isabella.  And Ruben just kind of bites his tongue and lets Xavier have his run of the boat.  I could not help but be disgusted by this failing of fatherhood.  Leaving aside that he is allowing his daughter to fornicate on his own boat, but to do so in the presence of his younger daughter seems unconscionable.  This led me to care less about the characters than I should have from the beginning.

Again, despite its flaws, this movie is better than the previous two Jurassic movies, though admittedly, that is a very low bar.  But if you want to watch a movie with some fun, mindless thrills, Jurassic World: Rebirth may be worth you time and money.