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Set pieces give dinosaur movie Jurassic World: Rebirth plenty of bite




Film review: Jurassic World: Rebirth (12A)

Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, Rupert Friend and Luna Blaise

Director: Gareth Edwards Run time: Two hours, 13 minutes

Jurassic World: Rebirth poster
Jurassic World: Rebirth poster

The appetite for dinosaurs shows no signs of abating – if the opening weekend is anything to go by – with this solid summer blockbuster fare.

After a very slow and methodical opening, it deserves kudos for at least trying to ‘flesh out’ the new characters for this new trilogy reboot – or Rebirth as the sub-title implies – of the uber-popular franchise.

And the third act is actually fairly exhilarating – sometimes intensely so – which really does make, or arguably even saves, the movie.

But it’s ultimately just a mish-mash of elements of the Jurassic Park/World films that have come before it. Even though both Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Bailey (Wicked) make for likeable leads for this latest Jurassic World resurgence.

Cue familiar scenario. Wealthy pharmaceutical executive (Rupert Friend) hires ex-military covert operative – basically a ‘mercenary’ – Zora Bennett (Avengers star Scarlett Johansson) to help protect Jonathan Bailey’s paleontologist. They head to a secret island to extract the blood from three large dinosaurs, which will aid future life-saving research for generations to come.

Said secret island was abandoned 17 years before after a serious incident, and houses the worst kind of mutated dinosaurs, including a massive D-Rex. Prehistoric creatures are now only able to survive close to the equator, as it resembles their Mesozoic climate, with most of the earth being uninhabitable to the species.

Along the way, the likes of Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali (Moonlight) and Ed Skrein (Deadpool) join the ride as part of Zora’s team, as does Manuel Garcia-Rulfo’s dad, who is on a boating trip with his two daughters and eldest daughter’s boyfriend, who get inadvertently involved in proceedings.

And after the aforementioned slow burner of start, the movie really does come to life in the final third, with several great set-pieces. A T-Rex water-rafting scene is arguably being the stand-out highlight.

It’s probably a bit much to say this ‘is the second best Jurassic Park movie of all-time’ – The Lost World and original Jurassic World may still be a smidgen ahead of this, but this is definitely a damn sight better than the awful last outing Dominion. And this will now ultimately be the start of a new trilogy, as the box office shows the public’s hunger for dinosaurs is still there – and this definitely lays solid foundations moving forwards.

Which leaves Rebirth as an entertainingly noteworthy entry in the Jurassic pantheon – with several excellent action sequences that carry plenty of ‘bite’ – but it won’t linger in the memory for too long after the end credits roll.

Rating: 6/10

By Gavin Miller



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