Like many fans of Jurassic Park, when the announcement of Jurassic World Rebirth was made in 2024, I was filled with both excitement and apprehension. While the original Jurassic Park movies (yes, even the third one) are some of my favourite movies of all time, I was incredibly let down by the lack of plot, substance and coherence that followed with the Jurassic World films. How we ended up at genetically mutated locusts, I will never know.
But I was hopeful for Rebirth. Why?
Directed by Gareth Edwards, known for directing movies like Rogue One, and written by David Koepp, who not only wrote the original Jurassic Park movie but also the original Spider-Man movie, Jurassic World Rebirth had the “bones” of a good movie, and an intriguing enough plot to follow.
In Rebirth, InGen’s dinosaur lab on Île Saint-Hubert collapses, unleashing their ultimate genetically mutated creation, the Distortus Rex (D-Rex). Years later, in a world grown bored of dinosaurs, mercenaries Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson) and Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali) are hired by pharmaceutical representative Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend) to lead a mission to the island to extract dinosaur DNA, which he claims to be a treatment for heart disease. Joined by palaeontologist Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) and the stranded Delgado family, whose boat is capsized near the island after a Spinosaurus attack, the team’s survival then hinges on escaping the island’s deadly creatures.
A cool premise, an awesome production team, and a decent cast that performs well. So why, then, does Jurassic World Rebirth only have a 2.7 rating on LetterBoxd and a 50% rating on Rotten Tomatoes?
From the get-go, Rebirth doesn’t feel fresh or exciting, in fact it’s almost immediately possible to tell which direction the plot is going to go because it’s entirely reliant on cliches and tropes that have already been explored in previous Jurassic World/Park films: Genetically modified dinosaurs, DNA, a team sent to an unfamiliar island and greedy pharmaceutical companies just to name a few. Its oddly structured plot also shifts between the mission team and the unnecessary addition of the Delgado family, making it feel like it can’t decide whether it wants to be an action movie or a family drama. You can also immediately tell which characters are going to die – and the characters that are left alive (too many) are relatively flat and undeveloped due to the continuous narrative shifts, and we’re left with no reason to have emotional connections to any of them which leaves the stakes relatively low.
Rebirth did at least attempt to go beyond the family bickering and its weird product placements (which includes a Snickers wrapper that causes the initial accident on Île Saint-Hubert). Martin Kreb, the pharmaceutical representative, wants to sell the dinosaur DNA treatment privately instead of offering it to the public. While this may be relevant for today’s world, the film gives the topic of private and public health a surface-level treatment that’s overshadowed by the action and chaos of the rest of the movie, and is used more as a plot filler than any real attempt at social critique. Not to mention that the happy ending is, arguably, unrealistic considering today’s political climate.
One thing I think that most Jurassic fans can agree on is that we watch the franchise mostly for the dinosaurs – but a lot of the dinosaurs in Rebirth are genetic mutations, the “freaks” that they didn’t want on the main islands. The new star of the show, the D-Rex, is more monster than mutated T-Rex. For all the failures of the previous films, at least the Indominus Rex and Indoraptor actually resembled dinosaurs. And perhaps one of the biggest letdowns and the one cliche Rebirth failed to deliver: There’s no epic T-Rex battle at the end.
Despite all of this, though, I didn’t hate it.
The nostalgia, while overdone, did have its charms and poked at some early Spielberg greatness. A high stakes Mosasaurus boat scene is reminiscent of Jaws, and the team coming face to face with a herd of Titanosaurs to the Jurassic Park theme score takes us back to Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler seeing a dinosaur for the first time.
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Jurassic World: Rebirth is a ridiculous movie. Not terrible. Not great. Just aggressively absurd and occasionally fun, like a theme park ride that spins too fast and almost breaks down halfway through, but you still get off saying, “Well… that happened.” – John Summers via Cheezburger
Ultimately, though, despite its title suggesting the revival of the franchise, Rebirth is nothing we haven’t seen before. Instead of focusing on moving the franchise forward and discovering new, interesting ways to develop the world of Crichton’s Jurassic Park, we’re left with another pointless story with too many underdeveloped and unnecessary characters, and social critique that lacks any real depth. Despite its fun Spielberg easter eggs, it relies a little too heavily on the nostalgia and is just, unfortunately, another victim to Hollywood’s remake epidemic.
But, if you’re a dinosaur fan, I still recommend giving it a go, because one thing that Jurassic World films do get right is the dinosaur action.
Hollywood may be out of ideas, but at least it’s not out of teeth.
Caitlin 
Clara 
Kath Smart