Producers: Frank Marshall and Patrick Crowley Director: Gareth Edwards Screenplay: David Koepp Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, Jonathan Bailey, Rupert Friend, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Ed Skrein, Luna Blaise, David Iacono, Audrina Miranda, Philippine Velge and Bechir Sylvain Distributor: Universal
Grade: B-
What does one go to a “Jurassic” movie for? CGI dinosaurs, for one, and this new addition to the series offer critters that are masterfully rendered by the effects teams headed by David Vickery (VFX) and Neil Corbould (SFX). And scares, of course, which it delivers with panache—especially of the jump variety. If originality is what you seek, look elsewhere, but if you want the familiar served up with professional skill, “Jurassic World Rebirth” will do the trick.
Set five years after the end of the second trilogy, the plot contrived by David Koepp centers on an illegal mission to Saint-Hubert, a Caribbean island that housed a research facility devoted to creating odd dino hybrids for entertainment purposes until it was abandoned after a horrific accident seventeen years earlier. The island, and the surrounding sea, are now closed to interlopers as they’re occupied by all sorts of mutant dinosaurs, including a monstrosity called D-Rex, a T-Rex with what appears to be a whale’s head.
Nonetheless a crew is formed by Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend), a Big Pharma mogul, to infiltrate the place for a potentially lucrative purpose. The rationale behind the expedition is the sort of scientific hoo-hah you simply have to swallow for the plot to proceed, and Koepp understandably skips over it as quickly as he can. Krebs’s scientists have determined that a revolutionary cure for heart disease can be manufactured from the DNA of the three largest dino species on the island—the aquatic Mosasaur, the herbivorous Titanosaur and the flying Quetzalcoatlus. But the necessary compounds can’t be synthesized in the lab, so samples must be extracted from living representatives of each species and quickly preserved; and they can be acquired surreptitiously at Saint-Hubert.
So Krebs, driven by corporate greed, recruits Zora Bennett (Scarlet Johansson), an experienced special ops vet now turned mercenary with a yearning for a big retirement nest egg, and nerdy Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey), a paleontologist who’s tired of assembling dino skeletons and yearns to see the creatures up close and personal, to accompany him on the secret mission, for which they charter the boat of Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali), a trusted old comrade of Bennett’s. Others onboard are Duncan’s first mate LeClerc (Bechir Sylvain), general factotum Nina (Philippine Velge) and volatile security chief Atwater (Ed Skrein).
The contingent is soon expanded when Duncan decides to respond to a distress call from Reuben Delgado (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), whose boat was attacked by a Mosasaur, leaving him, his eleven-year-old daughter Bella (Audrina Miranda), her older sister Teresa (Luna Blaise) and Teresa’s admittedly lazy boyfriend Xavier (David Iacono) clinging to the overturned hull. After picking them up the group proceeds to Saint-Hubert; an encounter with Mosasaurs en route allows Zora, using a specially-equipped rifle rather than a harpoon, to extract the needed DNA; the capsule containing it is launched into the air after being filled and then retrieved via a cute little parachute. But the irritated Mosasaurs then attack in force, leaving the crew and their passengers marooned on the island—those who survive, that is—in two groups: Krebs’s team and the Delgado refugees.
From this point the action cuts between the fraught efforts of each group to reach the abandoned facility from which they might be extracted by helicopter. The Delgado contingent must deal with encounters with all sorts of beasties; in a nod to the child-in-peril motif that’s marked the franchise, little Bella undergoes several hair’s-breadth escapes, though she also gets to adopt a cute little aquilops that she names Dolores and carries in her backpack.
Meanwhile the Krebs mission acquires the DNA of the Titanosaur without much difficulty—when they encounter a mating ritual of the critters that’s one of the more majestic moments crafted by the effects team and cinematographer John Mathieson, infused with the sense of awe Loomis feels as he observes first-hand what he’d only been able to imagine. But getting the Quetzalcoatlus sample proves far more dangerous, requiring the crew to rappel down a steep cliff side to secure the fluid from one of the eggs in the creature’s nest. Fatalities escalate.
Eventually, the survivors from both groups reunite at the ruins of the facility, where they must evade various predators, most notably the dreaded D-Rex, while awaiting the copter’s arrival. Koepp and director Gareth Edwards, working closely with editor Jabez Olssen and production designer James Clyne, cobble together an exciting, if somewhat overextended, finale in which, to paraphrase Oscar Wilde, the good end happily and the bad unhappily.
Edwards lays all this out with assurance, setting aside the tendency toward pretention that has afflicted some of his work (like his last film, “The Creator”). He does rely overmuch on a few tricks—like the habit of focusing on a character in the foreground while a beast is shown, out of focus, creeping up on him from the rear. But he sometimes finds a way to use even this tic to advantage, as in a scene in which Xavier, relieving himself, tries to ignore what he intuits is going on behind him. And the director manages some affecting intimate moments, which are enhanced by a score from Alexandre Desplat that can go full bore in the action sequences, but also take on real delicacy in the more human ones.
Buffs will also appreciate Edwards’ nods to his movie’s obvious influences. Most notable are those to Steven Spielberg, director of the first two “Jurassic Park” pictures and one of the executive producers on this one. Everyone will feel the Spielbergian tone Edwards tries to recapture throughout, and the “Jaws”-inspired action of the Mosasaur sequence. But the Quetzalcoatlus nest episode was surely designed by Koepff and the director, at least in part, as a homage to the giant Roc action from “The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad” and its stop-motion pioneer Ray Harryhausen, who certainly would have salivated over the possibilities afforded by the technical advancements devised since he employed his simpler, homespun—and far more labor-intensive—effects tools.
Edwards is helped by an uncommonly strong cast, who manage to bring some shading to characters that are essentially stereotypes. Johansson anchors things as the strong, resilient Zora, with Bailey adding a bit of welcome humor as the nebbishy professor who sparks her idealistic (as well as romantic) side. Ali cuts a figure of gruff nobility despite the avaricious streak he shares with Friend’s oily villain. And while the others have less opportunity to shine, they’re all more than adequate; Iacono comes across as a potential crowd favorite.
Like Edwards’ “Godzilla,” this is just a big-budget popcorn flick that offers little new but is crafted more expertly than most. In terms of franchise quality it hearkens back more to “The Lost World” than to “Jurassic Park,” but that still makes it a respectable summer thrill-ride.