Three years after the huge, billion-dollar success of “Jurassic
World: Dominion,” which had brought fans the return of the original film’s
trio, it’s not really a surprise to see another sequel come out so fast. However,
despite this latest sequel not starring Sam Neill, Laura Dern, or Jeff Goldblum,
director Gareth Edwards and his crew have still made the choice of casting
well-known stars trying to revive the franchise the keeping it fresh enough so
it doesn’t feel like another obligatory dinosaur film. As we watch the seventh
entry in the franchise overall, will stars like two-time Oscar nominee Scarlett
Johansson and two-time Oscar winner Mahershala Ali be enough to achieve this
seemingly impossible task?
Starting in 2008, we see trouble at an InGen testing
site, where genetic experiments are being tested on dinosaurs. After one of
them escapes the cell, it goes on a killing spree, forcing the entire personnel
to evacuate the lab. Cut to present day, we see that the remaining dinosaurs
all live in areas around the equator because it is the only climate that they’re
able to survive in, areas that are off-limits to everyone. However, Martin
Krebs (Rupert Friend), an executive for a pharmaceutical company, enlists
mercenary Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson) and paleontologist Dr. Henry Loomis
(Jonathan Bailey) for a mission to collect DNA samples from three dinosaurs so
they can develop a treatment for heart disease, a very profitable outlook.
Before they leave, Zora enlists her old friend Duncan
Kincaid (Mahershala Ali) to lead the mission, one that immediately hits a hurdle
when he decides to rescue Reuben Delgado (Manual Garcia-Rulfo), his daughters
Teresa (Luna Blaise) and Isabella (Audrina Miranda), and Teresa’s boyfriend
Xavier (David Iacono), whose boat was overturned by a dinosaur. Further difficulties
causes the team and those they rescued to be separated and stranded on the
island where the former hopes to complete their mission, but, as you can probably
guess by now, it turns out to be way more difficult and dangerous than
originally thought.
As you can tell, 32 years and now seven films into
this franchise, it’s very difficult for even the most talented of writers to
come up with excuses for anyone to interact with the last dinosaurs on the
planet, especially since these interactions always lead to so many casualties.
Jeff Beck said in his review, “This has led screenwriter David Koepp, who
adapted the first two "Jurassic Park" films, to fall back on one of
the oldest excuses of all: simple & unbridled greed. In this case, it's a
treatment for heart disease that would be worth millions, if not billions of
dollars. Throw in a promised hefty payday, and it ends up being more than
enough to lure a team of mercenaries into an insanely dangerous mission to
procure the genetic material.”
As far as the overall plot goes, this one is a lot
more straightforward than what we got in the previous sequel. There’s no
possible world-ending event or conspiracies, just a pharmaceutical company
looking to make so much money. Beck said, “On that score, it may be a little
more interesting, primarily because the main mission doesn't get as bogged down
with a lot of superfluous material, but it still ends up being rather ho-hum
because it is rather basic as far as stories go.” What’s worse is though
despite the completely unnecessary addition of the rescued characters from the
boat, who you feel are just useless because they’re only there to put more
people in danger while the team goes on their mission. You can tell that when you
realize that they couldn’t been entirely removed and it wouldn’t have changed
much of anything about the film.
Beck noted, “Again, you might be able to say that the
narrative is a slight improvement, but it still doesn't do much to reinvigorate
the franchise. We still have people stupidly risking their lives by going
anywhere near these dinosaurs, and several people still getting killed as a
result, causing it to feel like more of the same thing that we've already seen
several times before.” Scarlett Johansson and Mahershala Ali are definitely
good additions to the cast and do the best they can with the material they’re
given, but there’s only so much they can do with the film’s kind of simple
premise. In the end, if you’ve been enjoying these films up until now, then
there’s a small chance that you’ll enjoy this film, but if you’ve been noticing
they’re a little tiring, this latest film will likely not chance your decision.
Beck said, “"Jurassic World: Rebirth" may
have a slightly improved, more straightforward plot when compared with the last
entry, bringing with it some rather strong star power, but sadly it doesn't do
much to reinvigorate the franchise, feeling like yet another standard, ho-hum
dinosaur outing like we've gotten from the last several sequels.” As a result,
your enjoyment of this latest film will likely be determined by how much
entertainment you’ve gotten from these more recent films in the franchise.
I have to admit, I didn’t like how the film kept
switching back and forth between the two group of characters. When the
dinosaurs came in, they looked great, as usual, especially the one who looked
like a xenomorph dinosaur. We didn’t get any good action until the last act,
and the villain could have been predictable. If you want to check it out on Peacock,
you can, but I really think they need to rethink this franchise before making
another sequel. Just focus on one central group of characters instead of
cluttering it with characters we don’t care about and make it more about the
dinosaurs.
Thank you for joining in on this review today. Stay tuned tomorrow for the last review of “The Godfather Trilogy” in “Francis Ford Coppola Month.”
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