Rent Jurassic World: Rebirth on Amazon Video (paid link)
Written by: David Koepp (written by), Michael Crichton (characters created by)
Directed by: Gareth Edwards
Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, Jonathan Bailey, Rupert Friend, Ed Skrein
Rated: PG-13
Watch the trailer
Plot
Five years post-Jurassic World: Dominion (2022), an expedition braves isolated equatorial regions to extract DNA from three massive prehistoric creatures for a groundbreaking medical breakthrough.
Verdict
The best scenes are callbacks to the original Jurassic Park. This is a movie that's big on action and includes several more characters than needed. These aren't dinosaurs, these are alien horror creatures. It never inspires the awe of dinosaurs that the original movie did, but I'm not sure that's the intent. This is a bloated popcorn action movie that includes the largest dinosaurs we've ever seen, hoping that alone is enough. The story is little more than 'try to escape evil dinosaurs bent on destruction.' It rarely slows down to build a mood of tension and despair.
Skip it.
Review
I haven't enjoyed any of the Jurassic World movies. I'm not sure I've liked a Jurassic Park since the
original. I keep watching, hoping the films can recapture that spirit.
It's always in vain. They keep making them, and I keep watching them. I
guess I'm part of the problem.
The first sequence feels like a Final Destination movie with an errant candy wrapper wafting into a restricted area and somehow shutting down the entire dinosaur lab. The security system is terrible. When it fails, all the dinosaurs are released. It should be fail secure not fail safe.
In the present, no one cares about dinosaurs anymore. They're no longer a novelty. I'm not sure I believe that. Theme parks thrive and persist in reality and they don't boast such a unique attraction. Dinosaurs also can only survive at the equator, though we do see one that's loose in a city. It's more a shortcut to the main plot and a fun juxtaposition to see a dinosaur in the city.
 |
| Scarlett Johansson plays Zora |
Pharmaceutical company rep Martin (Rupert Friend) mounts a mission to head to the equator to obtain living samples from the largest existing dinosaurs as part of a cardiovascular treatment study. I thought that meant they needed heart tissue, but a blood sample seems to be enough. The team is led by former Special Forces Zora (Scarlett Johansson) and Duncan (Mahershala Ali). They need samples from a land, ocean, and air animal. I don't know why other than it sets up action set pieces later.
The secondary plot is a family sailing across the equator. They assume all the dinosaurs are gone, but we've literally seen dinosaurs in a city. I also don't buy that there no global warnings, safeguards, or designated safe routes for ships. You see a family on a boat, and you know a dinosaur is going to destroy the boat. That's how they end up with Zora's team. Her team are dinosaur hunters. When has that ever gone well in these movies? They're chasing prey that's the size of a bus, and the encounter with the ocean dinosaur leaves them without a boat.
 |
| Jonathan Bailey, Mahershala Ali, Rupert Friend, Scarlett Johansson, Ed Skrein play Henry, Duncan, Martin, Zora, Bobby |
The first scene of the land dinosaurs, basically an oversized Brontosaurus, attempts to be awe inspiring like the first encounter in Jurassic Park, complete with the original score.
This relies heavily on action and dinosaur attacks. The family feels like a throwaway, plot fodder that only stretches the run time. Half way in, it didn't seem to add much. Even at the conclusion, they're only extra bodies without much development. The sheer number of characters only dilutes the plot. This movie always wants to go bigger. The small moments aren't features that set the mood, they're only there to connect the big events. That only serves to make the pacing uneven. This could focus on the tension inherent in these small moments but this only wants to revel in big action set pieces.
The very premise of the movie is ridiculous. They wanted to create obscenely large dinosaurs as an attraction for the park. Those dinosaurs predictably become uncontrollable. Who didn't see that coming? By the end of the movie, it isn't even dinosaurs. They might as well be alien creatures with how they've been genetically modified. There's a metaphor in how the park in the movie kept trying to create larger dinosaurs as an attraction. This movie and the series keeps trying to go bigger to an attract an audience. Larger isn't better. Some of the most intense sequences in the original were the raptors slowly stalking their prey and sneaking up on people. It gave the audience a moment to think, what would I do in that situation. This movie never slows down enough for that level of reflection. This also copies a few scenes from the original for good measure.
No comments :
Post a Comment