Title – Jurassic World: Rebirth (2025)

Director – Gareth Edwards (The Creator)

Cast – Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, Mahershala Ali, Rupert Friend, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo

Plot – An illegal expedition that includes mercenary for hire Zora Bennett (Johansson), her old colleague/turned smuggler Duncan Kincaid (Ali) and dinosaur expert Dr. Henry Loomis (Bailey) venture deep into the last remaining dinosaur territories to extract some highly valuable DNA samples.

“Survival is a long shot”

Review by Eddie on 11/07/2025

To be fair, when within the first 5 minutes of screen time you witness a Snickers wrapper causing a system malfunction in a remote dinosaur research lab causing untold carnage and destruction, you get a pretty clear indication of the type of film Jurassic World: Rebirth is and the type of quality you can expect it to deliver on.

Overseen by Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Godzilla helmer Gareth Edwards, Rebirth is another example of the director showcasing incredible visual prowess around less articulated and well-formed narrative understanding as he and his screenwriter David Koepp struggle to find a reason to once more bring mankind face to face with rampaging dinos, here set years after the events of Jurassic World: Dominion where dinosaurs have now mostly migrated to remote equator settings away from the hustle and bustle of civilian worlds.

For a series that at one time was synonymous with wonder and excitement, Rebirth mostly lacks in that department with the feeling that the brand is running on fumes more prevalent than ever after the disaster that was Dominion and the instantly forgettable feeling you’ll have from watching this mediocre big budget affair.

Struggling majorly early on where our new collection of human fodder establishes themselves and the simplistic set up of a team for hire venturing into the forbidden dinosaur lands to extract dinosaur DNA (for you guessed it!) a pharmaceutical company is established, Koepp’s cringe-laden script and cookie-cutter characters will make one beg for some scaly fiends to get busy chomping but before any of that happens we first have to deal with Manuel Garcia-Rulfo and his yacht loving family.

One of the most bizarre, poorly established and irritating examples of Hollywood storytelling I can recall, someone needs to sit me down and explain why Garcia-Rulfo’s seemingly loving and intelligent father has decided to take his two girls and one of their boyfriends on a yacht sojourn through the open seas right through the heart of dinosaur land, as from the moment they come into the story in the most strange set of circumstances you feel like Rebirth has jumped the (Jurassic) shark in a major way and from that painful point on everything else within Edwards film plays out exactly how you’d expect with barely an attempt to provide anything unexpected.

Playing a bit like a Jurassic greatest hit parade, there are numerous throwbacks, references and straight up copies of past glories and triumphs and when composer Alexandre Desplat’s take on John Williams iconic score can’t even get the goose bumps going you know Rebirth is stuck where it belongs, deep in the well of popcorn munching blockbusters that can provide mindless thrills and spills for willing audiences that are likely to never contemplate the film again.

Saved from the doldrums of badness that Dominion found itself in by some well-staged set-pieces such as a T-Rex vs inflatable boat showdown or some eventful abseiling as well as some impressive visual moments, Rebirth is a mostly sad and sorry affair that it’s talented cast including a phoning it in Johansson and pedestrian Mahershala Ali can’t do much about, making one wonder more so than ever before if the Jurassic brand needs a time of laying dormant until a decent reason (if there ever is one) to bring it back to life makes itself apparent.

Final Say –

Playing out exactly how you will suspect and offering up very little to a franchise that has now seemingly run out of new ideas or reasons to keep coming back to the table, Jurassic World: Rebirth is a tiresome blockbuster exercise that also harbours one of the most mysterious yachting group inclusions of recent memory.

2 unneeded fence cuttings out of 5