"Jurassic World Rebirth: Enter At Your Own Risk"
Jurassic Park installations aren’t very innovative. Usually someone wants power, wealth and thinks they can achieve that by manipulating gigantic pre-historic creatures. There’s someone who has worked closely with the species or studied them heavily who gets pulled in to an adventure or nefarious task. There’s always the cool rebel who has street smarts and perhaps a military background. Probably most importantly, there’s some kid in the mix. Jurassic World Rebirth is the same formula, different mission, but still has elements of spectacle.
Probably the most interesting thing about this film is that it takes place in a world where people don’t care about dinosaurs anymore. They’re no longer flocked after by the masses in zoos or theme parks. In fact, they’re dying in climates outside of the equator. Rather than stay in a community where extinction is happening, Zora Bennet (Scarlett Johansson) is propositioned to go to a dangerous island where dinos are thriving to retrieve blood from some of the oldest dinosaurs to try to eradicate heart disease. The gun for hire is desperate for one last job that will allow her to retire, having spent most of her life on special ops, she’s the best person to lead the team being pulled together by pharmaceutical executive Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend). From there, they pull in Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey), Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali), and some more rag tag mercenaries to round out the group.
Simultaneously, a family is crossing the Atlantic in the middle of nowhere. In yet another place that writers Michael Chrichton and David Koepp miss the boat (hehe), this family dynamic is explained just enough for us to fill in the blanks on their current relationship but is barely developed over the course of the film. Reuben Delgado (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) has his daughters, Teresa (Luna Blaise) and Isabella (Audrina Miranda) on this once in a lifetime trip. Teresa’s boyfriend, Xavier (David Iacono), is a lazy stoner who seemingly may have made the voyage under a condition for Teresa to go. Xavier is another character who is underwritten but may be one of the most captivating of the group.
With that we have our characters for the film. Director Gareth Edwards does well when he seemingly pays homage to the Spielberg style of filmmaking. He uses camera angles that show the scale of the dinosaurs versus humans. He pushes in for close-ups to give characters a pivotal line or to show the intensity of a moment. Cinematographer John Mathieson helps in these moments with the golden glow of light that captures a character in the frame. This is all counterbalanced by the visually alarming CGI that’s used. It felt more like the special effects from The Lost World (1925). A perfect example is a scene with a T-Rex waking up to come after the Delgados. The initial camera work and suspense of the scene will have you hold your breath, but you can breathe out once the dino gets moving alongside the family. It looks like they’re superimposed in the frame.
This film brings into question the length of movies made today. Rebirth could have started at sea (about 25 minutes in) and still worked. Why do we have to assemble a team for twenty minutes? What if we meet the team in progress and learn about them during the mission? There is a two to three minute expositional dialogue between Bennet and Kincaid on the ship that is a drag. However, maybe it wouldn’t have been so boring if that was the background info we received on the characters instead of the drawn out set up prior.
Jurassic World Rebirth is predictable and carries a nostalgic familiarity. There are glimpses of brilliance followed by segments of mundanity. It doesn’t know the film style it wants to rely on and is certainly two films in one that come together in the end. It’s entertaining for the moment and forgotten once you hit the lobby of the theater. I couldn’t justify the price for my family to see it in theaters, but nothing beats seeing a dinosaur on the big screen. Enter at your own risk.
Rating: D+
Jurassic World Dominon Review: Fans Will Love It! Anyone Else Should Wait For Streaming.
Let’s cut straight to the point on this. Jurassic World Dominion is great for fans of the franchise and may be disjointed and unbelievable to anyone else. If you are looking for fan service, it’s rich with it. Otherwise, this may be a good streaming pick later.
First, with a word like dominion in the title, you would think that dinosaurs are assorting their dominance in the world. Semantics don’t matter as the species just live among us in this film. Credit goes to screenwriters Emily Carmichael and Colin Trevorrow for creating a world that feels lived in and thought out. What if dinosaurs really lived among us? What would a black market for dinosaurs look like? What would the PETA equivalent look like in this world? They’ve thought of it all, accept how to tell a cohesive story.
The film has a Steve Jobs-like CEO, Lewis Dodgson (Campbell Scott), as its villain. Dodgson was a minor character from the original film and was a corporate rival of the park’s creators. He’s now is the head of a massive company called Biosyn. It’s the type of tech company that is heavily guarded and you have to have an invite to get on campus. He’s bioengineered locusts that eat the crops of the world, in order to control the world’s food supply.
This is where the gang loosely comes together. Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) and Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) are looking after Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon), a teenager who Fallen Kingdom revealed to be a clone of a deceased scientist. She holds the key to stopping the disaster and everyone wants a piece of her…kind of literally. We get a globe trotting race to stop impending disaster and the re-introduction of fan favorites Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum. How they all link up is where you have to suspend disbelief. It’s that kind of a film where you really need to just, not think. “It’s a film about dinosaurs!” I hear you yelling at me. I get that, but that doesn’t mean that we have to accept characters being in one location in one scene and appearing in a distant location in the immediate following scene with no context as to how they got there unless they were The Flash.
This film introduces the always interesting Mamoudou Athie as Ramsay and DeWanda Wise as Kayla. Kayla is a black pilot who smuggles whatever for the right price. She provides a source of keep it real comedy that is needed for some of the unrealistic moments in the film. Sermon is the heart of the film as she wars with is she real or not. Jeff Goldblum is his charming, old man swagged out self as Ian Malcolm. His humor is much welcomed as well.
There is a major gripe I’ve had with big beasts/monster movies in cinematic history and that is the fact that, since King Kong (1933), we’ve seen how a white character can bring a beast under control with a touch. This is a film where white characters lift their hand and stare down a dinosaur to make it back down. It happens multiple times throughout this film and this imagery is worrisome because seeing yourself on the big screen is important. King Kong, Godzilla, Frankenstein (before it tosses the girl into the lake), any Potter film and more beasts are always under this spell. Shot sizes and cinematography matters. There is a subconscious message that, against impossible odds, white characters can tame a beast. Hollywood needs to stop planting this in its viewers’ minds or at least spread the wealth in these preposterous situations and reflections of power. Let a little girl from Nepal stare down the next dinosaur!
Off of my soap box, it would definitely be of use to revisit Fallen Kingdom, Jurassic Park, and maybe even Jurassic World for this to catch easter eggs. For fans of the franchise, this is likely to be a good time. If you’re not a huge fan, save your money this weekend, or go see Top Gun: Maverick again!
Rating: C-
"Jurassic World" Review: The Park's Lost some Magic
“Jurassic Park” exploded on the big screen in 1993. It was magical, it opened a new world to CGI, and simply entertained. Since then we’ve had two films trying to continue that magic that didn’t fair as well. “Jurassic World” may be the best of the films that have followed, but the numerous plot holes can’t be excused to make it more than an OK film.
For some reason Simon Masrani (Irrfan Khan) thought it wise to create Jurassic World, a theme park where dinosaurs are the main attraction, on the same island that Jurassic Park was created barely twenty years before. Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) is the straight laced business woman in charge of the park. In order to see a boost in attendance, they’ve created a new dinosaur with the help of lead scientist Dr. Henry Wu (BD Wong) (a nice throwback to Jurassic Park). While their creation is smarter and bigger than a T-Rex, the Indominus Rex has also been in isolation its entire life. The combination troubles resident velociraptor trainer Owen (Chris Pratt) who thinks of the animals as beings rather than assets.
To give us a view of the park, Claire’s nephews Gray (Ty Simpkins) and Zach (Nick Robinson), have come to visit their aunt. They’ve been sent out with VIP passes to enjoy the park since Claire is too busy with work to spend time with them after seven years of not seeing them. It’s in the scenes with the boys that we get to see the spectacle of the park in extreme wide and aerial shots. It allows us to imagine what it would look like if we were able to live and interact with dinosaurs. The grand scale of a brontosaurus, triceratops and other prehistoric creatures are displayed beautifully in these scenes. As lovely as it is, we’re really just waiting for the Indominus Rex to break out!
When the Indominus Rex finally gets out, the movie seems to finally start! Attempting to not have a PR nightmare, Clair and Masrani try to keep things under control as quietly as possible while security mogul Hoskins (Vincent D’Onofrio) attempts to use his militant security squad to take out the beast for his own self interests. In the meantime, Claire and Owen team up to save her nephews and protect park patrons.
In the beginning of the film Claire says something to the effect of “20 years ago dinosaurs were magic, these days it just doesn’t matter to kids.” The same could be said about this film. “Jurassic Park” was original and magnificent. “Jurassic World” has the same plot as any mad science gone wrong film that has come out since then. Why humans think they can control dinosaurs and why Claire runs around in heels for the entire movie while trying to run for her life is lost on me! How do you train raptors? How does a jeep run after 20 years by simply replacing the battery? Where as many instances in “Jurassic Park” did have some, logic has absolutely nothing to do with this film.
Thankfully, the action and suspense is what you would desire to see in a film like this. The writers did a great job of sprinkling humor throughout the film to break up the intensity of certain scenes and monotony of the plot. There are plenty of laugh out loud, light hearted moments in the film, for the right reasons! There are also quite a few homages to the original film that will be delightful for JP fans.
If you decide to spend your hard earned cash on “Jurassic World” this weekend, you will be entertained. Just remember to hand over your brain with your dollars. Don’t rush the kids if you’re running behind and may miss a bit of the beginning of the movie. While seeing the film in IMAX was nice, the 3D effect didn’t do much for the film. Choose wisely.
Rating: C