Review by Jon Donnis
Jurassic World Rebirth doesn't pretend to be anything other than what it is. It's loud, fast, packed with creatures, and mostly delivers exactly what you expect. If you've watched the last six entries in this franchise and still enjoy watching people run from giant teeth and claws, this one probably won't disappoint you. It plays all the old hits, throws in a few new riffs, and lets Scarlett Johansson carry the weight of the film while everything explodes around her.
The story kicks off in familiar territory. A dodgy lab, an escaped dinosaur, and a cover-up that clearly doesn't work. Years later, the dinosaurs have mostly vanished from view, surviving only in small pockets near the equator. That hasn't stopped humans from poking around where they shouldn't. A pharmaceutical company sends a team to a remote island, hoping to harvest samples from three giant species. At the same time, a civilian family ends up shipwrecked nearby and dragged into the mess.
What follows is pretty standard for this series. There's a mix of jungle survival, lab infiltration, and a few moments of fake-out peril before the next creature attack. Johansson, playing ex-military operative Zora Bennett, gets most of the best moments. She's cool, convincing, and feels like the only character truly in control. Everyone else falls somewhere between generic support and expendable background. Mahershala Ali gives the mission some weight, and Jonathan Bailey does what he can with the paleontologist role, but there's no real emotional pull to any of it. You're here for the action, and the film knows it.
Visually, it looks as good as you'd expect. The dinosaurs have weight and detail, with a mix of CGI and puppetry that works well enough not to draw attention to itself. The Mosasaurus still commands every scene it's in. The Titanosaurus sequence is solid, if slightly tame. The Quetzalcoatlus attack is one of the stronger set pieces. The supposed villain of the film, the Distortus rex, ends up being surprisingly dull. It shows up, stomps about, eats a man, and exits. There's nothing particularly memorable about it, which feels like a missed chance.
The plot hits all the expected beats. The team is picked off one by one, the family gets separated, and someone decides to betray everyone for personal gain. It's functional, and occasionally frustrating, especially when characters make the kind of decisions that defy all logic. One character sees a person fall into dangerous waters and just… does nothing. Later, that same person pulls a gun on their own team. You've seen versions of this scene in other films, and the outcome is never surprising.
There are moments that work. Isabella Delgado's friendship with a tiny dinosaur is one of the lighter touches that lands. The temple scene with the Quetzalcoatlus has real tension. The final escape, while completely ridiculous, ends with a simple payoff that works: the villain is eaten, the heroes sail off with the miracle cure, and the world is safe again. For now.
But the film is too long. Over two hours for this kind of story stretches things. There's a whole middle section that feels like filler. People walk through forests, talk about plans, and wait for the next dinosaur to show up. Cut thirty minutes and the film would move better. Instead, it ends up feeling padded, even though the pace is steady enough to keep casual viewers watching.
Jurassic World Rebirth isn't a disaster. It's just fine. It ticks the boxes, avoids risk, and leaves no real mark once the credits roll. You get the sense that the franchise is running on routine now, not passion. But as an easy watch on a big screen, it just about gets away with it.
7 out of 10. It could have been worse. It also could have been better.
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