‘Jurassic World Rebirth’ Movie Review: Thrills Aplenty in Scarlett Johansson’s Dino Adventure, but Spark Has Long Gone Fossilised! (LatestLY Exclusive)

'Jurassic World Rebirth' Movie Review: Directed by Gareth Edwards, Jurassic World Rebirth stars Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, and Jonathan Bailey, introducing a new storyline that moves away from the previous Jurassic World narrative arc. The film returns to an island-based setting, this time exploring a previously unseen island where dinosaurs - some of which are genetically mutated - have been left to breed unchecked. Despite charting new territory, the film still acknowledges the events of the Jurassic World saga. ‘Jurassic World Rebirth’ Movie Review: Dinosaur Fatigue Sets In as Critics Pan Scarlett Johansson and Mahershala Ali’s Film.

One commendable aspect is that it tries to be a standalone movie with no aim to launch another trilogy. But then again, neither did Jurassic Park or Jurassic World and yet both spawned sequels of diminishing quality. If this film reaches the billion-dollar mark, don’t be surprised if surviving characters return for another instalment.

'Jurassic World Rebirth' Movie Review - The Plot

The story centres around Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson), a covert ops mercenary hired by Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend), an executive at the pharmaceutical company ParkerGenix. The mission? Escort Krebs and palaeontologist Dr Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) to Île Saint-Hubert, an island in the Atlantic that was once a secret InGen breeding ground before being shut down due to a mutant dinosaur outbreak.

Their task is to locate and extract tissue samples from three of the island’s largest dinosaurs - one aquatic, one terrestrial, and one aerial - to develop a potential cure for heart disease. Why such a specific requirement? It’s never convincingly explained, but it does create a game-like challenge for the team. Predictably, the land-based encounter is the easiest.

Watch the Trailer of 'Jurassic World Rebirth':

Zora recruits her old ally Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali), a navigational expert and team leader, along with security expert Bobby Atwater (Ed Skrein). Kincaid also brings along two associates - Leclerc (Bechir Sylvain) and Nina (Philippine Velge). En route to the island, they rescue a shipwrecked family attacked by a Mosasaurus. The survivors - Reuben (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), his daughters Teresa (Luna Blaise) and Isabella (Audrina Miranda), and Teresa’s boyfriend Xavier (David Iacono) - become unwitting participants in the mission.

However, the team underestimates the peril they’re walking into. Casualties begin early, and the island proves to be more deadly than anticipated.

'Jurassic World Rebirth' Movie Review - Nostalgia Gone Extinct?

Like many others, I’m a huge Jurassic Park fan - so much so that I even wore a Jurassic Park T-shirt to today’s screening. When I first watched Steven Spielberg’s masterpiece as a child, it made me realise the grandeur of cinema. If it was a magical moment for Dr Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler to see a brachiosaurus for the first time, it was equally magical for me on the other side of the screen - having never known dinosaurs existed, I didn’t even know what the film was about.

That was 1993. Now, in 2025, Jurassic Park remains one of the films I’ve rewatched countless times. I didn’t mind the sequels, though I utterly despised Jurassic World: Dominion. But I know that no Jurassic Park film - no matter who makes it, even Spielberg himself - can recreate the magic of the original. And it’s all the more frustrating when they keep trying, only to fail repeatedly.

This is the core problem with Jurassic World Rebirth: it desperately wants to evoke that first-time experience of arriving on Isla Nublar, but this time on a different island. What it fails to grasp is why that feeling can never return - first, because it’s already been done; second, because the world it’s set in no longer allows for it. In this universe, dinosaurs still roam freely. So when Loomis sees a titanosaur for the first time and stares in awe, I didn’t share his wonder, especially since one of the protagonists is introduced in a scene where a brachiosaurus causes a traffic jam. You can’t just drop John Williams’ iconic score wherever you please and expect nostalgia to carry the film.

Jurassic World Rebirth also bends or forgets its own lore. Loomis claims to be a student of Alan Grant, yet forgets that Grant never considered InGen’s creations as true dinosaurs, but rather as monsters. Loomis also states that dinosaurs have relocated to equatorial islands for the climate - ignoring the fact that these are not actual prehistoric creatures but genetically engineered hybrids designed to adapt to modern conditions. These inconsistencies are never challenged in the screenplay by David Koepp who had also penned the first two Jurassic Park movies.

Granted, this is a popcorn action movie, not a palaeontology seminar. By that standard, Rebirth is entertaining - especially if your idea of fun is watching dinosaurs creatively devour humans. Or if you want to see dinos do something different - what about a mating scene? Or have you imagined what a T-Rex looks like when he is sleeping?

'Jurassic World Rebirth' Movie Review - Fun Action Scenes

To give credit where it’s due, Gareth Edwards has crafted some genuinely tense dino-action sequences that kept me utterly invested. The opening prologue - set 20 years before the main events - where a mutant dinosaur wreaks havoc in a lab, had a touch of Final Destination about it. The first major set piece, featuring the Mosasaurus and a pack of Spinosaurus, was electrifying.

Jurassic World Rebirth also brings to life the much-discussed raft scene from the original Jurassic Park novel, which was omitted from Spielberg’s film, and it delivers a brutally intense moment. Equally gripping were the Quetzalcoatlus attack and the final act, where the surviving characters navigate airborne predators and a mutant dinosaur while scrambling to escape the island. A darkly humorous highlight involves a character attempting to relieve himself in the wilderness while dino-chaos unfolds in the background. ‘Jurassic World Rebirth’: What’s ‘Jurassic Park’ Raft Scene? New BTS Trailer Confirms Inclusion of Famous Sequence in Scarlett Johansson’s Dino Film (Watch Video).

Unsurprisingly, the film wears its influences on its sleeve - from Spielberg’s Jaws and Jurassic Park to even Jurassic Park III and Peter Jackson's King Kong. A particularly tense encounter in an abandoned supermarket echoes the iconic raptor sequence from the original. That said, these homages didn’t bother me much.

'Jurassic World Rebirth' Movie Review - Predictable Kills

What truly bothered me was the predictability. It’s painfully easy to spot who’s going to die - and roughly when. The trailers don’t help, shamelessly spoiling major deaths and heavy-handedly foreshadowing others. Nor is it surprising that the Delgado family, despite being thrust into countless perilous situations, remains shielded by that impenetrable 'child armour' (a handy narrative crutch in these films). The little girl even gets a pet dino - because why not reinforce the armour further while giving the franchise another marketable toy? A win-win for all. The only character who ever felt genuinely at risk was the boyfriend.

Then there’s the corporate villain, a franchise staple and a creature-feature cliché, whose grotesque demise is as inevitable as it is telegraphed. The other casualties? They’re barely more than names on a checklist - disposable subordinates who exist only to follow orders. Even their long-time colleagues offer only the most perfunctory mourning before moving on.

This brings us to the three principal leads. Johansson, Bailey and Ali sell the peril well - no motorcycle‑riding raptor whisperers here. Ali, in particular, lends unexpected poignancy when his character drops his guard to discuss grief and loss in a fab acting moment that has no real place in a film like this. Mostly, though, they’re levelling up through increasingly deadly stages.

'Jurassic World Rebirth' Movie Review - Visually Underwhelming

I’ve never been a huge fan of Gareth Edwards’ storytelling, but I admire his visual style in films like Godzilla and Rogue One. I hoped he’d bring similar artistry here. Unfortunately, I was underwhelmed. Though some action scenes shine, the visual palette in many scenes look garish. The island often doesn’t feel like a real location - a far cry from the immersive environments of the earlier films.

It’s easy to tell which scenes were shot on location versus in a digital sandbox. In some shots, the humans and dinosaurs clearly don’t share the same space. When your technology breaks immersion rather than enhances it, what’s the point? I can see Ian Malcolm winking at me now.

'Jurassic World Rebirth' Movie Review - Final Thoughts

Jurassic World Rebirth isn't the disaster Dominion was - but neither does it come close to being the triumphant return to form it so desperately wants to be. The film delivers fleeting moments of excitement, a handful of genuinely tense sequences, and the occasional smart callback to the franchise's origins. It works reasonably well when channelling Kong: Skull Island-style adventure (just with more dinosaurs), but falls painfully short whenever it attempts to recapture the original Jurassic Park's sense of wonder and magic.

Rating:2.5

(The opinions expressed in the above article are of the author and do not reflect the stand or position of LatestLY.)

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 04, 2025 03:44 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).