Remember how you felt when you saw the first dinosaur in “Jurassic Park� No avid moviegoer could forget the scene in which paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and paleobotanist Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) first glimpse a long-necked brachiosaurus munching the tops of trees on tropical Isla Nublar.
Their astonishment at encountering this long-extinct animal in the flesh was mirrored in the awe Steven Spielberg’s movie inspired in the audience. His groundbreaking use of realistic computer-generated imagery in his 1993 sci-fi thriller heralded a new era of digital cinema.
It’s now 32 years later and there’s a seventh film in the ongoing “Jurassic†franchise: “Jurassic World Rebirth,†directed by major Spielberg fan Gareth Edwards (“G´Ç»å³ú¾±±ô±ô²¹,†“Rogue One: A Star Wars Storyâ€). It should be titled “Jurassic Park Revisited,†since there are many callbacks to Spielberg’s classic, although no cast members remain from the original trilogy or the subsequent “Jurassic World†trilogy.
Awe has been replaced by ennui, a palpable sensation Edwards and returning “Jurassic Park†screenwriter David Koepp explore at the outset. It’s now five years after the calamitous events of “Jurassic World Dominion,†and dinosaurs are in danger of becoming extinct again, this time through climate change and disease.
More deadly, perhaps, is declining public interest in their welfare. An early scene shows an ailing sauropod in New York City, not unlike the gentle brachiosaurus mentioned above, as it snarls traffic and gasps its final breaths following a zoo escape. Infuriated drivers curse it. A faded billboard feebly offers “T-Rex Tuesdays†discounts for dinosaur exhibits nobody wants to attend anymore.
The intended solution for this sad dissolution, on and off the screen, is to make dinosaurs exciting and lucrative again. We are whisked to the previously unknown equatorial island hideaway of Ile Saint-Hubert, where the minions of “Jurassic Park†mastermind John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) first employed DNA magic to create their dinos. Hammond’s lab had many failures. (An obese “Alienâ€-style monster called Distortus Rex that caused havoc there is seen in the new film’s prologue.) Stymied by subsequent disasters, Hammond’s team abandoned the research lab and left the monsters behind to roam wild, forgotten by the world and protected by government decree.
Until now. Fictional pharmaceutical giant Parker-Genix, represented by the black-suited and dollar-driven Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend), has determined that the DNA of these random beasties can be used to cure human heart disease, a discovery that will extend many lives and expand a few wallets. The catch is the genetic material must be extracted from living animals in the wild — zoo critters apparently don’t cut it — and doing so requires great stealth, bravery and greed.
Not just any wild dino will do. The DNA must be taken from three of the most dangerous prehistoric creatures on earth: the pointy beaked flying reptile quetzalcoatlus, the slithering sea beast mosasaurus, and the aptly named land behemoth titanosaurus.
Enter Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson), an ever-smiling covert-ops specialist (read: mercenary) who never says no to a paycheque. Along with her old pal Duncan Kincaid, a soldier of fortune played by Mahershala Ali, she’ll lead an extraction team to get the DNA, get out and get rich. Zora and Duncan are both grieving lost loved ones, another reason to get outta town on another adventure.
Along for the ride is the requisite egghead, Altoids-crunching Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey from “Wickedâ€). He’s eager to see dinos in the wild but, like Jeff Goldblum’s “Jurassic Park†moralist Ian Malcolm, Henry worries the mission is more about making money than aiding humanity. “Science is for all of us, not some of us,†he tells Zora, who concedes he has a point she’ll consider, but only after checking her bank balance.
The hunt is on, but not before a huge Spielbergian plot twist comes to dominate the story. Following an encounter with sea monsters who don’t like sharing their water, a family is shipwrecked and ends up in the company of Zora’s raiders. It’s one of the film’s truly exciting action sequences.
The wayward family is led by intrepid sailor and negligent single dad Reuben Delgado (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), who has brought along his daughters Isabella (Audrina Miranda) and Teresa (Luna Blaise) for an ill-advised equatorial cruise, along with Teresa’s layabout boyfriend, Xavier Dobbs (David Iacono).
Weed-smoking Xavier seems ripe to become dino chow but he provides most of the film’s laughs as he grapples with the perilous wildlife and his “Swiss Family Robinson†circumstances.
Xavier’s the only character in this predictably plotted and relentlessly plodding movie who exceeds expectations. Edwards and Koepp are more interesting in tipping their cap to the original vision of Spielberg — who retains an executive-producer credit and was actively involved in the project — than coming up with anything remotely fresh or exciting. Ditto for Edwards’s directing and John Mathieson’s cinematography. Composer Alexandre Desplat, however, manages to subtly and artfully salute John Williams’s unforgettable theme music with his own sturdy score.
There are replays of such “Jurassic Park†classic moments as the raptor hide-and-seek in the kitchen, this time in a convenience store filled with product placements. Once again, an emergency flare is heroically employed to distract a giant rampaging dino. There are multiple child-in-peril scenes, including one with the frilled dilophosaurus that proves to be considerably less lethal than before. Reuben is curiously OK about letting his preteen daughter Isabella adopt a small dinosaur, an aquilops, as a pet. It’s a herbivore, but one with a sharp beak that could do serious harm.
Nasty things do happen in the film, but they’re telegraphed in advance and largely obscured to maintain the family-friendly “PG†rating. The emphasis on the shipwrecked Delgados and Xavier makes the characters played by Johansson, Ali and Bailey seem redundant. That, in turn, makes the movie’s trailers and posters seem like false advertising.
Martin, the corporate weasel, is at least good for interesting stats: Who knew it cost $72 million to resurrect a single dinosaur?
The strangest and most regrettable thing about this film is how ordinary the special effects are. The CGI used in “Jurassic World Rebirth†isn’t appreciably better than what we saw in “Jurassic Park,†and may actually be worse. The dinosaur chase scenes frequently look fake — the beasts are almost always just one chomp away from their prey — and even the inevitable rampage by Distortus Rex, D-Rex for short, has a been-there, stomped-that feel about it.
After acknowledging the loss of awe for dinosaurs at the outset of the picture, Edwards and Koepp do nothing to revive it.
In the original “Jurassic Park,†Dr. Grant asked, dumbfounded, “How’d you do this?†Decades later, as “Jurassic World Rebirth†lumbers through recycled spectacle and hollow nostalgia, a different question haunts the screen: “Why’d you do this?â€
In a franchise built on the thrill of discovery, this latest entry offers only the comfort of the all-too-familiar, and the sinking feeling that some cinematic wonders are best left extinct.
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