Jurassic World Rebirth (9/10)

by Tony Medley

Runtime 134 Minutes

PG-13

I must admit that I had pretty much given up ever seeing another really good movie. As I went to this screening, I certainly did not think that this, a monster movie based on wonderful special effects in creating realistic dinosaurs, would be the exception.

Wonder of wonders, this movie is a joy. Set five years after the events of Jurassic World Dominion, Earth's environment has become largely inhospitable to the remaining dinosaurs and other de-extinct prehistoric animals. Most surviving creatures now exist only in remote, tropical regions that mimic their ancient habitats.

Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson), a covert operations specialist recruited by the pharmaceutical company Parker Genix takes on the job of leading a team—including paleontologist Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) and team leader Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali)—on a secret mission to a forbidden island in the Atlantic Ocean, once used as a research facility for Jurassic Park.

Their goal is to find the three biggest still living ancient creatures and extract genetic material from the three, one from the air, one from the sea, and one from land. The DNA from these creatures is believed to hold the key to developing a revolutionary, life-saving drug for humankind.

During their mission, the team rescues a  family whose boat was destroyed by aquatic dinosaurs, leaving them stranded in the middle of the ocean.

When they arrive on the island, they discover that the island is not only home to surviving dinosaurs but also to mutated, failed experiments—including the Distortus rex, a deformed, six-limbed mutant Tyrannosaurus rex that has thrived in isolation for decades.

Directed by Gareth Edwards and written by David Koepp they fight for survival and to achieve their purpose of extracting the DNA. Koepp even includes a line that I’ve been saying for decades, pointing out that dinosaurs ruled the earth for 125 million years, while homo sapiens (us), have only been here for, at most, 200,000 years. Think about that…125 million years!

The film is overflowing with tension and magnificent, mind-boggling special effects, and even contains a bad guy on the team. I don’t recall one slow moment after the first half hour.