When Steven Spielberg’s JURASSIC PARK hit theaters in 1993, it became an instant hit with audiences, and spawned two sequels… then the franchise had new life breathed into it with JURASSIC WORLD, which also spawned two sequels. Now the series continues with JURASSIC WORLD REBIRTH. I’m a little surprised they didn’t change the title a bit more as this newest chapter is meant to take things in a different direction… did no one consider JURASSIC PLANET? This also follows the last two JURASSIC WORLD sequels, which were not exactly beloved by audiences or critics. In other words, the series needs a shot in the arm if it hopes to continue.

The new movie opens with a flashback to 17 years ago, in a secret island laboratory where InGen scientists are engineering dinosaur hybrids, and the results are monstrous. Due to an accident, things go bad, and this island ends up abandoned over time. Cut to present day, and InGen (or whatever they are now) higher up Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend) is stuck in traffic in New York, and we see the delay is caused by a giant roaming dinosaur, sick and being hauled off by authorities. Rather than humans looking on in amazement, people are clearly complacent and just need to get to work. This almost feels like a meta commentary on the franchise itself, as we’ve seen so many of these movies that the spectacle has become almost ordinary. Krebs meets with Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson), a mercenary for hire who is fresh off the loss of a beloved colleague. He wants to hire her for a special expedition, and they head to a local paleontology museum to meet Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey), who explains that ticket sales for the museum are in the toilet… again, almost feeling like another bit of commentary on the film itself. Krebs talks them both into going, tempting Zora with money, and Henry with the promise of up close encounters with dinosaurs in their natural element. Along the way Zora recruits her friend and boat captain Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali) and his rag tag crew, and they head to the island of dino experiments we saw earlier. The task is to obtain DNA from living dinosaurs which could be used to cure heart disease, but of course the corporate motives are to sell things to the highest bidder, and Henry points out to Zora that it just means normal working class people won’t likely be able to afford it. Adding to the mix is a father, his two daughters and a boyfriend to one, who were sailing in the ocean nearby until they were attacked by a giant swimming dino. Now Zora and her team has to save these shipwrecked civilians while still trying to complete their mission.

JURASSIC WORLD REBIRTH is directed by Gareth Edwards (ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY) from a script by original JURASSIC PARK screenwriter David Koepp, and from a visual perspective and as a cinematic experience, there’s definitely a lot to be entertained by here. But the end result feels a bit too familiar and almost lazy, and the script plays out more like a video game than a thoughtful movie. The characters are given a mission to retrieve three samples, and to do so they must travel to three perilous locations, and strategically carry out the different parts of their mission. There’s an intense boat chase in the ocean that draws obvious influence from JAWS, a daring bit of repelling off a high mountain into a dinosaur nest, a game of hide and seek inside a gas station, a raft chase with a T-Rex, and other intense run and hide moments that folks expect from these films. And the action beats are good, they’re well done and exciting to watch, but none of it is terribly memorable. Even the use of Frankenstein’d hybrid dinosaurs just isn’t enough to give this newest chapter any real zing. It’s more of the same with new characters that aren’t very charming.

I also wasn’t sure why the script felt the need to add in the outside family into the mix, as it just feels like a distraction from the main objective and doesn’t really add much to the narrative, plus the two hour and 14-minutes run time of the film ends up being even more bloated as a result. The movie also follows the typical trope of JURASSIC scripts by bringing everyone together, and then splitting them up to where there are two adventures happening at the same time, each with their own perils. I also found that outside of the impressive boat chase sequence, which is the first big action beat of the film, the other scenes seemed a bit lacking in punch or were over just as they were getting started. This outing tries to play up the scares more, at times feeling like a horror movie more than an action/adventure.

The cast is filled with competent people here, and you can tell they’re trying their best with the material, but it just isn’t clicking. Johansson feels miscast at the mercenary leader, not really selling herself as the toughest member of the team, to the point of it being at times distracting. Mahershala Ali fares better as her friend, who is battling the pain of losing his child, and his wife due to the grief… he also genuinely looks the part. His character is in some ways the most interesting of the cast, but doesn’t get enough to do, sadly. Rupert Friend is effective enough as the corporate stooge, but I felt like his character could have been played more nasty and mean than we’re supposed to perceive him to be. There’s a moment later in the movie where we see he’s not a good dude, but he never quite feels like a true villain. Jonathan Bailey is only moderately likable as the nerdy Alan Grant-esque archetype, and he sadly just ends up feeling underdeveloped. And I have to be honest, I didn’t find the “commoner” family interesting at all, at times more frustrating than a welcome addition to the story. The father is too weak in the face of his daughter’s arrogant and lazy boyfriend, and the daughter of said boyfriend constantly excusing the boy’s annoying behavior wasn’t helping. I’m really not sure why the family is even in here, other than I suppose to give a perspective of civilian folks in the face of the dino danger. Oh, and did I mention the cute little dinosaur the youngest daughter befriends and names… yes, she names it… that follows them around leading to “awwww” moments from the audience? Yep, they even added a Baby Yoda of sorts.

I didn’t hate JURASSIC WORLD REBIRTH, but I definitely didn’t love it. The biggest problem with the movie is it just isn’t anything special, ends up feeling quite forgettable, and it never seems to do anything new or terribly interesting. Even the big D-Rex monster they build up to for the grand finale has a “been there, done that” quality to it, so I’m not sure what they were trying to accomplish. There are scenes here that feel like the filmmakers went for more of a safe almost remake of the original rather than trying something unexpected, and that’s not the best way to go when supposedly “taking things in a new direction” as the marketing promised. I also don’t see the need to continue with these characters into more films, much the way Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard did in the last three. This comes across as a one and done chapter in a franchise that is being crushed under its own weight. All that said, if the clapping at the end of our advance screening is any indication, maybe more of the same is all anyone needs out of these films anyway.

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