Jurassic World Rebirth: The Dinosaurs Deserve Better

The Dinosaurs Are Back… But The Magic Isn’t

Jurassic World Rebirth is the seventh entry in the long-running dinosaur saga. Positioned as a standalone sequel with potential franchise reboot energy, it attempts to evolve the formula by fusing survival action with sci-fi horror — and fails to revive the franchise’s pulse.

This time, we’re back where it all started: a remote island facility once tied to the original Jurassic Park project. Scarlett Johansson leads a covert team tasked with retrieving dinosaur DNA, which is said to hold life-saving medical breakthroughs. Of course, nothing goes as planned. The dinosaurs are still dangerous, the island is crawling with secrets, and a parallel plot involving a clueless sailing family turns the whole film into a bizarre narrative mess.

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A Story About Science, Survival… and Terrible Decisions

The plot, in theory, is simple. A team of scientists, ex-military types, and a mysterious lone operative named Zora Bennett (Johansson) are recruited by a biotech company to retrieve genetic samples from three of the largest living dinosaurs. Supposedly, these prehistoric creatures could hold the key to curing heart disease — yes, really.

The crew heads to the island illegally because, as the film explains through exposition dump #5, all world governments have banned access. Why? Because it’s the most dangerous place on Earth. Naturally, this doesn’t stop a completely unrelated subplot from unfolding: a dad, his daughters, and an annoying boyfriend go sailing straight into the same deadly zone — because they “wanted an adventure.”

Now we have two storylines: one built like a Call of Duty side quest, and another like a Disney Channel sailing movie gone awry. They eventually collide. Nobody asked for that.

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The Tone Is a Mutant Too

Tonally, Rebirth doesn’t know what it wants to be. It opens with candy wrappers and corporate logos. It cuts to the mercs loading up for a dark op. Then it switches to piano-backed trauma confessions. Five minutes later, a dinosaur dropkicks a helicopter.

This is a Frankenstein of a movie — a studio patchwork of sentiment, nostalgia, action, horror, and bad comedy. And the seams show. Every time it tries to be heartfelt, it whiplashes into something absurd. Every time it builds tension, it deflates itself with a joke or a cliche. The few horror beats show promise but are mostly stuffed into the last 30 minutes, when it’s far too late to care.

The result: something soulless, cold, and strangely dull. For a movie with dinosaurs in nearly every scene, that’s a damning statement.

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Scarlett Johansson Sleepwalks Through a Role That Doesn’t Deserve Her

Scarlett Johansson headlines as Zora Bennett, a spec-ops mercenary haunted by her past (of course). But her performance is so stiff, so emotionally flat, it’s hard to believe she’s the same actress from Marriage Story or Under the Skin. She looks lost. Maybe because the script gives her nothing real to say.

She’s joined by:

• Dr. Henry Wu (the “heart doc”) – a wide-eyed scientist who weeps at dinosaurs despite living near one for years.
• Ali (Zora’s boat captain friend) – the only character with some actual charm. He has the film’s only emotional beat that works.
• The Sailing Family – including a dopey boyfriend whose sole job is to get dunked on, a dad with poor decision-making skills, and a daughter who essentially kidnaps a baby dinosaur to take home and slowly kill.
• Corporate Villain #31 – Evil for evil’s sake. Think Paul Reiser in Aliens — but if Paul Reiser was worse at his job.

Not a single character feels real. Their motivations are generic, their dialogue is mechanical, and their arcs are nonexistent. These are chess pieces moved around by plot needs, not people we care about.

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The Script Is a Disaster of Studio Thinking

The film was co-written by David Koepp, who penned the original Jurassic Park script. That gave fans some hope. But instead of returning to the clever, science-based storytelling of the original, Koepp’s Rebirth script feels like the result of a studio exec asking, “Can we check every box?”

• ✅ Dinosaur chase in tall grass
• ✅ Raptor convenience store scene
• ✅ Cute baby dino for plushie sales
• ✅ Traumatized soldier backstory monologue
• ✅ Big monster final boss battle
• ✅ Aztec ruins for no reason
• ✅ Helicopter kill moment

It’s like watching someone use Mad Libs to create a Jurassic Park film. The result is a movie that says a lot, does little, and means nothing.

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There Are Dinosaurs, But You’ve Seen Them All Before

Three primary action sequences almost work:

1. The opening water attack, where a massive sea beast trashes two boats.
2. A herding scene with Titanosaurs, complete with orchestral swells and a character tearfully touching a dinosaur’s foot.
3. The final act is clearly Gareth Edwards’ only real contribution. It’s darker, more visually interesting, and leans into sci-fi horror for a brief but satisfying stretch.

The problem is, the film spends 90% of its time dragging you through dull conversations, flat characters, and obvious setups. When the spectacle hits, it’s too little, too late.

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This Isn’t a Franchise Rebirth. It’s Franchise Fatigue

The core issue here isn’t just poor writing or uninspired direction. It’s that this movie — and maybe this franchise — has nothing left to say. The original Jurassic Park was about the ethics of science and the awe of discovery. Rebirth is about how much cool stuff you can cram into two hours without annoying the merchandise team.

If this really is a “standalone sequel,” as Universal is calling it, let’s hope it stands alone in the dumpster too. Because if this is the direction of a new trilogy, then the dinosaurs aren’t the only thing that needs to go extinct — the writers’ room does too.